Brombolich summer camp!!!

Just a quick little update here...



We finished up first session with a great Beach Party, Council Fire, Banquet and Dance!! On Friday night my mom's side of the family all came down to Lesterville for a weekend at the Farm! 7 of the 9 grandkids are all at camp this session, so we all got together before they were dropped off at camp. My mom, her two sisters, my grandma, and all but one cousin and my brother were in town. On Saturday we did a big float trip from Camp down to Kyle's Bluff (our family river area). The mom's had left a car at the river in the morning with lunch waiting in it so we had lunch and hung out by the river for the whole day! It was bright, sunny, and hot!



Since it was a Saturday the river was a little crazy. And by a little crazy I mean all the trashy, drunk rednecks float the river and say obscene things and use obscene language in front of any company present; kids included. And it never fails...they pull up their canoe/pontoon within feet, sometimes inches, from where we are sitting on the river bank. There is a WHOLE big gravel bar 150-200 yards long and they park their canoe at our feet, EVERY SINGLE TIME. There is a cool jump you can do off the bluffs across the river from our spot (but you have to park on the gravel bar), so when people see others up there jumping they always stop to participate. When no one is up there jumping, people usually don't see the potential up there and they pass right by! Anyway...it was still a great day and great float!



On Sunday all the kids got dropped off at camp and the session began! We have:



Kelly (17)- my sister...her 6th year at camp and 3rd year working in the kitchen

Christopher (17)- cousin...10th year at camp and 4th year in the kitchen

Nicholas (13?)- cousin...6th year at camp he's in the Crow cabin

Anna (11)- cousin...4th year at camp and in the Poky Right cabin

Jack (14)- cousin...3rd year at camp in the Lodge Left cabin

Mike (11)- cousin...2nd year at camp in the Shawnee cabin



So it's a big family affair!



Thankfully, since the first day of second session the weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS. It has been warm but the humidity has been so low it is very comfortable. It is actually getting to be sweatshirt/pant weather at night...just the way it should be down here! Hopefully it will keep up for the next few days!!



We have been on high alert for Swine Flu down here. A lot of summer camps have recently been shut down from Swine Flu including a very big Jewish camp from St. Louis. Last session we were fine so we have been monitoring the new kids down here second session to make sure we steer clear of it. All the kids had their temperatures taken and we have Purell sitting everywhere. So far so good...



And in other big news recently I became an aunt on Sunday afternoon!! Taylor's sister Catherine and her husband John had their first baby, John Joseph Wiesehan IV (Baby Jack). I got a few pictures in an email, but I can't wait for more. Hopefully I'll get to see him in August!



Okay, I'm off to bed.

Oh children...

So we are on our way out of the cave with the Mina cabin, which are the youngest girls in camp (8-10 years old probably). And we have successfully made it through the cave and we are now on the hike back down to the bus. It is a decently steep hill with the bluffs on your right and the hill goes straight down 100 yards or so to the river. Inevitably it always happens that a helmet falls off a head and goes toppling down the hill. And it did. I volunteered to climb down through the poison ivy, trees, and dead brush to get it (I sound real heroic...right!? Ha, not really...it's just kinda annoying!) Anyway, I successfully get the helmet and climb back up to the path and hand the darling her helmet when the same sweetheart drops her flashlight down the hill! Really!?! Oh children.

My other funny moment these past 2 days came at archery when I had the Shawnee cabin up there. The Shawnees are the youngest boys cabin in camp this session, they are 8-10ish too. We were talking about safety with the arrows and how they could be dangerous if an arrow went through your stomach. And one of the boys says, "Yeah, that would hurt so bad if you pulled the arrow out and you pull out all your testicles. Like your heart and your testicles and everything could come out!" I see how testicles and intestines could get confused, but the great thing was, not a single other boy caught it...I just laughed to myself. I think it could fit in the Bill Cosby book, Kids Say the Darndest Things. Oh children.

Off to lunch...it's pizza day!

Bug Juice and SweatFest!!!

