The Roost

A tired and worn out hello to ya parents!! Man are we burnin’ some energy up here tonight! You could have heard all the campers cheering all across the mountain tonight as we hosted one of the largest sporting events around the world right here at Skyline! Of course theres that other thing in London that’s goin’ on, but NBC couldn’t get the broadcasting rights to our competition here at camp and had to settle for the other thing over in the UK. (that’s for the United Kingdom, not University of Kentucky, you UK fans calm down…it’ll be basketball season soon enough for ya). If you guys thought you saw the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory on the Olympics, then you should have been here tonight! We had all the Olympic events like the water balloon toss, the pull your partner on a broom relay, bounce on the giant blue bouncy thing (you’ll know it when you see the pics), and of course our stack 7 chocolate snacks on your club leaders head relay. I’m pretty sure we won gold in all those events! All the girls were cheering their clubmates on to victory all throughout the night and I promise ya, they won’t have any problem fallin to sleep tonight!! (Either will I to tell ya the truth!!) After all the events were finished and the girls voices completely gone, our final results were…. Bronze medal Mounties, Silver medal Rangers, and the Terrific Troopers came home with the GOLD!!!! Way to go girls, They all gave it a great effort!!!

To tell ya the truth, I’m surprised they had the energy to even compete today after the busy day we had in all our classes and of course our out of camp trips. If you haven’t seen the pics, yet, be sure to check out the Ocoee rafting pics that will be up in a few minutes and the caving pics that are already up online. Those girls on the cavin trip were really getting’ down (get it, down in the cave??? Come on now, after the long day I’ve had that’s pretty funny, I don’t care who ya are).

Tomorrow we’ll be back at it with all our classes and we’ll be getting around getting pictures at all the classes we haven’t been to yet so hang in there if you haven’t see enough pictures of your camper (I realize that limits it to just about ALL you moms out there!!).

Tomorrow our golf class will take their out of camp trip to hit a few rounds at the local golf course (I wonder if I can go on that trip? I may need to talk to someone about that) and the rest of us will be here in camp continuing to have fun in the sun and enjoy the last few days of playing in class. Now if you think we’ve done just about everything we can do in a session already, then you got another think comin!! Cause tomorrow night we’ll revel our camper videos in our very own Camp Skyline Video Music Awards!! That’s right all the campers have been working on making their very own music video and tomorrow night we’ll dress up just like the Grammy’s and had out awards to all the videos from each cabin. I tell ya, I’ve been working on editing and putting them all together today (maybe that’s one reason I’m so tired) and there are some great videos this year and even I can’t wait to see ‘em all on the big screen tomorrow. Be sure to wish your camper good luck with the videos tomorrow!

Weather on the mountain: It was another beautiful day up here on the mountain if you like nice warm weather. It was 62 this morning and got up to about 90 this afternoon. Plenty of sun for everyone to enjoy as they went all around camp. Looks like we have a shot at some rain tomorrow and I, for one, wouldn’t mind a little down time with a rain day. I’m sure there are some campers that could take advantage of the opportunity too!

Well folks, you guys enjoy all the pics that went up today, theres plenty top choose from and ya’ll should be plenty busy lookin’ at all of ‘em. You guys are almost there as we get into week two and you only have a few more days to wear your eyes down staring at the computer screen for your camper (I KNOW some of you guys have to be as tired as I am….aren’t ya??)

Yall have a great night, ‘cause I’m about to crawl into bed and leave it with ya for as long as you want to stay up. I’ve had about all the fun my body can take for one day and my eyes doin’ everything they can to shut me down for the night. I may have to give in and head ovezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

LJ

Greetings Parents!! Happy Sunday from Skadonnelly! Sundays are just wonderful here at Skyline. I mean, we get to sleep IN! Why wouldn’t it be anybody’s favorite? We also get to eat homemade donuts for breakfast in our PJ’s so that’s another plus! Today was beautiful. Clear skies with white, white clouds and it was breezy! After breakfast, the girls went to their cabins for cabin cleanup and to don their white outfits for Sunday School and Skyline Church.

Our Sunday School classes were split up by the cabin groups where they each did separate relays that related to the Olympics! Some were races and others were team building exercise and it was a fun demonstration that coincided with our theme for the summer. After a ton of fun, it was off to church in the gym! The Counselor Choir led our worship with a couple songs followed by a performance from our Glee class, and then the Pickle’s took over for the sermon. Mark Pickle is our super, cool “ropes guy” and his wife Carole is our “flower and artwork extraordinaire”. If you have never seen Mrs. Carole’s artwork, just look at the website! All the decoration on the webpage was created by her! They spoke this afternoon and a little relay demonstration was done there as well and the girls had a ball. Everyone loves the Pickle’s .

For lunch we had CHICKEN FINGERS and once we all ate our weight in that we rolled ourselves to our cabins for a much needed, extended rest hour! We got about an hour and half to rest and/or film the rest of our cabin VMA music videos. Girls were filming left and right and look forward to Tuesday night’s post because I think the videos are going to be our best yet!

Rest hour FLEW by if felt like  and before I knew it we were in a full blown carnival! From snow cones, to inflatable slides, to karaoke, we had a couple hours of great fun and hang out time with friends. There was so much to do so please go check out the pictures from it this afternoon if you haven’t already! We captured some good moments! Club Leaders even were put on the plank for a Dunk Tank! Great fun!

We cleaned ourselves up for picnic dinner after the Luau and the counselors decked out in their camo and black for Counselor Hunt! The campers were scoping out what areas they were going to check during dinner wanting to find as many counselors as possible to earn their club points since tonight’s activity counts towards the coveted Point Cup! After dinner and the announcement of rules, the campers were taken to the Riverside side of the river while the counselors took a couple minutes to hide. Then we released the hounds! The girls were off with their flashlights trying to find all they could including some special, random items like a cardboard pineapple and star that got them major points too! The numbers were close the whole game but the end result turned out to be
1st: Troopers
2nd: Mounties
3rd: Rangers

The girls are looking forward to activities gearing up again and I know a group of girls are also REALLY looking forward to TRIP DAY! The Ocoee and Caving Trip embark tomorrow and I am SUPER excited because I get to go caving and I have never been! Plenty of picture from each trip will be taken and we will be sure to share them when we get back! Until then, I am off to watch some Olympic Gymnastics!

Skadonnelly

Hellooooo parents !!!!

I’m sure by now you guys have seen plenty of all the games tonight. I mean, you can only watch so much of the competitions, the intense look in the competitors eyes, the confidence of the ones that know, the fear in the eyes of the ones who don’t have that confidence and aren’t sure…but enough about the boys asking the girls to dance tonight, has anyone watched the Olympics?? :-) If you think the only games being played were in London, then you need to take a closer look some of tonights dance pics. Theres two full folders full of pics, so be sure to spot your camper and see all the fun they had at the dance. I didn’t mean to sound like some of the boys were a little bit scared to dance with our lovely ladies of Skyline, but clearly some of those guys looked more out of place than Snoop Dog at a George Strait concert if ya know what I mean. Fortunately, after awhile, everyone gathered their nerves and the campers were all dancin’ the night away. The only sad moment of the night was when they announced that this would be the last song of the night and then all the boys headed back to get on Old yeller and head back to their camp. But not before emails, phone numbers, and facebook pages were exchanged and promises of “I’ll call you when camp ends” were told. Kind of gives a new meaning to the phrase “Let the games begin” doesn’t it? Oh well, good luck guys, maybe some of those phone numbers you got are the real ones???

Beside the big dance tonight, we had another beautiful day up here on the mountain and all the campers enjoyed perfect weather to end the first week and get ready for the second one. I can’t believe its been a whole week already, where does the time go? It seems like it was just a day ago when you guys were loggin in for the first time and startin’ to look at all the pics.

Now after a full week, were gonna let the little darlin’s sleep in a little later tomorrow (I know I’ll enjoy that!!) and then have our breakfast of homemade donuts and all the other goodies. After Breakfast, we’ll head off to Sunday School and then our church service in the gym. After lunch, we’ll get ready for our luau carnival where we’ll have giant inflateables and all sorts of fun games to play including a dunk tank as well as sno cones and other treats. We’ll be there to catch all the action for ya so don’t worry, you’ll be able to see everything that’s happening.

