"She's got everything in that backpack. She's like Dora."

Watching Allie and Mary love little Sarah so well this week reinforces what camp is all about. Everyone is part of the family. Every camper that we cross paths with is different but they're all valuable and important. We get the honor of showing them what camp is all about and help shape their experience here. 

Day Camp counselors don't work the whole summer which means that starting now people will start to go home for good. Today was my last day that I'll see Francesca or Emily Lanigan Jones this summer. These two girls each have a big part of my heart and I've loved seeing them shine on staff this year.

We heard the story of Desert Pete this morning in chapel. If you've ever seen this story I'm sure you're thinking about sucker washers and the song has already popped in your head.

You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe. You've got to give of yourself before you're worthy to receive. Drink all the water you can hold, wash your face and cool your feet. But leave that bottle full for others. Thank you kindly, Desert Pete

"Faith takes risk," Scott told us today. We've got to give of ourselves in order to really grow in our relationship with Christ and let it shape our lives.

This little guy is the king of hugs. There are few kids who have so much love packed inside of them. I'm sure going to miss seeing Cameron all the time next week.

After two whole weeks together we had to say good-bye to Session 2 CILTs this morning. It feels like they were just moving into the Longhouse but we've had so many adventures together since then.

We'll miss all the Zionsville kids (minus Sophie in this picture). I can't imagine what it would have been like to go through CILTs with seven other people from my town. I hope that they will be a strong home team for each other back at school.

I'm going to miss Marisa who didn't know a single person coming into this session but was totally willing to put herself out there these two weeks. I'll miss yelling Hannah's name excitedly every time I see her and getting to know her better. I'll miss Sally who inspired and challenged me to grow when she didn't even know it. We get to counsel these kids but they're really teaching us too.

 I've never seen a group of awkward turtles quite like this before...

It's been such a blast getting to live the CILT dream with Finney baby for a week. I'll miss her a ton but we're also so excited to have Jamie Z back with us tomorrow for Session 3. We're lucky to get to keep working with such incredible counselors and people.

Ellyn was pumped to meet Hannah's mom today who is also named Ellyn. Our Ellyn taught mom-Ellyn their song My name is Ellyn E-L-L-Y-N who was only slightly amused. She thinks they should make it a bit more complicated.

I got to go eat lunch at the Stone House with Mary, Chrissy, Molly, Alli and Colleen right after check out. We got the only circle table in the restaurant and talked over grilled cheeses with bacon and Diet Coke. I love these girls and am so thankful they've been part of my camp family for so long.

Mom's July Quilt Camp starts tomorrow so she came down early tonight so we could hang out. I have the best mom in the world I'm pretty sure. It was so good to just have her here while I worked on getting some PLs written and caught up on the blog (these are two never ending tasks that steal away precious hours in the day but I know they're both worth it). She took me to dinner at Arni's to share a pizza, listen to all my camp stories and ask questions. It's been weird to not have her here all summer so I'm thankful to get to spend time with her this weekend.