Author: Glenn Smith

Tuesday, July 14^th 2015

 

The campers had their first full day of activities yesterday! Five kids made it to the top of the climbing wall. Two campers got bulls eyes in archery. They learned marksmanship principles in riflery. In boys’ dance class, they learned pliés, pirouettes (passé), sautés (arabesque), and chassé into a leap.

 

For an evening activity, we did a Counselor Hunt. Counselors were hiding in eight different spots around camp. The rest of the camp divided into teams and set out looking. When a team found a hiding counselor, they had to get a signature as proof.

 

Two counselors, KG and Megan, were hidden in the upper room of the gym. Cameron was sitting way over on the top of the golf hill. Billy and Colleen were hiding inside the buses. Ziggy was a runner; we had to catch up with him. At the zip line site, Jen and Reese were hiding in a makeshift teepee fort. Kasoff and Ben were at the climbing wall. However, they had put chairs down at the bottom. This made it look like they were runners. They climbed up inside of the rock wall. Only a few teams found them. None of the teams were able to find Sam or Mohan. Mohan was also a runner. He was dressed all in camouflage hiding in the woods. Sam was up in a tree near the infirmary.

 

Many teams tied with six counselor signatures. I loved this activity. It was crazy intense. Everyone was running the entire way (which was really nice, because they were worn out by bedtime). It was a good time.

 

Today, the kiddos have another day full of activities. Remember to look at our page on Facebook. We’ll update with some pictures and videos for you!

Monday, July 13^th 2015

 

Hi guys! Yesterday, we began Second Session! Eager campers arrived safe and sound. They found out their cabin and tent assignments, and the kiddos settled in. Old friendships were reunited, and new friendships began to form. After lunch, the campers were able to choose their schedules for the session. John Barnes decided that a boys’ dance class would be a ton of fun, and he convinced eleven others to join in. I’m proud to announce that for the first time, there is an all boys dance class!  (I’ll be teaching that, so say a prayer for me).

 

Last night, we had our first campfire for Second Session! We made up skits within our own cabins. The objective of the skits was to introduce everyone. The youngest cabin of boys formed an airplane out of their bodies. They “crashed” on a desert island and introduced themselves and said something they wished they had brought with them. Another cabin acted as a tribe who was doing a fire dance that contained each of their names. That was really cool.

 

After skits, we sang three campfire songs: “Country Roads”, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, and “Wagon Wheel”. They announced that the best skit was the fire dance. That cabin was able to make s’mores first. After s’mores, they played music for us and we danced around for a bit. Then we all headed back up to the cabins to get ready for bed.

 

Overall, it was a really solid first day! This morning, the campers are embarking on their very first day of activities! They’re so excited to try new activities. I’ll let you know tomorrow how everything goes!

Wednesday, July 8^th 2015

 

Hi guys! Monday, we had our last day of B Day activities! I’m glad to say that most of the people who were ghost courted followed up with their penalties. It was a fun day. For an evening activity, we did Disney Mash-up! Instead of the groups being divided by cabins, we randomly assigned them. Each group picked three Disney movie titles out of a hat. They had to then morph the three storylines into one and make a skit. For example, one group did a mash-up of Mulan, Up, and Aladdin.

 

In the end, there were two teams with equally good skits. For a tiebreaker, they were instructed to tell and act out a story in which Shrek and Cinderella fell in love.

 

Yesterday, we took the kiddos to Kings Dominion Amusement Park! We woke up early for breakfast and found out what our official groups for the day were. The campers were able to sign up for the groups they wanted to be in. Some groups were for the extreme roller coasters, some were just water rides, and others were the easier rides. Everyone was able to have a say in whom they wanted to be with all day and what they wanted to do. The groups were especially cool, because the counselors who usually worked with the younger campers were able to work with the older ones, and vice versa.

 

A coach bus came to pick us up. Since it was a considerable drive (2.5 hours), we were able to watch a movie (Night at the Museum) on the way there. Guys, we had such a blast. A lot of campers (and counselors) were successful with the carnival games. We brought back a ton of prizes and stuffed animals! The day was absolutely full of laughter and smiles. Personally, this was my favorite day so far.

 

I can’t believe that the end of first session is so close. Yesterday, I had a really fun group. We had so much fun… but none of those campers were mine. At the end of the day, I couldn’t wait to see the girls who are in my cabin. I hadn’t even gone an entire day without them, and I missed them. These last few weeks have absolutely flown by! If I may speak for my coworkers, we are not ready to say goodbye to these kids.

Monday, July 6^th 2015

Hi there! So much has happened since I’ve last written! All good things of course.

On Saturday, we did SpongeBob Olympics! The camp was divided into two teams. They were given creative freedom to come up with their own team names: Patriotic Plankton and Team USA. First, we did a Water Transfer. Each team was given two garbage cans; one was empty, and the other was half filled with water. The teams were given sponges. The object was to get all of the water into the other garbage can. Each sponge had to be carried by two people at a time. Next, we did wet Sponge Dodge Ball. Patriotic Plankton got an early lead; they won both the Water Transfer and Sponge Dodge Ball.

We then gave each team a t-shirt frozen inside a block of ice. The first team to unfreeze their t-shirt and have a member of their team wear it would win. The teams threw their blocks of ice at trees, metal fence poles, and the ground. They tried to use their body heat. They tried dunking it in water. In the end, Team USA was able to unfreeze their t-shirt and put it on Mayson. Ignacio held her up above his head to show that she had it on. It was cute.

Next, we did Free Swim as usual followed by lunch. After lunch, we continued the day with water polo games. To be fair, we separated the teams so that the younger campers would have their own game. The young campers from Team USA brought in a win for their team. Patriotic Plankton won the second game, which was played by the older campers.

After Milk and Cookies, we went Jelly Fishing! To make jellyfish, we blew up small balloons and colored pink spots on them. We tied a few ribbons on each of them to create tentacles. We “freed jellyfish” on the middle of the basketball court. The teams lined up on opposite baselines. Each time was given two lacrosse sticks. They had to run to the middle and scoop up a jellyfish and bring it back to their team. The team who collected the most jellyfish won. Team USA came out on top.

We then moved to the gym to do “Karate”. We played two games of ninja (we separated the campers by age again). Team USA won out of the younger campers; Patriotic Plankton won for the older campers.

The overall winner for SpongeBob Olympics was Patriotic Plankton. For evening activity, we had a pool party! We all had a lot of fun. A lot of us spent most of the time trying to teach Balaban how to dive. We finished up there about 8:30 and went down to the lake where we held Ghost Court. Mark was dressed up as the werewolf judge. Some of the Junior Counselors and our CIT 2’s were dressed as ghosts.

