Skipping & Tripping in ALi's Adventure Shoes: Adventure #15: Bittersweet Good-byes

LAST DAY OF THUMBS UP CAMP?! WHAT. Yes, the day arrived. But...wait. I remember just a couple months ago when I was questioning my capability to work with kids for a whole summer. Kids had been...so out of my regular routine for so long. Getting reacquainted with kids...helping to teach kids social skills...planning activities for kids...having FUN with kids for hours at a time for consecutive days for weeks. But it happened. I did it. I had a BLAST! And I can honestly say that I've learned so much. And not just about 'working' with kids. Just about Life in general. There's really a lot to learn if one takes out the complications and stresses of Life. Sometimes, attaining that special Lego piece at the bottom of the bucket can be the most important part of one's day.

Rise and shine--but don't knock down the
Leaning Tower of Travel Tubs!

So I thought it'd be good to re-cap this final day for the followers of the Adventure Blog. Let me remind you all that with the passing of the Final Camp Day comes the dawn of the next chapter of ALi's Life: Moving to Texas. See the photo to the left of chaotic packing that is what makes up most of my room currently. I'm going to plug away at the daunting task little by little until next Tuesday, which will be the ultimate van-packing-day. (Care to join? Haha, just kidding; I'm pretty particular about the arrangement of most of my stuff).

Readying for the day was of course a must, even if it's 'just' a camp day. Yes, my ensemble included the ever-so-noticeable Adventure Shoes. Let's just say that while I was getting everything together yesterday, Prince Tony enjoyed the Adventure Shoes. Maybe even a lil too much (I had to take them away from him once the gnawing at the laces began).

GO TIME! A.K.A. load up Babs the van with my junk for camp and head to Walmart for blank DVD's. 1) Yes, Babs is the name of my van. With the passing-on of vehicles to me, said vehicle receives a name. And so, Babs is her name. 2) I took on Walmart duty so that we could make End Of The Year DVD's for campers' families who ordered them. Back to that later... 3) Notice the sunshine! I love the excuse to wear my sunglasses and drive.

Short and sweet trip to Walmart to purchase blank DVD's was slightly more eventful than one might have thought. I found the kind that I thought would work and got them for a good price, but the glitch was with the receipt. Receipts are kept for all camp purchases for accountability/records purposes, but the lovely Walmart self-checkout decided that it only wanted to print half of my receipt (and 'half' as in vertically only half the receipt). Let's just say that I called for assistance and felt like 'that girl' who is very needy at the checkout.

Regardless of my early-morning struggles, I had quite a treat waiting for me at camp. Cinnamon Roll Cake from Rebecca, Badlands Brew coffees courtesy of Heide (I got a Cafe Mielo--creamy coffee with cinnamon!), and Yummy Peanutbutter Balls made by Laura. I had cut up a galia melon (Google it if ya don't know what it is--it's basically honeydew). Breakfast was had while chaotic packing and individual evaluations were discussed with the bosses upstairs in the teacher's lounge (our go-to room for A/C, since our camp site in the school's basement doesn't have any).

Eventually campers arrived and we got to work burning dvd's...or at least tried to. The camp's computer wouldn't allow for such ease though, so after a bit of problem solving, I dashed home to grab my own laptop and attempt the dvd burning on that. It was weird to leave camp in the middle of the morning, but for the task at hand, it was necessary.

Heidi cheering on the campers during relays!
Go Thumbs Up!

So yes, the dvd's were eventually being created, and I babysat each dvd while it did it's thing. The campers were kept busy with relays (quite entertaining to watch!) and then it was movie time. They chose to watch Megamind, one I hadn't seen before. I seem to be out of the loop when it comes to kids movies recently. Strange how that happens once one hits her 20's.

Notice the interesting movie-viewing setup? Yup, we got the campers situated in the teacher's lounge upstairs to make use of some A/C on the last day. Laura brought the tv, which is pretty sweet!

And while campers focused on the movie, I continued to burn Dvd's. (Spoiler alert: I also ended up burning End Of The Year Dvd's for the other, much larger camp affiliated with us, High Five Camp. Ah well, I can complete the task in my sleep now.)

So the time came at noon to say farewell to our dear AM campers and send them off to enjoy their last two weeks of summer vacation without Thumbs Up camp to preoccupy them for 3-4 days each week. Each with their own personalities, attitudes, quirks, and experiences, each camp day was what it was simply because each of them was there to contribute to the group.

At lunchtime, us counselors were kind of stumped. See, we had no camper paperwork to complete (A.K.A. 'points sheets,') so...we had to have REAL conversation with each other! Haha, we had no problems enjoying each others company and chatting away. The ladies enjoyed leftover fried chicken from the previous day's End Of The Year Celebration, and I munched away at my own packed lunch. (Notice how we took advantage of the teacher's lounge again!)

Mad skills with the self-timer button on my camera.

Ok so PM camp was actually much the same as AM camp: arrival, movie, relays, etc. And of course I burned DVD's during the festivities, but I was present enough to still be able to appreciate our younger campers' excitement for everything. Again, sending them off was hard, but I just hope that any progress they've made this summer will continue or at least be maintained and reinforced during the coming school year.

Us counselors readying
to say
our final
good-byes to camp.
Notice our adorable clapboard
prop that Heidi
brought in for our
End Of The Year
Celebration.
'That's a rap!'

Post-camp time was spent packing the rest of camp stuff into the camp van and hauling it to it's storage space until next year. The whole process was made more interesting with the beginnings of a rain storm, complete with some thunder and lightening. Luckily, I didn't melt as I typically do when I am rained on, but I must say that I was very-much preoccupied with getting everything put away and completed ASAP. I even returned the van with Rebecca in the pouring rain (which included vaccuuming it out AND gassing it up IN THE RAIN!)

Finally, the camp day officially ended. Camp as a whole had officially ended. And I drove back home with a van of random odds and ends snacks that couldn't be rid of (except to be taken home), my laptop, the burned DVD's to be taken care of for the next day, and my camp bag. (I also had a trash bag of leftover nearly-expired milk cartons for the fam!) Oh yeah...and LOTS and LOTS of glitter. EVERYWHERE! (Long story!)

Dinnertime was much-appreciated. I whipped up some potato pancakes (made from leftover potatoes, of course!) and readied a spinach salad topped with salsa. Food tasted glorious.

I was looking forward to talking with/seeing Fish since the end of my camp day, and thanks to Skype, this definitely happened. However, he always complained in the past about how I'd use a Skype image of him without him knowing about it. This time he can't complain though. I tell him about it and I get the pic below...