Now tomorrow night we’ll have our camper favorite, Counselor Hunt. This is where the counselors will hide all around camp and then your campers will head out in teams to try to find as many counselors as possible. Once they find a counselor, they take ‘em to the gym and find out how many points their worth for their club points. It’s a fun night that all the camper enjoy with all the aaction of the carnival and then the slowed down pace of counselor hunt. Tune in tomorrow night to see how many counselors your camper found!!

Well, since all the today’s Olympics are already finished, theres no rush to finish the news letter other than to get some sleep and at this point in the summer, that’s a pretty good incentive! So…. I hope you guys enjoyed the pics, be sure to check back during the day tomorrow and sit back, relax and be sure to split your time between the TV and the computer and watch all the action that’s going on up here and across the pond.

Weather on the mountain: As I said before, its was a perfect day and there’s plenty more where this one came from. Looks like we’ll have plenty of sun N fun throughout the rest of the week.

So from the greatest competition these campers could have ever faced (hey, even I remember how nervous it is to ask someone to dance), you guys have a good night and I’ll see ya tomorrow.

This probably should have been said BEFORE the dance, but “May the odds be forever in your favor”

Ya’ll have a great night and sleep a little later tomorrow, we sure are!!!

LJ

Happy Olympic Games parents! All week at camp, we have all been buzzing about the start of the Olympics in London and today it was ALL the talk! We played the Olympic theme song over the “all call” speaker system we have here at camp and everyone joined in and hummed along every time. YAY TEAM USA!

This morning we had wonderful weather! Clear skies, and mild heat for the most part. We expected a little bit of rain today so we were happy to see that prediction had changed. The rain did end up catching up with us eventually but we were blessed to have it wait until our very last period of the day! Our activity for the night was movie night so even though it cleared up during dinner, it wouldn’t have “rained on our parade” one bit!

Before we get to the details about Movie Night, I have to tell you guys all about the cutest thing you’ll ever see, MINI DANCE! Our sweet, sweet little Mini’s worked so hard all week in their dance classes to perform for everyone and it always brings tears of joy to our eyes watching them. I don’t think you could make them stop smiling if you tried while they danced up there. They were adorable and I know they loved struttin’ their stuff. I know other campers, counselors, and staff would say this with me but I wish the Mini’s weren’t leaving tomorrow ☹, we will miss them VERY much!!! They just bring so much to camp and are always a joy to watch and play around with. Camp won’t be the same without them!

Now, Movie Night is such a great night that is a fun way for the girls to get some much-needed rest. The camper groups split up and spread out with their pillows, blankets, teddy bears and a little bag of popcorn for a little movie soiree. Our Hut Row and Lodge campers watched one of my childhood favorites, Aladdin in the gym while Summerplace and Riverside watched The Emperors New Groove in the dining hall, and we also had a 2012 Skyline Movie Night Special where the Summerplace and Riverside girls had the option to also watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Pickle’s Palace. All the girls looked snuggly and comfortable when I walked around and hung out and watched a little bit of each movie/show. Movie night is one of my favorites. Just a chill night with your new best friends!

Lots of smiles were posted all day today and tonight so make sure you go and check them out. Tomorrow we will have the much-anticipated DANCE with the BOYS!! I know the girls already have their outfits planned and laid out for it and I just love watching all the girls get so excited to dress up and look nice. The campers from the boys camp will come tomorrow at lunch to hand out a few roses to some of our girls which a nice little gesture to get the girls excited for the nights event! Pictures of that will be posted after lunch as well as pictures of all our girls in their dancin’ shoes tomorrow evening!

Again, we are SO SAD to see our Mini’s go! They will SURELY be missed!!! So, Mini parents, since it has happened before, don’t forget that Mini pick up is after breakfast tomorrow! We look forward to seeing you!

I am signing out to continue to watch the Opening Ceremonies, but I look forward to capturing more smiles all day for you guys and will post to you all again soon! “Happy Olympic Games everyone! May the odds be ever in our favor!”

Skadonnelly

Hellooooo Parents and welcome back to camp news tonight (or by the time I finish, I guess it should be ’good morning’ probably), anyway, its been a good day up here on the mountain. All the campers enjoyed another beautiful day of classes and activities. Believe it or not it never got too hot today and all the campers were running from class to class playing all day. As you can tell from the pics, we’ve been out shootin all the shots tryin to keep ya informed, but theres such so much goin’ on its almost impossible to get every great shot you see throughout the day. Were tryin’ though so keep lookin at those pics.

Tonight we played Underground Railroad where the campers started out in groups and had to make their way across the camp without bein’ seen by one of our bounty hunters. If they hear a bounty hunter yell out that they spotted a group, the whole group had to drop down and pretend like they were boulders and not move, no matter how bad the bounty hunters inspected them trying to get them to laugh. If they broke down and laughed or moved, they had to go to the jail. No don’t worry though, they weren’t in jail long, (its part of the “No Camper left behind act” of the 1990’s) it would be only a minute or two and another group would stop buy and let some campers join their groups for the rest of the night as they made their way to different maps telling them how to get to freedom. After a long night of working together and bouldering down to hide from the bounty hunters, I’m happy to report that all campers made it to freedom and enjoyed tonight’s activitiy!

Now tomorrow night will be one of my favorite nights, that’s right, its Movie night here at Skyline as our campers will get to enjoy their private showings throughout camp. Hut Row and the Lodge will all be in the gym, while Summerplace will be in the top of Pickle Palace, and the lovely ladies of Riverside will be in the dining hall. Each enjoying their movie with their very own bag of popcorn (you know, one for each camper, not each group). The bestest part is all the campers will come to dinner dressed in their PJ’s and ready for the movie, cause as soon as we finish dinner, everyone will be spread out all over the place. It makes movie night look just like the worlds largest slumber party. It’s a great night for the camera man too since its pretty easy to get some quick pics at the beginning of the movie and then head off to post pictures about an our early!!

Speakin’ of early, I think I’ll try to beat my self imposed midnight deadline and head off to bed just ahead of midnight. I’d love to stick around and tell ya more, but time is clicking by a lot faster than the keys on my computer ☹. You guys enojiy the pics, we’ll be back a little earlier tomorrow and we’ll see ya then

Take care,
LJ

Howdy, howdy! Skadonnelly here again! We have had a BEAUTIFUL day at camp today, no rain at all! Looks like we won’t get any rain really until the weekend, which we might need by then, but for now we enjoyed the glorious sunshine. It was warm but definitely not the heat I expect from the end of July so we were sure happy about that!

Today was PICTURE DAY! We picked ourselves up out of bed this morning (some probably had to be pushed by a friend) 15 minutes earlier than usual so we had enough time to have our traditional cabin, club, and individual photos done! Each camper donned her club uniform and took turns taking pictures out on the front steps of the gym. After that, we quickly changed so we didn’t dirty our uniforms and headed to first period! The morning felt like it flew by because all of a sudden it was lunch and then I found myself out cold at rest hour!

Rest hour, some of our campers went to the gym for a very special practice…the TALENT SHOW practice!!! Any camper can choose to participate in our Skyline Talent Show we have each session. We usually have quite a variety of talents at our shows and I am always floored by the wonderful and crazy things these young girls can do! We ended up having about 45 acts total this evening such as, dancing, singing, hula hooping, ukulele and flute playing, gymnastics, monologues, and much more! Our head counselors served as our judges and as the show came to a close, I know they had an EXTREMELY hard time making a decision on who our winners were. Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 competed against each other and groups 5 and 6 competed separately. After some hard deliberation, our winners were…

Groups 1, 2, 3 & 4:
1st: Gracie Stovall
2nd: Lilly Waldrop and Breck Hill
3rd: Meg Beuter
Overall: Lindsay Jane Drummond

Groups 5 & 6:
1st: Audrey Peterson
2nd: Kate McDonald
3rd: Emma Kate Merrin
Overall: Annabelle Woodard

All of the girls who participated, received a standing ovation from the other campers and I know the girls had a blast. You guys have some talented little girls!

The girls headed to a clear sky, star filled, campfire where they learned about how the theme game tonight, Pictionary, is a great example of how God always has a bigger picture for us. We should always live for the moment but we also need to understand that God has a big picture for us and that we should pray and listen for Him to guide us through life.

The girls are looking forward to another awesome, good-weather day at camp and also another great, camp favorite night time activity called, Underground Railroad. Larry will get into more detail about the game tomorrow but the girls travel around with their cabin and try to sneak around camp to different check points to get to “freedom” without getting caught by a “bounty hunter”. Counselors will walk around looking for campers and as the group freezes to pretend to be a “boulder” the counselor will try to make them laugh which sends them to “jail”. It’s a funny, funny, game and the girls always look forward to trying their hardest not to more and laugh!