We are beginning Week 3 in Lesterville. My nails and my legs are showing it well...they're the first signs of camp living because they get caked with dirt, bug bites, and scratches!! My initial round of bug bites are slowly disappearing. I have a theory about the bugs...every year when I come to camp I get eaten up the first 2 weeks or so...after that they usually leave me alone. I know it sounds crazy...but it's very true...I've stopped even bringing bugspray to camp, I become one with the bugs!?!? It also helps when you don't drink the juice, full of sugar, at every meal. You let all the campers drink it, they become much sweeter targets! Hmmm...anyway...

I am really appreciating the air conditioned cabin I have this year. This is my first summer here with AC...and it is so wonderful! I did spend 2 nights in a regular cabin this past week because one of the counselors had to leave for a wedding, so Clarissa and I split days and watched her cabin! It was great to get back to Honeymoon! I have also enjoyed a much quieter summer with only 2 roommates instead of 12. Not having a cabin of campers is a big change, but one that we were all (Clarissa, Katie, and I) ready for!

The campers arrived last Sunday. It is a session of about 95, which is a little small, but it is really a nice size to work with. The staff is very small this year in comparison to previous summers too. Our first 2 1/2 days with the campers was full of rain. Like I mentioned in the previous post, it's tough to have camp in the rain. It makes it very difficult when it is the first 2 days of camp. That is the time the kids need to be kept very active to get their minds away from home. Usually by day 2 or 3 they don't even think of home anymore because they are so busy and are having so much fun, but when it rains, it leaves a lot more down time! We weren't talking just some summer showers either, we were talking down pouring BUCKETS at a time. Making creeks run through camp, washing out the gravel, flooding a cabin, the laundry room, and games room, and forcing one of the local Lesterville guys to sleep at camp because he couldn't cross the creek to get back home!

The poor campers didn't get to go on the river until FRIDAY because it was so flooded! But, we are finally on the river...it is still running much quicker than normal, which is probably a good thing, it makes pontooning much more enjoyable! Pontooning is usually dreaded by the counselors because inevitably we end up pulling the whole pontoon 3/4 of the way down the river because the current isn't strong enough to get us down to our pick up point in time! It doesn't help when you have 12 campers falling/jumping off the sides and holding on to the handles slowing down the process!

Yesterday was my first day off and it was so great! A group of us traveled into the booming town of Ironton and had lunch at Bailey Joe's BBQ. It was delicious. We stopped at the Alco for some oversized water bottles to float with and at the Town and Country for some snacks and then it was off to the river. We did a big river float from Twin Rivers down to Breakfast Hole. We made lots of stops along the way because the river was moving so quickly. We got real excited about a rope swing we found at Mill Creek, but after fighting the current to make it across the river to the swing, we sadly found out the string had broken and it was too short to actually swing from. That was way too much effort for no reward! But the float was great and it was hot and sunny the whole time! We then walked back to camp, made some grilled cheese in the kitchen for dinner and headed back down to the river with our chairs, ipod, snacks, and drinks to enjoy the night! What a perfect day off!!

I am currently in the middle of rest period on Monday, I had 2 periods of tubing and 2 periods of canoeing this morning and this afternoon I have a period in the office, a creek hike and archery. Not a bad day. After dinner every night we have sports before evening program starts. One of the counselors, Nathan, made up a dance to Lady Gaga's Poker Face and a lot of the kids (and a lot of the counselors) have really gotten in to it and we've been learning/practicing every night at sports. It would be appropriately described as fabulous and sassy! I think it's a good workout too...we are all dripping sweat each night when it's over...all though that could be largely contributed to the heat and humidity! The weather so far has felt like August heat...it's a little crazy. Our dance mix for Saturday night (every Saturday at camp is a dance for evening program on the tennis courts) was titled SweatFest 2009...and it lived up to it's title, no problem!!!

And on that note the whole family is coming up to visit next weekend to stay at the Farm before they drop all the cousins off at camp for 2nd session! Bet I'm making them excited, huh? The Farm is a family house we have that is about 4 miles further down on the same rock road that camp is located. My great grandparents bought the house in the 50's or 60's, I can't remember which, and they would be caretakers for camp in the winter and then head up to the Farm in the summers!! So we still have the house and my family likes to describe it as a step up from camping...it's very rustic and there's no telling what you're going to find in there every time you go! We'll do a big float on Saturday and then probably hang by the river all day! But there isn't really any air conditioning, so sometimes the heat can get pretty intense at the Farm...but I'm sure it will be a great weekend!!

