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!