I had the best moments today

Today was CILT adventure day. We had breakfast in bed and then after chapel all 44 of us would be hiking to the Gish Adventure Outpost. I decided to try out Ellyn's signature hair style today. I think it's working for me.

This is my friend Sophie. I'm such a fan of her. Her cousin Maddie was a great CILT of mine several summers ago and she predicted this friendship before camp started. She couldn't have been more accurate. Right away Soph and I clicked and I have loved getting to know her better during these two weeks and know we'll be friends long after this.

There are two different trails through the Oak Forest that we could have taken on our adventure. The first one was totally flooded in one area so we had to turn back to try the other path. The whole hike turned into an unintentional mud hike and our feet were covered in the stuff. It was awesome.

I fell in line about half way through Team CILT and had such a blast climbing over logs, slipping in the mud, getting over rocks and surviving nature with these kids.

Soph, Saaya, Nicole, Anna, McKenna and Jill are such rockstar hikers.

There may have been some bugs, sweat and mud but it just added to the whole experience. I love the view as you hike along the River and the excitement of coming around the bend, seeing the bridge and knowing you're almost there.

Jamie and I loved going on this hike with our kids last summer and were so excited to get to do it again. We are adventurers.

Finally we all made it up the last hill and came out to the top where the field has the most fantastic view of the land all around us.

The Elite 8 were the first ones to the top.

Finally after a rescue meeting, help from Aaron Hutsell and Scott Brosman and some more hiking the whole CILT Team made it.

Whenever you get to the top of a mountain whether it's a 14er in Colorado, Kilimanjaro or the one behind Springboro Rd you've got to take a lot of pictures.

We had time to rotate through three different stations: playing Psychiatrist under the Pavilion, working the giant claw machine and solving the big puzzle.

This morning was one of those adventures I know I won't forget.

These kids are hilarious and I love getting to share all of this with them.

We also found this bug crawling on me. Soph is going to classify it and let us know what it is.

The explorer and adventurers of CILT Session 1 2013.

And their fearless leaders.

Back in the Riv the CILTs got to hose off the mud and find kids to play with before lunch.

During rest hour Meg, Emily, Mo, Ally and Anna painted the Session 1 CILT flag. I think they did a pretty spectacular job. I sat at the porch picnic table working on PLs but really just got to talk with girls. One of my favorite moments of the day.

As I left the Lake I saw this little nugget Haley walking slowly behind her cabin and just had that "I need to carry a kid right now" kind of feeling. I asked her if it would be alright if I picked her up and she smiled her little grin, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sure."

I carried her up to the top of the hill by the LV chapel and finally sat her down. But as we tried to keep talking and walking I just couldn't hear her because we were so far apart now. I picked her up again and carried her all the way down to River Village.

I got to talk to this girl about how her being so small is kind of like the cracked pot in chapel this morning. It feels like this really negative thing that makes them different from everybody else, but maybe God is actually going to use her smallness for a bigger purpose like he used the cracked pot to water the wildflowers on the side of the path. Best conversation of my day.

The Trading post is officially back in business. One of my favorite past times with Arielle, tonight Jamie and I made the CILTs trade us things in order to get ice-cream, shirts, sunglasses or water bottles from the Trading Post. Seeing their reactions when we tell them about our trading policy is priceless.

The CILTs were so good at playing with their campers all over Main Field last night. I love when they're so goofy and fun together. I would love to have Paige or Jon as my CILT if I were a kid.

I joined Colleen and Pima cabin on the first ever Blazer Prom.

The cabin hiked the lower path through the Oak Forest. At different stations they answered trivia questions about camp. For each correct answer they got to choose a piece of wacky clothing for Colleen to put on.

The whole cabin took Prom photos on the beach and then the counselors went into the shallow end.

As the race began they ran fully clothed into the water to the H-dock and back to their campers at the fence again. They took off all their Prom clothes which their cabin then rung out into a bucket. The first cabin to fill their bucket won! Such an awesome new unit game--- I love the creativity.

While waiting for all the CILT girls to get back tonight we made a GIANT fort in Choctaw cabin. Over a net of rope we clothes-pinned on quilts, towels, sheets, blankets and sleeping bags.

Inside was the perfect hangout spot for telling stories, trying the nose challenge, working on friendship bracelets and just being best friends.

We wrote letters to our future selves tonight in devotions. They will hopefully be a huge burst of our camp selves when they show up in our mailboxes one day.

As people headed back to the cabin to sleep I stayed in the Party Room talking with Jill, Anna and Sophie forever. I love these late night conversations and the relationships that grow over two weeks with these kids. Getting to just sit, laugh, cry and talk with them was one of my very favorite moments of the day.