Until then, check out the pictures from tonight and look forward to more tomorrow!

Goodnight!

Skadonnelly

Hellooo parents!!!!

And welcome back to camp news where you hear all the days news fresh from the top of the mountain!! Well as you can tell from all the pics (theres plenty of them for you guys that just have to have some pictures) all the campers today were in full swing in their classes and boy, was it a busy day! We had campers on the waterslide, on the ropes course, circus, horseback and virtually everywhere you can think of as the day went on. You can tell everyone was running “full throttle: today, ‘cause the first couple of nights as I walked over to the office to do pictures, news and all that other stuff, you could hear all the camper talkin’ and laughin’ as I walked through camp. But tonight, after a few good solid days of playing and fun, all you can hear out in camp is the crickets chirping. Not one campers voice could be heard as I made my way to the office tonight. I guess they’re all where I wish I was… and that’s in bed asleep!!! That’s a good thing though those girls will really need to recharge their batteries for another full day tomorrow! (I on the other hand may have to resort to red bull again?) there just ain’t enough hours in the night to get caught up on sleep, I know by now some of ya’ll feel the same way don’t ya?

Well folks, if ya’ve already looked at tonights pictures (and I’m SURE you have!) you might be wonderin’ just what the heck was goin’ on up here? (hey, don’t feel bad, I was here and sometimes I was even wondering that myself). Tonight as we all sat in the dining hall enjoying dinner, would you believe someone came in and said that our nighttime director, Wendy’s little daughter had been taken (not really, don’t get upset), but it was going to take the combined effort of all the campers to go around to characters out in camp and ask them questions as to who done it, what they did it with, and where they out her. (Kinda like a professor plum, in the library with a lead pipe thing…you remember don’t ya?). Now to get answers from our characters, your campers had to perform a task (in todays economy, nothing is free….). As you can see, your campers were up to the task and as they went to all the different stations they had to do something related to that character. For example, Elvis’s favorite food was bananas, so they had to open and peel a banana with their fete to get his info, Ken and Barbie, asked the girls to dress up Ken (I actually felt bad for that one…ok, maybe not), the keeper of the golden horsehoe had them sing some songs and of course Ariel and Sebastion had them perform some “under the sea” activities, and even more. If you haven’t looked at the pics yet (and there’s 2 folders worth) you might split a rib laughin at all the crazy things you see! The good news is at the end of the night, the camper had received enough information to crack the clues and get Avery back home to her moma! (don’t ya just love it when a plan comes together?)

Now tomorrow mornin’, we’ll start a little earlier than normal to get all the club and cabin pics done. This is where you can find out which club your camper is in if you don’t already know. Now pay attention here you first timers, ‘cause this is some important stuff. If you see your camper in red shorts, then she’s a Mountie, blue shorts means she’s a Ranger, and of course green shorts will mean she’s a Trooper. Its real important to get these things right cause I don’t want to say it’s a life or death thing, but small wars have been known to start over someone calling their camper by the wrong club name. We’ll have those pics up as soon as we get finished shootin’ ‘em for ya so be sure to tune in early and see all the pics.

Tomorrow night we’ll have one of the greatest collections of talent you could imagine right here in our stage as we host our own talent night! This is where the campers will get to perform on stage in front of the rest of camp and strut their stuff. We’ll have more talent than any of those “idol’ shows you might have heard about on the TV. So be sure to tune in and see how your campers did (like you wouldn’t check the pictures anyway??)
Last I heard some guy named Simon was trying to get passes to be in the front row to judge, but I’m pretty sure our talent is way above anything he’s ever seen or would even know what to do with. But we’ll be there front and center to catch all the action for ya!

We’ll its getting’ kinda late and my eyelids are startin to play peek a boo with the computer screen and I guess that’s a sign for me to wrap it up and try to catch up on some sleep (you know, layin in bed, not sitting at the computer asleep, I do that enough and it doesn’t seem to help). You guys go ahead and keep lookin at pics, but like I said, be sure to pace yourself, cause we still have a long way to go and some of ya’ll are already startin to look as tired as I am (that’s NOT a good thing). Admit it, you’re one of the of the ones I was talking about in the first letter that stays up way too late to read this newsletter, or looks through every picture for your campers shoe, or back of head, etc… (its ok, you can laugh if you think I’m talking about you).

Weather on the mountain: 71 this mornin’ and up to about 91 this afternoon. Just about right for a fun filled day of playin and at camp!! Looks like it’ll be more of the same tomorrow and maybe a little warmer. We’ll have plenty of drink stations out in camp and the misters going around camp for everyone to go through to cool down if they need too.

Well ya’ll have a good night, I think I’ll make like a camper and get a good nights rest, you guys should do the same when you finish lookin at all the pics!

Talk to ya tomorrow,
LJ

Greetings parents! Larry’s sidekick, Skadonnelly, here to update ya’ll on all things happening at camp today! I am really excited to be working with Larry this summer because I get to visit all the fun activities the girls are at. Before, I was out teaching Circus all day long and forgot that there was more to camp for a while there ☺. It’s also fun because you sure do make a LOT of friends when you walk around with the camera! All of a sudden everyone knows your name and wants your attention. The girls make Larry and I feel real special!!

Today we kicked off our first day of activities!!! After breakfast and their club meetings the girls rotated throughout the morning to 3 activities with a little break for some Beli Deli in between. We experienced a little “pop and drop” rain shower this morning but it lasted a couple minutes and honestly, there was no dampening the excitement that was buzzing around! After our 3rd activity, the clubs gathered around the front of the Dining Hall to show some spirit by taking turns to do a little cheer before lunch. We stuffed our bellies and then headed back to the cabins to hand out mail and take a much needed nap (well at least I did!) for Rest Hour! Many girls read books or write letters during rest hour but after chasing the girls around camp, catching all the cool moments, I definitely use it as naptime!

We then dismiss for the afternoon to our last 3 activities with another Beli Deli extravaganza snuck in there too! The weather got a little warm but actually stayed reasonably nice for the afternoon. Activities felt like they flew by today because then before I knew it, campers were decking out in their club colors for the Skyline nighttime tradition of SOCK WAR!!!!

Sock War is a HUGE game similar to capture the flag. Each club protects a certain area of camp on the Hut Row side of the river. They are given a frisbee that serves as their “flag” that they somewhat hide in hopes that other clubs don’t steal it and earn mega points. Each camper is given 2 soft, sawdust filled socks that they carry to tag opposing clubs out. If a camper is hit with one of the socks, they must drop half of what “ammo” they have and go report to the home base to be counted towards their score. The team with the least amount of points wins! If you capture the frisbee or capture a club captain that is hiding somewhere in the area, mega points subtracted and you have a greater chance of winning!! The game was SO fun and if you want to seem some of the action, check out the pictures I loaded tonight. The game results for 4th session turned out to be…
1st: Rangers! (blue)
2nd: Mounties! (red)
3rd: Troopers! (green)

After a bit of cheering and jumping up and down, the girls dismissed to campfire. At campfire, we always start out with a couple songs and then our counselors share a little story or skit, and message that relates to our theme, “The Games We Play” and a specifics game that we all grew up playing. Tonight’s was about Solitaire. Our counselors shared that through the Trinity we are never alone and the Lord is always with each and everyone one of us. Then, after a closing song of Skyline Taps we all headed of to bed. I know all the girls are going to be sleeping good tonight! Too much fun today all around ☺.

Tomorrow the girls will be looking forward to a game of Camp Wide Clue! Each cabin with travel to different characters hanging out around camp and will have to solve a mystery based on some information they are given as they meet each character! It has been a hit this summer so I anticipate tons of fun and happy campers tomorrow night!

Until then, Skadonnelly is signing out!

Skadonnelly

Hellooooo Parents and welcome to 4th session 2012!!!! I’m Larry and I’ll be bringin’ ya all the action from Skyline this session right here on the camp news. Sometime you might get my counterpart, Skadonnelly, but that’s OK, cause she can do a pretty good job of telling it like it is on the computer too. Before we get too far along in this news letter, let me just tell ya a few facts (and all my facts are 95% truthful), I tend to type just like I talk and for those of ya’ll that I got to talk to this morning, you’ll realize that it just sounds better when you read it like it looks instead of tryin’ to make it sound like this computer program of BillyBob Gates wants it too. (MS word tends to cover my newsletters with red and green squiggly lines…I think it’s a programming error myself) The other fact you’ll soon realize is that I didn’t take keyboardin’ in high school and my news letters tend to get out a little later than even I would like, but I’m goin as fast as I can.

