Hmmm, where to start. We had to be up in the mountains early, so we left about 7am. Kyler and I carpooled and caravaned with other people in our den, and a friend from bible study, so we had a good group going up. The camp was at
Camp Sheppard, near Crystal Mountain. It rained most of the way up, despite the weatherman's assurances that it wouldn't rain until Sun afternoon. Right. We were able to register fine, and had a total of 11 moms and boys in our cabin. During the opening ceremony it was drizzling. Our first activity was Free time, and the boys mostly played around our cabin while the moms settled in. The next activity was Craft project,
which was inside the Trading Store. They made a ping Pong ball cannon. It worked pretty well, except for the wheels. Now it gets interesting. By this time the drizzle had turned into full on rain. It had started during free time, but we hadn't had to be out in it much yet. Now we had a long hike to the archery range. Nothing is paved up here, so it's all wet long grass and mud. Archery wasn't as much fun, especially for the moms. Although I did get a chance to shoot, and actually got a bullseye on my second round! Kyler did pretty well too, and thought it was his favorite event of the day. Next was lunch - Yay! It was getting pretty cold, and we were all soaked already. Lunch was hot dogs and chili. Then back outside for the rest of the afternoon. After lunch was Confidence Course. It was some obstacle course type events, and team building events. Each activity was 50 minutes, which is a long time to stand in the rain. After that was Camp cooking. They cleaned out oranges and put cake mix in it, then wrapped it in foil and cooked it on a fire. Mostly they burned. After that was supposed to be nature time, but some of us played hookey and went to the cabin instead. Kyler agreed to go to the cabin.
During this time our smoke alarm went off. We all went to stand in the rain while someone went to tell the directors. A firefighter from Kitsap county came to check it and fix it. He said it might snow tonight. The elevation there was 2600, and the temp had been dropping all day. He said it was in the low 40s already. I could have told him that! Snow was all we needed.
Next activity was Skit training, also outside. After a long hike to the area the boys who were running that station agreed to come back to our cabin and do skits there when we bribed them with candy. They were soaked to the skin also. The whole camp was run mostly by a boy scout troop. There were dads for Archery and BB guns, but that was it. All of the volunteers were soaked through. There were no shelters at any of the stations. My favorite time of the day was doing the skits. Besides finally being inside, although not personally dry, the older boys asked our kids to tell something cool about thier mom. I thought Kyler would say it was because I do stained glass, but he said I was the nicest mom in the world, and I was nice to everybody. It was a sweet thing to say. They worked on a team yell and a team skit. Next we were off to BB guns, another long hike in pouring rain. At day camp they had stands for the boys to sit on and prop the guns up. Here they had big mats lying on the ground that they boys were supposed to lay flat out on! Instead they were trying to kneel. Puddles of water gathered at thier knees, and also it was hard for the boys to then hold thier guns up level. That one didn't go so well.
Finally we got dinner, which was surprisingly good. It was spaghetti and some delicious rolls. Very welcome at this point. 3 moms and boys left around this time. They had been to camp before, and decided they had had enough. I guess they had been talking about it earlier in the afternoon. That opened up the beds a lot more. There was supposed to be a flag ceremony then an hour long Camp Fire, sitting in the open on benches. We skipped the flag ceremony to stay in the cabin, and finally found out that they moved the Camp Fire indoors! Yeah! It was crowded and dark, but at least we were dry. Each cabin put on thier own skit, along with some songs led by the older boys, and also some skits by them. Cracker Barrel was supposed to be in the lodge, but since we were having the Camp Fire there, they put hot chocolate and rice crispy treats in our cabins, and we all went back for snacks in our rooms. Finally we could change into warm, dry clothes. The bathrooms were a way away, but not too far. Lights out were at 10pm, and a few kids had already fallen asleep. Typical bunk beds. The night was about as expected.
There was supposed to be a Polar Bear hike at 6am. Someone's alarm went off but I heard noises on our tin roof and said it was still raining and I wasn't going. This was 5:45. As far as I know, no one from our cabin went, although a few said they would have if they heard the alarm. Most of the moms didn't sleep well, and tossed and turned. Once the alarm went off, that was it for most of us. Not exactly ready to jump outside and go hike, but awake, and not getting a lot more sleep. We got the boys up around 7am, and got ready for the morning. Flag ceremony at 7:45, followed by Chapel. It wasn't raining yet this morning, but everything was soaked. We did chapel, which turned out to be a few stories and songs, standing. Breakfast was supposed to be Continental, but turned out to be eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and sausage. It was delicious! Tired, outdoors, and hungry, and we all loved it. They even had WARM syrup on the tables. Not bad. After that was the closing ceremony at the flag pole and we were off. Only 24 hours at camp, but what a 24 hours they were.
