July 3-10 was the most amazing week. Ever.
July 2nd at 11:17 a.m. We pulled out of the Bickel's driveway. Destination: New York. 1 Van, 10 people, lots of luggage, and a 14 hour drive.
We were headed to the Adirondack Mountains in New York for Camp! Mrs. B. drove us. It was Mrs. B, Kaleb,Lauren,Natasha, Eli, Brad, Ethan, Matthew, Andrew and I in the 15 passenger van. The air was broken also...it was a very warm ride. In Ohio we got stuck in a traffic jam. It took us 1 hour to go 4 miles...so that set us back. We went to Mrs. B's brother's house to spend the night. We got there at 12:50 a.m. We slept, then we awoke. They live about 20 min. from the WOL facilities, so we didn't have to leave there until after lunch. Us teens went for a walk down to a beach. We didn't go swimming, we waded a little bit, but mostly we played on the playground... :] We went to the Bible Institute after lunch to check in for camp...and to get a lice check..haha yeah, it's gross. A GUY had to look through my hair..WEIRD! Anyways, all of us passed. Lice free! Yay! After standing in lines for an hour or so, we were all checked in and we drove to the boat dock, unloaded luggage, and got on the boat!
I was so excited! I've been on the Island once before, 3 years ago when Alanna and Cameron were staying on the Island, but, i've never stayed there. The first thing you had to do when you got on the island was to climb Cardiac hill. It is called cardiac hill for a reason! It is really steep. So, becuase of it being so large, i decided to run up it so i could get to the top faster. All the staff and counselours were at the top of the hill, so everytime someone came up it they all cheered and welcomed you..it was pretty funny. We checked in at the Bus stop, got our team wristband(red or blue), met our counselours and then went to our cabin. I was on the red team. (RED IS BETTER) I was in Wander Inn, had 3 counselours and 7 other girls in my cabin. My Counselours (Jolin,Jess, and Kate) were totally amazing!
Lauren and I were in the same cabin, and Victoria, (our area missionary's daughter) was in a cabin with us too. There were 5 other girls that we didn't know, but we got to know each other quickly! Shayna, Nikki, Carrie, Alissa, and Sarah were all REALLY awesome! Our cabin was really nice, compared to some of the other cabins. We had 3 showers, 3 toilets and 4 sinks! Well, there were 4 showers and 4 toilets, but one of the showers didn't have a curtain, and one of the toilets was broken...but still! Some of the cabins had 20 girls and 4 showers, and the guys didn't even get bathrooms in their cabin, they had to go to what they called the "hog wash"..yeah..that sounds like a great place.
Saturday afternoon was spent getting settled in, meeting cabinmates, and..of course, Carpetball! Carpetball is the awesomest game ever invented! I stink at it...but...it's still awesome!
For meals, everyone eats in the dining hall. The lines were extremely long. It took us a long time to even get inside the building! I think there were over 500 campers + all the counselors.
Sunday morning we had a church service, and then in the afternoon we had quiz blitz. We weren't expecting to do well...but we ended up making it to the top 6 out of 17! The team that won was really, really amazing. I think they studied every day since Regionals! Quiz blitz was alot of fun though. On Thursday i got to be on an All-Star quiz blitz team, that was fun too. Quiz blitz went all afternoon and finally finished at about 4. I ran to the book store, got my awesome RED team shirt, and ran back to the cabin to change. Now, running back to our cabin was not the easiest thing. We had to go down a trail in the woods that was covered with rocks and roots sticking up..it was quite interesting at night, it was REALLY dark! But, i pretty much alwaaaays ran down it, and didn't fall once...maybe a trip or two, but never a full out sprawling fall! Sunday night was when everyone dressed up in team colors and had their facepaint on. Some people went ALL out and were covered in their team color, with paint! Yeah, no, that wasn't me, i stuck with just two lines of red under the eye. :p
Monday and Tuesday afternoon's were filled up with Teens involved events. Wednesday we were all so happy that we didn't have to worry about anything anymore, we could cheer at the top of our lungs, and we also got to have free time in the afternoon! We played carpetball, went to the beach and just had a great time. Wednesday night was the campfire. Joe Jordan spoke, it was awesome. I re-dedicated my life to God. I took a stick and threw it in the fire as a symbol of giving my whole body and life to God. There were over 100 other teens that did this with me. We all stood around the campfire, singing and praising God. On the walk back to our cabins everyone was singing and it was so totally awesome! I'm so thankful i got to go to camp!
