Ok, here are a few extra special photos, in no particular order:
Camp Flag
Boys and Beer
Burger
Indoor Time (a.k.a. Magazine Time)
Jill and View
Michael's Stinky Socks that He Wore All Week
Gossiping in the Tent
Tipped Tent (Brittany's Not a Tent-Setting Expert)
Twin Day, Part 1
Twin Day, Part 2
Oh, saddest of all days. We're a little morose tonight, since leaving the company of our great friends. After a final Hamm's bears in the morning, all the campers gathered for our brunch awards ceremony. We devoured a feast of sausage, veggie sausage, bacon (mmmm...thanks michael), shortcake with peaches, scrambled eggs (and fake eggs) with spinach, and mimosas.
When we managed to quit stuffing food in our mouths long enough, we bestowed our campers with awards. These prizes included the Camplympics ribbons, and also a few surprise honors, such as: Messiest Tent, Most Unchanged (as in Changed Their Socks Once...I'm so proud, Michael), Fastest Hamm's Drinkin', Loudest Complainer, Most Prepared, Most Likely to Succeed in Future Camp Endeavors, Best Sprawled Position on an Innertube, Cutest Outfits (3-way tie), and Best Group of Campers, ever. Until maybe next year or a $20 bill lands in my pocket.
Thank you so much, campers. We can't imagine a more GG&G (good, giggly, and game) bunch. And thanks Ted and Rita and all of our special guests.
Stay tuned. Tomorrow we'll post a bunch of leftover photos that didn't make it into the daily blogs.
Love Michael and Brittany
When Michael writes the blogs, he gets down to business.
Hamm's Bears: Groggy.
Breakfast: Ted made huevos rancheros and vegos rancheros. Michael still does not understand vegan fake eggs.
Pool time: Swimming laps and cannonball contest.
Lunch: Michael made a salad with fresh cut-off-the-cobb corn, tomato, baby romaine, and dressing with some rolls and a charcuterie plate.
Camplympics: blind badminton (NEW TEAMS), 3-legged hike, relay race, scavenger hunt, frisbee throw (tough with wind), and oregon trivia (see questions below). Camp dog 2, Neal, got tied up.
What is the state flower? Oregon Grape
state bird? Western Meadowlark
state fish? Chinook (or King) Salmon
state nut? Hazelnut, also accepted: filbert
state colors? Navy blue and gold
state tree? Douglas Fir
state animal? Beaver
state dance? Square
state rock? Thunderegg
Snack: Brownies and ice cream sandwiches.
Dinner: Britt made grilled brats, dogs and vogs with all the trimmings, and a slew of grilled veggies. She also delighted us with peach compote and ice cream of the regular and vegan varieties.
After dinner: Craft finish-up time and reading/writing
Evening activity: Night hike. Samsquanch (sasquatch) not included.
The crew got back as Dennis and Michael were reminiscing about Ilwaco, Asuperhappyfundayinthepark, oyster picking, and the benefits of playing solo.
When everyone was ready, we played a few rounds of badminton for the tournament bracket.
Dennis Driscoll (K records recorded and Egg records recording artist, filmmaker, film star, producer, oyster harvester, et. al.) is another of our surprise guests at Ye Olde Campe Share A Tente. Tonight he played old classics (see: Cranberry Road, the song that starts "leaves on the ground, red yellow and brown ooo-ooo") and new favorites (like the story about the troll under the bridge). We all gathered around the mock-campfire with beers and un-hot smores ("anyone got a lighter?") in hand to enjoy his songs and stories. Dennis Driscoll is a musical treat for everyone listening.
Oh, yea, Ted made delicious burgers and vegan burgers with carmelized onions and mushrooms with sharp cheddar and all the condiments. Brittany and Michael each made a salad. Rita made regular and vegan crisps (yay, double dessert night). Michael says he might turn vegan with optional meat accessories if he can get special dishes.
Most of the tubers were sun-worn and pooped out, so they hit the bags with dreams of hamm's bears dancing in their minds.
As the rest of the camp packed up in Ted's big red van to go to the Santiam River (starting in Jefferson, OR) to go tubin', Michael stayed behind (who do you think is blogging...) to wait for tonight's musical entertainment. The weather is great today and everyone is wearing borrowed spf 55, from yours truly, to avoid those warm Oregon sun rays.
We brought a camera to Hamm's bears this morning and we think that's a great shot of Michael's hand and patchwork cowboy shirt. We broke out the koozies because everyone seems to be doing it every day and we don't need a dozen Camp Share-A-Tent can-keep-cool-ers hanging around (by the way, we have some for sale, contact us).
Michael made a carb-packed breakfast of bagels with cream cheese, jam, peanut butter, and bananas, yogurt, and granola. Perfect breakfast for a lazy day on the river. After breakfast, Britt led a bag lunch making session ("this is how you slice a carrot, this is how you butter bread...") for the campers going tubing.
While Michael blogs the day and waits for Dennis Driscoll to show up, he's spending time in his socks and reading a great book called "Hotel Bemelmans" by Ludwig Bemelman, about a hotelier in New York city in the twenties.
