Summer Camp: The Final Weeks

Welp, it's Sunday night and I don't have to report to camp in the morning...Wierd.

For the last two months, my life has been that of a camp counselor. 40 hour work weeks in the hot Florida sun. Fighting off sticky, grabby, germ infested hands. Trips to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Appeasing hysterical children with band-aids and ice packs. Evacuating the pool due to some floating "doo-doo". Opening Gatorades, Lunchables, and stubborn Tupperware. Putting children in timeout for throwing pinecones again, again, and again.

But its also watching the pure joy in a kids face when they finally score a basket. Spending hours in the pool accompanied by counselor friends, country music, and the lifeguards' watchful eyes. Being equipped with an arsenal of hilariously corny jokes. Raiding the snack closet on a daily (sometimes hourly...) basis. Making a new group of friends in a town where I thought I already knew everyone there was to know. Being told "I love you" by children day in and day out.

And now camp is over and done with, and it's all pretty bittersweet.

Because camp was awesome.

I'm going to miss my new friends and all of our shenanigans.

Pajama day/movie day/the most chaotic day all summer. We took all of 20 seconds to take this picture, which was the perfect amount of time for all hell to break loose among the campers.

Youth large t-shirts or YMCA UnderArmour?

Mr. Nick and I celebrating YMCA's transition from Pepsi to Coke.

And it was Crazy Hair Day, which explains the Lady Gaga wig and Princess Leah buns.

I'm going to miss the daily dance parties.

I'm going to miss the crowning of the new Counselor of the Week every Friday.

I'm going to miss the pure chaos of containing 100+ hyped up kids in one place.

The visual is enough in and of itself, but listen closely to the dialouge for even fuller imagery. (Obviously I felt like we had control over the situation or else I wouldn't have been messing around with my camera. Safety first, y'all.)

I'm going to miss the low-budget brilliance of the YMCA.

"Camper's Choice Awards"

Throughout the last week of camp the campers voted on the Funniest Counselor, the Friendliest Counselor, and the Most Helpful Counselor. On Friday, the three winners were presented with a $10 Steak-n-Shake gift card and a recycled trophy. I don't know about you, but those trophies made me laugh out loud.

(PS. I was shocked and honored to win the Friendliest Counselor award because most days I felt like a total grouch. Guess not.)

I'm going to miss pranking the campers.

But mostly I'm going to miss the precious little faces I fell in love with.

Some of my little Red Group on the last day of camp.

We're not really supposed to have favorites, but this guy was one...

...and this little guy was the other.

I have so many memories to be thankful for.

And if this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will...

(PS. If you can't get these videos to work, please let me know. But hopefully they work, because they took f o r e v e r and a day to upload and I'll cry if they don't.)