Last week I had the fun chance to go to the church camp that I grew up at! I went to Camp Siloam from 3rd grade until I was a senior and then I worked there every summer during college. It feels like home to me. But I've never been a counselor and I haven't been back in over 25 years. This was Harper's first year to go to camp and Scott's parents graciously agreed to keep the younger two so I could go. I was SO excited!
The camp is only 30 minutes from us so it wasn't a very long trip! We left Monday after lunch.
Harper and her friend Kinley. They have known each other since they were babies!
And their friend Madeline
This was our cabin. I was with 3rd and 4th grade girls and they were sweet. The bunkhouse was better than I remembered. At least it had good air conditioning!!!!!
Emily and her friends! We took about 60 kids from our church. This was "big church" week so it was just us and two other big churches in Arkansas which was nice.
The camp had a theme and every day they would do a lot of drama that tied in with the theme. It was great.
The first year I worked at camp Siloam - they opened a new worship center. And the first year I was there as a counselor - they opened a new dining hall. The old dining hall was SOOOOOOOO old. It had a tree growing in the middle of it. The new one is SO nice. And the food was really good. I went with very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. And it was also air conditioned.
This is important because it was in the 90's all week and about 90% humidity and I sweat buckets constantly.
We went to bed around midnight on Monday night. The girls were SO excited and giggly. I woke up early on Tuesday morning and realized we didn't have power and there was a bad storm outside. Luckily we had all showered before bed so the girls had to get up and get ready in the dark. Thankfully the dining hall had power so we were able to have breakfast. The power came back around 10.
We had morning devotions every day and then a worship service. Then we had "color wars". The camp was divided into two teams and we had these massive games.
Some of our boys! I feel like I didn't see them much but they were around having a blast!
Harper and one of her friends.
My hair in humidity. ha!
After lunch we have four hours of recreation time. They swim, go down a massive water slide, play a variety of games, do crafts, take naps or hang out at the "hub" or snack shack. The kids had a great time and I would kind of follow them around.
Every night was a theme night. Tuesday night was Red, White and Blue night.
My sweet friends Marci and Kerry came to visit and brought us Sonic drinks. They had never been to camp so I took them on a tour after dinner.
Laurie and Sarah Kate came too. SK didn't go to camp this year but Emily did.
Harper was thrilled to have SK there! Every night after dinner we have a worship service. It was SO good. Our pastor, Mike Seabaugh, is amazing with kid. He did a lot of Bible dramas and had great stories. And the worship was so good too.
Then we had group time with our church every night and then some free time before lights out at 10:30. They usually didn't settle down until midnight most nights.
This was the first half of camp - I will share more tomorrow!!!
