Double the Fun

I appreciate your grace since I missed my Friday night blog. It was such a busy day, but I thought I would catch you up with a Saturday double the fun edition highlighting these last two days at camp! Campers and staff are fully emersed in camp life now, and we are loving every minute of it!

I LOVE talent show! It is just the BEST! I love to see how campers feel comfortable at Highlander after 6 days here, and they are ready to show off for their friends. I love the way cabins come together to put on an act and make memories with one another. I also love those campers who serve as moral support and just stand up on stage with a friend so they don’t have to do it alone. I love the smiles on each performer’s face as they finish their act and bask in their applause. Most of all, I love our sweet, supportive community that rallies behind each performer as they clap or sing a long to the music, scream and cheer for one another by name and even give a standing ovation! These are the memories, the moments and the smiles that camp is made of.

Favorite Details of Friday

• Reflect: This morning we started by talking about ants. Did you know ants can carry something 50 times their body mass and will travel several miles to bring it back to their colony…patience, perseverance and grit. Ants honor grit over quit, no matter how hard things get. Today Spencer challenged us to face each challenge with the grit and perseverance of an ant!
• Meals: The smell of warm, sweet cinnamon rolls greeted us as we walked in the dining hall this morning for breakfast! YUMMY! We also enjoyed bacon, eggs and a our fruit and yogurt bar. For lunch we had walking tacos, which a messy, fun and oh so delicious! For dinner, the dining hall went crazy with our Friday night tradition of pizza! If you ask me, I was just as excited about the veggies and hummus on our tables as I was the pizza! Tonight’s dessert was Gus’ candy after camper choice sign ups!
• Weather: The weather was AMAZING today! High of 78, low of 55! Sunny and not a cloud in the sky! We played hard today in the warm sun and we will sleep hard tonight in the cool breeze.
• EP: The Kickoff Camp Talent Show was fantastic! Your children are not only silly and sweet, they really do have talent!

Favorite Details of Saturday

• SLEEP IN SATURDAY!!! Everyone loves Saturday because we sleep in 45 minutes later and enjoy fresh, hot kripsy kreme donuts for breakfast! And to top it all off, NO CABIN INSPECTION on Saturday! Campers were screaming for delight this morning!
• Meals: Breakfast was donuts, scrambled eggs, sausage links, fruit bar, oatmeal and grits. For lunch we all enjoyed the best copycat Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and waffle fries with salad bar. For dinner…we could smell the smoker from the moment we woke up today! The kitchen knocked it out of the park with their famous smoked BBQ - pulled pork, pulled chicken, baked beans, coleslaw and macaroni and cheese!
• Weather: It was another BEAUTIFUL day in Western North Carolina! High of 80, low of 57 with a cool breeze all day!
• Camper’s Choice Day: We had some awesome activities for camper’s choice today like kayak soccer, cobbler making in the wood fired oven at cooking, horseback trail rides and more. I saw siblings at activities together, which is one of the many joys of these free choice days. Today we also had some HBA (Highlander Basketball Association) games that were played. The HBA teams are mixed ages and mixed gender and I just love watching thes games and the teamwork. I love the mix of ages from 6-15, and the way that the older campers look out for the younger ones. This iw why Camp Highlander is family!
• EP: Tonight we had our Willy Wonka EP! The gym was transformed into Wonka World, and we all enjoyed playing games, winning prizes and of course…CANDY! Every camper and counselor got a pair of white Willy Wonka glasses tonight at dinner to commemorate this amazing EP! Everything from the costumes to the music was perfect! We had an absolute blast!