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great summer. And Andrea, if you read this at all, I've worn sunscreen EVERY day!

Later...

Country road take me home, to the place I belong...

Sadly, I forgot that when I upload pictures after I write the post they won't be added to the end...so you have to look at the pictures first and then read the post to hear about them!!!

The picture above is the entrance to camp!


The rock road heading to camp...what a beautiful place!

Lexi, Nellie, Clarissa, and me after our trip to the cave on Friday morning! You can see Penske (Clarissa's dog and my 3rd roommate in the pic too) She is so darn cute!

This is Peola Creek!!! Crazy white water...this is lucky if there is any water running over it...usually it comes from a spring underneath the road!

This is the other side of Peola Creek...the water rushing over the road...the waterfall you saw in teh picture above is just on the right outside the picture!

The Black River that often looks like an oversized creek...it was really a RIVER! Look at the trees! This is right outside camp.

Right outside camp again...this is the rapids before the Drop Off for anyone familiar with the river terms of camp!

These are my roomies at Mystery Date Party. Clarissa, me and Katie Berry!

Cinderella and Prince Charming, Merit, posing prom style!

All the boys at Mystery Date...I have to say...they weren't the BEST costumes ever...but it's the beginning of camp...we'll cut them some slack!

The girls at Mystery Date...much better costumes!

And the post begins...

I'm finally at caaamp! After long anticipation, summer has arrived!

I left Sunday afternoon to head up to St. Louis. The drive was relatively painless minus the one hour of 5 mph crawl because of a wreck...but hey...it happens. I also want to add that I saw 13 dead deer on the side of the road...and those are only the ones that I was paying enough attention to count! Now, it's a 5 hour drive...that I usually do a couple times a year...I have NEVER seen anywhere close to that amount. Clearly our deer population had a busy year...their numbers seem to be way up. That's my scientific conclusion :)

I got to town and had dinner with the Hartig's (my aunt and uncle and cousins) They provide me with a summer home on session breaks from camp! I'm lucky to have such wonderful family that take me in every summer and let me wash my nasty camp clothes, clean my dirty camp self, and let me stay the night when we have breaks! It was a quick visit and I was off the next morning for Lesterville!

I got to camp and was super excited to see everyone! People are really struggling with the new name...I just don't see Reynolds sticking at camp. My first summer on staff we had 4 Katies...so I was always Katie P. It is rare to hear my name without the P. included by anyone who knows me at camp. Nick, the camp owner, used Katie PR in all the emails to me this year...but I've pretty much accepted I'll forever be KTP at camp!

Staff week was good...a little delayed and hectic with rain. It's hard to function normally at camp when it storms and rains, everything is outside, so it really puts a damper on things! It has stormed and rained everyday. We have been in the dining hall multiple times for tornado warnings. Don't worry mom, the wedding album and my special baby blanket are still at home, so they didn't have to go to the dining hall with me. Last time we had tornado sirens at home I brought my wedding album, my special blanket, and my laptop with me to mom's closet. The laptop is just going to be sacrificed...because I'd probably do more damage to it running through the rain on the way to the dining hall then the chance that a tornado actually hits Honeymoon (my cabin)!

The river is WAY high and Peola Creek (which crosses Peola Road) looked like a white water rapid! Usually you're lucky if there is even water running over the road...but there were cars who had trouble crossing because of the high water! We didn't make it onto the river until Friday and even then we were all forced to wear lifejackets with our tubes and we were quite prepared to have a crazy float and be flipped a few times. It actually was more tame than we expected and no one flipped or got sucked under trees! The river was running quite quickly...our float trip took 38 minutes when it normally would have taken an hour and a half, plus!

