Preeeeecamp Madness

It's the best feeling ever driving back through Bridgewater, feeling like you're coming home. Past that pirate ship, the rescue squad, Harveys. May have decided that on the first drive I was going to try come back next year. When we all first rolled up on camp we were greeted by a sign with instructions saying we had to do something to enter  camp. Splash and Red were sat off, in the background, watching us from the golf cart. This involved us singing the hippo song as a collective. Which we were all slightly rusty with. That day we moved into our Cabins, me and Mo were together with Skittles and Natters (who I named). They were arriving the next day. That evening we spent milling around camp, catching up with each other, meeting the new specialists and sitting on Shawnee bridge, swaying our feet over the high river.

Kayak through Camp? Yes that did happen...

Precamp went really well. Everyone is great. Everyone seemed to be getting on really well. We learnt a lot about camp. The basics of a typical day, safety, programmes, roles etc. Of course Sparky visited and told her infamous story. We all were first aid trained and I made Unit Leader. We all did lawn initiatives and bonding games, and everyone was up for it. It was great. It also included many chats, laughs, games, running around, beating people in races wearing crocs, making friendship bracelets, doing hair wraps as well as the odd dance part or two. I definitely managed to put a hair wrap in Reds hair. No photo evidence, but it was definitely an achievement! We also did round robins in the program areas which included doing challenge course and climbing tower. We also hiked out to pioneer.

We also went to reddish knob! It's lovely up there. We all rode in the vans or cars. I went with Mermaid and we all chatted and all bonded a little more. Managed to talk to a lot of people up there too. We all enjoyed ourselves. It was nice to see the views again, but like the last time I was up there, we were chased away by a thunderstorm. So we spent the whole drive back watching the lightning flash down as the music blared out.

Smiles and a view...

We also went to a baseball game at JMU. That was pretty fun. The players all danced to the birdie song for us and Google and Pixie won some money from a raffle. Because there were so many varying accents being chaperoned around the game by Americans, the University were informed we were a cultural exchange program, which they loved.

Take me out to the ball game...

We also ended up doing a scavenger hunt which was masked as a fired drill where we all stood around the flag poles in the pouring rain, on the flooded green. We were split into groups and were given instructions before we were off. Our tasks included posing for archery outside target, having all the vegetarians stand outside little grill, be pirates by the pirate ship in Bridgewater, having our mascot (lady liberty) in every picture, thrifting for the dress-up box and getting a topping for ice cream. Mac decided that while the toppings were being found she would dance outside Target in that lovely dress. It was possibly one of the funniest things I've seen her do...

Race against time...in the rain

The weird thing about precamp, apart from not experiencing it last year, was not having the kids there. Not hearing their little voices and chants and laughs. I found myself excited for them to come. For camp to begin in full swing, and June 23rd was when it would finally start...

Last day of precamp...