Mark explained how Ghost Court worked. The ghosts came up to bring down the first of the accused. Ryan Bernstein was accused of asking absurd questions. The jury (which was the rest of the campers) judged him as guilty. His punishment is that Monday (today), he must ONLY talk in questions. Next, Grant and Balaban were pulled up to the front. Their crime was being too crass. After being found guilty, they were told their sentence: they are to spend all of the day today speaking only in prayer. Also, at the first Free Swim today, they must lead a prayer circle.

Corinne has trouble standing on her own two feet. She is constantly falling down and hurting herself. When she was brought down and accused of this crime, she pleaded guilty. Today, she is wearing a helmet, kneepads, and she has two pillows duct taped to her front and back. Cabin 4 (the young boys) was charged with being animals at mealtimes. Today at every meal they must tuck napkins into their shirts, eat everything with silverware (even if it is a sandwich), and drink with their pinkies up. If they spill anything, they must apologize to their counselors for every bad thing they have EVER done. Sean Contee-Jones from Cabin 4 was shamed twice… At every lunch and dinner, Sean eats an entire bowl of shredded cheese. Today, he is not allowed any.

Sydney, Ella, Abby, Mayson and Yanna were accused of talking too much. Today, they are to be absolutely silent at breakfast and lunch. Also, they had to paint their faces as mice. Damara, Michelle, and Meghan were accused of being too quiet. Today, they have to do the chicken dance at lunch. Lori was accused of not wearing clothes when she is in her cabin. Today, she is wearing three t-shirts, three pairs of shorts, and she has written a poem about why one should always wear clothes.

Don’t worry, parents. We also shamed our own. Two counselors, Jenna and Brynn (me), were charged for being together too often and talking to each other too much. Today, we are not allowed to be in contact with each other until after 3:00. Kasoff, one of out Junior Counselors, was accused of thinking and acting like he is administration. Today, he is not a JC… he is a camper. He is dressed as a camper, going to activities instead of teaching them, and all counselors and JC’s can freeze him at anytime. That pretty much means that the kid will be frozen all day.

Yesterday (Sunday), the tent boys and tent girls went camping. The rest of us stayed back to do Camper/Counselor games. Each camper was paired up with a counselor. There were so many games and activities. First, we did stations near the upper fields. There were stations for basketball, football, golf, archery, volleyball, and tennis. After that, we did games of world cup (soccer).

After Free Swim and lunch, we went down to the lake for Canoe Races. Each team made banners during free time (either Free Swim or rest hour). There was a parade for all of the banners. They judged for the best banner. Brynn and Abby won, Cameron and Ben P took second place, and Mohan and Jami took third place. Abby wanted to be “Team Trees”, so she and Brynn colored a tree trunk on their banner and filled the main part with real leaves. Cameron and Ben P had a Jurassic Park themed banner. Jami and Mohan decided not o make a banner, but to make sashes to go across their bodies. They were really cool. Jami loves lacrosse, so hers had a huge lacrosse stick on it. Mohan is the riflery instructor, so he had a shotgun drawn on the back of his.

There was a water balloon toss. After that, there was a minefield team building activity. Each team member had to lead their teammate through the minefield without them stepping on anything.

In the end, Riley and Josh too first place. Coming in second was Sydney and Justin. Finally, Karolis and Isaiah took third.

This activity was so much fun. It was so cool to watch the counselors paired up with and working together with the campers. This was the first time we’d done this activity. I’m sure we’ll definitely do it again!

Last night, they all gather in the pavilion to watch the USA soccer game. There was a big celebration when the girls won! All in all, it was a great weekend. One for the books for sure.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

 

Hi guys! We had another activity-filled day yesterday! A huge number of campers made it to the top of the climbing wall! I heard the hike yesterday was especially fun as well.

 

Every day after breakfast, we are given time to clean up our cabins. While we are at our first activity, someone comes around to check our cabins. Once a week, the two cleanest cabins (one from girls’ side and one from boys’ side) are taken out for ice cream after lunch. Yesterday, it was announced that Cabin 4 and Girls’ Tents were the winners! They were taken to Pack’s Ice Cream as a reward.

 

During Free Swim, we had yet another round of flag football! The Yellow and Red teams played one another. The Yellow team once again came out on top, making them the only undefeated team!

 

We took the campers bowling last night! On the bus ride there, we played games like “Boom Chicka Boom”. They all had such a good time at the bowling alley. At first, the oldest and youngest girls were half bowling/half watching the USA Women’s soccer game! When they made it into the Finals, there was a “USA…USA…USA…” chant that lasted a while. The kids were especially pumped about the snack bar and the allowance they were each given for snacks. Some of the sugar rushes were unreal. But no worries, because on the bus ride home the counselors and older campers sang a ton of songs while the young ones zonked out.

Friday, June 26^th 2015

 

Hi there! Yesterday we left camp to head off on our first field trips of the session!

 

The older campers (13 and up) went white water rafting. They all had a blast. They rafted down two different rivers, and they saw the world’s oldest billboard! They ended their night at Golden Corral. Don’t worry, they survives the vicious buffet line… although I think that the other customers had to watch out for our very hungry campers.

 

The younger group of campers went to Cacapon State Park. There, we went swimming at the beach. We played catch with footballs and Frisbees. There was a volleyball circle for a while too. The kids built sand castles and had a ton of fun taking turns burying each other in the sand. They had some yummy snacks at the concession stand. We then walked over to where Glenn and Mark were grilling out. We had hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chips and watermelon.

 

After dinner, we played a variety of camp games under the pavilion. Everyone was laughing and having a ton of fun. When we got back to camp, all the campers were ready to shower, get in their pajamas, and go to bed. They were all so wiped out from the busy day.

 

This morning, they are having clinics. There is a tennis clinic, a swimming clinic, and a martial arts clinic. We’ve brought in outside professionals to teach swimming and martial arts, while Dwayne (our in-house tennis pro) will be teaching the tennis clinic. Each camper was able to pick two clinics to attend. I’ll let you know tomorrow how everything goes!

 

By Brynn Lamb

Hi guys! Yesterday the kids had another day full of activities. Two boys from the youngest cabin made it all the way to the top of the climbing wall! In dance class, six girl campers learned seven sets of eight-counts of a jazz/hip-hop routine, while counselor Billy tried his best to keep up.  In arts and crafts, the campers worked on freestyle painting with tempera and watercolors. Rocketry class was a big hit; the kids experimented with Coke and Mentos. They were amazed with the mini-eruptions that were created.