We probably won't blog tonight because the campers will have showered at the aquatic center after tubing and Dennis will have told stories in funny voices and sang songs about ghosts, autumn, and the holding-hands kind of love. aww.
Here's the photos.
This post is picking up where we left off yesterday, which means at lunch. Brittany made tabouli salad, pitas with hummus, and fruit salad. Hippie lunch, anyone?
Campers divided into two groups, and half played badminton while the other half made coasters, then they switched. Remember those beads that you arrange on a pegboard then iron them to make them stick together? Yeah, we made coasters out of those. Most of them were "abstract" designs, but some of us copied patterns for Super Mario Bros. characters we found online.
After our chocolate chip cookie snack break, we regrouped for our comedy workshop with a suprise guest comedian (no naming names). She was great. Seriously, you think she's good on the radio, but she's even more hilariouser in person. She even made us seem funny. We learned quite a bit, then we practiced skits in small groups for the rest of the afternoon.
Michael served his "hotter than his own self" chili with cornbread, salad, and a berry crisp for dinner. Following another last-minute skit-practicing hour, we attended Comedy Night at the Campfire (no, there wasn't a real fire). We started laughing when it was still light out, and finished chuckling in the dark. Especially, umm...good, was "The Three Superegos" (hey hey hey!).
Note: First photo is of Rufus J. Powell, Camp Dog.
We're blogging a little early today, just because we've got such a busy afternoon today. We'll cover the rest of today's activities when we write tomorrow.
Early this morning, Rufus (camp dog) woke the entire campsite with little bark-barks; maybe he heard the local deer. Thanks for protecting us, Rufus. This means Hamm's bears happened at the dewey crack of dawn. Luckily, Ted rises early, so he whipped up some waffles with berries and sausage for breakfast. This certainly isn't fat camp. What's the opposite of fat camp? Maybe eating-too-much-delicious-food camp? mmm.
All our campers spent the morning untangling embroidery floss while crafting friendship bracelets. This is probably the most summer campy activity all week. Michael and Brittany both attended Silver Creek Camp as kids (maybe at the same time...ooh), and remember hours spent making friendship bracelets, lanyards, and pompoms.
We just returned from a trip to the pool, so we're all clean and fresh. We'd better go ring the triangle to summon campers for lunch.
After a drizzley Hamm's Bears session this morning, we filled up on quiche and fruit salad. We gathered under the awning (to avoid the rain) for Arts & Crafts time--making our own archery targets. We love paint pens.
Since we can't have everybody showering at the Powells' house, we are visiting the local Dallas Aquatic Center almost every day to swim, splash, and shower. We spent the better part of our morning there, and it was cannonball and corkscrew season.
Michael fixed fish and vegan tacos for lunch; he's the best at that. After a little "personal" time, Michael's mom's friend (former coworker from Evergreen Junior High) came down to teach the finer points (ha ha) of archery. Using our own targets, we achieved various levels of success. Bryan's "bullseye" target looks like he used his fingers; maybe he just used bigger arrows than the rest of us.
Later in the afternoon, we wrote notes home on "Camp Share-A-Tent" postcards (available for sale: contact us). Ted prepared lasagne with garlic bread and Greek salad for dinner, then we danced it all off at our barn dance, led by Dr. Rita Kirk Powell, PhD. That's right, folks, Brittany's mom is a doctor of dance and has the papers to prove it. We learned the basics of square dance (do-si-do, allaman left), though we might remember it as holding sweaty hands and dodging a couple of damp barn cats.
We're about to finish off our evening with an ice cream social. Yee haw.
Ok, first of all, who knows why there are no paragraph breaks in yesterday's edited post. Maybe we'll get lucky and have some for today.
Today marked the first morning for the Hamm's Bears contest. What? What is this "Hamm's Bears"? Well, remember Polar Bearing when you were at camp? For those of you who were deprived of the camp experience, Polar Bearing is waking up at an ungodly hour of the morning to jump in the freezing cold lake/stream/river/whatever-your-camp-has. Our version involves getting up earlier than we otherwise would, 7:00, and standing in a kiddie pool while downing a Hamm's tallboy. The brave campers who participate receive a Camp Share-A-Tent beer koozie. The breakfast bacon and eggs helped settle stomachs after the Hamm's.
Campers divided into two groups this morning. While one group learned about rocketry and built rockets with Michael, the other group started making moccasins with Brittany.
Brittany's dad, Ted, prepared stuffed bell peppers for lunch. Holy cow, those are good.
Immediately after quiet time, which followed lunch, we trooped all over the property on a nature hike. We identified native species (hello there, Oregon Grape; hiya, Douglas Fir), avoided poison oak, and we think we might have startled a Sasquatch, though we have no photographic proof.
Michael supervised all of the campers as they shot off their custom rockets. Jill probably gets the award for the prettiest rocket, but Jean's traveled farthest. Seriously, this was so exciting.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon playing badminton. Dinner was a stir-fry with poached fruit for dessert.
The campers thought the day was coming to a close, but little did they know...it was astrology and astronomy night. We learned all about our star signs, and now the campers are still out stargazing through a local expert's telescope as I type. We'll sleep well tonight.
