Happy Birthday America!!

Welcome back parents!!!! Its been a warm day up here but that didn’t stop your campers from gettin’ out and having fun. This afternoon it was really starting to warm up and then, just as if it was sent on cue, a dark cloud came by with some nice cool winds and dropped some rain on us during 5th period. The campers all went into their rainy day activity locations and I’m pretty sure no one minded the 10-15 degree temperature drop that came along with the rain. Fortunately the rain only lasted about 20 minutes but that was plenty long enough to get in some games in the gym and then it was right back out to the activities to finish up the rest of the period. It was a great refresher that was needed to get everyones’ energy back up after the heat earlier in the day.

Although third session is always (and this year too) our “Christmas in July” session, today is our country’s birthday and day of independence and it was evident with all the red white and blue the girls were wearing today. They had face stickers, patriotic sun glasses, all sorts of USA shirts and it was just awesome to see everyone appreciate our country and pay their respects with all their national spirit.

Everyone knows (or at least they dang sure should know) what the stars on our flag stand for as well as the stripes and each color of the flag. But today at our flag lowering ceremony, we also talked about what each fold of the flag stood for and why our founding fathers decided each fold was so important to have its own meaning. Al the campers listened carefully as we went through each fold and hopefully they learned something today that will stick with ‘em for quite a while. It’s important for them to know the history and dedication that went into forming our nation, the greatest country in the world.

Now tonight we were enjoying a nice quiet dinner (yea…..right!! theres nothing quiet about any of our meals. This girls “sing” at the top of their lungs after every single meal!! You should tell them to try it when they get home just so you can see whats its’ like!!) when all of a sudden, these up to no good camp Laney counselors (not really, it was just our counselors dressed (and smelling) like the camp Laney counselors, busted in to our dining hall and took our club leaders and the club flags!! Can you believe it? Well now, let me tell ya. These campers of yours sure got some American “grit” to ‘em and you know good and well they aren’t gonna let anyone come in and take their club leader and flag without a fight. So just as soon as everyone finished their deserts (you can’t set out on a recovery mission with an empty stomach!! Everyone knows that!), your campers got into their clubs and headed out across camp to track down the counselors and regain their leaders and club flag.

All the campers had to do was get 4 campers around the legs of a counselor with out being hit by a stuffed sock the counselors had to use in their defense. If a camper was hit by a stuffed sock they had to report to the scorers table and then there were right back at it, going after the counselors wave after wave after wave! As soon as one camper got around a counselors leg, that counselor wasn’t mobil anymore so she became a permanent target for the rest of the campers in that club to focus on. As soon as all the counselors in an area had 4 campers around their legs they got the club leader back and then went back to the dance hall singing (at the top of they’re lungs again) and waiting on they next clue to tell them where the next battle would be. This may explain some of the pics and video you see with campers who are “all in” when it comes to being committed to doing whatever it takes to get their leaders and flag back. (it kinda worked out perfectly that they learned about the flag and then went to battle for their own club flag. Looked like this whorls took the meaning and importance of the flag to heart!!)

After all the dodging and duckin’ of socks being thrown at ‘em, I’m happy to report that the winning club on Independence day was……………..(ya hear that drum roll in your head again??)……..the Rockin’ RANGERS!!!

I’m sure they’ll all sleep really well tonight afer all the energy they used during the day and then again somehow in tonights activity. (I know I’m gonna sleep really well!!). Tomorrow night we’ll have a new activity this year called Candy Crush where the campers will be traveling around camp in their cabin groups looking for counselors that will have balloons (candy) and they girls will have to perform some crazy task to get a balloon form each counselor. But Watch out!!! there are some “hecklers” in our counselors that are on they rown mission to get the candy from the girls and force ‘em to start all over again. Its a crazy night thats kinda low energy mixed in with crazy task that ends up being fu for everyone. We’ll have plenty of pics and video form it so you can see shat all they’re doing.

Well, its gettin’ a little late (it seems like its a lotta late if ya ask me!) so I’m gonna go ahead and wish y’all a good night and I hope everyone enjoyed their 4 July celebrations today! We really do live in the greatest country in the world. Nothing is perfect but just like what the 5th fold of our flag stands for “it is a tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, “Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right, but it is still our country, right or wrong.”

I hope y’all had as great a day as we did up here on the mountain, but that would be really hard!!

Have a great night and God Bless America!!! Happy birthday USA!!!!!

take care,

LJ