 

The weather stayed beautiful for us, and everyone was in a great mood. At free swim, there was a softball game organized. Others chose to spend their time in the pool. Water polo has become a staple for every free swim, as have diving competitions.

 

For the evening activity, we all spent time with the members of our own cabins. My cabin holed up in the gym with pillows and sleeping bags to have a movie night. Our wonderful nurse made popcorn for us, and we watched Matilda. Another cabin chose to have a pool party. One boys’ cabin organized an Olympics of sorts. They had running, swimming, and throwing competitions. Perhaps the most interesting cabin activity was put together by the middle school-age girls’ cabin. They painted their nails and did each other’s make up… before their Scottish counselor, KG, taught them how to play rugby. An exact quote from Catie was, “Sweet! We still have time for rugby… As soon as my nails dry!”

 

Cabin activity night was another chance for them to connect and relate to one another. It’s such a blessing to be able to watch the bonds form and grow between all of these kids.

You know what’s great? Let me tell you something that’s great. It’s great when you have to adjust your plans, and everything works out perfectly anyway. Here’s what happened.

Last night was supposed to be a Senior Campfire: the younger kids went bowling, and everybody else had the camp to ourselves. I was in charge of planning things, and I had hoped to have a pool party, but it was actually like -95 degrees out (by which I mean, like, 60), and the campers’ grumbling let me know that a pool party might not go over too well. So we all bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets and headed down to the lake.

First we did nature portraits. I was introduced to this phenomenon at camp this summer, and it’s now one of my favorite things to do at a campfire. With your cabin, you use rocks and sticks and other nature-type items to construct a likeness of your counselor. I gave everybody fifteen minutes, put on some music and let them work.

Cabins H, 7 and 8 got right to work, being 13 and more likely to get into things like nature portraits, and Boys Tents and Girls Tents stood around and chatted for the first ten minutes. Nevertheless, everybody came out with a really awesome, super creative portrait. Cabin H had chosen Shelby, and using sticks and grass they’d shown her Rollins sweatshirt, and her blond hair. Cabins 7 & 8, working as a team, had created their counselor Stephen as a Minecraft character: he was boxy, and he held a bow, because Stephen teaches archery here at camp.

Boys Tents had deviated from the norm of making a two-dimensional stick-figure on the ground by creating a smaller counselor-doll of Jackson. Nature-Jackson had red hair, and that was pretty much his only distinguishing characteristic. Boys Tents didn’t win the competition. Girls Tents should have won (but only because they made me and I’m biased): I was smiling, because I’m always happy, and, using grass clippings, they got my lopsided pixie cut just right.

After S’mores, we got really into a trivia game.  The questions were a bizarre mix of factoids we counselors happened to know. What is the newest country? What is the chemical name for table salt? What was Emma’s first year working at camp? In what year was the first battle of the Revolutionary War? What kind of dog is Dyson? What is Theresa’s major in college? 78 won by a landslide, probably more because they were louder than because they knew more answers, and we all gathered around the fire to dance and sway to quiet campfire music.

It really was a beautiful night. As darkness fell and the mood became more contemplative, we turned to stargazing. The moon was just beginning to wane, and every few minutes a meteor would streak across the sky. The fire turned to coals. Wrapped in blankets, hooking arms around one another, we hiked back up to camp as the stars continued to spin above our heads.

You guys, I cannot even believe how quickly this session has gone. One minute the bus was pulling into camp, spilling bright-eyed campers into the sunlight, and now all of a sudden we have our plaques already.

I love plaques, even though plaques kind of signal the coming end of the session. Do you know about plaques? I’ll clue you in. Each session, each cabin or tent group gets a little flat square of wood, all plain and innocent, and it’s our job to fill it in with inside jokes from the session, or little tidbits about who we are as a group. The funny thing is, though, that the way each tent or cabin goes about painting their plaque says as much about them as what they put on it.

I’m a tents counselor, meaning I have the oldest girls. They love camp, not particularly because they love their activities or anything, but because they’ve built up these amazing relationships with each other over the years, and all they want to do is spend time with one another. So their strategy for painting their plaque is to ignore it: if we don’t paint it, the session won’t end, and we can keep hanging out forever. The younger campers get into it differently. For them, the plaque doesn’t represent the end of the session, but rather their own belonging here. When that plaque is hung in the dining hall rafters, they will become part of the legacy of Camp Tall Timbers. So the little ones tend to get super psyched about their plaques, and spend hours on it days before the end of the session.

But I mean, it’s not over yet, not by a long shot. Tonight and tomorrow night, juniors and seniors will split, alternating between going bowling and having a campfire. The seniors decided they wanted a pre-campfire pool party, so that’s a thing, plus also bowling is the funnest thing when you do it with your camp friends. Also still to come is Granny’s Candy, which is on everybody’s list of Top Five Things that Happen at Camp Tall Timbers, and zip lining, and so many more silly moments, jokes with counselors, hangouts with friends, good meals, deep sleeps and all the other things that make days at camp so much fun.

When my girls finally get around to working on their plaque (which, let’s be real, will probably be late Friday afternoon), they’ll have two more days’ worth of inside jokes than they do now. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

The bell rang, as usual, at 7:30pm. A crowd gathered at the pavilion, and I was brimming with enthusiasm. It was Find the Foxes night, which meant the whole camp would be spending the next hour in a mad dash around camp. The foxes were little pieces of paper slipped in the most secret spots, and not only did we have to search for them, but we had to evade the fleet-footed counselors (‘hounds’) who were trying to tag us and steal our well-earned prizes. Once I got my group, I knew we’d be a powerhouse. I had Tre’ Ingram and Tristan Oldham and Zoe White, all of whom are great runners and spirited team players, as well as Michael Godek, Delaney Field and several other great kids. We all tightened our shoelaces and prepared to run.

As soon as the bell announced the beginning of the game, all six teams took off running, most of them towards the upper fields, the gym and the rec hall. Shelby’s team, though, strategized and headed down the long path to the lake. This strategy would put them in the forefront of our challengers for the night. My team, though, did a quick pass through the upper fields and then sprinted around camp to the riflery range, picking up several high-value colored foxes on the way, before we circled back up the lake hill shortcut. Tre’, my oldest camper, immediately took on a leadership role. He and I took shifts looking out for Justin and Nathaniel, the counselors who were trying to tag us, while the other one made sure we had all nine campers in our group. Everyone was committed to the team. We were sweaty and panting as we hoofed up the hill behind the dining hall, but with Tre’ and Tristan’s spirit and Zoe’s enthusiasm for running ahead, we were very much in the lead.

