Water, shade, hats, and sunscreen, that was the theme of day three of our first Ignite camp of the summer. Temperatures got up to 36 degrees, and despite the high heat, the kids had a blast like they always seem to do.
We do announcements after every meal about the upcoming activities of the day, and we had a line of pretty much every skill instructor ready to make the announcement, “For everyone in ______ skill, be prepared to get wet.” Even the archery skill decided not to make the hike over to the range, and instead get drenched by our fire house at the lodge. However, a lot of our skills are still on the water, so the opportunity to dunk yourself to cool off was available for pretty much everyone.
The skiing and wakeboarding skills are rarely complaining about the heat, as they get to go in the water, and enjoy the wind in their faces as they rip down the lake.
The opportunity to have skiing and wakeboarding at camp is truly a blessing for us and for the campers who get to participate in it. Very few of these kids ever get the chance to be pulled behind a boat, and they only time they get to experience it is when they come to camp every year. I’m not sure about whether or not this girl has a boat, but she sure looks like she knows what she’s doing as she actually slalom skied yesterday afternoon.
I mentioned the Photography skill yesterday, and how I should recruit them for the blog. Well, as they toughed out the elements by going on a short hike, they ran into our Photographer, Emily. It looks to me like they had a photo-off. I heard rumblings of the Photography skill even starting their own rival camp blog. Let the games begin.
Speaking of letting the games begin, our Olympic camp game is in full force, as the campers have graced our massive podium (we’ll post a picture tomorrow) and earned many medals. They’ve also found another Olympic ring, and our banner is beginning to resemble what it was supposed to look like before the rings were stolen.
The best part about this Olympic game? The music playing in the background during post-meal announcements. It’s stuck in literally everyone’s head.
The afternoon obviously got even hotter than the already warm morning, and the campers desire to cool off and stay out of the sun got less and less subtle. It started off with sombreros…
And then eventually they just came running.
Even Copper needed to get wet, and for a dog who doesn’t really seem to like the water, that’s saying something. But it makes for a truly precious picture on the beach. We really love our dog.
The beach was heavily populated pretty much from morning until night. This is really great for everyone, except for maybe the skim-boarders, who like to have the whole shore to themselves to do all their cool tricks. Skim-boarding is a fairly new activity here at camp, but each year it seems to rise up on the “cool meter”. We don’t actually have a “cool meter” so I’m not really sure why I said that. That would probably be fairly low on said meter.
We can all find these wild and creative ways to stay out of the sun, but Brady and his little brothers don’t understand why it has to be so complicated. Monopoly solves everything.
As the day came to a close, and the evening began, we split the camp in two as some cabins had “Cabin Choice” where the counsellors planned for them to do pretty much whatever they wanted, and the rest met up in the Chapel to play some Minute to Win It. For those of you not familiar with the game, participants use house hold items to do challenges that they have one minute to complete. It was Girls vs Boys, a rivalry that always seems to get people excited. In the Apple Stack challenge, the boys came out on top…
But overall, it was the girls who had the last laugh, winning the first half of the Ignite 1 Minute to Win It Challenge, with help from these girls who were the only ones to throw the card to get stuck in the watermelon.
We rounded off the evening by going to Chapel to sing some worship, and listen to Myra speak. Myra talked about the names God gives His children, and the importance of listening to what God calls you, opposed to the negative names and labels the world can throw at you.
Today is looking like it’s going to be another warm one, however we are expecting to have a bit of rain today to cool things off. Again, please pray for safety and health for everyone here, and pray that God works in the lives of the campers and staff as well.
Just a reminder about our Facebook and Twitter pages. Give them a follow, and you’ll be able to get a look at exclusive pictures and discussions that you won’t be able to see on the blog. Thanks!
