Candy Crush and tough girls

Well hello again parents, I hope you guys are getting more sleep than I am this week, but I seriously doubt it. I know some of y’all have spent every night going through pictures over and over trying to see any identifying marks of your camper in every picture. From the back of her head, her shoes, maybe you thought you saw her elbow or ear in a picture and then scrutinized that photo for an hour to be sure. Go ahead and laugh, some of y’all know thats you. We’ve all been there before and we know exactly what your going through. The good news is theres till lots of camp and pictures to go so you can keep on analyzing each and every picture :-)

I know its sounding like a broken record, but it was another beautiful day up here with warm afternoons and a slight breeze all day long. Unfortunately, it looks like Mother Nature may have different plans next week but we’ll take it one day at a time and see what happens. Either way she can’t dampen the fun everyone is having on the river, horses, ropes, arts and crafts and everything else.

Have I told y’all I love these campers lately? As I was riding my bike around camp today I stopped at the climbing tower and watched several campers work on scaling the wall and it was getting the best of them. I hollered out to one of the girls that was stuck in a location on the wall and kept falling back on her rope as she tried over and over to work past the particular spot she was in. “Climb to the left” I said. She tried that rout and when she went to grab one of the rocks, she pulled her hand back and again, fell on her rope.

“I think my blister ripped off” she said as she was hanging from her harness and rope. I could offer the only advice I had at the time for a sweet little camper working so hard to get past her trouble spot and keep on her goal of reaching the top. “Spit on it!!”

Would you believe it took her less than split second before she actually did, rubbed her hands together and then reached up and grabbed the rock and climbed right up past her nemesis rock on the wall. Complete with a big smile and a hollar down of “Thanks!!!” Folks, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. It was awesome. Those girls have definitely embraced the term “No Fear”. I did tell her she defiantly would make the blog tonight with a performance like that!

Another camper was as excited as Christmas morning as she described to be, in great detail, about her new “Leaf Bowl” she was making in pottery class. It started with picking the right leaf, working the clay down to the right size and how she imprinted her leaf on the clay and then formed it into her bowl. I can’t wait to come back in a few days and see how it turns out once she finishes if with paint and glaze. I’ll let ya know how it looks when I do. I’d hate to leaf you guys out in the dark about the outcome (“leaf you guys” out….get it?..ok, its late and I already said I was tired. that was funny right there!)

Tonights activity was a new one called Candy Crush and I told you what I THOUGHT was gonna happen in last nights blog…….well……. I was partially correct, they DID go around with all their cabin mates, but thats about as far as the correct intel goes. I was completely surprised (this was the first time we played this game at camp) and the campers were having a ball all night as they did go to different areas (I guess that part was sure too?) but they had to do all sorts of actions from stating our camp verse for the summer, tic tac toe pushups, different dance moves, impersonations and all sorts of crazy things to get a balloon that was worth points. As they made their way from area to area, there were hecklers that would try to “coax” them into giving up their balloons (and points). the campers had to come up with ways to protect their precious cargo and work their way past these hecklers.

I gotta tell you, there was one cabin that had all the girls get in a tight group with everyone facing in like they were protecting someone valuable in the middle of them (like a bunch of balloons, right?). When the hecklers came to them and finally worked their way into the middle of the pack, to their surprise there was actually nothing there. As they were working their way into the middle of the pack, a couple campers who actually had the balloons, walked right past them on to the next location without the hecklers even seeing them. I had to congratulate them of their diversions tactic and even the hecklers (when they realized what happened) told them that was the best one they had seen and acknowledged they had been beat. Well done ladies, well done!

The little campers were all about their roles of putting on some dance moves for their balloons. there are some great pics of them busting a move to earn their balloons tonight so be sure to check them out (who am I kidding, you probably already have and will continue for awhile…)

Tomorrow will be a big day here as we all get ready for the dance tomorrow night with the boys of Camp Laney. We’ll be out on the tennis courts under the stars, enjoying the cool weather as both sets of campers dance all night and don’t worry dads, we’ll be there right in the middle of all the action to bring you the pics and so you can see who your campers danced with!!

Well, I’d better get some rest so I can try to keep up with everyone’s moves on the dance floor tomorrow night (not gonna happen so don’t get your hopes up people!)

You guys have a great night, don’t stay up too late scanning every picture, theres still plenty to come and I’ll be back tomorrow night to let ya know how the dance went!

Now go get some sleep, I’m about too!!

See ya tomorrow,

LJ