As the evening activity wore on and it became clear that my team and Shelby’s team were far in the lead, and Justin and Nathaniel began to target our groups. Our brash strategy had to change. We snuck behind buildings, only to find ourselves cornered between two hounds. Justin called us all in to a group huddle. “Give me one of your foxes,” he said, “and listen up.” We all leaned in further. He got this maniacal little gleam in his eye, and a smile played on his lips. “You have five seconds to run.”

And we were off again, screaming warnings to other teams.

At 8:30, the bell announced the end of the game. Soft pretzels were distributed. We all gazed up at the bright, full Supermoon that hung lopsided on top of the trees. The winner wouldn’t be announced until the following morning, but I for one was too elated by the run to care about the victory. Later that night, as I was getting my girls heading towards bed, Tristan came up and gave me a fist bump. He explained to his friends how awesome our team had been, how they couldn’t have done it without me. That meant more than the victory (which, it turned out, went to Shelby’s team anyway). My team fought so hard, and I made nine new friends because of it.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       In Archery, Noah Gross shot like Katniss Everdeen

–       Also in Archery, Owen Matthews hit the can, Owen Abbey hit the tennis ball off the target and Zach Buchalter hit the bullseye

–       Hannah Miles won two games of jailbreak in Tennis

–       Ethan Fannon beat the instructor in Tennis

–       Claire Schmitt got up the hard side of the wall, and as a reward she got to hit the instructor with water balloons

–       Liana May and Tristan Oldham won World Cup in Soccer

It’s mid-third session, and I for one am engaging in a little of the good old-fashioned self-reflection camp is known for. I mean, camp is better known for summer fun and games and ridiculousness, but I feel like another important part of the summer camp experience is the way it allows us to take time away from our real lives to ruminate on who we are, how far we’ve come and what it all means.

I’ve always been a proponent of the theory that we’re all where we need to be to learn the lessons we need to learn, and summer camp, especially Camp Tall Timbers, is the kind of place that facilitates that. For the campers, I think one of the most important lessons to learn here is that every moment has the potential to be a great memory. Every skit night, every activity period could easily be the most fun thing you did all summer, if you put in the effort and the creativity. Every moment is a chance to prove to yourself that you have infinitely more strength than you knew.

I have a bet going with Delaney Field, one of the girls in my rock climbing class. Every class she devotes her whole self to getting up the wall; I’ve never seen another camper commit so intensely to one goal. Every time, she gets about half way up and hits a spot she just can’t pass. She clings to her spot, refusing to come down, while I and the other campers holler encouragement and support.

Eventually, though, I have to offer an ultimatum. “There’s no easy way to do this, Delaney,” I call. “You just have to pick a move and commit to it. Put your left leg up and then straighten your leg, okay? Just like you’re standing up from squatting.” I give her one minute: if she doesn’t advance up the wall by then, she has to come down. Other campers need a turn on the wall.

Delaney hasn’t made it up the wall yet, but she will. Even in the few climbing classes we’ve had so far, she’s gotten farther and done it with a more enthusiastic attitude. Delaney is pretty young, and I don’t know if she’s thinking about her experience climbing the wall in terms of personal growth and skill development, but I guess that’s why I’ll do it for her. Delaney, and all the other campers here, are working so hard on developing new and important skills. Camp will do that for you. It can be silly stuff, too. Keenan Jamison hates cleaning, but his cabin mates get annoyed with him when he doesn’t clean, so he’s starting to learn that people like him more when he picks up after himself. In their own way, everybody is learning exactly what they need to.

I teach a lot of Challenge Course. Like, a lot. Every day I try to get groups of kids to communicate, work together and solve problems in new ways. It’s so interesting to me the different ways kids come up with for the same challenges, so today I’m going to relay a few of them to you.

Yesterday I had a group of kids mostly comprised of younger boys, as well as two younger girls. After a few name games and ice breakers, we got into our first real challenge. They had to all stand on a blanket, and, without taking their feet off of it, flip it over to stand on the other side. Everybody panics when they get this objective. It shouldn’t be possible. Immediately, though, the louder or more confident campers jump into action. “Wait!” I holler, and everyone freezes. I run through the group, pointing. Half the campers will be temporarily blinded; the other half will be unable to speak. Invariably, everybody complains: how can we work together when we can’t talk? But that’s part of the challenge. With campers more naturally predisposed to leadership muted, and those who more naturally hang back given the ability to speak but not see, teamwork takes on a more urgent palor.

For the first few minutes of the challenge, folks experiment with different methods for flipping the blanket. Usually, they’re unsuccessful. With the group I had yesterday, they tried a really amusing but ultimately unsuccessful method of folding up all four corners, leaving themselves nowhere to stand. As they realized the problem they created, they grumbled to me, and started roughhousing around instead of working on the challenge.

“Okay, pause, everybody off the blanket” I said. They all gratefully stepped off. We had a conversation about why they were struggling. I said that five fingers was “I am contributing to the team awesomely” and one finger was “I am not contributing to the team at all”, and asked everybody to hold up the fingers they felt they were doing. Everybody was at around a two or a three. I asked why, and we had an awesome conversation, and when we got back on the blanket, they worked together much better. Those who could see helped those who could not, and those who could talk listened to one another.

When I could see that they were close to success, I said, “Two minutes to complete the challenge!” and they jumped into action. The success was delicious precisely because they had struggled. 

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Owen Linares won a game of gagaball; Zach Buchalter won two games

–       Ella Stamerra won the Smallest Splash competition

–       Nadine Twombly won the Funniest Dive competition

–       Claire Schmitt and Hailey Mostow climbed the easy side of the rock wall; Loea Kang made it up the hard side

–       Owen Abbey went paddleboarding for the first time

–       Michael Godek won Pirate Wars at the Lake

–       Hannah Miles and Nadine Twombly won jailbreak in tennis

–       Yogalates began during free swim, and it was a big success

–       Zeke White hit a tennis ball off the top of the target in Archery

–       Livia Lampal and Zoe White climbed the easy side of the rock wall

Last night I was initiated into a top-secret camp society. Obviously, to tell you about it would be to betray the very confidence that was just extended to me, and I’m not even sure if mentioning it like this is really okay. But it was so cool I have to let you, dear reader, know it exists. Here’s what I can tell you: it takes place in the gym. I can tell you that it’s more than a game: it’s a lifestyle. And I can tell you that it’s very, very fun. You wish you could know more, but sadly, you can’t.