Thursday afternoon was International Teens Involved Awards! They were at the Bible Institute, which is 9 miles down the road from the boat dock. So, i got to ride in an air conditioned van, and then sit in the wonderful air conditioning for the afternoon. It was wonderful. The temperatures were in the upper 90's and i think it got to 100 some of the days. You were constantly sweaty! It was gross! So yeah, the air conditioning was AMAZING! Awards was awesome. Our drama placed 3rd. Our Large group vocal/instrumental placed 5th, Matthew and my duet placed 2nd, I placed 5th w/ my specialty instrumental(ocarina). and Matthew placed FIRST in Jr. High male vocal solo!!
After awards i stayed at the BI with Sarah and Carrie and we got a tour, and then had a cookout with yummy hamburgers AND we didn't have to wait in line for an hour! After that we headed back to the island and did fun things for the rest of the night. It started raining during free time, it was POURING for a while there. It was nice though, cause it cooled everything down... for a while.
Friday was the last day. It was an awesome day though. Friday morning was Robbies Run, a mile run around the island. Most people didn't run..i ran..most of the way... :p Friday night was the concert. It was simply beautiful! They sang some really awesome songs. Mike Laymon, the camp director, played a super duper duper sweet, awesome crazy guitar solo, it was cool. They even sang a Toby Mac song! Not as well as Toby mac sings it, of course.
Right after the concert we had to leave the island. Everyone else was leaving Saturday morning, but we wanted to get an early start on Saturday, so we got off the island on Friday night. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs and then departed. It had started to rain, and on the way over to the mainland there was lightning, it looked pretty sweet. It was pouring rain as we were trying to load the van with all the luggage, but we finally got it. Mrs. B's brother had come to pick us up, and he took us back to there house where we slept the night. I am soo glad we got off the island on Friday night. We most likely got to bed before anyone on the island, AND we got to sleep past 7! Everyone on the island had to get up before 5 a.m...haha! We had a good nights rest and then started the long drive home. It only took us 12 hours to get home, and it felt much shorter than that. It was really awesome.
My 2nd cousins (Susan and Steve Oswald) are area missionaries in Ohio, and we had seen them at camp. Alissa and Sarah from my cabin had ridden to camp with them, and on the way home we passed them. It was pretty awesome to see them one last time. :]. I miss camp!!! The girls in my cabin were awesome!
Every morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. and cleaned our cabin and then went to breakfast at 7:30. While we were at breakfast our cabins were inspected, and then we got a score on how clean our cabin was. The highest you could get was 50 +5 for a display, or bribe. Our lowest score was a 47. On Wednesday one of the guys' cabins (Dew drop) had awoken at 8:15 a.m., Breakfast ended at 8:45. So they didn't get much of a chance to clean their cabin. They got a score of a whopping 7! I can't even imagine what their cabin looked like! We laughed at them... the next morning we woke up at 8:14! We had ALL slept through the alarms. WHOOPS! We scurried around getting ready and cleaning. We left the cabin, went and ate breakfast(quickly) and went to morning bible hour. We came back, and guess what? We got a 50! yeah, we woke up 1 min. earlier and we got a 50. We were very proud of ourselves..lol and we kinda haaaad to tell them. haha it was pretty awesome. We all felt really good from the extra 2 hours of sleep we got. :p
So yup, that's a glance at my week of camp. IT WAS AWESOME! I REALLY REALLY hope i get to go again next year!
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