Now congrats to all ya’ll that breezed through check in this mornin’ and got your camper squared away in their cabin. You guys did a great job of gettin’ everyone here (very early), campers squared away in their cabins (still pretty early), and then heading out of camp and back home (….um…. some of ya’ll not early at all on this one!!…AG?). Yea, you should have heard the stories your campers were tellin’ on ya’ll about how they had to tell the parents it was ok and time for them to leave. Why some of them are even worried if you guys are gonna make it without them around for the next two weeks. I assured the campers I would do everything I could to take care of ya’ll and answer all your computer questions for ya while the family computer expert is here at camp with us! (that part IS true, ain’t it?).

After everyone finally left this mornin’ (some of ya’ll were slower than others…and we know who you are!!) we got down to some serious fun times, and all the campers got to know their new cabin mates and bestest buddies for the next two weeks. Then everyone signed up for their classes and found out what club they’re in. You’ll be getting a postcard in a few days with all that info on it so you’ll be findin’ out everything they signed up for pretty soon. Now before you run out to the mailbox to wait on that postcard, let me just tell ya the US mail up here in Mentone, may not be the fastest thing around. (it takes our mailman an hour and a half just to watch “60 Minutes” if that tells ya anything!!) So it may be a few long days, but it will get there!

Tonight all the cabins got to pick which activity they wanted to do as a cabin so they could still get to know one another and spend some quality time with each other. And if by quality time, you think of shaving cream wars, slip N slides, Ultimate Charades, facials and manicures, game playin’, and karaoke, then…yep, that’s what I was thinking of too (college football, fishin’, and huntin’ never even entered my mind, how ‘bout you?). As you can see from all the pics, camp now has a nice menthol smell to go along with the cases after cases of shaving cream it apparently takes to produce an adequate shaving cream war. Thank goodness I had the camera and the campers followed the Geneva convention code of not hitting the cameraman!!! Needless to say all the campers are snug in their bunks after such a busy first day of activities.

Tomorrow we’ll start our first day of classes and everyone will get the ins and outs of their activities and then it will be right to work, or play as the case may be. We’ll be out there shootin all the campers (don’t worry… it’ll be with a camera of course…campers aren’t even in season right now anyway) and bringin’ you all the action as faast as it happens.

Tomorrow night we’ll be fillin’ the air with stuffed socks as we play our camper favorite “SOCK WARS”, where we split the camp into thirds and each club hides their club flag and then heads out to search for the other clubs flag. But WATCH OUT!!! If you’re tagged by a stuffed sock that’s thrown by a member of another club, you have to report to the scorers table before you can get back in the game. Its fun to play and even more fun to watch and take pictures of so be sure to tune back in to see everything tomorrow night.

Don’t forget you guys can send camper email that gets printed out and given to the campers each day. As long as its sent in before 9:30 Central time each day (that’s 10:30 to you guys over in Ga!!) it will be printed out and handed to them at lunch. Don’t forget each email cost $1 so be sure to type plenty of words before you send it (I would type several emails each day in one “word document” and then paste the whole thing into one email to save some $$)

Well its getting’ late but before I go, let me just warn you first timers out there. You guys are about to spend more time on your computer than you ever thought was possible during the next two weeks. If you had plans like cleaning or rearranging the house, you might as well forget it. You guys will be scannin’ every picture for a glimpse of your camper, or your campers shoe, ear, elbow, anything you think you might see (just wait, it’ll happen). It’s pretty much like trying to work around the house on a weekend where they’re playing an NCIS marathon on USA network, you just sit down and your eyes are glued to the screen and nothing else gets done. (you don’t do that? All these NCIS marathons on TV cause I’M the only one watching? please…)

Anyway, you guys really do need to pace yourself, there’s still along way to go and theres plenty of pictures and action headed your way. I’d love to stick around and tell ya more, but they’re just about the start the next episode of NCIS so I really gotta go!!

Ya’ll take care, have a great night and enjoy the next two week as we keep you informed of all the fun you just wish you were here getting’ to do.

Have a good night,
LJ

Helloooo Parents!!!, can you believe this is the last newsletter for 3rd session?? Man the time flies when you’re havin’ fun ‘cause it seems like it was just a few days ago when we started tellin’ ya about everything up here at camp. You guys have done a great job of keepin’ up with all the pics and news articles and I’m gonna warn ya, you might feel a little lost next week when you don’t have this to wait up on or look at first thing in the mornin’. Its ok though, your campers hasn’t gotten to read any of them and they can still log on to look at all the pics from next session if they want too and you guys can sneak on and get your daily fix of crazy facts from camp. (I promise I won’t tell ‘em).

Today was the last day of classes and it all stated off with our advanced canoeing class taking an early trip down to Desoto Falls for breakfast. If you got to look at those pics, you’ll see they enjoyed a beautiful breakfast by the falls with some great scenery.

All the other campers went right to work in their classes getting’ in their last ride down the zip line, on their favorite horse or even enjoyed their last game in sports. Some of the campers took today to get their last practice in for tonights grand performance of Showtime where they got to show the rest of camp everything thay’ve been working on the past two weeks. Be sure to check out all the pics cause you’ll be amazed at everything they learned in such a short time. It was awesome to see the smiles on their faces as they strutted their stuff in front of the rest of camp. We had demonstrations form circus, gymnastics, glee, flag and baton, and more. Be sure to check out all tonights pictures!!

If you’ve been keeping up with all the pics throughout the day (and really…is there any of ya’ll out there that haven’t???) then you’ve probably already seen the pictures from todays tournament against the boys from LMC. Yep, those boys came over here to challenge our lovely ladies to archery and rifelry and let me tell ya folks, your campers didn’t disappoint anyone. I’m happy to let you know that in rifelry our ladies whooped those boys (everyone knows a whoopin is a WHOLE lot worse than just a whipping). Now in the archery tournament (pay attention here…since it is an election year lets see how I can put this for ya). I’m happy to report that our ladies came very close but ended up in second place, while the boys from LMC finished next to last. There, hows that. If you seem confused, you’ll get in a little while. :-)

Well folks its been a wild and wacky two weeks here at camp and tomorrow we’ll end the activities with our grand championship up at the horse tournament and then we’ll all get to see our musical theatre’s performance of “Annie”. I can’t wait to see both of these events, they’re gonna be great and we’ll get the pics to ya’ll as soon as we can once they finish.

Tomorrow night we’ll end the session with our banquet night, or as I call it “Cryfest” since there won’t be a dry eye in the camp when all the girls realize the session is almost over and they’re gonna have to say goodbye to all their new friends. It really is amazing to see just how close all the girls have gotten with their new friends and how important their relationships are to them. We’ll have plenty of pictures from banquet but they won’t go online, instead we’ll have them on a DVD that we’ll have for you when you get here and it will have EVERY single picture you’ve been looking at throughout the whole session. (just in case you haven’t seen enough pictures lately???)

Well folks, its time for me to wind this thing down and say good bye for one last time, but before I do, I really want to thank you for letting us spend the last two weeks with your most prized possession and letting her learn and grow with us here at camp. Its been a special time here and I know you guys can’t wait to see your camper and how much they’ve changed over the course of the session (I know I can’t wait to see my camper when he gets back Saturday!!!) I haven’t even gotten to see any pics the last two weeks!!)

One thing I do want to warn ya bout though (especially you first timers), your campers will be happy to see ya, but that doesn’t mean they’re gonna be happy to leave!! I know its hard to imagine, but it happens all the time. I just wanted to warn ya before you get your feelings hurt on accident.

You guys have a safe trip on your way to camp and we’ll see ya bright and early Friday morning. Be sure to stop by the office and say hi when you get here. I’ll be the one out front that looks like he’s been on the computer as much as you guys have the last two weeks!!!

You guys be careful and we’ll see ya Friday morning

Thanks again and God bless,
LJ and Skadonnelly

Howdy, howdy parents! Greetings from a beautiful Mentone, Alabama! It’s been a little hotter than most days lately here at camp but we can’t complain because it has been so nice recently.

