The Roost

Breaking news about the 4th session cup winners: Horse show cup goes to the Troopers, Point cup goes to the Mounties, and the Spirit cup goes to…..the Troopers!!! Post any comments on facebook or here if you want to congratulate your camper!!!!!

For the last time this summer…Hellooooooo Parents!!!!!!

Since this is the last newsletter, we thought it would be best if Maggie and I both wrote it (Can you guess who I made type it for me) Can you believe this is the last news letter for the whole summer (I know my typin’ skills are happy to get a break). You guys have been doing great these past two weeks and I hope it’s been fun to watch your campers play, learn, explore, and grow while they’ve been up here with us. I know it’s been a tough 2 weeks for some of you parents, but your campers have had a ball and you’ll be so surprised by how much they’ve grown while they were here. Just to show you the difference in time continuum at camp, Monday I was talking to a camper and I mentioned that it was, in fact, Monday. She looked up at me with a puzzled look and said “it’s Monday again already?? WOW!!!” She had no idea what day it was other than it was gonna be “get Skyline back” night. That being said, don’t be surprised if your campers are happy to see ya, but not too excited about leaving. That’s just the way it goes and I just wanted to warn ya before someone got their feelings hurt on pick up day.

Maggie here! Even though today was the last day of activities doesn’t mean it was a slow day! TRUST me – I was out sweatin’ up a storm running around to all of the fun stuff! Here’s the lo-down on all of the cool stuff from the day! The morning started off with the Desoto Falls canoeing trip. Girls taking canoeing got to go on the trip, and they canoed down past Camp Laney (heeyyyy BOOYYYSSS) and down to the beautiful Desoto Falls. The girls ate breakfast down there and got to enjoy the beauty of the falls and play in the water. I hope that not TOO many Mounties were on the trip, because during club meetings early in the morning the MOUNTIES found the horseshoe! Whenever someone finds the horseshoe the whole club runs to the bell and rings it loud and proud as they scream some of their club cheers! Congrats to the Mounties- they get MUCHO MUCHO points towards the Point Cup that will be awarded tomorrow night at banquet.

Today’s activities were SO much fun – the last day is the day where CRAZINESS breaks loose! Tennis and sports had shaving cream and water balloon fights! Canoeing had “Splash Fest” where all the girls try to sink each other’s canoes while keeping theirs afloat! And the girls out at Horseback Riding had their final Horseshow where they show off all of their skills for real horse judges! I got some great pictures of some of the girls riding and showing off their ribbons! Fitness class (for Riversiders only) had their 80’s workout day. Unfortunately I missed them, but they were ROCKIN’ the 80’s outfits; scrunchies, tights, leg warmers, the whole shabang! If I heard right, they got to “Sweat to the Oldies” with Richard Simmons! Now THAT’S an exercise tape I am gonna have to get my hands on! Last day of activities sure did end with a bang!

Tonight’s main event was Showtime. During Showtime, all the classes that create a performance show what they’ve done for the rest of the camp. The gymnasts tumbled, the girls in Flag&Baton twirled, the Glee girls sang their little hearts out, and the models in modeling in manners strutted their stuff! I must say the HIGHLIGHT of the night was the cheerleading class. Their teacher must be just INCREDIBLE because they were wonderful. Oh wait! That’s me!! Yay cheerleaders! We got a bunch of pictures of everything from Trash Can band to Circus, so check the pics and see if you can catch your camper showin’ off her skills! These girls are loaded with it! One thing to look for is some pictures from gymnastics. The girls jumped onto a trampoline and did flips onto a big mat. The BEST part was the faces they made in the landing! Hopefully you will see what I’m talking about…. SO funny!

Now tomorrow as we wind things down up here the girls will get to watch the Musical Theatre matinee of “The Jungle Book” and also watch the Grand Championship Horseshow. Only about 6 girls out of the entire camp are chosen to ride in this show, so it of course is a BIG deal and a big tradition here at Skyline. We’ll have pictures from both of them up around lunchtime! Then onto picnic lunch, patches, packing, and BANQUET at night! That’s where the main awards get given out, including the Horshoe, Point, and Spirit Cups!

The final “Made For” theme of the session is Witnessing. We are all made to not only have and enjoy God’s love for us, but we are made to SHARE it with others. The girls have had so much time up on the mountain to learn about faith and growing a relationship with Christ, and we want them to remember that it doesn’t stay up on the mountain. They must also take it down and share it with their friends and families at home!

Larry again! Well folks, it’s been a blast to get to bring you an inside glimpse of what your campers have been up to these past two weeks. We really do appreciate you letting us have your most prized possession here at camp with us. If you guys have enjoyed the pics and news half as much as we have, then we’ve enjoyed it twice as much as you!!(think about it…it’ll come to ya in a little while). You guys have been great to play with online and we hope you have a safe trip up here Friday to pick up your campers. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see ya next summer!!!

Take care and God Bless,

For the last time in 2011…….

We’re outta here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maggie and Larry

just like the superbowl, we also love our commercials…are you in good hands????

Congrats to Joywood cabin for winning Video of the year!!

VERY important news! The golden horseshoe has been found this morning! Congrats to the Mounties for finding it during their club meetings!

Hellooooo Parents!!!!

Man did you miss one heck of a performance from your campers tonight in their music videos!!! the good news is that some of them will be up on our youtube and facebook page and we gonna try (I said TRY, not guarentee) to get them all on the DVD that has all the picture for ya at the end of the session. If we can’t get ‘em on the DVD, then we’ll eventually get them all up on our youtube channel so be sure to keep checkin if they don’t make it on the DVD. As you can see from all the pics, your campers were all decked out in full attaire for the awards!! it actually started in the dinnning hall where we had special table clothes with stars and little grammy awards on em so they could get a head start on getting in the mood of the evenin’. I’m not real sure we even needed the extra incentive, cause once we opened up the red carpet, those campers stepped right up to the plate and did their red carpet interviews with all the admin as the reporters asking
em about what they were wearing and who designed it for them. The girls really ate it up as they had their few minutes in the spotlight. If you keep lookin’ through the pics, you’ll see everything was going fine until I showed up….dressed as Mayhem from the allstate commercials. and speakin’ opf commercials, I actually had time to film 3 of them about what happens when mayhem shows up at camp. We’ll get them loaded too so you can see ‘em, the campers were rollin on the floor when they aired on the bigscreen tonight!! Just so I don’tleave ya hangin, the top 3 videos were some of the best we’ve ever had and I was there when the judges were lookin at them and I can tell ya, it was hard to pick the winner, but after several hours of going back and forth, the video of the year went to …… (drum roll please)cabin JOYWOOD!! Riverside and Deweys Den were right there with ’em, but after several debates, the judges decided that Joywood edged out the competition.

Can you believ tomorrow is the last day of regular classes?? it seems like it was just a few days ago when we were just getting started on the whole log in and click the picture button thingy. You ghuys have done a great job keepin’ up with us and your campers these past two weeks. I know you’re gonna be glad to see ‘em, but I gotta tell ya, they’ll be glad to see you too, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be happy about going home. Just wanted you to know so you don’t get your feelings hurt when they say they wanna stay instead of wantin’ to go home (can ya blame ‘em?? do you have a zip line and waterslide at home???) Anyway, we’ll be out there all day tomorrow sdhootin all the last classes and gettin all those pics back to ya as fast as we can.

Tomorrow night is a special night here at camp (ain’t thay all?) as we host our very last “Showtime at Skyline” where the campers will get to show off what all they’ve learned the past two weeks to the rest of the camp. We’ll start with our circus class and then move inside the gym to watch flag and baton, trash can band (I can’t wait till you camper wants to show you this at home, your neighbors will LOVE it!!) dasnce, cheerleading, gymnastics, and more. its gonna be a great show and we’ll be there to get all the action for ya.

IMPORTANT!!!! Wednesday emails will be printed out at the regular time tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9 AM CST. but email for Thursday will be downloaded at 6PM Central time Wednesday night. this will be the last email that can be delivered to the campers so if you want to get in your final “can’t wait to see ya’s”, be sure to do it before 6PM Wednesday night. after that, it’ll all get sent off the grid somewhere (any TRON fans out there) Just to make sure you got it, wednesday email by 9AM, thurday email in by 6PM Wednesday night. got it

well folks, I’m tryin to battle a midnight deadline and get some rest, cause after all the VMA work we’ve had to do, I sure could use some rest. You guys have a good night and we’ll see ya back here tomorroa night for the last newsletter of 4th sesison and of the summer. You don’t want to miss it

Weather on the mountain: it was another perfect day up here on the mountain, 68 this mornin’ and only 82 this afternoon with plenty of sun for everyone!!

You guys have a great night, like a slow kid in dodge ball…I’m outta here!!!!
LJ

what its like here when they announce the winning club at our night time activities? you’ll want to have the volume turned up but not too much!!!!!

hope ya’ll enjoy….LJ

Welcome back Parents!

And congrats to you! You are reading this newsletter and it’s actually BEFORE midnight! As some of our friends on Facebook have shared, “Whether or not LJ or Maggie types the blog determines when we see the blog….” You’ve got that right! We’ve had a fun and very busy day here at camp. Larry and I have been very busy filming and editing all of the cabin’s Skyline Video Music Awards videos. Each cabin picks a song of their choice to choreograph and make a music video to. Larry or I have been going around during rest hours and Beli Delis filming each one and during our free time (Free time?? What’s free time??) get them edited and ready for tomorrow night. About half are done right now, so we will be cranking them out quickly (and hopefully) in time for tomorrow night! But what can I say… since our work IS new and improved, they’ll get done for SURE. The girls all dress up like it is a real VMA in fun outfits or dressed as characters. Get ready to see some GAUDY 80’s prom dresses, “Mother of the Bride” gowns, and funny character outfits sported by all of the girls! Each cabin will get an award for their video, and only one will be named VMA of the year! We will probably be putting these videos online so look for more info on that later this week!!

Today was quite a different day at camp, as many girls were gone for our Trip Day! Some of the younger girls went to Huntsville to see the Space Museum. Though I have never been I hear it’s a BLAST (off)! …Dang it! Being in this office has made be start to use some of Larry’s weirdo jokes… They got to tour the museum, go on a cool ride or two, and look SUPER cute in their Skyline T-shirts. Look for the pictures of that trip and of the Ocoee River trip online! The girls that got to go on the Ocoee trip I KNOW had a ton of fun! I’ve been on it twice with Skyline myself! One of the most fun parts is dinner afterwards; the girls get to go to McDonalds!!! We always pigged out on McFlurry’s and French fries!! But don’t worry if your camper didn’t go on one of the trips because camp was better than ever! Less girls means more times to do the blob, ropes course, and to make fun of Larry!! One girl said “Hey Larry… You must REALLY like your Beli Deli!” Hahaha!

Get Skyline Back was the nighttime activity of the night! I know Larry talked about the game a little last night, but if you missed that newsletter, here is a Spark notes version for you! All of the counselors dress as “Laney Boys” (beards, mustaches, boxers, and sideburns included – even a few colored on pimples and unibrows!!!) and steal items from the clubs such as their captain, club box, and flag. The girls have to avoid the “cootie bombs” (Sock war socks) and capture all of the Laney Boys and their items! First team to get all of the items wins! The winners tonight were: Troopers 3rd, Rangers 2nd and the Mighty Mounties 1st!! Way to go girls!!! Although I love all the clubs, I had to root for my FAVORITE group, our counselors! Without them, all of the fun games here at camp wouldn’t be possible!

The theme of the day was “Made For Service”. The girls learned that there is more to service than the typical mission trips, working at food pantries, etc. Sometimes the best examples of service are a warm hello, a genuine compliment, or simply lending a hand to a friend in need! It is funny how we always think that “serving” has to be something huge, when it is often the little things that we always forget! So send someone a kind email just because, or call up an old friend and tell him that you are thinking of them or go big and serve locally in your town! That way God’s love can shine through you as well!!

Question of the day: How many times do YOU check the Skyline website every day? If you check our Facebook page, comment under this post and let us know. Hopefully it isn’t TOO embarrassing of a number!!!

Sleep well and we’ll be back tomorrow!
Mags

Hellooooo Parents!!

