day two of summer camp

I have enjoyed the last two days of camp so, so much. Our first week of campers came yesterday and I have spent my days wandering camp, getting to know the campers and asking the counselors how it is going.

There are five sites in operation onsite at camp each week. Tonight I ate supper with Tipi site and enjoyed some Frito Pie made over the fire. Then I went to our Springs site and made a drum out of wood and packaging tape and joined a drumming session. Then I was asked to judge a sandcastle creation competition at Trailhead site (of course, everyone was a winner) and ended the evening at Ranch site watching tug-of-war and a funny lemonade relay game.

While eating supper, a camper asked me when my baby was due. I told her November and then a sweet boy in 4th grade came up to me and asked me,

"Do you know my sister, Casey?"
"Oh! Casey our wrangler?!! Sure I know her."
"No, she's not here."
"Oh, where is she?"
"Cincinnati."
"Oh. Did she used to work here? Or how might I know her?"
"Well, she's 26 and she is going to have a baby in November and I thought maybe you'd just know her since you're both having babies then."

So funny. This boy is a new favorite of mine :)

The other favorite line of the evening was when the two minute warning was given at the sandcastle competition, the 2nd grade girl covered in sand and carved into a mermaid started screaming at her team, "You guys! Help me! My boobs are crumbling! You guys! I'm serious! Fix my boobs!"

Staff training is an intensive time of information and important material, but now it's just so fun to sit back and get to know the little lives we were preparing for all along.

my scrapbook solution.

I have been tossing ideas around in my head for what I am going to do scrapbook-wise when the baby comes. Some of the ideas have been very grand. Some of them have been fabulous, but unrealistic. Then I found Cathy Z's templates for "a month in review." I bought the digital templates and in two hours I had made seven pages of layouts, ordered the cardstock version online, and considered my month of April pictures documented. Man, I felt good.

It's basically just cropping pictures. But let me promise you, these are pictures that would have never seen the light of day unless I found a quick solution to get them printed and into albums. I'm just that backlogged. Now that April is done, I'm hopeful to work backwards and see if I can't do pages for all of 2010.

The funny thing about this process, is that it is essentially old-school scrapbooking, when you would print your pictures and place them in an album immediately. There are no embellishments. There isn't even the responsibility of journaling for every single event. I like having one page of journaling at the end...this month it was mostly explaining who we were with for what occasion- not a lot of personality. But again, at least these pictures are compiled, printed and put in an album.

This week I will work on my May layouts. I really think I will be able to keep up with this plan, since two hours of scrapping equals one month of picture documentation. I can do this. By the time baby arrives, I hope to be a well-oiled machine.

a new joy

Rory took me camping last night. He had gone a few days ago to scout out the site and to see what else we might need. Much of the evening was spent sitting in our fabric chairs, reading our books, drinking iced tea and watching the animals in the pond in front of us, and the cows in the pasture just past the pond. It was dreamy.

I went to bed around 9, dog-tired from the last two weeks. Rory came into the tent around 10 and then the storms started. Four different storms came through, shaking the earth beneath us and allowing us to see each other much of the night due to the heavy lightening.

Around six, we were both wide awake, and listening to the rain hit our tent. I felt the baby for the first time. It was a movement coming from the same place. I felt it about five times before I told Rory. Rory put his hand on the baby, and I hoped so badly he would feel it too. I hardly trust myself on these things...

And then the baby started moving again. We felt it over and over. It was undeniable. We lay there, with the rain pouring down, warm and dry in our sweet tent and I felt a new joy and a new tenderness I had yet to experience. With every move the baby made I squeezed Rory's arm and he lay with his eyes closed, smiling with each kick, jab, summersault or whatever it was we were feeling.

staff training is complete...

These counselors look like they are shouting Hallelujah! I am!

These counselors look like they are ready for whatever challenges come to them this summer. They are an excited group and I could not be more thrilled with our solid staff. The past ten days were a joy.

On Sunday, we took in a baseball game. It was good to be off site for a half a day in the middle of our training. And so fun to cheer together, eat hotdogs and pretzels together and watch pastor Brad throw out the first pitch..

But this is what we left back at camp. Tell me how glorious this is!! We had lovely weather, perfect for ever activity and spent much of the ten days outside. Love that.

We got supplies organized for Day Camp Groups. I delegated this project out to a staff person who gets me. When I cam back to find this shelf so nice, I almost cried. I had this vision in my head, and magically, she just did it.

All 30 horses spent a lot of time in training, preparing for a summer of campers on their backs. Our wranglers are so incredible this year.

We worshiped every morning and night at a different outdoor worship site. I had forgotten just how beautiful this camp is, until we were sitting still twice a day with time to take it all in.

We sang lots and we ate lots. We have a new chef at camp who treated us to a fancy dinner before the camp food hits. Last night he made us fresh sushi that was divine, homemade sesame meatballs, blue cheese stuffed mushrooms (sad day, preggers can't have that...) and many other delicious things that we were surely never see again all summer. Now we're on to chicken strips and french toast sticks..

My happy campers. They're set for the week ahead and I can't wait to see all 75 of them in action. Rory is taking me camping tonight and I can't wait to just be with him. It was a good 10 days, but it is time to be home!

why I love camp the most...

Bottom line of why I love camp: there are few other places in the whole wide world where you get a kids undivided attention. When they are at camp, camp is their world and their life. Computer games don't come along, cell phones shouldn't come (though you'd be surprised how many are still snuck in!), televisions are no where to be found, and almost everything we do is outside.

I believe God made us to love his creation, and feel closest to him when we enjoy his imagination while laying the foundations of the world. Kids start thinking bigger thoughts, they start dreaming bigger, they start wondering if maybe this is not by accident, but perhaps by some glorious design...like God intended his kids to stand in awe of his world, and intended us to care for one another while living in community, and intended for us to learn how to treat each person with kindness and sincerity.

Camp is where faith in Jesus is passed on. I believe this so strongly. Especially when Sunday school is just an hour a week...it's worth it, and it's completely valuable. But it's also hard getting to deep conversation points in just sixty minutes. I know this after teaching Sunday school myself for seven years. You can get there, but those moments are trickier to unveil. But at camp, it seems like every night when the lights go out, a campers heart stands wide open and they start wondering about their place in God's whole big picture.

I've got enough friends right now that have turned away from faith in Jesus Christ that I am beginning to worry about my peers and what this all means a few decades from now. And the truth is, "turned away" is even too strong of a phrase. They're really just indifferent, not particularly interested and in no way committed to a faith in Jesus Christ. That's what worries me. But what I see every day at summer camp gives me so much hope. I see our counselors alive and excited and I see campers joy filled and full of wonder. And it's all surrounding God having sent his son, Jesus. We talk about Jesus taking away the sins of the world, and we talk about Jesus calling us to preach his good news all over the world, and we talk about loving our neighbor as ourselves. And there is a freedom and happiness and life that permeates camp that lets everyone know in the deepest part of their hearts...this is all true.

So get your kiddos to camp! Sign up for a family camp. I don't care what denomination or camp you choose, do your homework and make sure other parents give it thumbs up. And then send them. Because God changes lives at camp.