First today, after breakfast, our Golf class took a trip into Fort Payne to play a couple holes at a real golf course! I heard that they had a wonderful time and Larry even let them take a little camera along to document the fun so make sure you check those out online today. Girls made the most of their 2nd to last day in activities by making some tweaks to the normal activity routine. Our dance classes took a detour to the pool and did synchronized swimming, our tennis class continued their “Skyline Open”, and our Quidditch class played water Quidditch! The girls in Arts and Crafts have started entering their projects into the Skyline Art Show and our Archery and Riflery classes have been getting their tournaments participants ready for the competition with the boys tomorrow! I do not have a list at the moment of which girls are participating tomorrow BUT when I receive them tomorrow I will update ya’ll along with the results!

The horseshoe is still yet to be found! I am not sure if Larry has given you the low down on the Golden Horseshoe but Alisa, our Summer Director, hides it somewhere on campus each session and the clubs are racing to be the first to discover it for major club points! The points go toward the coveted Point Cup that is given to the club with the most points over all the club competitions throughout the camp session. This is awarded banquet night on Thursday! Hopefully someone finds it tomorrow or early Thursday!

Speaking of club competitions, tonight’s nighttime activity was the largest club competition of the session called Minute To Win It! The 3 clubs competes in a series of relays that each age group (1-6) participates in together. The theme of it is based off of the recent TV show competition called Minute To Win It where all the relays are each weirdly creative and must be completed within 60 seconds. To name a few, there is the Balloon Toss, where the girls toss a water balloon back and forth, putting distance between each other after each toss until 1 pair remains! There’s Temper Tantrum, where 2 girls from each club tie pedometers to their feet, lay on their backs and kick their feet as fast as they can to see who can get their numbers the highest. We also have a scooter race, a shoe toss, and my favorite (which was Christmas themed) called Reindeer Nose Drive. 2 girls from each club had to tie a piece of yarn around their neck with a string hanging down that had a cotton ball tied at the end. With a dollop of Vaseline applied to their noses, the girls had to swing the cotton ball up to their face and stick to their nose for 3 seconds! It was extremely funny. We had even more great relays but I’ll let you guys try and figure out what the rest are from the pictures ☺. Like I said, they are creative!

The results at the end of the competition turned out to be…
1st: Rangers!
2nd: Mounties!
3rd: Troopers!
After a whole lot of fun, we had to start calming down for campfire. The girls tonight learned about the game Trivial Pursuit and how that reflects sometimes our pursuit of seeking God through scripture. We all know the Bible can be tough to decipher at times just like finding the right answers in that game. The Bible is the best way to learn about God and we encouraged the girls to dig deeper as they leave camp.

Now it is time for bed! We might hear the pitter-patter of rain outside tonight and I hope, hope, hope that we get a bunch before morning so our river is back to normal height tomorrow! Our plants would love it too! We will be wishing the girls a lot of luck tomorrow, tackling the last day of their activities and beating those Lookout boys in the tournament tomorrow! Until then though, have a wonderful night!

Over and out,

Skadonnelly

Helloooo parents and welcome back to the second week of the camp news. By now all ya’ll have gotten the hang of how to look for your campers pics and read all the info thats out here in the news. We had another beautiful day up here at camp as we started our second full week of activities. Even though it seemed a little warm and we had the rumble of thunder throughout some of the afternoon, we didn’t let that slow us down as we all headed into the gym for a large game of dodgeball and ships and sailors until the clouds went away and then it was right back outside to the activities. You can see form todays picture of the day, that our quidditch classes got to work on their broom flying abilities with a little help form our zip line and the folks at the ropes course. It was pretty fun to watch ‘em grin ear to ear as they flew down the zip line holding’ that broom just like they were flying on it (and hey, they were!!)

Some of our campers were out of camp today enjoying other parts of the region, while some of our campers enjoyed the cool waters of the Ocoee river (I know that had to feel great today!!). Be sure to check out all the Ocoee pics, there are some great shots and facial expressions in there. As a matter of fact, its a great time to make sure you guys know about the fullscreen button on the bottom of your screen. Its a little box with an arrow pointing up out of it. If you see a picture you really like, just hit that box button on the bottom of the screen and that picture will show up on your whole computer screen. You can really see the details in the pics when you use the full screen mode. just hit your escape (ESC) button to go back to the normal viewing.

If white water rafting isn’t your thing, then maybe you would like to do a little diggin’ and crawling’ around underground like our cavers did today. Once you look at those pics, you won’t believe where those girls crawled to. I mean, I like to do some caving, but if they barely fit through some of those spots, I’m pretty sure I just wouldn’t have made it (no comments here please!!). One thing is for sure, it was nice and cool underground and you can tell the girls that went, enjoyed it and weren’t afraid to get a little dirty in the process. All in all, I’m pretty sure all the campers that went out on trips today had a good time.

Now once everyone got back into camp this afternoon, we all got to enjoy some down time as each camper group watched a movie in their very own private viewing area. The Hut Row and Lodge campers spread out in the gym and turned it into the worlds largest slumber party and watch “Passport to Paris” starring the Olson twins. While the ladies from Summerplace enjoyed the air-conditioned confines of Pickles Palace to kick back and watch “Anastasia”. You can see from those pics, they weren’t hurtin’ for space as they spread out mall over the floor. And finally, the ladies of Riverside took over the dining hall to watch the Christmas classic “The Santa Clause”. All the campers enjoyed their own bag(s) of popcorn and plenty of cool night air to relax and recharge their batteries for the rest of the week .

They’ll need those batteries recharged as tomorrow night we have our fast paced, fantastic, fabulous feature of the night called “Minute to win it!!” (maybe you’ve heard of it??). We;ll have our club competition mixed in with several of our own Christmas versions from the hit show Minute to Win it as all our camper compete for club points during tomorrow nights challenge. Now I can’t tell ya all thats gonna happen cause I know you guys, Ya’ll will send emails right away tellin’ your camper what to expect and that would ruin the surprise (you know kinda like that one brother or sister that always wants to open a Christmas gift early). Its gonna be a wild time as they compete under the stars for all the points and I can promise ya one thing, they will be louder than you ever thought a bunch of girls could be (I know, its hard to imagine a bunch of girls getting loud, but it happens…). We’ll be out there front and center getting’ all the great shots for ya and then bringing it back to so youll know who won what and probably trying to explain some of the crazy pictures you’ll be see in’. There will be some wild and crazy shots in tomorrow nights group so be sure to check back in to catch all the action.

Well, like I said last night, movie night is my favorite night since all the pictures are finished, and now the news is almost finished and as soon as I lay my head down on the pillow, I’m pretty sure I’ll be finished too. It won’t be long till I’ll be (As I hear on the favorite TV show in our house now) “HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY” (we’ll see how many of ya’ll admit to knowing where that line comes from?? I bet more of ya’ll than you think)

Weather on the mountain: Like I said earlier, we had a few rumbles of thunder and about 2 minutes of sprinkles today and then it was right back out to the activities for a bright sunny day. I know the campers love it, but I sure wouldn’t mid if we had a few more inches of rain, personally. Maybe one of these next few days (just NOT Friday!).
Temps were around 71 this morning and then up to the mid to upper 80s this afternoon. Should be more of the same tomorrow.

Well folks, its about time for me to hit the hay so you guys have fun looking at all the pictures, be sure to pace yourself, remember you’re only half way there and theres still lots of pics to come in this next week so take your time, try out the full screen button and relax, recharge, and be “HAPPY HAPPY HAPPPY”

Y’all take care, cause like a slow kid in dodge ball…I’m outta here!!!!

LJ

Hellooo Parents and Merry Christmas (in July)!!!

As you can see from today spics, all our campers did actually wake to a white Christmas with a little help from several cases of toilet paper and some now very sleepy Riverside campers!! Anyway you look at it, it was a treat for all involved and the younger campers enjoyed waking to the sounds of horses trotting through camp with Santa wishin’ ‘em all a Merry Christmas. Once everyone woke up and headed to the gym, Santa had to resort to his big boy toys and use a Kawasaki Rhino to get all the presents to the gym for all the campers!! After everyo9ne opened their presents and we had a reading about the first Christmas from Molly, everyone heqded to the dining happ to enjoy our Sunday breakfast of fresh fruit, bacon, bagels, eggs, and of course, on Sunday…we have those homemade donuts!!

