"I promise I've never lost anything in my entire life."

Mustache Monday anyone?

It's 'Merica week y'all. Red, white and blue all day, every day. Finney baby and I are really matching well today.

This morning after chapel the CILTs ended up doing the Sherpa Walk. It's a really cool team-building activity that never fails to be entertaining and lead us to new observations of the group.

Today some of the big things we took away were about celebrating small victories, sharing good ideas with the whole group, making sure everyone is on the same page, life doesn't warn you when something will be difficult, staying positive and not giving up so the group can be successful as a whole.

CILT Jar Challenge #2 of the week-- FACE PAINT!

We painted the kids up one by one and then took care of each other. I don't know why we've never done this before, it's so fun.

They're a mighty fine looking group with their faces all painted up like this.

Just like wearing bright clothes or funny hats, face paint just makes everything a little more fun. It's the small things right?

Smooney and I love face paint and 'Merica and the Cilty Cilts and being friends.

Shortly after we got to pool time this afternoon it started raining and never stopped. We went off the high dive and turtled in the shallow end. Last summer JZ, little Sarah and I invented turtling together and it hasn't stopped being fun yet. I loved getting to swim around with Lilly, Sarah, Sophie, Reece, Marisa and Mary today.

The freezing rain made it difficult to observe clinics so the CILT counselors bundled up inside and had a little mid-session pow-wow. Luckily, that will free up some more time for us to play at Day Camp tomorrow. The kids all came back just after 5 ready for their CILT hobo dinner. Fischl attempted to climb in the window... it didn't work out too well.

I got to play with really fun friends tonight. I'm so glad that Mary Brody is back this week and that we could go to dinner with Chrissy, Nart, Mags, Molly, Anna, Bailey, Finney and Adam. While we ate we made up some perfect matches and laughed a lot together.

The girls all went to get ice-cream together and then made a Wal-Mart run. Typical night off itinerary. On the way back home Mary, Chrissy and I started telling old stories about the summers when they were my campers. Those girls' faces are in so many memories and scenes of those summers that still stand out so vividly.

Mary had just been going through a box of old letters and found one I wrote to her at the end of the summer she was a CILT. I told her about two of my little Blazer campers, Maddie and Rain, who were in her bunk during rest hour as I wrote. They were sitting with their feet propped up on the railing just like she always did. I told her that I thought it was so cool that when Maddie and Rain became CILTs one day she would be the same age as me when she was a CILT. In just six days, Maddie and Rain will be checking back into the Longhouse as CILTs. I can't wait.

One of my favorite things about nights off is coming back early to go to devotions with the CILTs. I came walking back across Main Field and was greeted by a flashlight shining in my face. Six girls were talking on the porch together and they all jumped up to give me a hug. They asked me to sit down with them and filled me in on the last few hours. I love this CILT life. All thirty girls and six counselors sat down in a giant circle in Choctaw tonight and talked about making this world more awesome, making days better for each other and giving the world a reason to dance.