Welcome back to camp news, the Sunday edition!! Lets start off with the good news, we all got to sleep later this morning before we had those home made donuts (yea… I know you remember ‘em form the hospitality room), it didn’t even think about raining today during the Luau and that’s always good, and last but not least, all the campers are completely worn out from the luau and counselor hunt tonight. Now the bad news….. well… that’s it! There ain’t any!! (except maybe that I’m the one typing the news again and my buddy Bill from facebok will have to wait a little longer tonight to read the news!! )

Anyway, all the campers (and counselors, staff, admin, etc…) really enjoyed getting’ to sleep a little later this mornin’. And I can tell ya the donuts didn’t last long once the campers got to ‘em (thank goodness I got mine early!!). After our church service in the gym this mornin’, we enjoyed our Sunday lunch (can ya believe we ate again?) and then everyone got ready for the Luau and as you can tell from all the pics, the campers didn’t waste any time getting up and down those inflatable slides and in the dunkin booth. Did you happen to notice all the campers in line for their own pop corn and sno cone too? We had it all, even more hula hoopin (the campers told me it was easy but trust me folks, it ain’t!!!), face paintin’, dart throwin, karaoke, animal balloons and friendship bracelets and even sack races!! Everyone had a blast all afternoon long and like I said, Mother Nature even helped out and brought in some clouds to cool it down a bit but never even threatened rain. It was a great day to be at a Luau……what’d you do today?

Now tomorrow we’ll start our second week of classes (can you believe it) and some of our campers will be heading out of camp to go on our camp trips. We’ll have one group headin’ up to try their luck on the waters of the Ocoee River, while another group will head to Huntsville to take a look around at Space camp. We’ll have pictures from both places just as soon as they get back. Now you might be askin’ about the campers that will still be here at camp…well, they got a pretty good deal too if ya want to know the truth. With quite a few of our campers out on trips, there’ll be fewer campers here and more time for them to ride the zip line or waterslide, favorite horse, blob, etc, etc, etc… you get the picture? and you will get the picture(s) too, cause we’ll be here at camp too shootin’ our regular pictures for ya all throughout the day so be sure to check back in and find your camper whether they went on a trip or stayed here at camp, we’ll find them for ya.

Tonight we had one of the campers favorites, Counselor Hunt!! This is where each of the counselors dressed up in their best Mossy oak and tried to keep from bein’ caught by the campers. Although the counselors did a great job of hidin’, your camperes did an even better job of lookin’ as they turned over every rock and checked every bush to make sure there wasn’t a counselor around. After it was done and over with the final results (remember parents, these are all for club points and help win the Point Cup at the end of the session), were….Troopers 3rd, Mounties 2nd, and the Rockin Rangers 1st!! (that’s the blue team for those of ya’ll keppin score at home!!)

Now tomorrow night were gonna crank it up a notch as we play “get Skyline Back”. This is where the counselors will dress up like boys and come in during dinner and take the club captains and flags and hide ‘em out in camp. Don’t worry though, your campers would never let a dastardly deed like that go unpunished. Just as soon as they finish their desert, they’ll head out to rescue their captains and recapture their flags. All they gotta do is get 4 campers around the legs of each counselor that took their captain before they get tagged with a stuffed sock that the counselors will have to help defend themselves. Its pretty awesome to watch the campers organize and come after the counselors wave after wave tryin to get ‘em to run out of socks and then get around their legs. Its always some great action shots during this activity so be sure to check back in and see who wins more points for their club tomorrow night.

Were also getting pretty close to finishin’ up all the cabins videos for our VMA (Video Music Awards) here at Skyline, we’ve been workin’ really hard getting all the campers filming finished so it’ll all be put together in time for the big night Tuesday. You’ll hear more about that tomorrow though…

Weather on the mountain: what can I say? It was a picture perfect day here on the mountain. Around 70 when everyone woke up (remember it was a little later today) and only up to the upper 80s this afternoon. Just right to stay cool playing on all the inflatable water slides and the dunk tank!! Hopefully it’ll continue tomorrow when all our trips head out.

You guys have a good night, I know its hard to believe were already into the second week, and its even harder to believe all your campers are having fun without you even being here!! I know you guys are doin’ a good job of keeping up with all the pics and news, some of ya’ll are spendin’ way too much time on the computer these 2 weeks (yea, if you thought I was talking about you…then I probably was!!!) Your campers are still going full speed ahead and having a great time and you guys should be too!! Get off the computer and go on a cruise, go out to eat, go have some fun…we sure are up here!!!

Ya’ll have a good one and despite my best advice, I know I’ll see ya back here tomorrow night!!

LJ

Hello Parents! (Don’t worry dads; your girls didn’t get toooo many kisses tonight from those boys!)

What a night! I can’t decide if the headache I have is from the loud Justin Beiber music or the cologne that had clearly been sprayed ALL over the boys! I even saw one boy reapplying his Axe body spray in the middle of the gym… what a catch! Too bad I was taking pictures tonight or I would have been the first girl to snag a dance with him! The dance is one of the favorite nights here at Skyline, and I want to share some of the best moments with you at home! First, when the boys get to Skyline in their buses, the girls SCREAM!!! And when I say scream I mean SCREAM! They go absolutely crazy like they have been DYING for them to finally get there! This of course is weird because right when the boys get into the gym, it’s “avoid the boys” and it takes a few slow songs here and there to actually get some dancing going on! Another cute moment of course is the little ones slow dancing to any song – the cutest little dancing couple was even slow dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe! I guess that was just one of those cases of Love at First Sight. The ones that do dance are so cute, and hopefully have the courage to talk to or LOOK at the boy they’re dancing with! Ha! Another VERY important part of the dance is the clothing exchange. Many girls and boys bring shirts from their respective camps to switch with others. And let me just tell you, getting a shirt from Camp Laney or Lookout is the equivalent of GOLD! The boys also give out bracelets! I got plenty of girls showing off their shirts and bracelets in my pictures!

Today was Mini Closing day, and for those of you Mini parents still checking in, know that we miss you and hope you all had a safe ride home! Thanks for a super easy checkout, and we hope to see every one of you again next summer!

With all of the dancing and screaming and singing tonight, the girls I am sure are going to LOVE the fact that we get to sleep in tomorrow. (And I KNOW the counselors love it too!!! I sure am!) Then they get to wear their pajamas to breakfast, and for breakfast we get Skyline’s homemade donuts. Mmmmm so good! The girls will then get in their Sunday attire, have Sunday school, Church, lunch, an extra long rest hour and then the LUAU!!!! The Luau is SOOO much fun!! We get a few big inflatables, a dunk tank (now THAT is a sight to see), and the Snow Cone Man making snow cones for every girl! It is a BLAST and the girls have so much fun running around all of the games and activities we have for them!

We got a bunch of pictures all around camp today, especially around Beli Deli! Today’s “food of the week” is a confusing one. Many campers and counselors have grown up screaming “PAY DAY SATURDAY” when it gets to Saturday, but I do know a few who swear that it is actually “PANCAKE SATURDAY”. Which is right… who knows?

The girls learned at morning watch and campfire that they are “Made For Community”. In the same way that a stack of cards is stronger/ harder to rip than a single card, we are stronger when we are in community with one another. Therefore, when we are a community learning and worshipping Christ, we are often stronger than in personal worship. Though individual time with God of course is ALWAYS wonderful, we must remember that we need times of community in Christ! Tomorrow we will have a large community in Christ at Church!

It sure was a hot day at camp – I believe the high was in the mid 80’s, but it sure did feel hotter! Luckily the camp has plenty of water coolers around keeping the girls hydrated always!

As Bon Jovi would say: “Ohhhh we’re halfway there, ohhhh livin’ on a prayer!” Hard to believe we are halfway done with camp! I sure wish time would slow down so the fun here at camp would last much longer! Sleep well, and have a wonderful Sunday!

Maggie

Its Friday! Only one week left :(

We can’t believe that there is only one week left of not only 4th session, but of the whole summer! I guess the old saying proves to be right: “Time flies when you’re having fun!” And of course all we do at camp is have fun! Maggie here again! Best part of today was seeing the comment on our blog saying “The blog’s getting posted after Midnight, Larry must be typing again tonight!” It gave Larry and me a good laugh in the office today! Also, the very first picture of the “Minute to Win It” picture folder is of Larry and me! We wanted you to see our smiling faces since we are always the ones behind the camera. OK… actually I just miss getting pictures of me too so I made Larry pose with me. Thanks Larry!

We’ve had another great day on the mountain! But this was no typical day, because today is Backwards Day!! The girls were woken up and surprisingly taken to campfire! Then we had dinner for breakfast (BLT’s and French fries), on to activities, and then breakfast for dinner! Also, all day the girls got to wear their shirts and hats backwards during classes doing crazy, backwards things! Canoeing canoed with their boats backwards, swimming did some backwards relays, and I saw a lot of people walking to and from classes backwards! The girls giggled away all day at their silly apparel and activities. Backwards day is special to 4th Session girls, and they truly loved every minute!

Tonight was the talent show! And wow… I must say your girls really shined tonight! We had everything from singers, to trumpet players, to Hula Hoopers, to gymnasts, dancers, and pianists! To make the contestants feel special, they each got a “Talent Star” at lunch. Its a cut out star that they got to wear for the rest of the day letting all of camp know that they were going to be performing at night! I know the judges had a hard time judging because of all of our amazing stars! Just when we think that the talent has reached its best here at Camp Skyline, somehow the girls always pull through with bigger and better talent! You can see for yourself they gave quite a few “O’s” from their arms over their head (that’s our version of an ‘ovation” for these of you newbys back home that might be here for your first time). Be sure to check out all the pics to see who the winners were!!

Tomorrow night is one of the ALL time favorite night time activities. Drum roll please…. THE DANCE!! The girls will be smooching the night away with our visitors from Camp Laney and Camp Lookout! Haha! Just kidding dads… don’t want to give you a heart attack! Also, another important thing about tomorrow is that some boys from Camp Lookout come during lunch with roses and hand them out to the girls of their choice! It is a very high honor to get a rose, and girls often run back to their cabins before lunch for last minute mascara, blush, and lip gloss retouches. Talk about cute! We’ll get pictures then and at the dance, so get ready to look for your own dolled up daughter!

The theme of today is that we are Made For Knowledge. The girls learned that first it is always kind to share what you know with others, whether it be how to do a cartwheel or how to do their algebra homework. Next, they learned that it is just important to share our knowledge about God that we have with all of our family and friends at home. That way, everyone gets to learn about God and about all of the wonderful things that we are “made for”! I challenge you to ask your daughter to share some of her new Knowledge with you when she gets home!

Well that’s all the news I have for you tonight! We’ll keep the pictures coming for you and we hope you’re having good luck finding your campers! Remember that there are lots of campers, so we’re trying our best to get yours as much as we can! If you don’t see her today, there’s a good chance you’ll find her tomorrow!

Have a great, relaxing weekend and we’ll be back tomorrow!

Maggie

Hellooooo Parents

And welcome back to camp news, Larry here again tonight and have I got some news for you tonight!!! It was a great day and night here at Skyline as all the campers were playin’ down at the river and at the pool today to stay cool. If ya haven’t noticed yet, we have a video up for ya, just look to the left opf where you sign into campstuff and you’ll see the link for it right under the link for this news letter. Or you can click on the facebook or YouTube tab at the very top of our homepage and you can see it there. And if you wonderin’ just what it’d belike to ride down the waterslide or why your campers are smilin’ so big as they go down it, just wait till the end of the video and we give ya a first hand look at what its like to go flying down the slide and out in the river. Be sure to check it out, you don’t want to miss the fun!!

As you can see from todays pics, we were all over camp with the camera and finally caught up with our girls in the equestrian program as they were getting ready to head out to ride. We’ll be back out there again soon, ‘cause those girls have got some skills and we’ll be there to show ya!

Well, you can tell the campers are stayin’ busy in all their classes and I can tell ya first hand their plum worn out by the end of the day. The first couple of nights as I was leavin the office and walkin’ home, you could hear the girls talking in their cabins as I made my way through camp, but the last few nights, all you could hear were the crickets chirppin’ ‘cause those girls were fast asleep by the time I headed out. As a matter of fact, after all the excitement from tonights activity (more about that later), as I was walkin’ TO the office, all you could hear were the crickets. Looks like it was an early night for Mr. Sandman to bring ‘em some dreams cause they didn’t waste any time closin’ their eyes tonight!!

The main reason they slept so well tonight was all the excitement from our ‘Minute to Win It’ conetest tonight. Now I’ve heard our campers have a lot of energy before, but let me tell ya, I’ve never heard it as loud as it was tonight!! The were cheerin’ and countin’ down with the timer as all their club mates were competein’ in all sorts of wild activities like the balloon between the knees waddle, the bounce on the blue ball thingy (hey, just look at the pics, what would you call it??), the dizzy mummy, face the cookie (where they had to get a cookie from their forehead to their mouth by using only the muscles in their face, and one of our favorites was the tortilla head where they had to flip a tortilla onto a plate that was on top of another campers head, of course that would be easy unless you had to flip it using a pair of swim flippers!! Would you believe all the clubs actually finished their objective before the timer went off!!! At the end of the night, and after all the points were totaled, would yo believe we had a tie and had to go to our tie braker? Their final competition was where they had to pick up several bags that got smaller and smaller and the only thing that could touch the floor was their feet. Hopefully this will help explain some of the pics where they seem to be doin’ a split in order to get low enough to grab the bag. After all the shoutin and competein’, the final results were (and folks, I’m having to do this by memory so theres a slight chance I might be wrong, ifso, I’ll correct it tomorrow night), but as best as I can remember the final results were Mounties 3rd, Rangers 2nd and Troopers 1st!! Good job ladies!! I sure hope that’s how it ended but I’m pretty sure.