That was awkward: as a blogger, one usually chooses a subject matter one can actually write about. So I’ll switch topics to the raging success that was yesterday’s outing to Cacapon State Park.

We piled into two vans and a bus immediately following Rest Hour. The ride was great: some fresh air, good music and good company. At Cacapon, we spent a bunch of hours just chilling on the beach. Kids played Frisbee and water polo; they buried one another in the sand; they lined up for the big hit – the snack bar. The water was chilly, but that dissuaded no one. Everyone got in at some point, from the littlest boys to the oldest girls.

As evening fell over the lake, we moved our gear and our enthusiasm to our pavilion for the cookout/barbeque. There really is nothing like a good burger after a long afternoon playing by the lake, and Mark Clark and Glenn Smith sure can make a good burger. Usually, in the camp dining hall, we eat separated by cabins and gender, so it was awesome to see all the kids eating together, boys and girls, youngsters and teenagers all eating and chatting together. Finally we finished up our watermelon and headed out into the field for games. There was charades, four-on-four soccer, red-light-green-light, mill-and-grab and lots of other camp favorites.

By the time we piled back into our vehicles for the trip back to camp, everyone had that wind-blown, sandy look that means a summer day well spent. I was exhausted, but also the radio was playing all kinds of dance tunes, so somehow my van became the party bus. We sang along to all the summer hits, and we were home before we knew it. I fell into bed, grateful for the chance to spend my summer with such great kids, in a place as great as Camp Tall Timbers.

Last night was Cabin Night, an esteemed Camp Tall Timbers tradition. It works like this: at breakfast, every cabin or tent group engages in a mad scramble for the best spots. It’s like for ten minutes all the counselors are engaged in some sort of medieval-courtesan, uber-polite yet totally ironic scramble, complete with deals and exchanges whispered just out of earshot of Admin. I’m exaggerating. But still, when my kids, Girls Tents, ended up with the pavilion, I was super pleased. We didn’t even have to think about what we’d be doing: it was Disney Movie Night. Indeed, when evening activity rolled around, we popped in Pocahontas and sang along with all the songs.

I love Cabin Night. It’s kind of geeky of me, because there are so many other awesome evening activities that are way more high profile, but there’s something about it that makes me happy. I think it’s that because even though we live together, cabins and tents spend all day running around in classes and free swims, goofing around with other kids from other age groups, that they don’t actually have that much time to get to know one another, at least not in the first few days. Cabin Night is one of the first times we really get to form those crazy-deep, supercharged, important camp friendships that mean so much. Cabin Night is when we stop pretending to be cooler than we are and belt out every single word to “Colors of the Wind” because let’s be real, that’s everybody’s jam.

Girls Tents watched a movie, and Boys Tents played cards, and I don’t know what cabin this was, but somebody was having a whole lot of fun playing dodgeball in the gym. It was kind of rainy, but that just made it better. It was cozy, just like Cabin Night is supposed to be.

Today we’re going to Cacapon to go swimming, run around and have a cookout. It will be loud and boisterous, and maybe kids will hang out with friends from their cabin, but maybe they won’t. But that’s okay either way, because those cabin bonds have been solidified. We’re all part of a community now. We belong, and that’s what camp is about.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       Loea Kang and Jill Boylan made it up the hard side of the rock wall

–       B4 Challenge completed the human knot in 24 seconds

–       Crawford Hemmis won Zip Zap Zop in Improv

–       At Lake Activities, Adin McGurk won Somali Pirate Wars

There are two ways to approach Third Session at Camp Tall Timbers. The first is to choke, panic about the upcoming school year and metaphorically freeze, spending the whole session worrying about your impending future. The other is to squeeze every last drop of fun out of these two weeks, forget about how time flies and just savor the sun, the friendship and the silliness of camp. It seems like everybody here, campers and staff alike, has chosen the second route. It’s Third Session, and we’re all diving in.

Let’s be real, the first day of camp is always kind of awkward. It’s great to meet up with old friends, but everybody’s unsure of how they’ve changed in the past year, who they’re going to be in their new cabin community, how to act around staff and each other. We all traipse from activity to activity, trying tennis, petting the horses, tentatively paddling out from shore in kayaks or canoes. It’s a tense kind of fun. It’s not til the evening that people really relax.

On the first night, we do an activity festival. It’s like bingo, but with dizzy bat and a stellar prize. Each camper gets a bingo sheet listing all the different activity areas they have to visit, and they run around the upper fields and basketball courts trying to check things off their list. I was running the Creative Arts activity, which included arts and crafts, writing and rocketry. When kids came to my station, they had to write a rhyming poem about camp. Let me see if I can recall some of the highlights:

“Camp is very very snazzy/ It is so extraordinazzy.”

“Camp is fun, camp is great/It makes it very hard to hate.”

It took most people about forty minutes to run through all the different activities, completing all the tasks and getting check marks on their bingo sheets. When they finished, they ran their sheets in to Mark Clark, admin extraordinaire, and the first cabin or tent group to get all their sheets in won the prize. The winner: Girl’s Tents. Duh. Girl’s Tents is the best. (I might be biased. I happen to be a Girls Tents counselor.)

We’re solidly into Day 3, and the initial awkwardness has entirely vanished. Everyone is in it to win it, in it to make this the best summer ever.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Liana May won World Cup in Soccer

–       Owen Matthews made it to the top of the rock wall

–       Tasha Pressler made two bullseyes

–       Crawford Hemmis, Corbin Mauck, Jan Thurber, Mayson Smith and Doug Smith made it to the top of the wall

–       Zoe White and Sean Donohoe hit golf balls past the first tree

–       Tre Ingram got -3 in Frisbee Golf

–       Adin McGurk and Sam Greenberg won knockout in basketball

–       Zach Buchalter won jail in tennis

–       In Horses, Jillian Boylan made it around the barrel pattern in 47 seconds

You guys. So much has happened. I literally do not know if I could sum it all up, that’s how full the last couple days has been. Big happenings include our trip to King’s Dominion, the futsal quarterfinals, the play dress rehearsals, and an epic and hilarious skit night with the theme ‘Harry Potter with a Twist’. And that doesn’t even cover all the other things that have happened, all the bullseyes made, all the times the rock wall was summited, the masterpieces made in art class, the ping pong victories and the splashes made in tubing. Not to mention all the important conversations had on the bleachers or the pavilion as everybody realizes how quickly Second Session is drawing to a close. There’s so much left to do.