Other points of interest from the week included the zip line, a trip to Wick's Cave with Bud, an Elephant Rocks cookout, a cookout down at Breakfast Hole with chicken tetrazini, various entertaining videos with Bob Ditter, the camp expert, team bonding games, pool party, and a trip to the Black River Ice Cream Parlor!

There was a HUGE storm in the area back in May that uprooted trees a hundred feet tall with roots standing waay taller than me. All the roads have had to be cleared and the path to the cave was pretty rough. Nick Smith (the camp owner) walked ahead of us with his chain saw clearing the way...in true Nick Smith fashion! The cave was quite full of water from all the rain we have gotten and there was actually a rushing stream all the way down through the story room out to the entrance of the cave...Bud said it was the most water he had ever seen in there (he has been leading cave trips to Wicks for over 40 years!) Anyway, it is such a treat to go with Bud to the cave because he has an incredible gift for storytelling. We go all the way back to a specific room in the cave and we turn all flashlights out to experience absolute darkness and Bud will tell a story, usually about an hour or so long. He is infamous at camp for his stories and it is really the reason I enjoy caving so much!

Friday night was our annual Mystery Date Party. It always happens during Staff Week and I was excited to be a part of it this year since I've missed many previous Staff Weeks! You are given an invitation with a character and a place to meet. You dress like your character and you find out who your date is at your designated location! I got to be Cinderella (same as I was for Halloween)...it really helps when the party planner is your roommate! Merit Myers was my date and he was Prince Charming. Almost as good as you, Taylor :) I'll try to post some pictures at the bottom of this post. You may notice in the future blog posts, lots of costumes...we're really big with that at camp. We can't leave camp at night during our free time...and even if we could there is no where to go...so we create our own fun with themed parties. There is no such thing as a party at camp if there isn't a theme and the crazier the costume, the better! That's why I had to come prepared with my costume box...it is slowly growing...but Arts and Crafts proves to be a very helpful option as well!!

I think I forgot to mention that I am in charge of the CIT's and Junior Staff this summer. I'm real excited and a bit nervous about it. This means I will be in charge of everyone age 15-17. I will make their schedules, do orientation with them, and help them learn their responsibilities as counselors in training and junior staff. I also then have to deal with them IF they make poor decisions during the summer, though I trust they will do an awesome job. I have faith we will have a great summer and hope that I won't have much to do on the discipline side of things! Alain Pierre and Clarissa are also helping out with the CIT's. And vice versa I have agreed to help Alain out with Evening Program responsibilities when needed. I'm really excited about working with Program Staff this summer because it's a good group.

So...I am currently at the Hartig house again for my one night free between Staff Week and 1st session. We went to see Up this afternoon and then went to dinner at the Boathouse in Forest Park. I'm headed to bed soon after I finish this post...I am exhausted. I have to be back at camp by noon tomorrow ready for the chitlins to come around 3pm tomorrow!

I sadly have not gotten to talk to Taylor yet since I have been at camp, but hopefully tomorrow will be the night because he is off work. He did email and said he's ready to PCS (Permanent Change of Station), meaning he is ready move on to the next assignment. That seems to be the opinion of everyone at Osan, apparently it is a very rough assignment. Although on the bright side he said his flight is performing the best out of everyone right now, so that definitely makes things run more smoothly!

That's about all I have...Sorry this post was written over the course of a week if everything doesn't run quite as smoothly as normal, that's the reason. Take care...I'll check in soon!

I'd like a professional camp packer, please!!!

Home Sweet Home! I'm finally adjusted to the time change and I'm seeing all my friends before I head up to camp for the summer! Monday was Ashley and Andrea's Birthday. Ash and I ran around all day...she was off on Monday and I decided to take a day off from my demanding job to keep her company on her birthday :) We went to lunch with Andrea and then Andrea gave us facials at her work...I felt kind of bad, the birthday girl was giving me a facial, but it was fun. Then Ash and I ran errands all afternoon until it was time to go bowling!

There's the whole group bowling at Franklin Lanes!!! We got wild and crazy on their 25th at the bowling alley on Monday! Actually...everyone had to work the next day...so we were done around 10, but it was a lot of fun. There is a group shot above...clockwise: Ashley, Kelsey, Jenna is hiding behind Kelsey, Andrea, Devan, Blake, Tiffany, Melis, and Scott! Fun group!!