Now tomorrow night we’ll have our very own Talent Show here at camp where each of the campers will have the opportunity to perform on the stage right in front of the whole camp and strut their stuff showing their talent. We’ll be there right front and center catchin’ all the action for ya so you’ll be able to see for yourself how talented our campers are.

Before I forget, I want to apologize fore getting all the pics up so late, it seems my computer was wantin to play a game of “lets disconnect form the internet” as I was tryin’ to load all the pics. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have an option of playin’ or not, I was kinda forced into the game and when it would say “press any key to continue” it didn’t know how close it was to me using a sledge hammer to “press” the keys!! (see..you’re not the only one with computer issues sometimes!!!) Anyway, my computer isn’t gonna win any prizes for “playing well with others” after tonight, but we did seem to come to an understandin’. (Oh…I’d like to get Bill Gates on the blob…just one time!!!)

Weather on the mountain: it was a cool 68 this mornin’ when everyone woke up and although the sun came out most of the day, it never really got too hot as all the campers were still goin’ full speed ahead in their classes, maybe 89 or 90 degrees? (it still felt great to be in the water today filmin!!)

Ya’ll have a good night or in some cases Good morning to ya! Be sure to check out the video on the main page, facebook, youtube, or click the link at the top of the page that says “the Roost” (yea, its everywhere… you should be able to find it easy!!)

I’m about outta red bull so I guess this my signal its time to go to bed. You guys do the same as soon as your finished with all the pics and video!!

Night ya’ll!!
LJ

Heres how were stayin cool up here this session!!!!

Happy Wednesday!!

Maggie again here! I am sure you have missed me SO much after not getting a “new and improved” newsletter last night. Larry has been having a LOT of fun messing with me all week in the office for sure, the worst being tricking with me a whoopee cushion. Terrible!!! But all is well and I am back up on CampNews! Before I tell you about our day here at CSR I need to let you know a few things! Larry and I print all of the sent emails every morning at 9AM. So if you want to be sure your daughter gets an email on a specific day, make sure you press send before then! The 3 cabins from the lodge whose pictures didn’t get loaded with the cabin pictures are now loaded in the cabin and club folder. Super sorry for the mix up!! Also, in the “Soup on Wednesday” album, check out an AWESOME picture: I caught camper Amanda Peterson doing a CARTWHEEL on the catwalk! For those of you who are wondering what on earth the catwalk is, it is pretty much a log up WAY high in the trees in the ropes course! She was strapped in her harness and had the guts to throw a cartwheel that high! As a camper I was too scared to even try to GO on the catwalk, but she clearly did it with flying colors!

I had a great time taking pictures around camp today. Your girls are definitely getting into the swing of things around here and are having SO much fun in their activities. I never have to even tell the girls to smile for me to get their pictures- they already are wearing big ones on their faces! Since its Wednesday, of course the new “meal of the day” is “Soup on Wednesday”. I can’t say that we’ve ever had soup on Wednesday, or soup ever at camp, but hey, we love the song anyways.

Tonight was Movie Night! It was very nice and relaxing after two nights in a row of super fun and energetic night time activities. The girls I am sure would agree – the best part of movie night for us counselors is how cute they all look when we turn on the lights and half of the girls are asleep! And I must say, if I had a dollar for every pillow pet that I’ve seen at camp this summer, I would be set! I’ve seen everything from ladybugs to unicorns to horses! Must be the new fad! The youngest girls (minis, hut row, and lodge girls) all got to get their slumber party supplies and watch Despicable Me in the gym together! Plus some fresh and super yummy popcorn! The Summerplace and Riverside girls got a taste of some 90’s classics, Summerplace watching Space Jam and Riverside watching Sister Act.

This morning was beautiful and not too hot, and we got some rain towards the end of 4th period. But rain doesn’t end the fun here at Skyline, with girls staying busy in their rainy day locations! I know that in the gym girls were playing group games like “Bunny Bunny” (hopefully your camper will get to play it this session so she can show you!!) and other girls were showing off their tumbling skills on the mats! Talk about Talent! And of course, the camp favorite Justin Beiber was making his appearance on the speakers. I must say: being around this JB music all summer has made me start to like him a bit! …Can’t decide if that is a good or bad thing!! Luckily around 6th period, the girls were out back in action!

For today’s worship, the girls learned that we are Made for Freedom. Many girls started off thinking that that meant that we were “free from meanie rulers” as one mini camper suggested during Morning Watch. However, all soon learned that our Freedom is SO much better when it is in Christ! We all mess up, however if we choose to have a relationship with Christ, He FREES us from all of our sins, and “mess ups”. Hopefully the girls felt inspired to search for that Freedom in Christ today, and for the rest of the session/summer!!

Get ready for tomorrow’s activity “Minute to Win It!” Just like the TV show, the clubs will compete in fun tasks that they have to complete in a minute! Expect some silly pictures tomorrow night! I hope you have enjoyed looking through our pictures today, and have had good luck with spotting your camper! We look forward to bringing you more snippets of camp tomorrow!

Mags

Helloooo Parents!! I hope ya’ll enjoyed the news last night, I know I certainly appreciate Maggie stepping in and takin care of some pics and news for the night. Don’t worry, she’ll be back tomorrow but for now, I’m gonna get ya all caught up on what happened up on the mountain today.

It was a great day up here as all the classes were in full swing and you could hear the campers laughin and yellin all across camp as they enjoyed their second day of classes. I was able to get some video today of some of the girls down at the waterfront, but I’m gonna have to get some more tomorrow so I’ll have enough to put the video clip together. As soon as I get it finished, I’ll post it on the Roost and on our facebook for all ya’ll to see. Just keep reading the news or checking the updates on the main page and you’ll be sure to see it.

Like I said before, it was a perfect day to be down at the waterfront or at the pool and al the campers really enjoyed the blob, rope swing and of course the giant waterslide. There are some good pics of the girls comin’ off the waterslide with their mouths wide open as they fly out into the river. Be sure to check ‘em out when ya get the chance.

One thing I didn’t get a picture of today was all the girls singing after EVERY MEAL!!! Trust me folks, you ain’t seen or heard anything like it. I’ll be sure to shoot some video so you can get the full picture of what its like to have that many girls singing right after they eat. I’d try to describe it more for ya, but words just don’t do it justice. You’ll have to see it an dhear it to really “appreciate” what its like!!

Now tonight we played Underground Railroad where all the campers will go across the river to the other side of the camp and then get into groups and try to make their way to secret places on this side of the river. The only problem is there will be several counselors dressed as bounty hunters (none dressed like “Dog the bounty hunter” though). When a bounty hunter sees a group of girls moving through the camp, they’ll yell “Bounty hunter sees you” at that point, your campers will have to disguise themselves like rocks or boulders to keep from being seen. If a bounty hunter comes over to inspect the “rocks” and catches one of ‘em moving or laughin’ they get to take that camper to the jail. Would you believe some of those bounty hunters have even been known to use a feather or tell jokes to try and make your campers move to they can take ‘em to jail?? Don’t worry though, your campers won’t let another fellow camper stay in jail long, there will always be a group that’s making their way to jail to pick up any campers that might have been sent there (its all part of the “No camper left behind act of the 1990’s…) Anyway, once all the campers have been freed from jail and all the groups have made their way to “Freedom” the game is over. I know it might sound a little crazy on paper, but the campers love it (trust me, it sometimes looks crazy in person too!!)

Now tomorrow night, were gonna slow it down a little bit and have Movie night here at Skyline. One of the best parts about movie night is all the campers will bring their sleepin’ bag or pillow to the movie and get to spread out kick back to watch the show. Think of it as the worlds largest slumber party with a movie and you’ll start to get the idea (you should try this at your house once camp ends…just invite about 200 of your closest little friends over to watch a movie and enjoy the chaos!!!) The bestest part is each camper will get their very own bag of popcorn (you can’t watch a movie without popcorn now!!). Not sure which movies will be playin, but the campers in Hut Row, Als Roost and the Lodge will get to watch their movie in the gym, while Summerplace will get to watch their movie in the top of Pickles Palace, and the ladies from Riverside will be enjoying their own private viewing in the dining hall. Funny thing is as soon as the movie is finished we always have to wake up about half the campers to get ‘em back to their cabins. They don’t even see how the movie ends!!

Well, its been a fun filled day up here and were gonna crank it all up and do it again tomorrow so be sure to check back in to look for pics of your camper (some of ya’ll are already spending too much time on the computer aren’t ya…if your shakin’ your head yes then you really ought to take a break). But before you take that break, be sure to check out the underwater pics from today, the campers had a ball shootin those and don’t forget about that video that’ll be comin up sometime tomorrow as long as I can figure out how to use the Mac computer (it can’t be THAT different can it Just kiddin’ …I’ll have the video for ya).

Weather on the mountain: would you believe it was 61 degrees this morning when everyone got up? Some of the campers and counselors even wore a sweat shirt to the morning activities. Of course that didn’t carry over to the afternoon, it got up to about 83 this afternoon and just right to try out the waterslide.

You guys have a good night, Its really early and I’m gonna take full advantage of the time to get caught up on some serious ZZZZZ’s so I can try to keep up with all ya’lls campers tomorrow. We’ll talk to ya later and yes….I’ve had to look for every dad gum key I hit on the keyboard to type this letter (I’m so jealous of Maggie and everyone else that can type without looking!!!! I knew I should have taken keyboarding high school!!)

So, until tomorrow…ya’ll have a good night, we’ll leave the light on for ya
LJ

Hello Parents!!!

Welcome again to Camp stuff/pix/news! You’re in luck tonight because you are the first to experience the new and improved Camp News!! How is it new you may ask? Well it’s because I am doing it! My name is Maggie Ginn and I am going to be helping Larry all session with taking pictures, writing the newsletters, and all that is behind the scenes Skyline! That means double the pictures of your lovely daughters, and maybe just a little bit less of Larry’s corny jokes that he’s been posting up all summer! (And we all know that that is very important news!) And as for improved, I don’t have to type like a caveman and look at the keys the whole time so the news will get to you even FASTER! YAYYY for improvement (SORRY Larry if you read this, we still love you! ) So get excited to hear from me often on the website from now on! Also some explanation – on our camp pics today one was titled “Bread and Butter Monday”. That comes from my personal favorite camp song that we sing at meal times. So each day you’ll get to see/learn each day of the week! (Your girls will be so proud of you for being “in the know”!!)

NOWWW for the fun stuff! Today was an AMAZING day on the mountain. The girls got to start their first day of activities, which is always a blast! We got around to a bunch of classes and got some great shots of the girls in action! Every day we will be going around to different classes for all the periods so no worries if you haven’t seen your daughter yet! We will have her up here before you know it! Today the girls learned the rules and such of each class and then it was all fun from there on out! The best part of taking pictures is the funny faces we catch your girls making – ***check out the archery pictures! HILARIOUS!

Tonight our main activity was Sock War. As a past Camp Skyline Ranch camper, I can tell you from first hand experience that there’s not really anything better than good ol’ Sock War!!! The girls get dressed top to bottom in their club colors (review for you newbies – Mounties are red, Rangers are blue, and Troopers are green) and get socks that are filled with sawdust to throw at each other. It’s one big, 3 way game of capture the flag, plus a little added bonus! All of the club captains get to hide in their club areas and if they get found/hit by a sock by another club then the club that finds them gets MEGA ULTRA points!! Those girls hide anywhere from in trashcans to under buildings, to in the woods! Talk about die-hard club spirit! The results of the game were Mounties 1st, Troopers 2nd, and Rangers 3rd! Great job girls!
Tomorrow night we will be playing another camp favorite – Underground Railroad! The girls have to make there way across camp to secret locations and make it to “Freedom!” But it isn’t that easy, as counselors are dressed up as “Bounty Hunters” who take them to jail if they catch any girl moving! More to come on that tomorrow!