Skit night was totally awesome. We do a lot of skits here at camp. Sometimes people get just ten minutes to come up with a two-minute skit, and we all understand that part of the hilarity will be in the hurriedness of the design. Other times, like this past time, campers have days to plan their skit. There are props, elaborate jokes, and blocking that would make Broadway take interest. People go hard for Skit Night. And this time it was Harry Potter with a Twist. There were six groups of campers planning skits related to six of the movies, and the counselors were Group Seven. Okay, petty camp-drama moment: I’m pretty sure the staff would have won, but Boys Tents thought it would be funny to give us all zeros on their score cards. I thought we were hilarious. But so was everybody else.

Highlights: Brady Osterman spending the entirety of the Goblet of Fire skit in a cardboard box that said “Goblet of Fire”, popping his head out to exclaim various things at predictable intervals. Harry Potter and friends accidentally ending up in the Ice Age movie franchise, rescuing a human child that ended up being the offspring of none other than Lord Voldemort. Zoey Zhang emerging from her shell as the screaming egg in the Goblet of Fire. Matt Kasoff masterfully playing both Narrator and Harry Potter, matched with heavy doses of cheating towards the audience with ironic winks. Carly Dalton and Sydney Sachs as adorable Minions in a Harry Potter/Despicable Me mashup.

It was a roaring success. And so was King’s Dominion. We got back late last night, and had a late wakeup this morning, so if you’ll excuse me, I have a ton more fun to have as quickly as possible.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Alice Zhao, Yolanda Fan and Freddi Rappoport made it to the top of the wall for the first time

–       The Red Bulls and the Yellow Polkadotted Hippopotami beat out the Purple Nurples and the Orange Crush and will advance to the Superbowl

–       Emma Murphy got a bullseye in archery

–       Leonard Pasquier was the MVP of futsal

–       Carly Dalton was the MVP of flag football

Two things happened yesterday that showed me something new about camp. I think I already knew this thing, but now I get it, you know?

The first thing happened at the basketball court. The instructor, Ethan, made a deal with Keenan Jamison: make three baskets in a row, and I’ll buy you a soda. Soda is an excellent incentive here at Camp Tall Timbers: we counselors use it in desperate situations to get campers to clean the cabin, or if everybody’s super rowdy at night, we might say “First person in pajamas, teeth brushed, quietly reading gets a soda tomorrow”. It works like a charm. But this time, with Ethan and Keenan up at basketball, there was something else going on. Keenan really wanted that soda, but he also really wanted to make those shots. It meant something to him. It took half an hour, but he did it. The victory was worth more than the soda, I know that much for sure.

The other thing that happened was with Jami Siegal and climbing instructor Jackson up at the rock wall. It was only a few hours after Keenan made those shots. Jami was desperate to get up the wall: it’s a status thing, but also a personal growth thing. And she didn’t just want to get up the wall. She wanted to get up the hard side. And Jackson, excellent counselor that he was, resolved to wait with her as long as it took. Jami would make it up the wall, whether it took all class and all that Free Swim and all the next Free Swim too. She didn’t make it up yesterday. But this morning Jackson came over and patted her on the back and asked if she was ready to give it another go.  Jami will make it to the top of that wall.

So here’s what I’m figuring out. Being a camp counselor, or an instructor, or a teacher, is a lot about shutting up and waiting for the kids to discover their strength. I knew it already, like I said. I know that when I teach Challenge elements, it works best if I keep quiet, even though I know what they’re trying won’t work. If I let them fail, they learn something and try a better plan. It’s hard to keep quiet. It was hard for Jackson to give up his free swim to stand at the wall and coach Jami. It was hard for Ethan not to just tell Keenan, “Listen buddy, two in a row is pretty good, let’s go get that soda.” Working for something makes it that much better.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–                     Writing Class came up with a group story that is totally going to make everybody famous

–                     In Archery, Sasha Coates-Park hit a bullseye five times

–                     Emily Smith made it to the top of the wall twice

–                     Sebastian Fischbach won jailbreak twice in tennis

You know that awesome feeling you get when you wake up the morning after a really intense day, knowing it went well, knowing you worked and played your hardest, and knowing that it’s over? That’s how I feel right now, and that’s how camp generally feels on a Sunday morning.

Saturdays are kind of a big deal here. Counselors who are leading Saturdays (so, this past week, me and Arnaud and Euan) spend the whole preceding week planning hours and hours of activities along a specific theme. This time it was Fantasy Day, and it was awesome.

It began with Breakout, which is where we three counselors in charge introduced the day with a bang. The story: the human king was dying, and the elves, dwarves, giants and goblins were competing to win control of the realm. There may have been a pretend swordfight. We broke everybody into four teams according to these four fantastic species, and then the fun began. In the morning, groups switched off in games of Jousting and Goblin Gold Hunt. In Jousting, one camper steered a paddleboard on the lake while another camper, standing on the board, tried to knock the jouster from the opposing team off their board using a pool noodle. It was awesome.

In the afternoon, we tried a little something the wizarding world calls Quidditch. Mounted on brand new Nimbus 3000 CTTs, fresh off the boat from Diagon Alley (okay, fine, bright orange plastic sticks), campers tried to get the quaffle into hula hoops suspended from soccer goals while the Seekers from the two teams ran around camp looking for the Snitch (Euan wearing all yellow). The hilarity was so real. The afternoon also contained rousing games of Catapult the Castle, where teams threw wet sponges over the Wall Ball wall and tried to soak the opposing team, as well as an art project: decorating a scepter for your team’s King or Queen. After dinner, the four teams shed their team colors and all joined together in a social. There was music and dancing and soft pretzels, so all in all I’d call it a rousing success.

Saturday activities are good fun to plan, and super stressful to execute, and the kids have so much fun. The Red Team (the Giants) came up with their own cheer. The Green Elves made signs in the art shack and “tagged” camp, effectively tagging elven territory. The Blue Team won, mostly because Brady Osterman is a beast at Quidditch, but ultimately winning isn’t what matters. The whole camp got to spend the day in a fantasy world, and that’s pretty awesome.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       Wet Your Feet Weekers had a great time on the zip line

–       Mikey Lundy stood up on the tube in Tubing

–       Conor Roberton completed his first dive off the diving board

–       Emma Katzker and Jamie Stern won gagaball

–       Nick Galanis learned to serve in tennis

–       The Chilly Chileans won the quarterfinal futsal game

–       The Dominant Dutch are advancing to the semifinals in futsal

–       Ryan ‘Buns’ Bernstein won jail in Tennis

–       Robert Bell flipped over on his tube, stayed on and righted himself… again!

