Camp Tamarack

Ortonville, Michigan

June 5th to June 7th, 2012

Tuesday, June 5th - 72/49°, Mostly Sunny

    Samantha and I woke up around 7:30am this morning, knowing that we needed to get ready to head to school early. In addition to Sam, I also drove Drew and our neighbor Kris in this morning. This morning would be the start of three days of fun at Camp Tamarack in Ortonville, and I offered to drive kids’ luggage from school to the camp, which meant that we needed to be there before the normal school day got underway.

    We got to the school and lined our truck up with the vehicles that the other chaperones were driving and then started to load the sleeping bags, clothes, pillows, and other belongings of Sam’s classmates into the back of the truck. When the school bell was about to ring, Sam and Drew headed into their classrooms for the start of the day. I stayed behind with the other chaperones talking about what lay ahead for us until it was time for the 5th grade students to get on the busses that would be taking them to camp. I climbed into the truck to start the drive to the camp.

    I got caught by a street light, so I wasn’t able to follow the bus directly to camp. Thankfully I knew where I was going this time, so no issues arose in getting there on time. I joined everyone in line to enter the camp for the short drive to our village, Applebaum, where we would be staying for the next two nights. We parked on the road alongside the village and unloaded the bags while waiting for the kids to get off the bus. Once they made it to the village they found their stuff and headed off to their cabins. Since Sam and I were staying in different cabins overnight, we headed our separate ways to set ourselves up. I found a bunk in the “chaperone room” in my cabin and set up shop. My sleeping bag went on the bottom and my clothes bag went on top. Sam did the same, setting up in the chaperone room with her friend Lexie, Lexie’s mom Renee and Aunt Brenda, both of whom were the chaperones in charge of Sam’s cabin at night.

    In addition to Samantha, I was going to be responsible for five additional girls during the day: Eminemem (Mariah, Maya, and Miranda) as well as Kayly and Shelby. For some reason I was one of only two parents with six kids during the day, while some others were blessed with only four. I’m not sure how that happened to me! At night I was in a cabin with another chaperone and nine pre-teen boys. I must admit that I was prepared for the worst! The cabins haven’t changed one bit since the last time I was there with Tyler’s class. The metal framed bunk beds with the noisy, thin, cot-like mattresses with the rubber covering on them were still there to sleep in. The walls are still covered in plywood, as is the shelving for our personal belongings. It still reminds me of the upstairs of the old Gough cottage, except the mattresses there were at least quieter.

    When we had settled in to our cabins I went ahead and parked the truck in the main parking lot (since I knew we would have to, based on my past experience here). The entire fifth grade class then gathered in the lodge for some basic camp directions to follow before heading off for the first activity of the day. Like Tyler’s class, the first activity was a game called Instincts for Survival, which took place on the lawn beside the gym. The kids were placed into the three groups – herbivores (the largest group), omnivores, and carnivores. The idea was to “eat” certain food sources by collecting beads, and also getting the water they need (which was also a bead) all without being caught by the other groups (except the carnivores, they had no enemies in this game). If they lost all of their beads they were out of the game. They were able to come back to the starting point and get a new set of beads if they got out too often or too early. Sammie was an omnivore, meaning that she got to chase down the herbivores and take their beads. She enjoyed this, but for some reason would have preferred being an herbivore herself. The game lasted about an hour, and then it was time for us to head to lunch.

    The Mahler Dining Hall wasn’t too far from the gym, so the walk there went quickly. As anyone who reads this journal probably knows, I tend to be a slightly picky eater. Because I knew what to expect in regards to the fine dining offered at the camp, I came much more prepared that I did last time. After being briefed on the dining room rules, we were free to get our food. I stood in line to get my serving of chicken nuggets, curly fries, and carrots. I must say that I thought that the food was off to a decent start this time - that is until I bit into my first nugget. Not only was the breading soggy, but they were also cold. The same thing could be said for the fries – cold and rather tasteless. I managed to choke it all down, but I didn’t rush up for seconds either! Overall, I’d give this meal two stars out of five. I didn’t touch the carrots or the chocolate chip brownie that we got for desert. Samantha actually ate her brownie, and like most of the girls at the table we sat at enjoyed it thoroughly.

    Our afternoon activity today was the high ropes, which meant that we had a small hike ahead of us to get there. That meant that once lunch was over I gathered up my six girls and started walking.

