Week One: Mission Impossible

Yesterday was the first day of Boys' Camp, and it was an exciting day! Thankfully, the weather cooperated after a week of rain and clouds. The sun came out just as the campers began to arrive. This week, there is a Dwight look-alike who is always commenting about being hungry, and a lot of really cute 8-10 year old boys who just say silly things. Mission Impossible is the theme of the week based on a night-time game that the campers are always excited to play. During normal weeks, they only play once, but during MI week, they play multiple times, and last night was the first round. Rob and I play the role of "guards" along with other staff members, while each cabin tries to stealthily retrieve their flag from a designated location while attempting to avoid being caught by the guards. So last night, Rob and I drove around with flashlights and spray bottles, and pretended to water the "flowers" (or campers who were trying to blend in with the grass). After the game, I heard one camper say "I wasn't near my cabin and someone just kept spraying and spraying me!" It's fun to see them so excited. Needless to say, because of MI, we will probably be more tired this week because of staying up later to guard, and by the end of the week, campers will probably be tired too.

More stories from camp to come, hopefully including great one-liners from campers and counselors!

Memories

I thought I would diverge from my usual posts (albeit I have only posted 6 times since I began this blogging experiment a few weeks ago) to pay tribute to a co-worker who recently left her job here at Eastern. Here are the TOP 10 things I will never forget that this person taught/reminded me and products that have revolutionized my life (in no particular order).

1. Fonts make a world of difference
2. Shampoo is bad! Use BS instead (baking soda, that is)
3. CrunchyClean is a good source for laundry detergent, and the DivaCup is good for something else...
4. Try new restaurants - chains are boring
5. It's okay to make fun of people who are klutzes (she happens to be one of them)
6. Some things in life are more important than discussion boards
7. It is easy to have a love affair with Trader Joe's
8. You can really drink coffee without flavored creamer
9. Bare Escentuals... need I say more?
10. Why drive an SUV when you can have a cool, small car (such as a Mini or a Cabrio)?

The third floor of Walton misses you!

A Good Laugh...

If the cloudy weather's got you down, check out the link below for a good laugh. Will this year's camp videos be as good as last year's? Here's to hoping...

http://www.campsankanac.org/monday.html

Featuring none other than my husband, the aspiring actor... and some other camp friends.

Lindsey's Graduation

This past Friday night, we celebrated Lindsey's graduation from Phoenixville High School with her. Although storms were threatening, by the time the ceremony began, the clouds had passed and the sun was setting. Lindsey was very busy during high school, and was recognized during the ceremony for a few of her scholarships & awards. We're proud of her! In the fall, she will be off to Messiah College where she will start a degree in Art Education.



Lindsey receiving her diploma.


A stray bunch of balloons.


The hat toss.


The proud graduate...

with her brothers.

Paper Folding and More

I just found this great new site that features how to make all things paper. Check it out!

http://foldingtrees.com/

Moving!

Rob and I are getting ready to move... not to a new house, yet! although house-hunting is on our horizon for the end of the summer, after camp and our trip to the UK. We're busy packing up this week and getting ready to move to Camp Sankanac for five weeks, where Rob will be a village director for the youngest group of boys. We visited last night to evaluate our living quarters, and the maintenance staff is in the middle of a remodel. It looks great, and they've installed a ceiling fan, which will be wonderful. Hopefully the place is looking better by Sunday!

We are really looking forward to our friend Dave working as a counselor this summer. Dave recently completed his service in the Peace Corps and was stationed in Azerbaijan. It will be great to catch up on life with him, as a lot has happened in all of our lives over the past two years.

This is Apache Cabin, where we will be staying:


Apache once housed slaves who were escaping to freedom as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Our Minimoon

Rob and I went on a "minimoon" to St. Augustine, Florida just after the wedding. We stayed at the lovely Casa Monica hotel, which we would recommend to anyone who is visits St. Augustine. The decor was inspired by Old World Spain, and as such, we felt like royalty! We arrived on mid-day on Sunday, had lunch outdoors at Harry's, where we had the best hamburger, chicken sandwich and fries of our lives! Maybe because we had been up since 4:30 AM to catch our flight and hadn't eaten anything all day? After lunch, we crashed for the afternoon... tired from the weekend of wedding festivities. We ventured out away from town toward the beach, and found a small place to eat dinner overlooking the ocean. Because we had napped, we had energy to enjoy the pool and hot tub at our hotel after dinner, and were the only ones there, which was really nice!

On Monday, the sky was threatening rain... and Rob gave in to one of my favorite pasttimes... shopping! We meandered through some antique shops and other cute boutiques downtown in Historic St. Augustine, and ran into an ice cream parlor to wait out the rain once it began to pour, had some ice cream, and experimented with the camera. By evening, the weather had cleared up, and we ate dinner at a nice restaurant, The Reef, overlooking the ocean once again... and then took a walk on the beach.

Tuesday was our beach day, and thanks to our hotel's partnership with a beach club, we were spoiled with a secluded spot on the beach with free chairs and umbrellas, and a really nice pool!

On our last day, we decided to visit all of the historic sites we had passed throughout the week, such as the Castillo de San Marcos and the Fountain of Youth. There are lots of pictures of these in the slideshow, and we warn everyone NOT to drink the FoY water...

Life as Newlyweds

Rob and I are finally settling back into "normal" life after a season of wedding preparations, and although I am already a bit nostalgic about the planning process, it has been good to get back into a better schedule, actually spending time with family & friends, etc. We seem busier than ever. Rob is finishing his first year teaching social studies of all sorts at CAT-Pickering in Phoenixville, and I am in my third year of working in Student Development at Eastern. We are both taking classes towards our Master's degrees, which keeps us pretty occupied during the week.

Here are a few of our favorite shots from the wedding:


We had such a fun day enjoying the company of our family and friends... and members of the bridal party, who did some pretty memorable things at the wedding...


Feel free to look at more of our wedding photos.

Stay tuned for tales of our minimoon adventure to St. Augustine, Florida... and much more!