FLORIDA!

So. My summer adventures also included a little vacation to Florida. At the end of camp I chaperoned four little dudes back to Florida and got to stay for a few days. Camp paid for my flight- ah yeah. So after I dropped the little angels (one of which conveniently forgot to take his ADD meds. Nice.) off to their parents I was free! My dear friend Jocelyn and her daughter Erin, who I met when I was a missionary in FL, picked me up and off we went. We spent the afternoon at Hollywood Beach swimming and eating dinner.

It was lovely. The next day we went out to Ft. Meyers Beach, which is on the Gulf side of the state. We got a nice hotel directly on the beach, it was INCREDIBLE.

I was in heaven. We went out to the ocean for a swim in the ocean- it was as warm as bath water. There were live sand dollars everywhere! I have never seen one in my life, and we found so many. They were wicked cool. We then went walking around the cute little town, ate some pizza and ice cream, and did a little shopping. The next day we woke up and ate breakfast, then went swimming again! I was all pruney after a few hours... And as we were out there, we saw a pod of dolphins out swimming and jumping out of the water. A couple of them came fairly close, maybe 50 feet away. It was great! We checked out of the hotel around noon, got some foods, and headed out to Sanibel Island. It is this really cool island, where the beach is COVERED in shells.
We had a good time wandering around searching for cool shells.

I really enjoyed myself, and loved staying with Joce and Erin. They have been good friends for years, and I loved being with them.

MAINE!

What a summer! I had the best of intentions to blog every week and share all of my adventures, but no time and no internet except for at Roscoe's (the local pub) I didn't quite make my goal. So I'll blog now, for those interested.

I spent my summer in Oxford, Maine at a summer camp located on the lovely Lake Thompson. I lived with two other counselors and the campers we were assigned to were the oldest girls (14/15 years old). The summer was divided into two four week sessions. The first session we had 12 girls,

the second there were 9 girls.

If only my classes in Vegas consisted of kids this amazing! I had THE BEST time.

My two co-counselors in the bunk were Jenn and Amy. Jenn and I were together all summer, Amy second session. I LOVE these girls. We had a good time. They were such great kids- I really just had fun all summer. It was great. A typical day went thus:
7:30 am- Revelry (played by a girl in my cabin on her trumpet. What a trooper.)
7:50 am- Flagpole. The flag is raised, the pledge is said, and morning announcements are made by Joe Long- the guy in charge. He's from Ireland. What a hoot.
8:00 am- Breakfast. Usually consisting of cereal, fruit, and some other food like frozen waffles or cornbread, or the infamous french toast sticks. Ew.
8:30 am- Bunk clean-up. We would make our beds, sweep the floors, kill insects, etc. Everyday we got scored by the head honchos on our cleanup efforts, and if you got the most points in a week you got ice cream. We only won once, and the ice cream was HEAVEN.

9:00 am- Class.
10:00 am- Class. Snack in between second and third class. Nectarines were my fave.
11:00 am- Class.
12:00 pm- Class.
12:50 pm- Lunch time flagpole. Announcements included accomplishments of the campers, secret word (must be said with a british accent), and other random stuff that always took too long because we were hot and tired and hungry.
1:00 pm- Lunch. BLT's, Tacos, mini pizzas (hamburger bun with cheese and sauce-bleh), grilled cheese, etc. I ate a lot of salad.
1:30 pm- Rest hour. Ah, sweet sweet joy. Except when our bunk was boiling hot. I'm glad I had the oldest kids. They're easy because they can take care of themselves and we don't have to remind them to take showers or brush their teeth, we don't have to help them make their beds or change their socks. I would have died with the 8 year olds.
2:30 pm- Class.
3:30 pm- Class.
4:30 pm- Class. I taught mostly climbing and adventure classes. It was rockin! I also had an occasional softball or basketball class, and I even taught fishing.

5:45 pm- Dinner flagpole. Same old song and dance.
6:00 pm- Dinner. I wish I had a picture of the chefs. They are brothers, they're real old, real overweight, and if you could see them you wouldn't want to eat anything they touched. We always joked that you would find Allen's mustache hairs or Billy's mouth cheese in your food. They were almost unreal they were so icky. I ate their food all summer, and I didn't die.

7:00 pm- Evening activity. Could be kickball, sailing, or something along those lines with your bunk, or an all camp activity like a dance or the play, or campfire. Good, good times. I will have campfire songs like Princess Pat, the Twinkie song, and Old MacDonald in my head for months. Our bunk skit second session was RAD. Enjoy the following:


8:30 pm- CTQ. Call to Quarters. Back to the bunks to get ready for bed.
9:00 pm- Lights out.
9:30 pm- Night off for two of the three counselors. We would be on one night, off two, on one, off two, and so on. We had to be back by 1am. I usually stayed and slept, but when I did venture out it was either to Walmart or to Roscoe's (the bar). Oxford is not a very happening town.
And that's it, friends. Once a week we would have a trip day where we would take a group of kids either on an overnight campout or lobster fishing, gem mining, sailing, biking, etc. It was a nice change of pace. Lobster fishing was my fave.

We also had a three day extravaganza called Kollege Days. What FUN! It was a big deal. I got to be part of it second session. Basically, it's a big secret when it is going to happen, who is in it, and what the theme is. It is three days of competition- the campers are put on one of four teams (named after colleges) and they compete for points. The oldest kids are the captains, and they have to write cheers and songs, and organize their teams and such. It's pretty intense. First session the theme was Scooby Doo, and second session was The Incredibles. I got to be Elastigirl- yeah! It was hard sneaking away every day to practice our skit and not tell anyone. I was real good at getting away, and only one person found out I was in it. When Kollege days broke (everything at Kamp is spelled with a K instead of a C. It's ANNOYING.) it was during dinner. The girl playing Violet flew in on a HELICOPTER. It was rad. Dash ran in and the skit began. Basically, mom and dad had been kidnapped and all they had were the coordinates to our camp. Kamp. Then Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl (ME!) came in strapped to a giant flashy cement truck with Syndrome laughing maniacally from the top. We had a wicked fight scene, I diffused a bomb, and Syndrome escaped. It was AWESOME.

Then they announced the captains, and told the campers what teams they were on. We did a second skit on the last day where the nurse's son played Jack Jack. He cried the whole time I was holding him.

Stupid kid. Dash rapelled out of a window, and broke another window on his way down. And the crowd went wild! It was wicked fun, I was so glad I got to be part of it. The best part: When Syndrome told me I was the foxiest supergirl, and that I looked "tight and right" in my spandex, and then I kicked him in the face. Worst part: Wearing spandex. Not a good fashion choice for me.
I realize this is an extra long post. Aren't you glad you wasted your time reading it? I LOVED summer camp. I don't know if I would do it again- it was a long time to be holed up in the woods so far away. I made so many good friends and will always laugh when I think of funny experiences or people, or look through the pictures (which are all posted here for those curious minds or people with nothing better to do). Go camp! Er, kamp!