After our Christmas morning church service, everyone enjoyed our Christmas dinner of turkey, dressin’, cranberry sauce, green beans and not to mention one of the biggest Christmas cakes I’ve ever seen for desert!!! It was great!!!

Now after all that great Christmas food for breakfast and lunch, we had to find a way to burn some calories and theres no better way to do that than have a carnival complete with water slides, dunking booths, sponge toss, and a camper new game they really like, “9 square in the air”. We had a ball and spent the whole afternoon running around and playing like we were a bunch of, …….well,…… kids!!! There’s plenty of pics from the carnival so be sure to take your time looking through all of ‘em while your lookin’ for your camper.

Now tonight we had a little bit slower evening (thanks goodness… I mean I’m feeling ok, I just want to make sure the kids aren’t tired…know what I mean??) and our counselors put on their best camo and hid in the woods, the trash, why we even had one try to hide under the volleyball court. After everyone had gotten to their hidin’ places, all the campers set out to se how many of the counselors they could find. You can see in the pics, they didn’t leave any stones unturned as they looked everywhere tryin’ to get club points. Now I don’t like to brag, but no camper ever found me when I used to hide…There IS some tactical advantage to them not being able to look inside my house, more specifically, on the couch, in front of the TV!! I thought it was a great spot! After all the lookin and peeping around was finished, the final results were…. (I know you can hear that little drum roll in your head right now can’t ya?)……Troopers 3rd, Rangers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!! Way to go girls!!.

Tomorrow we’ll start our second week of classes and I gotta tell ya parents, you guys have done a great job keepin’ up with all the pictures and newsletter that have been goin on line. There’s a lot of ya’ll that are even taking advantage of our instant updates with instagram on our facebook page. Be sure to keep checkin the facebook page (even if you don’t have one yourself) ‘cause weve just about collected enough video to put some shorts together and have something for you there (and on our youtube channel too). I’ll leyt ya know when it all comes together and gets on line. Meanwhile, you guys that are playin along at home, keep up the good work of surfin’ the internet watchin’ your camper. Your campers would be so proud of how fast you’ve learned how to work the computer without them around to help out.

We’ll be back out in camp tomorrow shootin all the classes we haven’t been too yet, so keep checkin back. There won’t be as many campers in each class tomorrow (more photo ops for the campers that are here!!!!) since we’ll have our out of camp trips all heading out tomorrow. One group will be heading up to raft the wild waters of the Ocoee River, while another group of courageous campers heads down towards Ft. Payne to go spelunking (that’s caving to most of us!!). Even though they won’t let me go (I think I really need to talk to someone about that!!!), we’ll have a camera on each trip so you won’t miss out on any of the action on the water, under the ground, or even back here on terra firma at Camp Skyline. There’ll be plenty of pictures tomorrow so go ahead and be ready for a long night of picture surfin’!!!.

After everyone gets back from their trip or finished their day in classes, we’ll give everyone a chance to rest with a cameraman favorite,… I mean a camper favorite, … movie night!! This is where each group of campers will get to watch a movie complete with their own bag of popcorn (you can’t watch a movie without popcorn…I think it’s a movie bylaw somewhere??). The best part is they all come to the movies dressed in their PJ’s and bringing their pillow and sleepin bag. It looks like the worlds biggest slumber party and by the end of the movie it pretty much ends up being that. Most of the campers will be snoozing. Its always fun to watch the counselors carry some of the younger campers back to their cabins!!

Well, that’s about all I got to say about everything that’s been going on today here at camp. Its been a fun filled and wild day from the very beginning (that seems like SOOOO long ago now) until now and tomorrow is gonna be more of the same.

Weather on the mountain: after the massive snow storm this morning (it all melted pretty quickly) it was another beautiful day here on the mountain. Plenty of sunny skies and warm temps made it just right for the carnival this afternoon and then cooled off for counselor hunt tonight. Hopefully we’ll get a little more rain somewhere in the next few days, but either way, our campers aren’t gonna let that slow them down one way or another.

You guys have a great night, I’m about to head off and count reindeer to go to sleep (I bet I count to “wa”). Enjoy the pics and I’ll talk to you tomorrow night after all the movies

Take care folks,
LJ

Helloooo and Merry Christmas Eve to ya parents!!! Its Christmas in July eve up here at Skyline and we have been full of Christmas spirit and cheer all week and especially today. Its always great around Christmas time when everyone is acting the way they should all year anyway. Well, its been like that all week up here and the campers love it.

Tonight, we had our Santa’s Workshop where we help ‘ol Santa out by making all sorts of decorations, Christmas cookies (just wait till you see some of those cookies, I almost went into sugar shock just taking pictures of ‘em!!), face painting, making stained glass windows and all sorts of other Christmas decorations to spice up the gym for tomorrow morning when you know who stops by!!! (as long as we’ve all been good!). I even had one of our campers color me a picture using nothing but colors of my college rival (it’s the thought that counts…right???). It really was a great time tonight as everyone got into the mood by dressin up in the Christmas colors and then to add to it, we had nothing but Christmas music playing over the loud speakers in the gym. You couldn’t help but feel the spirit in the air, not to mention the cold front that’s headin’ this way where Jimmy C promised me our campers would awake to a white Christmas morning. The weather channel tried to get up here to do a live shot from camp (you know its gonna be rough weather when Jim Cantore is setting up in your front yard!!), but theres only enough room for one bald guy here at camp during Christmas (beside, my wife would be going crazy!!) so I had to tell ‘em to tune into our website for updates (they can log in to get our weather on the 8’s!!!… I know some of yall will get that!!!).

Well, all the campers have headed back to bed and are getting ready for our big Christmas morning wake up call from St. Nick himself, and then to the gym to get our Christmas presents and a reading from the first real Christmas story. After that he’ll head to breakfast, Sunday school and church (I just love church on Christmas morning!!).

After lunch we’ll have our huge Christmas carnival complete with inflatable toys and slides, sno cones and many more activities and games. Its one of the camper favorites during 3rd session so be sure to tune in to see all the pics throughout the day.

After all that we’ll end tomorrow night with out counselor hunt where the campers will team up and head out to look for counselors that have hidden all around camp. The best part is when they find a counselor,m they get to bring ‘em back and take that counselor home with them for a year!! Just kidding, I just wanted to see how many of ya’ll were still awake!! Actually the counselors are worth club points and the more the find, the more points they get for their club. It’s a great night of hide N seek around camp.

Weather on the mountain: Like I said before folks, theres a storm a brewin’ out there straight down from the artic express and my buddy Jim Cantore sent me a text and said to be prepared for a complete white out tomorrow morning when our campers awake for Christmas!! He said as much as 2-3 cases, um… I mean inches of the white stuff could be all across the ground and in the trees and said every camper as Skyline would wake to a white Christmas. I guess the front should be passing later tonight since its still in the lower 70s out there right now, we’ll wait for a change in the wind direction and see what happens…

Well folks, over the years, I’ve always written a Christmas poem for 3rd session on the night before Christmas and since this is the night before Christmas, here it goes, hope ya’ll enjoy it!!!

T’was the night before Christmas, and all ‘cross the land
Not a camper was stirring; St Nick was close at hand
The campers were nestled and snug in their bunks
Their stockings all hung from the sides of their trunks

Sally in her kerchief and I in a cap,
had just settled down for a very short nap
Then all across camp, we heard such a noise
It was Santa & Rudolf and the rest of the boys

To each of the cabins, they flew in a dash
I’d have taken their picture, but I didn’t have a flash
First Bevshack and Brookwood, and then Dewey’s Den
Next Edmae and Joywood stopping long enough to run in

To Driftwood, Bar-H, Beetlebum, and Totem Hall,
To Rosey Den and Hillbillies, he stopped at ‘em all.
He even made a stop, to see our camp nurses
And left somethin’ for them inside of their purses

He had rosy cheeks, and a broad little face
I could see it real well, as he stopped at Summerplace
Then up to Riverside, he landed on the roof
Took his bag full of toys, down the chimney in a POOF!!

To each of their rooms, he quietly crept,
and set out their toys while Riverside slept
he finally finished, now back to his ride
Put his finger by his nose, and BAM!! He was outside
(sorry E, couldn’t resist!)

He hopped back in his sleigh and gave me a smile
He surly knew I’d been there awhile
I heard him exclaim, as he flew through the pines
Merry Christmas in July, from Camp Skyline!!!

