Overlap: "Oh yeah, that's a whale tooth. It looks like it's probably one of the back ones."

We waited until all the CILTs got back from the I'm Third Devotion with their cabins last night before we announced, "WE'RE SLEEPING OUT! BE ON THE PORCH IN 5 MINUTES!"

All the Longhouse girls hiked out to the Pine Forest, one of our favorite Tecumseh spots, and set up hammocks in the dark. It was so hot and humid that it felt like rain in the air and no one needed a sleeping bag-- but it was totally awesome because this is summer.

I also find it fascinating that these CILTs have more adventure stuff (ENOs, Chacos, headlamps) than ever before but they're not any more excited about being out in nature... It's a curious thing.

We woke up early, early in the morning when the moon was still high in the sky. We rapped up our hammocks and made the trek back home.

The girls had just gotten into their cabins when we yelled, "ROGER MURPHY! BE ON THE PORCH IN 5 MINUTES!" Because if you're going to be a CILT you might as well go all out right? God bless John Amy and the Richard G at 6:30am on a Monday.

We were plenty awake by the time we raced into the water.

Ellyn and I swam together with a pack of kids. We may have accidentally swallowed a bit of lake water along the way. But we made it back and John Amy christened us with the coveted purple Roger Murphy swim bands.

Everybody say, "ROGER MURPHY!"

CILT Session 1-- you're a whole bunch of rock stars. All this adventure and it wasn't even 7:30am yet.

Nikki came to visit me in the Party Room at breakfast. Today is her first day as a DAY CAMP COUNSELOR! Oh holy, this girl was made for this. Honestly, I'm more than sad that I don't get to have her as a camper anymore, but I'm so excited for her to have campers of her own. Lucky for me, we're taking the CILTs to Day Camp all day tomorrow.

This morning we did something brand-new in CILTs. We wanted to have a time when CILTs could choose what they're learning about so they ranked 4 different options yesterday. Liz, Grace, Todd and I each came up with a mini-session to explore different areas of leadership in the real world: teaching, sports' teams, camp counseling and student ministry.

The kids went to two different rotations which meant we only worked with about 10 kids at a time. It was a new experience for us, one we'll continue to improve, but I'm excited about it.

We hiked up the hill to Lake Village for one more surprise this morning-- THE 12 FOOT WALL!

After rain on TLC day this week we wanted to make sure we still had the CILTs experience this memorable task. One at a time, all 40 CILTs are lifted up and over the 12ft wall by their peers.

Just while watching, there are moments when I'm so proud, moments when I'm nervous, moments of frustration and moments when I'm thrilled. It's a whirlwind of emotions and I'm not even actively participating. The take-aways about feeling safe, listening well, working together, supporting each other (literally and figuratively) and figuring out a difficult problem are huge. For many of them, this is something they'll continue to think about.