Camp!

Any of you who read this blog will know that camp has been a big piece of my life. My adventures at camp actually began the summer I was nine when I went to GA (Girls in Action) camp in New Hampshire. I loved it! I especially loved Miss Becky, my counselor. In all honesty, I don’t remember a lot about it. I remember I was in the “purple cabin” (each “cabin” went by a color of the rainbow that summer). I recall taking the swim class, learning silly camp songs, making a craft or two, or Ronnie Kolias falling flat on his face out of his chair because he was goofing off during evening worship. You know, all those things that make camp memorable. Perhaps most of all, though, was I wanted to be a camp counselor when I grew up.

 

I’d go back to Singing Hills camp for two more summers. I remember bits and pieces of the next two years: my counselors were not as good as Miss Becky, my sister Katey hated camp, the girl-drama in the cabin one year bordered on ridiculous, and I learned more silly songs. 

 

I never would be a counselor (I don’t think my five-day stint as co-counselor at a church youth camp in 2008 counts as I didn’t’ do much), but I would spend the summers of 2006 and 2007 as at office assistant at Camp Ridgecrest for Boys in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. I wished that whole summer their registrar would retire so I could have her job. Alas, that didn’t happen. And it would be five more years before I would take my dream job at Camp Lebanon in Minnesota. There I would learn that fulltime camp life can be challenging…but camp is always very rewarding.

 

This year I found myself on the other side of the camp coin: a parent with a child old enough to go to camp. Way back in the spring the mom of one of Emry’s friends asked if I would send Emry to “squirt camp” with her friend at the camp our church supports about an hour from our home. I didn’t think a lot about it when I said, “Sure!” I mean, I’d spent years at camp and know a lot about it. Then when I actually signed her up, there was a slight hiccup…and I paused. What was I doing? What kind of things did this camp teach? How good were their background checks? How safe was their zipline? Yeah, I know camp. I know all kinds of things parents probably don’t want to know. And now I’m a parent…and I know. I had to discuss it all with Ed, but we signed her up. We took her this past Sunday. And I brought her home tonight. The outcome?

 

Well, for me it was very hard to have her gone for a couple of days. I missed her in our little house, and I couldn’t help worrying if she was okay. Ethan wasn’t sure what to do with himself (except complain that he wanted to go to camp, too), and Ellyson through an all-out fit once she realized Emry was not there. For her? She had a blast!!!Like Emry always is, she was very calm and objective when we picked her up and took her home. She talked about what she did, the friends she made, and how much she adored Miss Annie her counselor.  She asked several times if she could go back next year for a whole week. Then it was time to go to bed…and she couldn’t contain herself any longer. Her whole world came crashing down.

 

Granted, I knew she had to be tired. No matter how hard you try to get little girls to bed on time, it simply doesn’t happen. Especially when you have them for only two nights. Plus, camp is all about doing something constantly. So, I had one exhausted little girl on my hands. Who missed camp. Who missed Miss Annie. Who wanted to be in her cabin. Who wanted to go on the zipline again, and do crafts, and play games, and sing silly songs. I thought she would never go to sleep!

 

And so, camp once again enters my life. Emry can’t wait to go back, and Ethan wants to go, too. I can’t blame them. In some ways, I’d like to spend my summers at camp again, too. 

 

Emry and Ethan at Twin Lakes Camp!

 

Emry and her friend Autumn in front of their cabin.