–       Horseback riders learned to ride bareback for the first time

–       Adam Slafsky got two bullseyes in archery

You guys, it’s mid-second-session, and I feel like I’ve written a lot about a lot of things at camp. I’ve talked about various activities we do, various evening activities, trips, camp skills and friendships. I’d like to take this time to tell you how super cool it is that we get to hang out with your kids for a few weeks. I mean, your kids are excellent people. It’s loads of fun. I want to tell you a little something about how cool your kids are.

Your kids are so cool that they start games of kickball all of their own accord. They’re so cool that during their free time they go up to the rec hall to play gagaball, and they follow the rules in their own accord. Mel Jenkins is so cool that in Creative Writing class, she wrote a beautiful piece about learning to be nice. Freddi Rappaport is so cool that in Gymnastics on the hottest day so far this summer, she was still super excited about improving her round-off. John Barnes is so cool that during rest hour he has choreographed an entire dance for his cabin, which they perform frequently and with great skill, flash-mob style, most afternoons. The CIT2s are so cool because they’ve been helping out at night, getting the little ones to bed.

Your kids are engaged in a deeply competitive ping-pong tournament. They’re playing futsal like pros, when I’m pretty sure some of them had never heard of futsal this time two weeks ago. Your kids are so cool that they teach each other new techniques for holding on to the tube during tubing; they take turns jumping off the diving board; they help each other out during Cabin Clean-Up to make sure their cabin is the cleanest. Your kids build rafts and make rockets and climb higher than they thought they could on the rock wall. Your kids are teaching me new card games and new dance moves. And I think all of that’s super cool.

So thank you. From myself and all of the staff here at Camp Tall Timbers, thanks for the chance to get to know all of your funny, talented, creative, spunky kids. It’s truly an awesome gift.

It really is amazing how quickly you fall into the camp routine. Part of it is definitely that everything is so well run here, but I think there’s something else going on, too. It’s Clinic Day again: right now campers are trotting past the office to the pool or the horse barn or the soccer field. Everybody knows where they’re going. Everybody has the equipment they need: closed-toed shoes, towel, sun screen, long pants. But Camp Tall Timbers’ well-oiledyness really struck me yesterday, during the pool party/cookout/baseball game extravaganza.

The pool party wasn’t planned. It’s an activity that happens here when it’s too hot to do anything else, and boy howdy was it too hot yesterday. I was teaching gymnastics, or I was supposed to be: as soon as I saw the campers hoofing up to the veranda where we practice, I knew there would be no cartwheeling or hand-standing that day. It was just too hot. We tried some lower-energy yoga, but that too proved too much for the heat. I knew that anyone who had soccer or football that period would be sitting in the shade, guzzling water and practicing breathing techniques. The pool party was the only solution, and it was a fabulous one. We brought out the loudspeaker and got a game of water polo started, and suddenly the heat was a bonus to the fun. It was amazing how well coordinated it all was. I knew where I needed to be to make the afternoon safe and fun, and everyone else did, and we all worked as a coordinated team without having to talk it out.

In a matter of weeks, all of us here at Camp Tall Timbers, from campers to counselors to admin to kitchen staff, have become a community. That’s not a small thing, especially in a world that can feel so big. I totally lost out of the ping pong tournament in the first round to Mason Corby, who I had never really talked to much before, but now I know a fair amount about who he is. Just like that, we have something to talk about. I’d never had much to do with Teddy Geis before, since he’s not in any of my classes, but we sat together on the bus ride home from bowling, and now I know that he loves military history, and that’s he’s so creative and full of ideas for camp. When you get to know people like this, it makes the whole community function smoothly. So yeah, part of why this place works so well is that there’s a system. But another part is all the incredible, diverse people who make it what it is.

It was one of those humid July nights at summer camp. I was exhausted from a long day of teaching Golf and Challenge, playing cards, running around, and planning the events for next Saturday’s Fantasy Day. When the evening activity, CIT2 Hunt, finished up with a cheer and a pool party, I decided right then and there that I would be one of the counselors “supervising”: in other words, I would not be getting in the water. Yeah, it was hot, and yeah, I knew the pool would feel great. But I was tired, so…Of course, it was only a matter of minutes before I was cannon-balling off the diving board, clothes and all. My campers swarmed around me, delighted that I was having fun with them. I always knew I would jump in, because that’s the kind of person I am.

For counselors, camp allows us to play around, to explore the parts of our personalities that are childish and inquisitive, imaginative and goofy. For kids, summer is a time to discover parts of themselves they might not otherwise. Am I the type of person who rushes down to the pool and jumps in A.S.A.P.? Do I need to be cajoled by my friends? Do I think of myself as artsy when in fact a secret basketball star lurks beneath the surface? Am I braver than I think?

I’ve seen it happen over and over this summer. Last session it was Nathan Allentoff, who had to be convinced to try Horses. At first he wouldn’t even touch the horse, and by the end of the three weeks, he was riding around like a pro. I mean, Nathan may never ride a horse again in his life, but the experience of learning to love something that terrified him will stick with him forever. I see it with Alice and Zoey, two campers from China who struggle with language proficiency and cultural differences, but who put themselves out there every day, trying new things, joining in and experiencing something totally different. Maybe they’ll never go mountain biking after this, but they’ll never forget the feeling of soaring down that hill for the first time, not sure if they were in control or the bike was, but grinning and laughing nonetheless.

At camp, we all get the chance to develop ourselves in new directions, which makes us stronger as people. When we come across a challenge, instead of giving up, we buckle down and get started, knowing we’ll figure it out some time. It’s an experience we never forget.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Katherine Barnes won gagaball

–       Dylan Kearney and Ella Zhu made it to the top of the rock wall for the first time

–       Actors in the play will be off book today

–       Conor Roberton won singles and Mafalda Pingting won jailbreak in tennis

–       Alec Geis was the futsol MVP

–       Cabins H and 7 won Cabin Clean Up and the trip to Packs for ice cream

–       Cabin F learned the butterfly stroke in swimming

–       Happy birthday to counselors Lynn and Theresa, and cook Levi

–       Conor Roberton won Cabin 1’s tetherball tournament

–       There were 8 people at Dippies this morning

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that yesterday I wrote about the juniors’ campfire, complete with ridiculous skits and creative nature portraits. Last night the juniors and seniors switched: seniors stayed on camp and played Capture the Flag, and juniors took a bus into Winchester to go bowling.