    The High Ropes are exactly what the name implies – a bunch of ropes high in the air that the kids were going to climb on. They were given a safety belt and ropes to tie themselves off with, just in case they slipped or fell, and they were given time to practice the proper procedures on a small “classroom” setup about two feet off the ground. In addition to the training, they were required to have a “shadow” on the ground (one of their classmates) to help make sure that they didn’t make any wrong moves while on the ropes. One additional safety feature was that they were required to ask permission from one of the camp counselors before making any move on the ropes, such as transferring their rope from one cable to another.

    Samantha was in the first group to make the climb up the ladder to the High Ropes course. Unlike her big brother, I never had a doubt that she would enjoy this activity. She easily made the climb up the ladder, and from the main platform she was off and moving. The course was kind of set up like a figure 8, with what I would call a slightly easier, shorter course one direction and a longer, more challenging course in the other direction. Sam was kind of forced into taking the shorter course because other kids were already on the first part of the longer part. Her first step out was across a taught wire with two ropes at arm height to hold onto. She completed this section easily, and was quickly ready to move on to the next section.

    Sam’s next obstacle was basically identical to the first, except instead of standing on a wire she would be crossing on a rope this time. She was ready to move onto part three at this time. Her third section of the high ropes was another wire, but instead of having two ropes to hold onto she had one rope that started out high and tapered towards her feet at the other end on her left and another rope that did the opposite on her right. She started out holding onto the rope, but quickly discovered that it was simply easier to just hold onto the ropes attached to her harness and move across that way.

    The next section she had to cross required a partner, so she was forced to wait until her friend Maya completed her obstacle and arrived at the same platform. This particular obstacle had two wires that started out close together and separated the further out you got. The girls were supposed to hold hands and use each other to hold themselves upright, but they didn’t seem to catch on to this fact. They held one hand, but both kept their other hand firmly on their harness ropes. It didn’t seem to matter, as they both made it to the platform, laughing all the way.

    Sam’s final obstacle was the wooden plank “bridge.” She crossed this as time ran out, and then had to turn around and do it again to get back to the beginning. All that was left was to descend the ladder, which she managed without incident.

    Although I never doubted that Sam would be successful in the air, I was proud of how calm and cool she remained at all times. Not once did she hesitate to try any of the obstacles. If Sam faces all of the obstacles that come her way in life, I know that she will be OK!

    Sam ended up volunteering to gather up all of the harnesses and hang them back up as her classmates finished up. Once she had done her job, she joined her group where they started the day, taking a moment to talk about what they learned about themselves while on the high ropes. I knew that my thoughts about Sam had just been confirmed…

    Once we had completed our time at the high ropes, it was back to the dining hall for dinner. Tonight we were served goulash and peas. I wasn't even going to attempt to eat it, but I thought to myself "Hey, I like goulash. I'll give it a shot!" Too bad, though, as it was loaded with onions. Needless to say, I struck out completely on this meal!

    The last time I was at camp with Tyler they had an evening activity called Smoklerville. Thankfully for Sam and her classmates that particular activity was deemed too boring by the teachers. Instead, she was treated to two different activities – Eco-Games and Square Dancing.

    The Eco-Games were up first, and frankly I don’t really remember too much of them. There were a few different games played here, but none that were overly remarkable. In fact I only recall one of them, and it basically consisted of a few kids in the middle of the field, and they had to call out a trait of an animal ("It has teeth" for example). If that trait matched the animal the rest of the kids had chosen, they had to run across the field without being tagged. If they got tagged, they had to turn into a tree. The tree could then tag the runners, but without moving their feet. Otherwise the rest of the games were rather forgettable...

    The final scheduled activity of the day was the Square Dance. I must admit that when I saw this on the agenda, I thought for sure that it was going to be a major dud. It turns out that the kids had a lot of fun, though! All of the chaperones got stuck doing the example dance (my partner was a Camp Tamarack employee), but after that it was all up to the kids. Some of the boys refused to dance with girls, while other boys did their best to avoid dancing with another boy. The girls didn't seem to care who they danced with, it was fun no matter who their partner was. The songs weren't the catchiest, but I caught the kids singing them for the rest of our stay at camp. At the end the counselor coordinating the evening's activities called some of the kids up on stage to sing the final song to dance to, and of course Sam volunteered. She, along with some of her classmates, belted out as much of fun.'s "We Are Young" as they could muster, and they did a great job of singing it from memory. I was so proud of how Sam didn't shy away when she got in front of the microphone. I guarantee I would have!