Merry Christmas in July folks from all of us here at camp!!! I hope you have a great weekend…
we sure are……

LJ

What a day today has been! Skadonnelly again! We started out with a misty, grey morning and then as soon as we headed to activities the sky opened up and it was a beautiful sunny, warm day! Something we have started to miss now that we have had a couple days of rain (even though we still need a decent amount of rain to help out the Little River). As Larry projected before, we are keep track of our Christmas cold front coming through and we fully expect a white Christmas morning on Sunday! Christmas is just my favorite time of year and I am so glad we get to experience a little Christmas cheer mid-summer.

Activities were in full swing in the sunshine and the energy level was higher than I have ever seen it this session. Walking around to all the different activities throughout today has just been refreshing. So many smiles and so many friendships growing. I love it. I spent some quality time out with the new-to-this-year Quidditch class today and wow, who knew running around on a broomstick pretending to “fly” like all the kids in Harry Potter while throwing all sorts of different balls at each other could be so much fun! I had a blast just watching. The teachers even hide a “Snitch” that 2 girls are assigned each game to search for while the other girls play. It’s hysterical. Please take a gander at those pictures when you look at all the great ones form today.

Lunch today was extra special because…THE BOYS CAME TO VISIT! A handful of boys of all ages from one of the nearby camps stopped by to hand out roses to girls as a sweet gesture to show their excitement for the night’s festivities. The girls get super excited for this moment and many of the Riverside girls even make signs making sure those boys know that they want a rose! There are also pictures of today’s lunch online, showing who those lucky, rose receiving girls were!

I am sure the rest of the camp day passed pretty slowly for the girls because I could hear that all the buzz was about the dance later that evening. Dinner came and went and before I knew it we were out on the tennis courts waiting for the boys to arrive! The buses rolled through camp and then finally the dance had begun!!! Lots of great songs were played and it was so sweet to watch the boys work up the nerve to ask a girl to dance. We had The Wop playing, lots of Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and those dance party favorites like the Cha Cha Slide, the Macarena, and Shout! Having the dance out on the tennis court is a new development this summer and it has been one of the smartest decisions! It is soooooo much cooler out on those tennis courts and it provides a bit more space for everyone to spread out but still be together. Air flow is a major plus out on the tennis courts. The constant sweating from the moment the dance would start in the gym was drastically cut down to a minimum on the courts. I have heard only positive responses to the change, so YAY!

Once the boys departed for the evening, it actually began to sprinkle as the girls dismissed to campfire. Great timing! Campfire ended up being cut a little short and since it began to rain I ran back to the office to make sure I got the camera, with all of the precious dance pictures, back safe and DRY so I am sorry that I can’t give you the update on tonight’s campfire but I know it was a cute one! I’ll make sure to update it next time though.

Tomorrow is CHRISTMAS EVE here at Skyline! To prepare for Christmas morning, tomorrow night’s activity is Santa’s Workshop where girls can make a number of crazy crafts for themselves or their Secret Santa which will all be revealed Sunday too! I am so excited!

I hope you have enjoyed all the pictures and posts so far! We love to do it ☺. Until next time!

Over and out!

Skadonnelly

Hellooooo Parents and welcome back to Camp news,

Its Larry here and its great to be back getting’ to tell y’all about everything that happened up here on the mountain today. First off , the good news is that we had some rain, a little here a little there, a lot during rest hour (yes, it was great to hear the rain outside as we took much needed naps!!). Now during the rest of the day our campers stayed busy with all the classes and if it was too wet for their class to go to the regular location, then they had rain day locations where they worked on all sorts of different things. You can see from some of the earlier pictures, the circus class was plenty busy learning some impressive hand balancing acts. If you haven’t seen ‘em be sure to look through the pics from today so you don’t miss out!!

Now tonight we had a perfect activity for the evening with our version of Underground Railroad. Where our campers had to make their way across camp without beein’ seen by one of the nasty bounty hunters. (not to be confused with “Dog the Bounty hunter”). When one of our bounty hunters spotted a group of campers they yelled out “Bounty hunter sees you!!” at which point the group would have to disguise themselves as rocks so they would drop right where they were and try not to move or laugh while the bounty hunters explored what they thought were rocks (sorry UGA fans, I just can’t bring myself to say they “hunkered down”). If they passed inspection, they the bounty hunter would move on and the group would keep making their way to a clue somewhere in camp that would lead them to another clue and eventually lead them all to freedom.

“But what about those rocks that moved or laughed while they were bein’ investigated by the bounty hunters” you’re probably askin’ right now. Well, those campers that were caught by the bounty hunters had to make their way to jail and wait for another group of campers to come by and get the to join their group so they could continue on their journey towards freedom (its all part of the no camper left behind act of the late 1990’s). Not to worry parents, your campers made sure every camper made it to freedom as they kept coming by the “jail” to bail out the ones that had been sent there and let ‘em all join the different groups. In the end all the campers did make it to freedom and they had a fun time with the different dynamics that each group had as they added and lost campers all throughout the night.

Now if you thought they had a fun time tonight, just wait till tomorrow night!! The whole camp is already a buzz about the big event that’s gonna take place out on the tennis courts under the stars and the lights of Skyline. That’s right, its DANCE NIGHT with the boy camps of LMC and Camp Laney!!!! Now don’t worry dads, I’ll be out there shootin’ all the boys that dance with our campers (with the camera of course…campers aren’t even in season right now!!) so you guys at home will be able to see who your camper dances with just as soon as the dance is finished. I know you’re probably as excited about the dance as your campers are!! I’ll tell ya one company that’s excited about the dance is Alabama Power! Once all our campers crank up those hair driers to get themselves ready for the big evening, our meters are spinnin’ like tops around here. It’ll be worth it though as they all look pretty for the night. Be sure to check back in to see who all danced with who.
Well, tomorrow will be almost a full week that your campers have been here and trust me folks, they’re so proud that you guys have done as well as you have while they’ve been gone having fun. You can see the excitement in their eyes when they see that you’ve been able to send ‘em an email without them there to help ya log in! Keep up the good work sending the emails and checkin’ the pics.

By the way parents, there was a good article from a news station today that actually popped up on weather.com and I put a link to it on our facebook page. If you miss your camper (and who doesn’t), be sure to go to our facebook page and read the article, especially if you’re a first time camp parent. It’s got some really good info for you that you’ll like (and really appreciate!!)

Weather on the mountain: well, like I said before, we had some rain off and on all day and the only time it was some thick rain was during rest hour. The rest of the day it was not enough to stop us from having more fun that the law should allow!! One thing the rain did do was cool everything on the mountain. Can you say around 70 this morning and 75 this afternoon!! Yea it was great!! One thing to keep your eye on this weekend though, my friend at TWC Jim Cantore did send me an email saying there was an unusually strong cold front that has started making its way out of the north pole and could be here in the deep south by Sunday morning (which is Christmas morning here at camp), he said this front os so big that theres a possibility it could bring snow here to Skyline as early as Sunday. Just imagine that, snow of Sunday and our campers waking to a white Christmas…what are the odds??? (pretty high I’m sure, but I’d take ’em on this one!!!)

Well folks, theres lots of pics for you guys to search through so I’m gonna let ya go and get back to all the pictures of your campers and I’ll get back to checkin’ the back of my eyelids for leaks (I plan on doin’ a VERY thorough job of checkin’). I need to get my rest if I’m gonna keep up with everyone on the dance floor tomorrow night!!

Have a good night,
LJ

What a wet day it has turned out to be at Skyline! Luckily, the rain held off for a majority of the day during activities. We were also lucky to have our nighttime activity take place in the gym tonight when the rain really did come. It was much needed here so we are all letting out a big sigh of relief right now.

Skadonnelly here again tonight to inform you all that way too much fun was had today!!! Today was Picture Dayyyyyyy!!! Camp arose a couple minutes earlier today to don our club and staff uniforms for our traditional cabin and club pictures after breakfast. Don’t worry, all uniforms were in perfect, stain-free condition because we got smart somewhere along the road and started having the girls turn their shirts backwards while they eat. Some of them look at us weird when we suggest the idea but they sure are thankful when they drip a little food on themselves by accident and realize its an easy fix!

Pictures went off without a hitch. The rain held up and we had many a camper take their turn leaning and hugging (or even spider-monkey clinging) to our favorite picture tree. Larry will have all the individual photos on a swanky DVD for you to have when you pick up your daughter on closing day along with allll the pictures uploaded to the website from the session.