Something new that I will also be doing in my newsletters is talking about our summer theme, “Made For”! Our theme verse for the summer is Psalm 139:14 and reads, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” All session the counselors will be teaching the girls what they are truly Made For. Tonight’s lesson was on Love! The girls learned about God’s unending love and that no matter what, he is always going to be there and LOVING them! (Even more than the boyfriends they are going to get at the dance this Saturday night! I know you dads are excited for that!) A great verse for tonight’s lesson for you parents to check out is Romans 5:8 – “But God shows and clearly proves His love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“ Not only does He love on your girls, but loving on YOU right this moment too! I am excited for you to be learning along with us this session!

Weather on the mountain was nice today – high in the mid 80s and nice and sunny! I sure am “embracing the sweat” as us counselors say as I run around campus taking pictures!

Now tomorrow will have our club and cabin pictures where you can see exactly which club your camper’s in. We’ll have those up as soon as we take them so be sure to check back to spot your camper (like you don’t spend too much time on line trying to do that already???) I know my mom camps out on the computer ALL day waiting for any picture of me! I know you love the shout out Mom!

Maggie

Hellooooo Parents and welcome to camp news for 4th session 2011!!

This is where you’ll find out everything that’s worth readin’ about here on the mountain for the next two weeks. I’ll be keepin’ ya informed as to what’s happening durin’ the day and what’s comin up each night for all our night time activities. Now before we go any farther, some of you “first timers” need to understand something about my typin’. If you think my typin’ sounds slow and has a southern draw…well.. your right. And on occasion you may think I’ve mis spelled some words in the newsletter but I didn’t, they just sound better that way I type ‘em and if Billy Bob Gates would ever develop a southern computer program called “Winders” I think we’d all be better off!! Then maybe, just maybe this program wouldn’t put all these red and green squiggly lines on my news letter when I’m typin’ it. Anyway now on with the news!!

Many congratulations to all ya’ll for this mornin’, you did a great job checkin’ in and even though there was more people in the parkin’ lot than I can count, the line seemed to keep movin’ pretty quick and everyone was through and into their cabins in just a short while. After all the parents left (and some of ya’ll took your sweet time didn’t ya???) all the campers played some ‘get to know ya games” so they could get to know all their new cabin mates and new friends. After lunch we all went to the gym and learned the nutty buddy dance and each camper got a new “Skyline sister”. This is where each of the younger campers took off one shoe and put it in a bag. The bag was taken to where the older campers were and each camper picked out a shoe, returned to the gym and haad to find the owner of the shoe they had. This is their new “Skyline sister” and new bestest buddy for the session (and probably beyond if ya want to know the truth).

After all that, the campers picked out their schedule and found out which club they’re now in. You’ll be gettin’ a post card in the mail in a few days with their schedule and club on it so you’ll be able to know what they picked. Now before you guys go runnin’ down to the mailbox to wait on that post card, let me warn ya, I don’t want to say the mail man is slow here in Mentone, but sometimes, even I have to slow down my speech so he can get it all. Lets just say I think his mail truck is a few gears short of a full transmission….know what I mean??

Tonight we had our “Cabin fun night” where each cabin got to choose what they wanted to do to enjoy some play time with each other. As you can see from all the pics (theres plenty of ‘em to choose from tonight for ya) we had everything from shaving cream wars, to make overs (I wonder what that green stuff on their face really was??), some campers enjoyed the new pool, some tie dying, a game of ultimate charades and even others jumped right into a few games in the ga ga pit (no relation to that ‘singer’ called lady ga ga). As you can see, it seemed that shaving cream wars was the fan favorite tonight, the only problem is once they all started coverin’ each other with shavin cream, I couldn’t tell one camper from another with their faces and bodies all covered up!! Good luck to you guys tryin’ to find your camper in those pics!! (on a side note…now the camp has a fresh new menthol smell to it!! It may be easier to use my razor to cut the grass next time we need to mow it now)

Tomorrow will be our first full day of classes and we’ll be out there shootin’ all the campers (you know…with the camera of course…they’re not even in season right now) so you guys will be able to keep up with all the action during the day. I’ll post the mornin’ pics during lunch and the afternoon pics during dinner and the night time pics as soon as they finish. So you’ll have plenty of time to look at ‘em all throughout the day.

One thing you want to be sure to check out as the session goes on is the links we put up on our facebook page. You don’t even have to have a page of your own, just click the link at the tope of camps main page where it says “follow us on facebook” . This will take ya to our page where you can see any videos, read the news or vote on the food art pictures that go up throughout the session. You can also read the news or see videos by clickin’ the links just to the left of where you sign in to campstuff where it says “latest news and post from camp”. Don’t be afraid, just click away and look around, you’ll like what ya see.

We’ll folks, we’ve been busier that a long tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs this afternoon and right now all the campers are snug in their bunks dreamin’ of what all they’re gonna do tomorrow. Me, I’m about to be dreamin’ about getting to sleep for a long time (that WOULD be a dream!!) You guys have fun with all the pics, but be sure to pace yourself. We still got a long way to go and I don’t want ya to burn yourself out on that computer trying to see every elbow, ear, or shoelace of your campers in all the pics (just wait…some of ya’ll are doin’ that already aren’t ya?? Yea, I’m talkin’ about you Bill). You guys have a good night and be sure to get some rest. We got a wonderfuly wild wacky week(s) ahead and you’re gonna spend more time on this computer that you ever imagined (trust me!)

Weather on the mountain: it was a perfect day for check in this morning. Hopefully the weather will continue and the heat will stay away!!

Ya’ll have a good night, I’m about to check my eyelids for leaks!!

LJ

Here’s the slideshow from banquet night 3rd session.

Troopers win Horse Cup, Rangers win Points Cup and Mounties win Spirit Cup for 3rd session 2011

For the final time 3rd session, HeloooooooooParents!!!!!!

How ya doin’ tonight parents? Fine I hope, ‘cause were still having a ball up here at camp!! Of course the day didn’t start out that way for me. If you saw any of the early pics that went up , then you know that I stopped by the Fitness class early cause they told me they had somethin’ “special” goin on today. Well…. All I can tell ya is when you start your day off by walkin’ into “Sweatin to the oldies” and have to look at a giant sized Richard Simmons on the screen….well…. all you know for sure is that no matter WHAT! Your day has GOT to get better!! I don’t care if I’m back in the poison oak… it is still better!!

Anyway, I managed to get those pics and run outta there as fast as I could before they asked me to join ‘em and went on to shoot some more pics somewhere around camp…anywhere around camp!!!

All the campers spent the day getting in their last rides down the zip line or waterslide and finishing up their projects in Arts and crafts. If ya look through some of the earlier pics from there you can see some really talented campers projects from start to finish. Those girls got skill!! (sad isn’t it, when I have to run to “arts and crafts” to feel more manly?). The rest of the day was spent sweatin (not to the oldies…unless you consider ME and oldie) in the fun humid air that’s sittin on top of the southeast. Thank goodness for the water front activities to play in and keep everyone’s energy levels high.

Out at horseback, we had our horseshow and tomorrow we’ll have the Grand Championship where 6 campers and a mystery rider will compete for the Horse Show cup that comes along with club points!! We’ll be there to get all the action for ya so you can se how the winner is just as soon as they finish. Right after the horse show, we’ll all head to the gym to watch our Drama class present “The Jungle Book” for the rest of camp to see. Those girls have been workin’ hard rememberin’ their lines and songs and its gonna be a great show. We’ll have those pics too around lunch time so be sure to check back in.

Now for those of ya’ll that thought camp was just all play, well, ok… you may be right, but before you decide, be sure to check out the pics from tonights Showtime at Skyline!! All the girls put on one heck of a show that would have made your eyes slap you brain when you saw what all they could do! Our circus class was first and they didn’t disappoint, as they were magnificent magicians of mid air manipulations (try sayin that 3 time fast!!). after the circus, we got to see some glee, dance, flag and baton (did you se their pics twirlin’ firs earlier today?? WOW!!!!) and then to top it off, we had some never seen before gymnastic routines that would have made your heart skip a beat! Those girls were flyin’ around faster than Shaun White at the X games!! Be sure to check out the pics so you can see for yourself (I just can’t do it justice with words….even the words I make up).

Now after all the horse shows and drama shows and awards ceremonies tomorrow, we’ll slow it down a bit and have our end of the year banquet. Now folks I’m telling ya, I could probably get Kleenex to sponsor our banquet cause there’ll be more tears shed tomorrow night than even viseen could handle!! Tomorrow night we’ll award the campers for their years and find out who wins what in each class and then the big time is when they announce who the cup winners are. You’d have thought you were standin behind a 747 doin its run up when they make that announcement and those campers raise the roof with their yellin and cheerin’. And that’s the truth!! Of course once all that is finished and all the camper realize that it signals the end of the session, open the flood gates, cause here come the tears. It really is a touchin’ moment when you realize how special all the friendships they’ve made are too’em. The best part is when I hear two campers cryin cause they won’t see each other again until…well..next week! They might live in the same town!! All joking aside, it is a great moment in their camp life to see how much all these girls mean to each other and theres nothing to say to make fun of how close they’ve become.

Once the banquet is finished, we’ll head down to the river for river vespers where our counselor choir will paddle down stream singing old camp songs and the club leaders light the final fire of the session to signal the end of competitions and the campers that have “aged out of camp” will read their story of what camp meant to them. Believe it or not, I stayed around for this part for the first time in all my years last session and dad gum it, I needed one of those kleenez’s myself!! Thank goodness it was dark and they couldn’t see my eyes, but it was strong enough, that I’ll be back tomorrow night to do it all again (this time I’m bringin’ my sunglasses to hide!!)

Well folks, what do I say?? Thank you for letting us have your most prized possession for the last two weeks to play with. I sure hope you guys enjoyed keeping up with your campers as much as I did with the pictures and of course these crazy newsletters. I especially want to thank you for sendin’ your daughter to Skyline and for keepin’ me form havin’ to get out and find a real job. Sometime its hard to believe I get paid to do what ya’ll enable me to do (sometimes though, I think the pay should increase for what I do…um….remember the poison oak?? Yea, I thought ya did).

One thing that’s different this year, your camper pictures will all be on a DVD that will have their club and cabin and individual cabin pics on it. It will also have EVERY picture you’ve seen this session online as well as ones from banquet that won’t be online. Each camper will get the DVD instead of the printed out pictures as before so you’ll have every thing you saw this session plus more. (they’ll be given to the campers as they pack their trunks)

You guys have a safe trip up here Friday to pick up your campers. I’ll be the one out front that looks as tired as you did ‘cause we both spent too much time on the computer over the last two weeks! But please be sure to stop by and say hi once you get your camper. I may even have some stories for ya that I didn’t share in the news (at least I can tell ‘em faster than I can type ‘em).
Some of ya’ll might feel the urge to keep on reading this camp news even after your camper returns home. That’s fine, go ahead. I know how some of you guys are hooked on it. And if you feel a tear comin up in your eye, just let me know, we’ll still have plenty of Kleenex left over from banquet!!

Folks, thanks again, have a safe trip and Gob Bless,

For the last time 3rd session, like a slow kid in dodge ball……..I’m outta here

LJ

A late but hardy Hello to ya parents!!

Hope everyone stayed cool today with all the heat across the country. I know it was pretty warm up here today again, but nothing like what it was down off the mountain, I had to run down to Ft. Payne for a little while today and when we got out of the car, the person I was with said “Boy!! Its just like stepping in front of a hair drier when you get out of the car” I guess that means it was pretty hot, I just don’t have a lot of experience with hair driers, but I agreed so to avoid conflict and we went on…

As yo can see we were all around camp again this morning shootin’ campers (you know..with the camera) and got to see some pretty fancy ridin’ up in the horse rings this mornin. Speakin of horse ridin’, be sure to check out the latest video up on the home page and also on The Roost tab (or facebook, youtube..you get the idea) and you can see exactly what its like to ride a horse over a jump or two. Its pretty cool and don’t be surprised if you catch yourself raising up in your chair as you approach the jump. you can also see what its like to get to do the Spanish web in circus if you got the stomach for it. Theres all sorts of footage from the past few days, you won’t believe your eyes what these girls have been up to or what they’ve accomplished!!

Now when you look through this mornings pics, you tell me…do we have a horse here at Skyline that resembles “Dog the Bounty Hunter???” or is it just a coincidence?
I may post that pic on facebook and let the crowds decide.