    We were told to have the lights out by 10:00pm, but everyone knew that wasn’t going to happen. After the square dance ended we made our way back to our cabins to wind down for the night. I got a goodnight kiss from Sam before she went to her cabin, and then I headed off to mine. The other chaperone, Jake, and I managed to cycle most of the boys in our cabin through the showers, except for a few who wouldn’t go. I decided to wait until morning when there would be more hot water, so I got in my pajamas and climbed into my bed.

    Unlike last time, when it was well after midnight before all of the boys fell asleep, it was pretty uneventful this time. The boys climbed into bed with fighting and didn’t spend much time talking. I would say it wasn’t much after 11:00pm when our cabin went quiet. This made it easier for me to fall asleep. Plus, it was much cooler at night this time around (some 20 degrees!), so sleeping itself was easier.

Wednesday, June 6th - 72/49°, Mostly Sunny

    I had set my alarm for 6:30am to give myself time to shower and get dressed in the morning before our breakfast at 8:15am. Unfortunately I was up much earlier than that, thanks to one boy who was telling the others who still needed to shower that they needed to get moving. He finally yelled at one of them "Dude, it's 7:30. We have to shower!" I looked at the time on my phone and yelled back "Dude! It's 5:40! Go to bed!" That seemed to calm them down for a bit longer, though I never fell back into a deep sleep like I wanted (and needed). Finally, before my alarm went off, I couldn’t lay in bed any longer. I headed off to shower and get myself refreshed for the day. By the time I had finished some of the boys were up and moving as well.

    As had become the spare time killer in our camp, the kids who were dressed and ready headed outside to play soccer. When I found her outside, I had to take a moment to give her a Happy Birthday greeting before she headed off to play soccer. No matter what, Samantha always seemed to be in the middle of this group! She seemed to appreciate it, but I think she thought it was much cooler when the entire fifth grade started singing "Happy Birthday" to her. It petered out towards then end, but I have to give a special shout out to Kyle T. for being the only one who finished it for her. Thanks for making her day, Kyle!

    Once the time came, we finished the trek to the dining hall to find out what delicacy would be awaiting us for breakfast. This morning it was French toast sticks. I got six of them on my tray, which was double what I got last time. Amazingly enough, just like last time, they were cold and hard. I managed to eat all of them, however, largely because I knew that the food throughout the rest of the day would be no better. Samantha managed to eat hers also, although she also tried some of the cereal and had an apple too.

    Our first activity this brisk morning was Canoeing. After a brief instruction period on how to paddle their canoes, the kids teamed up in threes, put on their life jackets, and headed out. When Tyler went, they were given approximately 5-10 minutes to paddle around an area of the lake before they were gathered into a group. They lined up their canoes side by side to form a sort of raft, and then they spent what seemed like forever having kids walk across the canoes, rearranging their seating as they did so. Sam’s group didn’t get this opportunity, which is just as well, as I don’t recall any of the kids in Tyler’s group being overly thrilled with it. Sam, Lexie, and Mariah rode in a canoe together, and spent the entire time paddling around. They didn’t seem to have too much trouble, and except for being rammed by a boys boat once (accidentally on purpose, I’m sure!) they had no issues. They came in once to drop off Lexie, who was stuck in the middle of the canoe and thus bored. They headed back out for a while longer, and then it was time to come in.

    Since there was a bit of downtime before we had to be at the Environmental Education Building for Living Science, the kids played a basketball style game with a small football on the court in front of the canoe area. The kids had fun playing it, and it helped the time go by quickly before our next activity.

    When the time came, we made the short walk to the Living Science classroom. Here the kids were allowed to touch or hold several small animals. They got to check out a rabbit, a pigeon, a salamander, a tarantula, a tortoise, a yellow lizard, and two different snakes. Aside from one of the two snakes, Sam had no problem petting or holding all of the animals that they had the option to touch.

    The Living Science activity was our last of the morning, so after it concluded we headed back to the dining hall for lunch. Since I knew that the menu rotation didn’t change from my last visit here, I had already asked what today’s meals were. I was prepared for the lunch, which was tacos. Tyler and I had the same meal on our first day here two years ago, and not much has changed. Sam wasn't too thrilled with this meal, although she thought the rice at least bordered on acceptable. I added some tomatoes and hot sauce and downed my taco, but it tasted pretty much the same as I remembered (which is to say not very good). The meat was a different consistency when compared to last time, but it didn't seem to improve the taste at all. One of the chaperones asked for peanut butter for one of their kids, but she was handed a jar of soy nut butter instead. Sam tried it on a sandwich, but decided it wasn't exactly her cup of tea either. I assume this is a direct result of the peanut allergy police having a say...