D won about 7 stuffed animals from "The Claw"...I think he practices! No one wins in those games!

Me with the Birthday girls!!! Friends for 18 years!!!

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On Tuesday I got to go kayaking with my friend from church, Donna. She was nice enough to invite me and let me use one of her kayaks. We paddled down the Harpeth for about 3 hours or so and it was such a gorgeous morning!!! We saw two baby turtles (like the size of my two thumbs, little!!), a deer, an owl, a few blue herrans (they look like they belong in Florida!!), and a herd of cattle blocking the river! They eventually made their way to the side...but they were funny little things. Umm...I guess little isn't the appropriate word. Anyway, we had a fun trip, barely beat the afternoon thunderstorm, and I got a head start on my camp teva tan for the summer!! So a big thank you to Donna!!

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I am now procrastinating my next project of packing for camp. This isn't just pack a bag and go...I can handle that. I have to pull out the trunk, the rubbermaid drawers, all the bathroom stuff, the sleeping bag, blankets, costumes, cave clothes...and it goes on and on!! You need lots of options when your schedule has you canoeing the river, caving in Wick's, and mountain biking on Peola during the day...then Baby Spice at evening program and Harry Potter for Mystery Date party at night. That's a very typical day...and THAT, my friends, is why I love summer camp!!!

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This will be my first summer without a cabin. I am graduating and moving on up to Program Staff. It will be strange to not have 12 girls sharing a room with me all summer...instead I'll just have 2 roomies, Clarissa and Katie Berry! The three of us were all in a cabin together when we were campers in 95 and 97!! We are ready for an awesome summer...get this...between the three of us we have a combined 46 summers at camp, and I bring the least amount with 8! Clarissa wins with 25...sometimes people think it's crazy that I'm still at camp at 25 (Katie and Clarissa are both 25 too) and they think I must be running the place...so I just want to share Clarissa's story so you can get a feel for the way Taum Sauk works!

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Clarissa's dad, Bud (Shelly), came to Taum Sauk as a counselor when he was either 18 or early 20's...I can't remember which. Either way...he has been at camp every summer for a little over 40 years. His wife, Lesa, runs the kitchen. They were married at camp and Clarissa has been at camp every summer of her life. And to take it FURTHER...Clarissa met her fiance, Jason, at camp when they went to the dance together third session of 1997! They didn't really date until college...but he has spent many summers as camper and counselor and they are now getting married at camp this October!! So...you think I'm a lifer??? I pale in comparison...I have a lot more summers to go to be competitive!!

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Anyway...5 days til Staff Week starts! Any takers to pack my stuff?

Lost in Translation

So here are a few last Korean things that I found amusing/funny that I thought I should post.


This is a chocolate bar I found in a gas station that made me laugh..."Crunky" chocolate. I believe it was intended to be "Crunchy". It was little chocolate bars with crispy rice (like our Crunch bars). It was pretty gross actually...it wasn't very sweet and the rice had a bit of a fishy flavor. I brought it home for the family to try (I wasn't trying to bring them something nasty, I never tasted it in Korea) and it is still sitting on our kitchen table...that's about the longest chocolate has ever lasted in our house! Anyone who would like to try some...I have it for you!

These two pictures are the rice fields along the side of the road. They are ALL OVER in Korea. It is approximately 17 or 19% (can't remember which) farmland. It is very marshy area that isn't naturally that way...the fields are all irrigated to be filled with water for the rice to grow.

I took these pictures out the window while we were driving, which reminds me about driving. I found it very amusing that in the US they are passing all these laws about banning cell phones while driving and over in Korea 90% of the taxis and public buses we were on the driver was watching a Korean soap opera/sitcom on a tv on the dashboard while he was driving us! It made me kinda nervous...but it was VERY common over there!

Here are a few more visors :) Just wanted to point out that they come in all shapes and sizes. The ladies would all wear the visors, carry sun umbrellas, and sometimes even wear little cotton gloves. They are very sun weary over there!

Another sign that I am sure got lost in translation... :)