Before I forget, I need to give ya some important email information. Wednesdays email will be downloaded at the regular time Wednesday mornin’.(thats (9AM Central time for those of ya’ll playin’ along at home) But Thursdays email will be downloaded at 6PM WEDNESDAY night!! This give the ladies in the office a few extra hours to start closing out all the campers accounts. So don’t forget, Wednesday email, same ole’ same ole’. Thirsday email has to be in before 6PM Central or it gets sent off the grid somewhere out there in TRON land (where ever that is…)

Now tonight folks we had one rip roarin rootin tootin time as we all challenged not only each other, but the big countdown clock in our Minute to Win it competition. You can see from all the pics (I told ya they were gonna be wild!!) not only the campers, but even our camp nurses got all decked out in their club spirit and got into the action tonight. SOme of my favorite shots were in the “Face the cookie” contest where each camper had ot put a cookie on their forehead and try to get in in their mouth using only the muscles in their face. You should try this at home if you think its easy!! and as always the “bounce on the big blue ball thingy” (that may be its name…I’m just not sure) produced not only some great laughs, but some funny pics too. After all the shoutin’ and cheerin’ had slowed down, tonight final results (and the results have been certified by the firm of Moe, Larry and Curly) the results are….Mounties 3rd, Rangers 2nd and the Terrific Troopers 1st!! Way to go Green machine!!!

Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of classes here at camp? It seems like just a few days ago we were just gittin’ to know each other here on the camp news! You guys have been great at playing along at home while your campers have enjoyed the time of their lives here at Skyline, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have, but somehow, I doubt it!!

Tomorrow night we’ll have our SHOWTIME at Skyline where each of the campers will get to strut their stuff in front of the whole camp and show ‘em what they’ve learned during the session. We’ll have everything from circus, to gymnastics, dance, flag and baton, glee and even more. I’ll be right done there front and center to catch all the action for ya so you won’t miss a thing. Be sure to catch all the action. Speakin’ of action, I hope by now you guys have had a chance to see the latest video that went up this afternoon. If you haven’t, just look to the left of where you sign in on the home page or just click the tab at the top of the website that says “The Roost” and you can see all the news letters and the videos form the sesion. Be sure to leave a comment if you like the video or if even if you don’t like the video (hey, I got a “delete” button on my computer too for those comments!! :-) )

Well folks, its really late so I think I’m gonna lay it down and check my eyelids for leaks and I plan to do a through job of checkin’ trust me!! I know you guys have got to be tired too since you’ve probably been on the computer a LOT more than I have (yes, were talking about you…yes, you right there laughing out loud). Be sure to get some rest, check out the videos and pics and I’ll see ya back here tomorroe night for session 3’s last newsletter (can you believe it??)

Don’t forget what I said about those emails tomorrow night for Thursday though!!!

Weather on the mountain: easy…HOT!!! it was 74 this mornin’ when everyone unstuck the sheets from their bodies thanks to the humidity, thank goodness we had some clouds and thunder roll through right after lunch to cool everything down a bit and make the rest of the day pretty nice. Its about to get nicer as soon as I get back to my bed!!!

Ya’ll have a great night, thanks for tunin’ in and we’ll see ya tomorrow

LJ

Heres what’s been goin “round” camp!!

enjoy

to see all the rest, log into Campstuff

A Happy and hot hello ta ya parents!!! What a busy day we’ve had up here today!! As you probably know by now, I was up at the Ocoee river (notice I didn’t say I was ON the Ocoee river….. that would have been cool and refreshing) I was up and down the banks of the Ocoee and everytime the rafts would pass me and I’d take their pictures, run back up the bank, through the poison oak and into my truck to speed down stream to get set up to get the next pic. Did I forget to mention that when I would get in my truck, it would say the outside temp was 96 degrees!!!!!! For those of ya’ll that might be members of “save the endangered poison oak” population, let me tell ya…ya ain’t got nothin’ to worry about. Tennessee has got the world supplied in the stuff!! I’m still tryin’ to get rid of some “tag a longs” that attached themselves to me two weeks ago (many thanks to Dr. Bobby who supplied me with a shot and dose pack to stop the itchin’!!! I’m feelin’ MUCH better now!!) Anyway, those girls had a ball and you certainly don’t have to worry about not bein’ able to find ‘em on the river, you could hear them screamin’ and laughin’ all the way down stream. Even if you didn’t have a camper on the trip, its worth it to check out some of the action shots, they’re some of my favorite to shoot (minus the poison oak thingy). We did happen to have a GoPro camera onboard one of the rafts and as soon as I can sort through all the video, we’ll have some of that plus some from horseback, circus and other places around camp to show ya (oh boy!! I get to spend more time fighting with my new MAC…Can you hear the excitement in my voice??)

The campers that went on the Space camp tour really had a BLAST (off) get it??? (sorry, by this time of the summer even THAT is funny to me……sad, ain’t it?). You cansee from their pics they got to enjoy the ins and outs of some of the Apollo series and got to see just how much more room they have in their cabins that the first astronoughts had in their capsule. There are some really cute pics out there so be sure to take a peek.

Now for thos campers that stayed at Skyline, they had even more time to play in all the activities and we were able to check out our golf class and see how their swings were comin’ around. Not real sure, but I may have found a few players that even I could hang with for at least a hole or two. The best part is that the golf class will get to take their skills to the links tomorrow as they tackle Mentone’s PGA golf monster ‘Lil Mole Run. If you haven’t ever played it, it’s a great little course right here in town. (although I think tomorrow PGA will stand for “Pardon our Golf Attaire”) We’ll have a camera out there to catch all the action from the front 9 as the campers chase the little white ball. (Again…notice I didn’t say I would get to go on that trip…just send a camera…I think I need to talk to someone about my work duties I get sent on, maybe if I told ‘em there was poison oak at the golf course??? It could happen!!!)

Tomorrow is also Spirit day as all the campers will be dressed in their club colors with wild hats, face paint and everything else they can find to help support their clubs spirit (I would LOVE to see that when they walk onto the course tomorrow). It’ll be a great day to get lots of colorful pictures of all your campers all decked out, so be sure to check back often to keep caught up.

Speakin’ of stayin’ caught up, I guess by now you’ve realized that you were flooded with pictures all at once tonight. In case you didn’t notice (by now I know you moms have mastered the magical ability to spot even a shoelace of your camper) , of course you notices there were 4 or 5 folders of pics that went up. What was I thnkin’???

Now since we had movie night tonight and let everybody catch their breath a little (well, almost everybody…after all the ups and downs one the banks of the Ocoee, I’m still feelin’ a little outta beath), we’re gonna crank it back up a notch tomorrow night with our own new version of our club competition, but this time it will also have several contest from “Minute to Win it”. We’ll even have the giant count down timer going on the screen so everyione can see just how much time they got left. The pics are sure to keep ya laughin as you watch the campers try all the games from the show right here at camp. You don’t want to miss ‘em I promise ya.

Well, as you could see from all the movie pics, all the campers really enjoyed getting’ t spread out and lay back a while to enjoy their show. Of course the fact everyone had their own bag of popcorn didn’t hurt to set the mood (you gotta have popcorn if youre gonna watch a movie!!) the only thing that made you think you weren’t in a real theatre was there wasn’t anyone around trying to talk on a cell phone durin’ the movie (don’t ya just hate that, you aught to be allowed to just smack some people for doin that).

Well folks, it’s a little early for me (hey!! its still before midnight, this might be a new record) so I’m gonna take advantage of the ‘early’ night (now ya know exactly why I love movie night!!) and head off to bed and dream that I was actually on the river today in all the cool water…minus all the girls screamin and laughin’!!. You guys have a good night and get some rest after you go through all the pics. You’ve come a long way this past week and you’r almost there (can you believe were already in the second week Where does tome go?). I know the campers don’t even know what day it is much less which week it is, they’re still goin’ strong. Bet you wish you were??

Weather on the mountain: it was nice this mornin’ but like I said, it got awfully hot up at the ocoee. When I told ‘em how hot it was when I got back, I was told it was only about 90 here at camp and wasn’t that bad……..I really don’t think they were tryin’ to make me feel better……

Night ya’ll
LJ

Howdy parents and welcome back to camp news. I hope all of ya’ll had a chance to sleep a little later this mornin’ like we did. I know after last nights dance and a full week of activities, all the campers enjoyed the extra time for some shut eye (or at least I know I sure did!!). We woke this mornin’ to some homemade donuts for breakfast and then headed back to cabin clean up (yep…they’ve gotten pretty good at cleanin’ up after themselves…be sure to have ‘em show ya this when they come back home!!) and then to our church service where our guest speakers were our very own Carol and Mark Pickle (yea…THAT Pickle from our ropes course) and they didn’t disappoint either. Carol had a strong message and then it was highlighted by a skit from Pickle and some of our admin. It was great to watch Pickle in his rare form on stage and the campers loved it!!!

After lunch today, we all got ready for our big Luau Carnival. We did have to wait a few minutes later to get started due to some thunder in the area, but as soon as it passed, it was cooled off (thank goodness!!) and all the campers enjoye d the rest of the afternoon decorating cookies, hula hoopin, playin’ volleyball, getting’ sno cones, and oh yea..we had some inflatable toys out on the tennis courts that everyone slipped and slided on for a few hours. You can tell from all the pics (2 folders worth), that it was a tough job to get all the campers to really enjoy themselves, but they finally gave in and started to have a little fun (you believe it took a while for that to happen don’t ya???)

I especially loved the pics of the campers with the icing from the cookies all over their faces and the ones from the dunk booth (no I didn’t get in it…there are some advantages to carryin’ the camera ya know). Be sure to check ‘em out if you haven’t already (you don’t want to miss ‘em).

No right after diinner we had one of the camper favorites with counselor hunt! This is where the camper all went across the river while the counselors hide. Once they come back over, they all start lookin’ for counselors for club points. The best part is when they find a counselor, they’ll get to take that counselor home with them after camp for a whole year!! (just kidding, I wanted to see how many of ya’ll were still awake out there…everyone knows they only get to keep the counselor for a few months!!!)
After all the lookin (and trust me, your campers left no rock unturned as they looked everywhere for a counselor), the final results were…..drum roll please…..Troopers 3rd, Rangers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!!! Way to go girls (that’s the redt team for those of ya’ll that weren’t payin’ attention last week).

Now it just occurred to me that the other night we played Get Skyline back and I forgot to tell ya the results (I had them in my head, but after 60-70 “hey Larry!!! Mom says take my picture!!’s, believe it or not, my mind gets a little scrambled and I may forget), I’m actually by that time, lookin’ for a place to hide myself where the campers won’t find me and you moms won’t tell ‘em to look). Anyway, the results from last weeks Get Skyline back are….now what was I about to say?

Now tomorrow, we’ll be back in full swing with a little twist. We’ll still have our full day of classes, but some of the campers will be headin off do a little ‘recon around the south with some of our girls headin’ up to tackle the white water of the Ocoee river and still others will be headin’ off to Huntsville to take a tour of Space camp. As of right now, I think I’m headin up to the Ocoee, but please remember…I’m surrounded by girls and women (trust me…not as glamorous as it sounds) and my plans are subject to change at the beginning of any sentence uttered by one of my co workers. Actually it’s never at the BEGINNING of a sentence, its usually at the end of a 10 minute one way conversation…some of these girls take an hour and half just to watch 60 miutes!!! Know what I mean?? No matter where I am (a lot of time, I’m just not real sure exactly where I am) we’ll have cameras at all locations and even here back at camp so you’ll still be able to see pics from the whole day. One thing though, If I do get sent up river (as so many times happens), I won’t be back to post pics online until later in the afternoon!!

Now tomorrow night is one of my favorite nights of the session. We’re gonna slow it down a little bit, since it’ll be movie night and all the campers will come to dinner dressed on their PJ’s and ready for the show as soon as dinner is over. The girls from Hut Row and the Lodge will be in the gym and the ladies from Riverside will get thei own showin’ in the dinning hall, while still our Summerplace campers and Als Roost will enjoy their movie in Pickles palace. It kinda looks like the worlds biggest slumber party once they all get spread out on the floor with their sleepin’ bags and pillows. No word yet on which movie each group is seein’ but I’ll try to take a pic at each spot so you can see if you know the movie yourself.

Weather on the mountain: folks, I ain’t gonna lie to ya…it was HOT up here today. I bet it got up to almost 89 degrees on top of the mountain (yea yea, I know you guys down there in Hotlanta and S Alabama are yellin right now!!), the good news was no one had to bring their own humidity to camp..we supplied all the huid air you could ever want. Thank goodness after the thunder rolled through, it really did cool things off for the carnival and hunt tonight. Looks like more pop n drop showere maybe for the next few days, we’ve been pretty lucky so far and I hope it continues.

Well, that’s about all for tonight, my eyes are startin’ to play tricks on me and make me think I see red sqiggley lines on the news from misspelled words, but I know that can’t be rioght….I though I was wrong once before, but I was mistaken!!!!!

Oh yea for those of yall that were left on the edge….Get skyline back results from last week….Troopers 3rd, Mounties 2nd, and the Rockin Rangers 1st!!! see..I didn’t leave ya hangin’!!!!