    After eating another fine meal, it was off to our afternoon activity for the day: rock climbing. The rock climbing wall is divided up into six difficulty levels, progressively getting harder as you go around. While most of the boys talked big about starting out climbing the two hardest walls, when it came time to start most of them headed to the easy ones first. Samantha started off at the level four wall and had absolutely no trouble making it to the top (in fact, none of the kids who attempted this wall had much trouble). This wall angled out slightly, but had plenty of hand-holds to grab onto.

    After taking a break and making sure that everyone had a turn to climb, the kids were given the opportunity to ascend another wall if they so choose. Sammie chose to climb the level five wall next. We had been told by the teachers that only one student had managed to climb this wall in the other group, along with one of the teachers, Mr. Miller. Sam scaled it rather easily, as did three other kids from our group. Guess we know which group got the athletes, huh?!? We also had three kids attempt the sixth wall, with two of them making it all the way to the top. The first boy did it because of a bet he made with Mr. Miller - if the student made it to the top, the teacher would give up his comfy bed in the lodge and sleep in his cabin. If he didn’t make it, however, he had to cut his hair. Sure enough, he made it, but opted out of taking him up on the bet so that he could spend the time at night with his classmates.

    By the time the kids who wanted to climbed two walls (in some cases, three) our time was up. Most of the kids were exhausted at this point after being up late last night, early this morning, and spending so much energy canoeing and rock climbing in the hot sun. Besides, it was time for another fabulous meal!

    Tonight’s meal was barbecued chicken and white rice. Tyler and I ate the same BBQ chicken with rice and green beans the last time we were here (I wouldn't doubt that they are still serving from the same batch of food!). Although I am not a fan of BBQ, or chicken for that matter, I managed to get enough of the meat off the bone to have about half a meal. Obviously the rice and beans went straight to the trash. The best part was the roll, which both Samantha and I flattened before eating! As you could probably guess, Sam wasn't too thrilled with this meal either. In fact, she requested that Tara bring us some pizza when she came to the Mock Olympics later tonight!

    We had some down time between dinner and our next activity, so almost everyone headed back to the village to freshen up and rest for a bit. OK, the chaperones did the last two – the kids stayed outside playing soccer once again. Last time I was here with Tyler the “break” activity was hockey, with Sam’s group it is soccer, soccer, soccer!

    Before long it was time for our final official activity of the day: the Mock Olympics. As before, this was the one event that was open for family to attend. Tara brought Jayden with her this time, as Drew and Tyler were tied up with other activities. The kids spent the evening participating in a variety of different relay style races, on a gym floor that isn’t exactly the epitome of cleanliness. The Gym building itself is only half enclosed, with a wall for the first 8-10 feet and then netting covering the opening from the top of the wall to the roof. This doesn’t exactly prevent animals from entering this area, and apparently several birds find their way in. Although I found the floor to be gross, I actually thought it was cleaner than when Tyler’s class was here. Of course many of the races require the kids to be on their hands and knees on that dirty floor. Many parents didn’t hesitate to keep the hand sanitizer flowing freely during these Olympics.

    The kids were divided into four teams. The first event was the only one in which every member of the team didn’t participate. Instead one member of each team had a balloon tied around their ankle. If another contestant pops your balloon during the competition, then you are out. The last one standing with an inflated balloon wins. Unfortunately Samantha wasn’t selected to participate in this event.

    All of the remaining races required each team member to participate. The first of these races was a relay event in which each of the kids had to race to the half court line of the gym, circle around a cone, continue to the opposite end of the gym, and then repeat that pattern coming back to the starting point. All of this had to be done with a ball tucked between their legs.

    The next event was a noodle race. By noodle I mean the kind that use to swim with in the pool or at the beach. Each lap of the gym required another teammate to ride the noodle. Samantha was the third leg of this relay race, and by the time the fifth person joined they didn’t have any room on the noodle! I don’t recall exactly how they did in this race (they didn’t get any ribbons or trophies or anything, it was all just for fun), but I do know that the kids had a blast trying to hang on during this race!

    The next event was a Ping-Pong ball blowing race, which required the kids to be on their hands and knees on that dirty gym floor. Each of the kids had to use a straw (they each got their own, thank goodness!) to blow a Ping-Pong ball from one end of the gym to the other and back.

