The "Adventurers" is Over!

I missed the initial invasion on Sunday of 178 kids ages 5 to 9. But I arrived at work Monday morning to hear them laughing, and screaming, and running about as they headed to breakfast…and then cabin clean up…and then morning games…and then lunch. This was followed by a break for rest period, but it wasn’t very long before the laughing, and screaming, and running about started all over again with afternoon games…free time…canteen…dinner…and then I went home!

It all ended yesterday. Since they’re younger, we only have them here until Wednesday. It started with breakfast and clean up as usual, but it ended with a closing rally, picnic lunch and lots of playtime before camp cleared of kids. Settling everything back down took until the end of the day. And when I arrived at work this morning, the place was like a tomb. No screams. No laughing. No hundreds of kids and staff running all over the place. The day has crept by at an alarmingly slow pace… Remind me yet again of how full and wonderful life is with kids – and how dull and boring it is without them!

I’m not sure what the kids would qualify as highlights of their week, but I have a few to share:

• A little girl running up to Pete at breakfast Tuesday morning and proclaiming to him that she is now a Christian!
• Three or four little boys running in the woods near my office window, one of them shouting, “We have to stay together, boys! We have to stay together!”
• Kellen (one of the summer staff) duct-taped to a wall. (She was being “gift wrapped” as part of carnival.)
• Two counselors marching from breakfast back to their cabin with their nine little boys lined up between them, shouting as they marched “Hup-two-three-four! Hup-two-three-four!”
• Hudson locking himself in the bathroom. (Okay, that was not really a part of camp. Hudson is Aaron’s adorable 2-year-old who was here Wednesday morning who first simply locked the bathroom door so Aaron had him help jimmy it open with a credit card and then he locked himself inside…)

It’s going to be a fun summer, even if I don’t get out much to actually be with the kids. Just hearing them and seeing them brings joy to my heart. I’m going to hate it when it’s over!