Yall have a good one, I’ll leave the light on for ya, but I’m headin off to bed…
LJ

GOOOOOOOOOODDD EVENNNNNNNNING PARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!! And welcome back to Camp news where you guys have been waiting to hear all about the dance and you will, but first, were gonna talk about….theeeee rest of the day (story), (hey when I wrote it, it sounded just like Paul Harvey in my head!! Maybe not so much on paper)
Today was an eventful day here at Skyline as all the campers were heading from one class to another and getting in maximum reps on every activity. It also featured one of our tennis classes with what they called “Jocks vs Nerds” it was a fun game and some funny pics, but I did warn all the jocks that one day they would end up working for the nerds. (some days, I wish I was a little more nerdy, there used to be plenty of days I wished I was more athletic too though!! Thank goodness that time had passed)

As you can see in the pics from earlier today, the boys from LMC came by during lunch to drop off some roses for our lovely ladies of Skyline. Not sure if it helped them win any dances tonight, but you never know. Nice job guys…well done. Some of the other pics from today may need a little explainin’ so you can get the gist of what all’s goin’ on in ‘em. Our fitness class (yea..I try to stay away from that one so they don’t ask me to join in) did some water aerobics this mornin’ and they were all walkin’ in a circle on the pool when someone had the great idea of everyone to walk backwards. Well….they tried and all of a sudden you could see the water they had stirred catch ‘em and…how do I describe this???? Make them look like a really slow train wreck as the water just pushed ‘em all into one another.I almost dropped my camera laughin as they all groaned and kept getting swept into each other. See, that’s exactly why I don’t exercise that much…its just too dangerous!!

Now before ya think I’m some kinda couch potato, (ok, maybe I am) if ya look in some of this afternoons pics, you can catch a glimpse of a distinguished looking man trying to play some field hockey with our sports class. Well folks, I gotta tell ya, that went about as wel for me as that water walking backwards thing did for the campers. Those girls beat me to a pulp, I got knocked down twice and would you believe, not once did anyone have the honesty to call a foul for me and send some campers to the penalty box?? (it MAY have been one of those times I was still wishing for a little more athletic ability, or a few less years, or pounds…either one would have helped to tell ya the truth.) It was fun though, and the girls had a blast (I was just glad when the class ended).

Now tonights dance was full of excitement and people in the gym (really….you should try this at home, just invite about 400 of your closest little friends over…you’ll love it!!) Actually when old yeller pulled in (the school buses with the boys) I was on the other side of camp filling some coke machines, but there was no mistake as to what was goin’ on. You’d have thought Garth Brooks stepped outta his bus by the way those girls were screamin and jumping around.I could hear it all the way across camp. Actually, about a minute before I heard ‘em scream, you could tell they were close by the cloud of body spray that you could see movin’ down the road. It wasn’t much smaller than that dust cloud that hit Arizona, and I’m sure THAT cloud didn’t smell of Axe Body spray either!!
It was a good dance though and at the end all the Skyline girls were singin their camp songs to the boys as they loaded the buses and headed back to their camp, with presumably the wrong phone numbers and emails given to them during the dance!! (one can only hope). Did ya happen to see the picture of the song request sheet??? I hate to say I told ya so, but there were so many songs by that Beiber guy and Taylor that I really wish they would just take a break in sets and stop all the songs that are still playin in my head!!

Now tomorrow we’ll slow things down a bit and let the tired campers (and directors) sleep in a little longer and then we’ll head to the dining hall for some more of those home made donuts with our breakfast (I know you guys remember those don’t ya???). After breakfast, we’ll have our church service in the gym and then tomorrow afternoon, we’ll bust out with the biggest Luau this mountain has ever seen. We’ll have all sorts of inflatable toys out on the tennis courts complete with a slid n slide and giant slides with cool pools of water at the bottom. Not to mention our very own dunkin’ booth so the campers can try to get their favorite counselor or admin into the tank, and a sno cone booth. Be sure to check back in and enjoy the fun.

After all that (it’s a good thing were lettin’ everyone sleep in tomorrow ain’t it?), we’re gonna have our counselor hunt where all our counselors will put on their best Mossy Oak and hide around camp and the girls will split up in teams and try to find all their counselors. As soon as they find one, they bring ‘em back to the gm and earn club points for their club. I’ll have all the winners for ya s soon as the results have been tabulated. ( I bet that’s the first time anyone in Mentone has used the word “tabulated”..know what I mean?

Well, after all the excitement today, I think I’m gonna sneak outta here and try to get some sleep. I just hope when I get home I can get Taylor swift and Justin Beiber outta my head (why couldn’t they’ve played some George Strait or Faith Hill?). I know you guys have a lot of pictures to go through and you’d rather be lookin at your campers than listening to me, so I’m gonna ease out and let you guys have it. Just don’t over do it, you still have another week to go (can you believe the time has flown by so fast?). You guys have a good night, I think I’ll head off and do my best to get Taylor and Justin to take a break between sessions so I can go to sleep.

Weather on the mountain: it was 68 this morning and it got a little warm today, (could have been the field hockey too, I’m not sure).

Ya’ll take care and sleep a little later tomorrow…I know we all are!!

LJ

Hellooooo Parents and welcome back to the half way point of camp this session!!!
You guys have been doing great keeping up with all the camp news and pics, and your campers are letting me know that “mom says to get in front of the camera more!!!” everytime I walk out side. Hopefully you got to see your little whipper snapper today as I was runnin all over camp trying to get pics from all the classes I haven’t gotten to yet. If you haven’t seen your camper several times yet, be patient, its coming. It just takes me a while to get to every class (it seems to be taking a little while longer each year, but I just don’t know what that’s all about??)

Today was a perfect day at camp as the skies tried to turn grey early this morning, (check out the ingenious use of the campers crazy creeks as we had a little rain this morning) but then cleared and stayed overcast all day keeping the temps just right (and much easier to shoot pics) all day long. There are some really neat pics from our Equestrian program this mornin’ if you like seein’ horses fly, they be sure to check em out!!

Now if you already beat me to the punch line, don’t tell anyone else, but for those of you that haven’t looked through all the pics from today, I might just need to warn ya about it being “Pirate Day” in our canoe classes and our campers played the part. I especially liked the ones that went as the 2 pirates form the Disney movie that were sitting in the middle of the boat with an umbrella dressed as ladies. You’ll know the pic when you see it. The rest of the crew did their part too as they wore their best Jolly Roger all day long and then to hear them talk like pirates all day long….. How many times can you use the the word “RRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!” in one day??? I think so far the count is up to around 11,000 times here at Skyline!! Anyway, they sure enjoyed the fun.

Mot to be out done by the dastardly pirates, our rifelry class had their own story today too, as a matter of face, it was “Toy Story” day at Rifelry (seriously folks, they come up with all this on their own.. I had nothing to do with it..nor would I ever admit to having anything to do with it!!!). If you look through all the pics, you can see Woody, Porspector Pete and the whole gang from Toy Story down at rifelry. The one character I did miss was Buzz Lightyear…I can’t believe no one came up with a costume for him. After I saw how many trunks of clothes all the campers brought with them this session, I figured they could pretty well dress a full film studio if they needed…

Well folks as a native Floridian, I hope everyone got the chance to watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) take off for the final time today. If you didn’t ever get to watch one take off or come in, in person, let me just tell ya, you missed out on an unbelievable sight. Its something I know I’ll never forget and I hope you guys had a chance to see it over the past 30 years or take your campers to see. God speed Atlantis Crew and have a good flight!! I’ll be keeping up with ya this next week.

Well, I know I get excited about the Space Shuttle, but that’s nothing compared to how excited those girls of ya’lls are getting about tomorrow night. Why you ask?? Well, in case you haven’t read your fun calendar, tomorrow night is Dance Night here at Skyline and all the boys from Camp Laney and Lookout Mtn. Camp will be comin’ on over to try and get a dance with our beautiful campers. Don’t worry though dad’s…I’ve got a daughter too and I’ll be out there on the dance floor shootin all the boys that try to slow dance with our campers. Of course, I’ll be shootin ‘em with my camera so you guys can see the pics later on tomorrow night. Its gonna be a great time as we fill up the gym and rock it out dancin’ the night away!! (as long as none of the campers ask me about that “oldies music” , and I inform ‘em that its music from the 80’s, and nothing else really matters!!!….Oldies..really?? What are these ladies thinking??) Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ll hear enough Taylor Swift and some kid named Beiber to want to go and jump in the river. I’ll let you know how it goes, but if the past sessions are any indication, I really hope someone knocks over the ipod and messes up the Beiber kid’s hair!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed the short video from the past week that went up on Facebook, and the roost last night. We still have some shots from last week that’s not at the waterfront and I’ll start on that video soon (Heck…who needs those 4-5 hours of sleep each night anyway???).

Tomorrow we’ll be right back at it with the pics and everything else, theres a rumor that the boys from LMC will be bringin’ over some roses at lunch to give to some of our campers in an effort to boost their chances at a dance… boy those guys are starting down a slippery slope at a young age, I guess they’ll learn sooner or later, the roses just get more expensive…. Oh well, good luck anyway guys. You might just want to save your money on the roses and cut back on the Axe Body spray… I think that would do wonders for your odds at a dance!!!!!!!

Well, its startin to get late and I still have some video editing to do (seriously!!), Its this time of night when I start to wonder how many of you parents are still up out there just hittin’ that refresh key on your computer so you can read the news… If you R one of them,, you really should take a break and read something more interesting. I got a couple old Sports illustrated’s or Plane and Pilot magazines I’d be happy top loan ya!!

Weather on the mountain: like I said it was 67 this morning and grey skies with a very short bit of rain during beli deli. But the rest of the day was perfect and it looks like we managed to dodge any big showers al week long, Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the good weather the rest of the week.

I’d love to stay and talk, but I gotta go and make sure my batteries are charged in my noise cancelling headset, just in case that Beiber guy starts to sing tomorrow night. You guys have a good, one, ‘cause like the Space Shuttle Atlantis… I’m outta here!!!!

LJ

Heres a video of how we cool off at camp this summer!!!

Happy Thursday night to ya parents!!! Its been a great Thursday up here as all the campers were busy in classes and then the unbelievable talent show we had was just the icing on top of the cake!!!

As you can see from all the pics today, those girls aren’t missin’ a beat when it comes to havin’ fun as they were busy on horses, circus, ropes and the river today. And in case you didn’t see yet, be sure to check out the last pics from the “Splish Splash” folder and you can see some fun underwater shots from our “Early Bird” pool party we had today. Some of the girls just took part in the pizza portion (and they took a pretty big portion if ya ask me…who knew those girls could devour 20+ pizzas like that?) soif ya don’t see your early bird in the pool pics, they might have been back in their cabin laying on the bed tryin to get their stomachs to rest from all the pizza!! Anyway, there are some fun shots and theres video from the party too that will be up on the site in about an hour (for those of you waiting up to read the news and see more pics, and yes, we know there are plenty of ya’ll that do that!!)

Tonight we had one of the best talent shows I’ve ever seen at camp! Just when I think I’ve seen some amazing talent at some of our earlier shows this summer, your campers managed to stun me with all the had to offer to the rest of the camp tonight. Even Simon him self (is he still even on the show??) couldn’t have found anything rough to say if he had seen the show tonight (of course, HE wouldn’t have even been let into the gate to get in the show…) we had everything from a chello player (I just thought it was an XL fiddle at first) to piano playin, dancin’, singin’ (and THAT was awesome to say the least!!) to even gymnastics. It really was a great show as all the campers enjoys the night. You can see for yourself they gave quite a few “O’s” from their arms over their head (that’s our version of an ‘ovation” for these of you newbys back home that might be here for your first time).

Now before I forget (again), I want to tell you folks about all the latest toys we got for ya out there in the technology world (that might be the first time I’ve used the word “technology” in my news letter…. it might be the first time I’ve ever used it at all to tell the truth). The videos that will be goin’ up in a little while can be seen on our facebook page (you don’t even have to have a page yourself), just click the link to facebook at the very top of our website and you’ll be taken there automatically (ain’t that nice??). You couls also click the link that says youtube, right next to the facebook link and see it there (they’re at the VERY top of the home page). Now if you ain’t into all those social media thingys, and really who is except all those younger generations..) you could just look to the left of where you log in to see the pics and all the latest news stories and then the video will have a link right there. Anyway, its out there in plenty of places for ya to see so be sure to check back in and watch it, there are some funny scenes you don’t want to miss!!

Now for those you you that might have one of them “smart phones”, a droid or iphone (or as I sometime call mine… “ihate my phone”, once you go to our website there will be a little box at the bottom of your screen with an arrow pointin’outta it. If you push that button and then the button that will say “add” you can make the mobile site home page an icon on your screen and get right to the log in page with just the push of one button (hey, I can’t make it any easier that that for ya).