    Up next for the kids was a paper-plate shuffle. Each of the kids had to place a paper plate under their feet and shuffle down the court. This didn’t work out too well in the gym, though, as the floor kept tearing up the plates. As each of the kids took a turn, the course kept getting shorter and shorter. They also had to get new plates almost every time they got back to the beginning…

    The next event required the kids to jump-rope down the court, stack some plastic cups into a pyramid and un-stack them once again before jump-roping back to the beginning. Sam had the jump-roping part down pat, but she was way too meticulous when it came to the cup stacking. It didn’t matter, as she was all smiles the whole time anyway!

    The final event for the night was another relay race, only this time each kid had to crawl to the opposite end of the gym on their hands and feet, butt pointed down. At the midway point of the gym they had to pick up a puzzle piece, leaving it at the opposite end of the gym, and then returning back by running. When the last puzzle piece was at the end of the gym all members of the team had to run down and put the puzzle together.

    The Mock Olympics ended around 8:30pm, and the kids and parents said their goodbyes. Tara and Jayden walked back to the village with us to hand out the birthday treat that Tara had spent hours baking last night. Samantha got the honor of passing out two cookies to each of her classmates, and was frustrated when they didn’t at least say “thank you” in return. I think having the opportunity to do this for her classmates (and show what cool parents she has – yeah right!) made her day… Before we knew it, the time had come to say goodbye to Tara and Jayden once again. I gave them each a kiss, told them I loved them, and promised to see them once again tomorrow. Sam, not wanting to be embarrassed, told them each goodnight and was off to play!

    The teachers and worked on setting up the possibility of having a campfire tonight and their efforts must have been successful. It seemed as though everyone hung around the campfire for a good portion of the night, although at some point the kids scattered to play a variety of games in the dark. Before that happened, however, we were serenaded by the fifth grade chorus (meaning every kid in school) version of some of today’s most popular hits. “We Are Young” was sung once again, as were hits by Adele. In fact, every song that they sung mentioned fire at one point or another in them. Hmm…

    When the campfire began to die down, everyone made their way to their respective cabins for the night. I said goodnight to Sam before heading off to my cabin to grab a snack and see what kind of trouble the boys were stirring up. It was fairly subdued inside, and the boys decided that it would be a good time to take a shower. They took turns using the two showers and things went pretty smoothly. Once again I opted to wait until morning to shower, when the water would be hotter.

    The past two days must have taken a toll on the boys, because it didn’t take long for them all to pass out tonight. I don’t recall exactly what time it was when everyone finally fell asleep, but considering it was already past 10:00pm when we headed inside, things went very smoothly tonight.

Thursday, June 7th - 82/48°, Mostly Sunny

    Today was our last day of camp, which was a little bit bittersweet. I wasn’t anxious to head back to work tomorrow, especially knowing that I was likely to be told to report to second shift soon. Plus, I was having a good time with a great group of kids. I woke up with my 7:00am alarm setting this morning and headed to the shower. Once I had gotten myself dressed, I did my best to wake up the boys in our cabin. We had to clean the cabin and pack up all of our belongings before we headed off to breakfast. I pulled the truck right up to our cabin and loaded up my stuff, Sam’s stuff, and our neighbor Kris’s stuff into the truck first. I then helped load the other kids stuff into the back of the truck. Once the truck was full, I moved it back into the parking lot to await the drive home. The kids spent some more time playing soccer this morning, until someone got the ball stuck in the tree. And a football. And a tetherball. All in an attempt to get the first ball down. The soccer ball was the only one that belonged to someone from school – the other two belonged to the camp. Thankfully another kid managed to find a stick long enough to climb partway into the tree and knock it down before we had to go…

    Our first stop this morning was at the dining hall for breakfast. I can’t say that I was overly thrilled to see scrambled eggs’ sitting in a taco shell today, but that is the meal that we were served. We did get some grated cheese to put on it, along with some cubed potatoes. I managed to eat the eggs and potatoes, although they were both ridiculously cold. I guess it wasn’t the worst meal we’ve had here at camp, but a nice Big Boy breakfast buffet sure would be nice right about now!

    The last time I was here with Tyler we had a long, long walk around the lake to complete using only a descriptive map and a compass. Thankfully that activity was eliminated (too much walking on the last day, if you ask me – which nobody did!) and replaced with two additional activities instead. Our first activity of the day was archery. Here, all of the girls did their best to compete for the role of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games movie (and book - I'm sure they've all seen it and read it by now). They each got 3 or 4 turns to shoot five arrows at a time towards the target. Samantha's friend Maya was deemed the winner of the Katniss battle, as she managed to hit the center of the target three times. Sam came close to tying her though, as she hit the center twice herself. Aside from a few arrows that sailed clear over the wall behind the targets (or the one that stuck in it), everything went smoothly. Overall the kids had a lot of fun here, and best of all nobody got hurt!