It was a roaring success. There was the predictable chaos of trying to get thirty kids into bowling shoes and in the right lane, and the confusion of having thirty kids mobbing the snack bar waving five dollar bills, and the whoops of glee when everybody discovered the jukebox. For one night, that bowling alley was our playground and our paradise.

I was bowling with the Wet Your Feet Weekers, and they were not at all the timid little ones I had been expecting. They were fierce in the lanes, whipping their ball down the alley, jokingly making fun of one another’s misses and supporting one another’s victories. (I may have come in third after two nine-year-olds. It’s not a big deal.) We played a few turns each, hiked on over to the snack bar for popcorn and slushies and headed back, and discovered to our (okay, my) glee that in the lane next to us were none other than my favorite kitchen staff. The rivalry got real. It was four nine-year-olds versus five full-grown Central European chefs. Just kidding. We all got along great, and the nine-year-olds totally won.

Other highlights of the night included all of the Cabin 3 boys dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe, my own personal dance party when John Barnes selected the Black Eyed Peas’ “The Time of My Life (Dirty Bit)” on the jukebox, and the conversation I had with Teddy Geis on the bus ride home about European military history.

We pulled into camp pretty late, at about ten. We stumbled off the bus, happy and exhausted and ready for bed. “Crazy-walk to the cabin!” I yelled, and my four Wet Your Feet Weekers ambled/cavorted/ran in hilarious manners back to Cabin A. They were snoring away in no time.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       The Red Bulls beat the Orange Crush at flag football

–       Counselor Arhan came in last at bowling

–       Wet Your Feet Weeker Jessie Rothenberg won bowling

–       Meghan Dougherty and Alex Knox got to the top of the climbing wall for the first time

Remember how I have this constant obsession with how much awesome is constantly going on in this place? It’s happening again. I’m just so impressed with the way everything comes together in a big pile of awesome. Last night something new happened: we split up along junior/senior lines, and the seniors went bowling, and the juniors went down to the lake for a campfire. Tonight, the groups will switch: the little ones will be out of camp, bowling their hearts out, and the seniors will be at the lake.

I was a little nervous about having a campfire with just the younger kids, but honestly it was my favorite campfire so far. All the kids were at the same level. We did nature portraits, which meant splitting into groups and making portraits of your favorite counselor using sticks, stones and other things from nature. The creativity was exceptional. I was personally a fan of the 3D, sitting-up sculpture of Demarco, but my co-judge felt that the use of just logs was tired, and we ultimately awarded the prize (getting S’mores first) to Nathaniel’s group. With a rocky head and seaweed hair and goatee, the sculpture was a startlingly accurate rendition of everyone’s favorite Dippies lifeguard.

We then moved into skits, in the same groups. We began with the bad news: your group has been stranded on a deserted island, and you have to use this one prop (a Sharpie, flipflops, a ping pong paddle etc) to escape. (By the way, side note: Mark Clark, admin extraordinaire, just dropped an intact snake skin on my keyboard and told me to write about it, and I am nothing if not responsive to my supervisors, sooo…) The skits went really well. Arhan’s group won, which was predictable (he IS the drama counselor after all), but they deserved it. Their flip flops were magical and turned into a boat. It was epic.

I’ll let you know how bowling goes tonight, but I’m sure it will be awesome.

Other Camp Tall Timbers Happenings 

–       In swimming, Mayson Smith performed an epic bellyflop

–       Yolanda Fan made it to the top of the wall for the first time

–       Silky Spain won in futsal; Freddi Rappoport was the MVP

–       Sebastian Fischbach and Henry Golub won knockout in basketball

It’s that time again: fresh-faced and eager Wet Your Feet Weekers are arriving for the week, ready to try new things and push themselves into a new era of their childhood. I’ve been getting ready for them for a few days. I moved from my cabin, full of talkative and experienced tweenagers, into a brand new clean Cabin A. I put sheets on the beds and made sure each camper had a blanket. Camp Tall Timbers is moving over and making room for new friends, and the excitement is palpable.

I love Wet Your Feet Week, and I love that right now it coincides with our CIT2s, our oldest campers, getting their feet wet into the world of being a counselor. For the next few days, CIT2s will be shadowing counselors, observing how they teach their classes and interact with campers, and the ins and outs of their daily schedule. For CIT2s, this session is a last hurrah of sorts. It’s their last year as campers, their last chance to take a new class, to make new and wonderful camp memories, but it’s also their chance to prove to the camp that they are responsible, kind, spontaneous and all the other things that make a good camp counselor. Maybe it’s just me, but Wet Your Feet Week and CIT2 shadowing have a lot in common. It’s all about entering a new phase of your relationship to camp. For the youngsters, it’s about becoming part of a camp family; for the CITs, it’s about taking ownership of that family.

I’m so ready. After this I’m going to go teach writing, and then I’m going to move the last of my stuff into my new cabin, and then I’m going to meet my new campers. I know their names, and I know which bunk they’ll be in, but I’m so excited to get to know them for real.

Other Tall Timbers Happenings

–       Ping Pong Tournament sign-ups are closing

–       Mel Jenkins got a bullseye in archery

–       The Yellow Team won Saturday’s Oregon Trail Day activity

You guys, I’m in a gushy mood. I’m so fond of camp that there’s not much space in my head for blog-style reporting on the daily happenings of this place. I feel like a camper: in the beginning, I was anxious about making friends and finding my crowd, but of course it happened without incident, and now I belong here, and it fills my heart with summertime happiness.

Yesterday was a trip day. Seniors went white-water rafting and juniors went to Cacapon State Park. It was a blast. The weather was just perfect, and everyone found something to do for their energy level and interest. Freddi Rappoport buried herself in the sand, and Taryn and Carly Dalton and Charlotte Bell and Emily Smith splashed around in the water, and then counselor Demarco started up a game of football that got so real that an off-duty lifeguard came over and reffed, and John Barnes showed off his volleyball skills, and a bunch of Cabin 4 boys played soccer in the sand, and everyone cooled off with ice cream sandwiches from the snack bar. At dinner time, we packed up our sports equipment and headed to our barbeque: breaking from their usual cabin groups, everybody sat together and savored Mark and Glenn’s famous hamburgers and hotdogs. Watermelon juice dribbled like rain as we grinned over our sweet dessert. We played tag games til dusk, and sang songs on the bus ride home, and then we collapsed into our beds, exhausted and sandy and, in my case, in love with summer.

And now everybody’s in Clinics. Experts in soccer, swimming, horseback riding, writing and martial arts are here to share their skills in intensive sessions. It’s another day, which means there’s something different, something exciting, something fun. I can’t wait to hear what my campers got up to in their sessions.