And last but not least, if you find that picture you really like on the picture page, (were back on the regular computer now folks, please pay attention) just click the full screen button on the bottom and it will come in as a bigger and brighter picture, give it about 10 seconds and then it’ll fill your whole dadgum screen on your computer and you’ll see the biggest version of that picture you could imagine. Take some time and play around with it and you’ll like whet you see (I hope).

Now that the IT talk is finished (and if I’m the one givin’ the talk, it’s a pretty short story I promise ya), its time to get back to the business of whats goin’ on tomorrow up here at camp. Tomorrow night will be our :Get Skyline Back” night as our campers are enjoying dinner, some of our counselors (dressed like boys from one of the other camps) will comeinto the dining hall, and steal those little darlin’s club flags and club captains. Don’t you go a worryin’ though, your campers would NEVER let that happen with out a fight for their club captains. So right after dinner, they’ll all set out to get back their captains and flags by tryin’ to get at least 4 campers around the legs of each counselor and whe they do that, they get to free their captain. Oh yea … (in my best “Columbo: impersonation)…there’s just one more thing… Those counselors will have a hand full of stuffed socks (I told ya were had the market on stuffed socks) and if a camper gets tagged by a stuffed sock that’s thrown by a counselor, they’ll have to go back to the scorers table to be counted before they can try again to free their captain. Its pretty amazing to watch the girls come in wave after wave against those counselors and do everything they can to free their captain (remember, its still part of the “No camper left behind act” I talked about a few nights ago!!)

If you seem a little confused about the game, just wait till you see all the pics and then you’ll have no doubt that you’re COMPLETELY confused until your camper can explain it to ya in more detail….um…you may still be a little confused even after that folks!!

Well, its been a great week up here so far and as you can see everyone is havin’ a blast with all the games and new friends they’ve made. Keep comin’ back to check out the pics and enjoyin’ the laughs (I hope I’m makin ya laugh a little). We still got a whole ‘nother week to go and it only gets better and better each day.

All the campers are really enjoyin the emails they’re getting’ and some of ‘em still don’t understand how you guys are knowing exactly what they did the night before and then writin’ about it the next mornin’(or maybe they don’t understand how you guys are able to surf the web while they’re not home???). Anyway, be sure to get your emails in by 9 Central time if you want ‘em to have ;em that day at lunch (that’s when they all get downloaded and printed out for everyone)

Its been another busy day and its about to be a quite night (as soon as I finish that dang video) so I’m gonna head out and get to work on the Mac so you guys can see your film and then hopefully get some rest too. Some of you guys are startin’ to look a little tired and we still have a long way to go!!

Weather on the mountain: it was 68 this morning when everyone got up, but it turned out to be a perfect day with only a little shower right during lunch that only delayed 3rd period a bit. It was nice and cool tonight as we all enjoyed the Talent show and hopefully, it will stay that way through the weekend!!

Ya’ll have a good night, I’m about to go and bang my head as I still try to learn how to use a Mac (it just ain’t that easy for me) with these videos. Take care and I’ll have them up here in just a short time (I hope????)

LJ

Hellooooooo Parents!!!

And welcome back to camp news with all of todays updates from around Skyline. It was another picture perfect day up here with plenty of sunshine all around as all the campers are now in full swing of their classes. If you look through this mornin’s pics you might be able to catch the one where you know who was able to get a picture of an arrow as it was bein’ released from the bow. Not too shabby for some quick picture takin!! You know as well as I do it was all luck, but sometimes, I’d rather be lucky than good and that time, I sure ‘nuf was good N lucky to time up the pic like that!!

Speakin’ of bein’ lucky, be sure to check out some of the facial expressions form the V swing on the ropes course, some of the before and after pics were just as funny in person as they are in the pictures. It was really great to be able to watch their faces change from “not being quite sure” about it to “huge smiles afterwards”. I’d like to try to describe the picture a little more, but this is one time where you just gotta go and see ‘em for yourselves. You’ll know the ones!

Now folks you know as well as I do that theres no sound with these pics, but I just gotta tell ya about one picture today that doesn’t tell the whole story. I was walkin towards the Lodge and about to take a picture of an older camper when all of a sudden, outta nowhere I heard a loud burp, that would have made Mean Joe Green proud (how many of ya’ll remember THAT Coke commercial?) and all of a sudden, one of the smallest campers at camp walked out from behind the older camper with a huge smile on her face!!! I asked her if that was her and she smiled big and then just said “yeeeeeeppp”. I told her, her dad would have been proud of that burp (and Mike H. you would have!!!!)!!!

Tonight was a crazy night here at camp as everyone tried to make their way across camp with out being caught by one of those pesky bounty hunters!! Did you happen to see all the no good, rotten, bad apple, tricks those bounty hunters were up too?? They tried everything from tellin’ jokes, to tickeling the campers and singin’ to them. (now when some of ‘em sang, I think I would have just gone ahead and gotten up and gone to jail just to get away from their singin’ but that’s a whole ‘nother story). All the campers enjoyed the fun night, even if they got caught moving and had to go to jail, ‘cause they would have to stay there long. There was always another group of campers headin’ that way to pick ‘em up and add ‘em to their team to continue on with the journey (its all part of HB 2197… the “No camper left behind Act” of the 1990’s…).

Tomorrow night, forget that Idol or America’s got Talent show…we’re gonna have the best talent show across the land as we host the Camp Skyline Talent Night!! All the campers will be up on the stage showin’ off all their skills in front of the whole camp as we get entertained for the evening. Now I know what you’re thinkin’, with all that talent on stage, how in the world will I be able to get a seat down front to get the pictures? Well, I got connections and I can assure you we’ll have the best pics from the whole night right here for you to see as soon as its all finished. Be sure to check back tomorrow night to catch all the action.

On a side note, I wish I could have gotten more pictures for ya today, but to tell ya the truth, were in the middle of making a new camp video, staring your very own campers and I had to spend the afternoon with their video cameraman. I’m not too sure about these guys though, ‘cause to tell ya the truth, they had me on the completely wrong side of the camera today during 6th period. Who in the world told ‘em I would want to be in FRONT of a camera talkin’ instead of behind the rascal takin the pics. Anyway, it’ll be comin’ out this Fall to a theater near you (or at least to your TV if you get one of the new camp videos when they come out). Anyway, please feel free to fast forward past my part to get to the videos staring your campers!!!

Well, its startin’ to get a little late and I think I’ll take advantage of the early night and head off to bed so I can keep up with all the campers tomorrow. You guys have a good night and enjoy all the pics from the day. Be sure to go back through and see if ya can find the ones I was talking about earlier…

Weather on the mountain: it was a little warmer this mornin’, around 65 when everyone woke up, but it still only got up to the lower 80s today as everyone enjoyed all the sun.. All I can say is who ever has the connection with the Weather Channel, we appreciate it up here, and keep up the good work!!

Ya’ll have a good night, I’m about to head off to catch some shut eye…

LJ

Helloooooo parents!!!! Boy what a great day we had up here today as all the campers really got into full swing of their classes today. There was a little shower this mornin’ and although most of the classes just stayed out to play in the rain (it only lasted abut 5 min), it was just enough rain to wet the safety lines at circus and they decided to work on some juggling in the gym. Now I’m not sure why, but apparently making a strange face while holding out your tongue will help you learn to juggle, or at least they thought it would. If you haven’t looked through this mornings pics, be sure to check ‘em out so you can see the campers attempts to improve their juggling skills with the strained looks on their face!!

Along that same line, this afternoon, I got to spend some time down at the river and watch all the campers get into the river with the blob or rope swing. Did you know, (seems to be the theme tonight), that when a camper comes off the river rope swing before they had planned too… their body will still look as if its hangin’ onto the handle, even though theres nothin’ in their hands???? Again, if ya want to test me on this one, just take a look at this afternoons pics and you’ll be able to spot some great shots of the campers making the big splash. Its worth the second look to find ‘em if you haven’t already!!!

Today was also picture day and hopefully by now you’ve seen your camper in their cabin and club picture, don’t forget what I said last night about those club colors!!! All it takes is one look at tonights pics of Sock Wars just to see how serious those girls are about their club spirit (more about that later).

Well, its later… and since it is later, I might as well tell ya about Sock Wars, you could hear those girls cranking out the cheers as they all got ready for the big contest. Once we rang the bell top start the game, it was on, folks!!!!!! There were stuffed socks all through the air as the girls went all around camp trying to get the other clubs flags by havin one heck of a time taggin’ each other with those socks. Ft. Payne might be the sock capital of the world, but I’m pretty sure Camp Skyline is the stuffed sock capital if there is such a thing. After all the dust had settled and the socks had quit flyin’ through the air, the final results of Sock Wars Episode III (3rd session get it??) Troopers 3rd, Mounties 2nd, and the Rockin Rangers 1st (that’s the blue team for those of yall that have already spent too much time on the computer and are starting to get it all jumbled up) Way to go girls it was on heck of a battle tonight and I’m sure all the campers are enjoying some serious ZZZZZZZZ’s after such a busy night of sock waring it!!! (I know I would be asleep if I could…cue the Red Bull!!!)

Tomorrow will be another busy day here at Skyline as we keep going with the classes all day (don’t worry, yes, I’ll be out there again…) Now tomorrow night, were gonna bring back a camper favorite (hey!! They asked for it so we delivered) and enjoy the game of Underground Railroad. This is where the campers will all start on one side of camp and try to make their way across camp, in a group, without being seen by one of our counselors dressed up as a bounty hunter. If a bounty hunter sees a group of campers moving, they’ll yell “Bounty hunter sees you!!” and the whole group will then have to try to hide them selves by droppin’ and trying to look like a rock or boulder. (yes..I though the same thing too when they described it to me, but for some reason the girls LOVE it!!). Now if one of those bounty hunters can get any of our campers to talk, wiggle or just plain move, they have to go off to jail and then the group will alter their course to go by the jail and pick them up back on their way to their destination. Did I forget to mention that those nasty bounty hunters will use any means necessary to try to get our camper to move?? Why come of ‘em have even been know to break out a feather and try to tickle the little darlins’ in an effort to make them laugh (would you believe this works sometimes??). Anyway, I hope that will explain some of the pics you’ll be getting and keep ya from scratchin’ your head just tryin’ to figure out whats goin on. (Hey, I’m here watchin’ it in person and even I’m sometimes scratchin my head tryin to figure out whats goin on!!! – no comments from the Gator nation please)

Well, before I leave ya for the night, I just gotta tell ya bout another set of pics that went up today. Be sure to check out some of the blob pics and then maybe you can explain to me why some of those girls have those looks on their faces?? Did ya know, (There it is again), apparently, if you get blobbed high into the air and are flyin’ down towards the water, openin’ your mouth just as wide as you can will somehow slow your descent rate down to just under 400 feet per second. Personally, I just don’t see it hapenin’ but they sure kept on trying to slow down over and over again (or they were just havin fun? Who knew) By the way, they were also trying the same technique on the ropes course but with the same result. I just don’t think they’ll even learn….

Weather on the mountain: Like I said earlier, we had a little rain shower this mornin’ and then it was perfect the rest of the day. 62 this mornin’ when we all got up and then only up to the lower 80’s this afternoon. Of course right now, there’s a nice little shower ourside and I bet with the sound of those rain drops hittin’ the tin roofs of the cabins, there’s not a wide eye in the bunch (I know mine’s not very wide right now). Tomorrow they (who ever “they” are), are callin for some more scattered showers and as long as they scatter somewhere else, we’ll be all fine. But even if they do decide to stop by here and try to give me truck its annual car wash, we’ve got plenty instore to keep everyone goin’ all through the day!!

Well folks, its about that time (ok, its actually PAST that time) when I start getting a little blurred eyes and the keys on my computer are all startin’ to look the same (I don’t think that effects my spellin’ in anyway though…just sayin…). So I think I
Ll make my way back through the rain outside and pull myself into bed so I can thoroughly check my eyelids for leaks and I plan on doing a very LONG inspection. I would suggest the same for you guys, we still got a long way to go this session and theres still lots more fun to be had and pictures to see.

Ya’ll have a good one, I’m about to shut ‘er down for the night and leave it to ya. Be sure to turn the lights out when you get finished!!

Night Ya’ll
LJ

Happy Birthday America and Happy 4th of July to all you parents out there!!!!