    We had one last activity to complete before our time at camp was complete, and that was outdoor cooking. I had psyched up Sam about this event, telling her about the fruit pies that Tyler’s class got to make when he did this activity. Boy was she disappointed to find out the fruit pie is no longer an option (or it wasn't today, anyway)! She had to settle for a choice of either a grilled cheese sandwich or a pizza (bread, tomato sauce, and cheese). She opted for the pizza, and decided that it didn’t taste too bad. The instructor also made some popcorn over the fire which the kids could try if they desired. Tyler’s group also had the option of making a baked potato over the fire, but that wasn’t offered this time either. After everyone had gotten a turn cooking, they were given a chance to make s'mores. The last time I was here we learned that even the marshmallows were kosher, although we didn't inquire about them this time around.

    Once we were done eating, we made the walk back to our village one last time. When I went to camp with Tyler, we would have headed back to the school at this time and then ate some pizza before the kids were allowed to leave. They have since changed that procedure; instead eating pizza in the lodge at camp before heading back (I guess too many people headed home right when they got to school, resulting in too much leftover pizza). This year they ordered pizza from Food Castle (a grocery store that I worked at for about two miserable weeks many moons ago when I was still in high school) and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised with how good it tasted. This was especially true after eating camp food for the past three days (and the junk food that I smuggled to camp in my bag)! While waiting for the pizza to arrive the kids passed the time by playing soccer one last time. Once the pizza arrived, we gathered in the lodge to enjoy our last meal here. Before we knew it, the bus had arrived and it was time to go back to school. The kids lined up to get on the busses for the return trip to the school and I told Samantha goodbye. I headed off to the truck to make the return drive into Holly.

    Once I was back at the elementary school, I unloaded the bags from the truck and lined them up for the kids to claim. It took some convincing to do, but I finally got Sam to agree to come home with me. She wanted to stay and watch a movie with her class, but once she realized how few kids were going to be left and how low-key the afternoon was going to be, she changed her mind. She was considerate enough to ask if we should bring Drew home with us, so we headed to his classroom to see if he wanted to stay or go. He was in music class at the time, so we stuck around for a few minutes to get the answer – which was that he wanted to go home. I signed the two of them out of school for the day and we headed home. Once we got there, we unloaded the truck, dropped everything down in the kitchen, and Sam and I laid down for a well-deserved nap. Drew? Well, he stayed awake watching Minecraft videos on the computer!

Trip Summary

    Although I had a lot of fun at camp, I was glad to see it come to an end. Some things were better than last time (no Smoklerville, for one), while others were just as I remembered (the cabins and the awful, awful food). I guess I could have participated in some of the activities with the kids, like the high ropes and rock climbing, since other chaperones did, but I decided that I would rather stay on the ground and document Sam’s camp experience so that one day she can look back at all of the pictures and remember this time fondly.

    I really enjoyed watching Samantha and the entire fifth grade work together. I have heard the teachers rave about this group of kids, and after these three days I can see why. I also learned that Sam isn’t a shy little girl, that she is outspoken and has great leadership qualities. She is more than capable of making adult decisions, and showing others why those decisions are the right ones. I knew that Sam had an adventurous side, but I was impressed with how neither the High Ropes nor the Rock Climbing fazed her in the least. I don’t know exactly what it is, but there is something about Samantha that makes me extremely proud to be her father.

    After the last trip I said that I wasn’t looking forward to returning. I can honestly say that is no longer the case. I am already looking forward to the opportunity to attend camp with Drew. That is if he doesn’t prefer that Tara join him, of course!

    I do have one other topic to discuss, one that took place on June 8th, the kids last day of school. This year the teachers handed out camp awards, and Samantha received two of them. She was given a “Fantastic Feats” award for "achieving the unachievable", in large part due to her quick scaling of the rock climbing walls. She was also named "Miss Camp Tamarack 2012" for "embodying the total camp experience", a title she will hold until next year’s fifth graders go to camp. She was extremely proud of this honor, as were Tara & I.

    I must say, you did a great job Sammie! You have really learned to show your leadership skills and push yourself past all of your limits this week. We love you, kiddo!.