I hope you guys had an exciting and safe 4th of July as we all celebrated America’s 235th Birthday for Independence!! Our day started out early up here as the horse barn staff rode through camp at 7:00 yelling ‘The British are coming!!!” after that got everyone awake and outta bed for the day, we had a special flag raising ceremony and then iot was off to breakfast and our first day of classes. All the campers were busy in their classes learning the ins and outs of everything from free swim to ropes course, circus, tennis tower and more. There’ll be lots more pics to go up tomorrow as we get into full swing of the classes and hit the ground runnin’ tomorrow!!

Mother Nature did wet everything down a little bit during our dinner, but our campers didn’t let that ruin their spirit for the celebration, as it was rainin’ outside, all our campers were singin, and dancin’ to patriotic music as soon as they finished their dinner. We have some video of all the dancin’ and we’ll try to get that up to ya a little later this week, it was pretty awesome to watch everyone jump right in. I don’t even think they knew it was raining outside they were havin’ so much fun during dinner.

After all the rain finished, it was the perfect setting for our 4th of July parade. You can see from all the pics the campers really got into it with the signs from their cabins (I don’t think the candy being thrown out hurt too much either!!) all the campers cheered the horses and “floats” from the cabins as they made their way down the main part of camp and back to the barn. It was a great parade and more patriotic music blaring through the speakers in the gym. Be sure to check out your campers cabin float for the parade, they were awfully proud of those signs and with good reason!!

After the parade (can you believe there’s even more to today???) we had a not so neat ice cream social out on the tennis courts. With all the syrup and whip cream, sparkly thingys that go on top and everything else, there was ice cream all over the place (especially all over the campers faces!!) be sure to check out the pics from the ice cream social to see the big smiles covered with whip cream and ice cream.

Now after all the activity of the day, the dancing in the dining hall, the parade and even the ice cream social, you’d think we’d be through for the day…Nope not up here at camp!!! We settled back and enjoyed a great fireworks show that lit up the whole sky as you could hear the oooohhs and aaaaahhhhhhhhs from all the campers each time the sky lit up. It was a fun night and after it was all over, everyone headed off to campfire and I don’t have to tell ya, it was pretty quiet as they went from the campfire to their cabins, if I were a bettin’ man, I’d take the over on 90% of the camp already fast asleep by the time this is typed (I’d take the over on 100% asleep by the time the news letter is finished, but that’s just based on my typing speed).

Now tomorrow is gonna be another important day here at camp (aren’t they all??). Tomorrow id club and cabin picture day here at Skyline and this is where you guys will get to find out which club your camper is in for sure. Just be sure to remember which color shorts they have on in their cabin picture and then you’ll be able to find ‘em in their club pics. Now I don’t wanna say that its life or death to them about which club their in, but families have been known not to talk to each other for awhile if someone calls out a camper by the wrong club. I’m only gonna say this once, so pay attention. If they’re wearing red shorts- Mounties, if is Blue Shorts- Rangers, and if their shorts are Green- Troopers. Make sure you call ‘em but their right club, I’d hate to see ya not on speakin’ terms till Christmas just cause you mixed up some colors (but yes…its THAT important to ‘em!!!)

Now tomorrow night we’ll have our camper favorite, Sock Wars!! This is where each club will hide their flag somewhere in camp and then at the sound of a bell, each camper will venture out to try and find the other clubs flags. But watch out!!! Each club member is armed with a stuffed sock or two and if your tagged by a stuffed sock that’s been thrown at ya from someone in another club, you have to report to the scorers table before you’re back in the game. Its kinda like a 3D game of capture the flag except they’ll be hundreds of socks flying all through the air as we play the game. I’m still tryin’ to decide if the campers were that bad of aim to always hit me or that Good of aim to always make it look like a mistake?? HHHmmmmmmm..makes me wonder? Anyway, I’ll be back at it tomorrow to catch all the action for ya and you can keep up with the club that wins and take the early lead for the point cup!! Be sure to check back tomorrow and see for yourself how everything turned out!!!

Weather on the mountain: it was a perfect day up here this mornin’ as Paul Revere rode through camp it was 62 degrees, it did manage to heat up to 84 this afternoon, but that’s when Mother Nature stepped in and cooled everything back down with her own little shower and so we got to enjoy the parade in 70 degree temps….What was the temperature when you watched the parade this weekend??? The forecast for the rest of the week calls for scattered showers off and on so we’ll be keeping an eye for any “Pop N Drop” showers that cool us down and then get out of town just in time to head to the next class. Hopefully they’ll all be scattered somewhere else!!

You guys have a great night and get some rest, I know you had a busy weekend too and some of ya’ll are lookin’ pretty tired already and we’ve only just started this little journey together for the next 2 weeks… Better hang on, its gonna get fast and furious as the speed of the classes picks up and the pictures keep on a comin’!!!

Yall have a happy 4th, and be sure to thank anyone you see past or present that’s served in the military for contribution to this country and for lettin’ s celebrate our many freedoms.

Happy 4th of July and God Bless!!

LJ

Helloooo Parents and welcome to camp news for 3rd session!!! First off, I want to congratulate all ya’ll out there for #1, making it this far on the website without the aid of your family computer expert who is here with us for the next 2 weeks, and #2, doing suce a fine job at check in this mornin’!! everyone moved right through the line so quick, I hardly got to talk to most of ya but of course you guys had someone with ya that was in a big hurry to get to their cabin so I understand…

Now for those of ya’ll that have been here before, well… welcome back! We sure are glad to have ya with us again this summer. And for those of ya’ll first timers, well…have we got a treat in store for you!! This is camp news where you can keep up with all the happenin’s here on the mountain. Its pretty important to keep up with the camp news ‘cause its gonna be a LOT better than any news you get to watch on TV I promise ya!! And if this is your first time, I need to let ya know, I type just like I talk (slow and with a Southern draw…guess I’m just blessed) and for some reason, Billy Bob Gates’s microsoft word just doesn’t seem to like my letters, its always tryin’ to put those squiggly lines all over my page. Guess he needs to come down here and spend a little time at camp to see how it should really sound. Now some of you guys may think you see some words that look mis-spelled, but they come out on the page just like they come outta my mouth so who ya gonna believe, my letters or your lying eyes (right PB?)? Anyway on with the news!!!!

After all the campers got setteled in their cabins today and you parents finally left (some of ya’ll were sure draggin’ your feet when it came time to leave and we know who you were!!!) all the campers played some get to know ya games with their new cabin mates so they could, well,…get to know each other a little better. After lunch, we made our way to the gym to get our new Skyline Sister where we split the girls into 2 by age and each of the younger campers took off one shoe and put it in a bag, The bag was taken to the older campers and they each picked out a shoe and then had to return to the gym and find the owner of the shoe they had. This is their new Skyline Sister. (its kind of a big sis- little sis thingy). Anyway, they already have a special friend here at camp they can hang out with and get to know better. After that we all learned the nutty buddy dance which will be real important later on in the session when we have the big dance with the boys camp.

After they finished that they picked out their class schedule for the session and you should be gettin’ a card in the mail pretty soon with their schedule on it but don’t run out to the mail box and wait on it, cause I ain’t sayin’ the mail up here is slow, but I do know it takes the mailman an hour and a half just to watch 60 minutes!!! Just saying….(now that was funny, I don’t care who ya are) It should get to ya sometime this week and then you’ll know their schedule and which club their in too.

Tonight was cabin fun night where each cabin got to choose what ever activity they wanted to do and if you’ve seen the pics by now, then I guess I’ve got some explainin’ to do. Riverside played a life size version of the game “Clue” with a couple of extra characters thrown in. Just imagin my surprise when I got there to take pics only to find out that I was the one that had supposedly been killed?? I would have dressed up if they had told me. You can see in the pics the campers asking questions from Miss Scarlett, Miss Peacock, Miss White, Professor Plumb and all the rest of the gang as well as some of our locale here at camp. I didn’t get to stick around and find out who was the guilty party, but I’ll ask around tomorrow. Summerplace had a splashing good time at the new pool while Al’s Roost played on the waterslide. Other cabins enjoyed the new GaGa pit (no relation to “Lady”) while still other cabins had a makeover and some time for karaoke and some board games. Of course all the campers got to enjoy some time by the campfire to eat some S’mores and everyone is now going to bed with a full tummy (except me, who is here trying to type using the Christopher Columbus method…look for the right “key” and try to land on it)

Tomorrow will be a busy day here at camp as we start off our 4th of July celebration with a mornin’ ride and wake up call from Paul Revere as some of our barn staff will ride through camp yelin’ “The British are comin!!!” after we get everyons attention we’ll head to breakfast ans then to our first day of classes, Tomorrow night, we’ll have our 4 July parade, followed by a huge ice cream social (I’m pretty sure that’s whet they did right after the war of independence isn’t it) and the its time for the biggest baddest firework display on the mountain complete with patriotic music blarin’ from the gym. The people from Town always like it when we do the fireworks ‘cause everyone all around can see ‘em and especially hear ‘em!!! Its bound to be a blast!! (get it? oh its getting’ late!!!)

We’ll be out there tomorrow shootin all the pics so you guys can come in from your BBQ’s and check up on all your campers and keep up with the action.

Weather on the mountain: hey, was it a perfect day up here or what? Theres no need to even try to explain it, but hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same as we celebrate the greatest country in the worlds independence!!

Well, that’s about all you guys can handle for this first day, be sure to pace yourself these next two weeks ‘cause if your not careful, you’ll find yourself spendin’ all dadgum day on this here computer scannin’ pictures trying to find your campers elbow, back of head, shoe, etc…(I’m serious about this and some of you guys know it don’t ya??)

You guys have a good night and a happy and safe celebration!

See ya,
LJ

HELLLLLOOOOOO PARENTS!!!!!

Its a slow upload tonight due to so many pics from Showtime, but its worth it. Those girls were awesome in all their acts and demonstrations. we had a super performance from our girls at circus as well as modeling and manners runway walk, trash can band (you really got to get your camper to show you this when they get home…your neighbors will LOVE it trust me!!) flag and baton, gymnastics and more. I’m actually typin’ the news on another computer since my main one is draggin’ its megabytes on loadin’ all the pics from tonight. Hopefully, they’ll get finished before I do with all the typin’ (anything has to be faster than me typing)

All the campers enjoyed their last day of classes (Can you believe its time for camp to almost be over??) and you can see from todays pics (there are some from this afternoon on the showtime folder) that they really got the most out of their last day. it was a great day to be runnin’ around camp (unless you had a camera strapped to your neck and in that case, all you heard was your name called over the intercom telling you which class to run to to take the next pic..seriously…they need to hurry up on the human cloaning thingy)

Tomorrow we’ll have our Grand Championship out at the horse barn and we’ll be there too to ket ya know who the winners are. RIght after that, we’ll head to the gym to watch our drama class do their presentation of “The Jungle Book”its sure to be a roar!! (get it?? hey, its late and thats funny if you’re sleepy). AFter the drama show (ain’t it always a drama show up here with all these girls) we’ll head back to the cabins and start packing for the trip home on Friday. Now tomorrow night is one special night here at Skyline. We’ll have our end of session banquet where each of the girls will get their awards and then find out who the club winners were for the Horse Cup, the Spirit cup and who won the exciting race for the Points cup. We’ll have all those pics PLUS all the ones you’ve been loookin’ at on the DVD thats replacing the cabin and individual pictures you used to get (the individuals will also be on the DVD).

In case you haven’t seen it, there a pretty short video on the Roost or facebook from the past few days and some footage from the ocoee trip. If ya haven’t seen it, you’ll want to make a stop there to take a peek.

Well folks, its hard to believe, but this is the last newsletter for 2nd session 2011. It seems like it was just a few days ago when we were just gettin to know each other here on camp News. You guys have been doin a great job keepin’ up with all the pics and everything your campers have been doin here at camp. Hopefully, you guys will let your fingers and eyes get a rest once your camper gets home, but don’t be suprised if they want to go through all the pics again, to see ’em for themselves.

I hope you guys have enjoyed keepin’ up with the news and pics as much as I have enjoyed bringin’ ‘em to ya. Cause its been awfully fun to post all the pics and try to describe all the activities these past two weeks.Some of the things we’ve gotten to see are really special and I hope your camper will enjoy the memories for the rest of their lives. I know they’ve all made an impact on all of us here at camp and we’re sure gonna miss this bunch when they leave.

We hope you guys have a safe trip up here on Friday and we’ll be looking to see ya out front when you get here (I’ll be the one that looks as tired as those of you that have been staying on the computer too long). We do want to thank you for letting us keep your most prized possession these past 2 weeks and hope you’ve had as much fun as we have and they have while they were here. Thanks agin and God bless, you guys have been great to play with in the news and the pictures!!

P.S. the pics are up now (I told ya they would be quicker than me typing…molasses in January is faster then my typing!!!!)

Take care,be careful, and we’ll leave the light on for ya…
LJ