Activities encountered a little rain shower, which had us inside for a class period, but then we were back out in the overcast, sunshine! Lunch came and went, and so did rest hour (which for me, NEVER seems long enough) and all of a sudden it was dinner! We enjoyed a delicious meal and then it was the moment the girls had all been waiting for….it was time for TALENT NIGHT!!!!

There were 30 acts of incredible talent this session and I mean to tell you, we were all VERY entertained! We had talents that streamed all across the board; dancing, singing, hoola-hooping, gymnastic displays, piano performances and more! I have uploaded a bunch of photos from tonight’s show so make sure to check them all out! I was honestly impressed with all the talent Skyline tends to gather. It’s so great to see girls of all ages get up there and do their thing in front of everyone despite all the nerves. I LOVE Talent Night. Our judges had a tough deliberation when it came time to select our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Overall winners for both groups 1, 2, & 3 AND 4, 5, & 6. The results came to be….

Groups 1, 2, and 3:
1st Place – Elizabeth Coleman and Sara Evelyn McClintock
2nd Place – Hally Lee
3rd Place – Caroline Wright
Overall – Taylor Maddox

Groups 4, 5, and 6:
1st Place – Morgan James Artigas
2nd Place – Andie Whitfield
3rd: Place – Katie Foy and Caroline Cross
Overall – Helen Camp

A BIIIGGG congratulations goes to these girls and all the girls that participated tonight. Again, it was an outstanding show!

Of course, just our luck, when the show ends and we want to dismiss to campfire, the bottom of the sky just falls out. The rain came and campfire was now going to be held in the gym. The girls tonight learned about how the game Pictionary can remind us that even in the here and now, God always has a bigger picture for us than we can imagine. That he has a plan for each and every one of us and we should always trust in Him.

Now we all get to enjoy drifting off to sleep to the sound of rain (which is my FAVORITE) so we can be well rested for another day of non-stop fun! Tomorrow the girls are looking forward to playing “Underground Railroad” which is another camp favorite that is played with your cabin! The girls have to hone in on their inner quiet in order to keep from laughing and moving as the “bounty hunters” try and discover the girls hiding as boulders! It’s a great game and I am sure Larry will have plenty of good stories about that tomorrow.

Until then, goodnight!

-Skadonnelly

Greetings parents and friends! Skadonnelly (aka Sarah Kate) here to update you on all things that were happening at camp today! I am not sure if Larry has introduced me yet but I am on the Admin team this summer working as his little helper on all things pictures, videos, and posts. After being a camper and a counselor here, I am loving the opportunity to see another side of camp. Especially since I was always out at Skylines’ circus, it’s nice to see what else goes on at camp again!

We kicked off our second day of activities with a ton of energy! The girls went to their first activities and before to long we had a couple rain showers that sent us to our rainy day areas. But that didn’t stop the fun! If the activities were inside, they carried on with their activity. But if they were outside, most came into the gym and we played HUGE games of Ships and Sailors, Dance Party Four Square, and Dodgeball!!! Counselor versus camper Dodgeball seemed to be the crowd favorite for the day but the dance party was a close second! The girls honestly didn’t even to really seem to notice that it was even raining they were having so much fun. I even tried my hand at playing and I danced so hard I was wiped by lunch. Camera Girl zonked out at rest hour!

After lunch and rest hour the rain let up and we were able to all carry on like normal. Circus, Tower, and Ropes were up in the air doing all sorts of crazy things and Larry and I were all over the place trying to capture the great moments. Larry even tried his hand at tennis and apparently got whooped (He told me not to tell butttt…it will be our little secret).

Activities were over and many of the girls took the time to stop by the T-Shirt Corral and stock up on some stylish, Skyline goodies (maybe for their Secret Santa!) or take a swing on the infamous rope swing! Then before we knew it, it was dinner. Man time just flies when you are having fun, right!? Dinner was a fajita fiesta! We had chicken fajita and banana pudding for dessert, YUM!!

We all breathed a sigh of relief at dinner when we realized the rain was going to hold off for us a little bit longer so we could run out and solve our CAMP WIDE CLUE mystery!! After dinner, we headed to the gym to learn that our beloved Pickle, the Ropes expert, was kidnapped!!!!!! Each cabin had to take on the task of travelling to different locations around camp, to meet different “eye witnesses” and solve how Pickle was captured, where, and by WHO!!! Now, these “witness” didn’t give up their important information easily. In order for each cabin to find out a clue they had to complete a special task.

The girls were off and they ran to quite the assortment of crazy characters. The “witnesses” ranged from Elvis making a girl from each group peel a banana with her feet, Katniss and Foxface from the Hunger Games at archery making the girls play a relay, Barbie and Ken were here playing dress up with the girls in exchange for the info, and of course, we had Super Counselor making sure the girls were super campers by testing their camp knowledge and timing their speedy showering skills! Other characters such as the Three Blind Mice, Trish from the Skyline Barn, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and Ms. America also helped the girls figure out who was the culprit in this Skyline crime!

Then we all gathered back together and found out that it was none other than that bald guy, LARRY who kidnapped Pickle WITH the twirling baton IN the Riflery range!!! HOW COULD HE!? The girls were very relieved to find Pickle safe and sound back in the gym and I am sure Larry will get an ear full tomorrow :)!!

We then all quietly dismissed to campfire (and all the admin and I agree at how great this session is at getting quiet when they need to be!) to listen to a couple of our counselors give a little devotion. Each campfire is themed around a different game we all grow up playing that relates to our relationship with God. Tonight’s was about “Pretty Pretty Princess”. It focused around how we each are considered like the most beautiful crown jewels to God. We are his creation and he cherishes us like we would cherish crown jewels. Campfire is always such a special time. A great way to wind down at the end of a high energy day.

And speaking of winding down…it is time for me to sign off and head to bed! Larry and I look forward to updating you on another day at camp. We are so glad that you guys have been enjoying all the pictures! They are sooo much fun to take :). Until we meet again!

Skadonnelly

Helloooo Parents and welcome back to tonights version of Camp News!!

What a great day we had up here o the mountain today as everyone got to play in their new classes and get a good feel for the surroundings of camp. When you look through all the pics, you’ll be able to see some of the activities they got to play in today (once you look, you’ll be jealous!!). It was fun walking around and takin’ the pics and getting to listen to all the campers as they tried new things. One of the best things descriptions I’ve ever heard about the Vs Swing on the ropes course came today from a camper who said (and I quote) “It’s like really scary for 2 seconds…and then its AWESOME!!!” (hows that spelling this year PB?). It was fun to watch their eyes light up and listen to ‘em say "I can’t do this!!" all the way while they were doing it. I gotta admit to ya I did trick one camper today but trust me, it was for the better. She was walking (reluctantly) across the burma bridge (wire rope up in the air) and she happen to be one of the ones that was determined she couldn’t do it. I told her we couldn’t really negotiate her finishing the walk while she was on the wire, but if she would come to the next platform, we could talk about it then". would you believe she agreed to hold our meeting on the platform and by the time she got there, she didn’t even realize she had finished the wire rope walk. After that it was one of our great counselors turn to explain to her that she would have to swing down to talk to me and that was about all it took. By the way once she swung down, she still tried to explain to me why she couldn’t do what she just did…you followed all that didn’t ya??

I have to be honest with ya parents, I love to make fun of those of y’all that have a hard time saying good bye to your campers when you bring them to camp. Well…. today Sally and I were one of ya’ll. We were at the Atlanta airport at 6:30 this morning to drop our son off while he flew out to go to camp in California and trust me, it was pretty hard to say good bye no matter how excited he was or how much he wanted us to leave so he could get on the plane with the other campers and head off to camp (sound familiar???) I know you guys are probably thinking “Hah!!!!Now you know how we feel!!” well, maybe not, the camp he’s going to doesn’t have any pictures or some poor soul typing newsletters each night, so… I guess I’ll just see him in 2 weeks (I did tell him “Good Luck” when he left…its a dad thing) And after watching one of my favorite movies the other night, it made me think that “Camp is like a box of chocolates, when your camper comes home, you never know what you’re gonna get?” I can’t wait to see how much he changes, I know you guys will be surprised too when you see your campers at the end of the session.

Well tonight we had our camper favorite, SOCK WARS, where all the campers get on their clubs and compete for club points by hurling socks at the other members of other clubs while their trig to get their club flag. Just take a look at the pics and you’ll see our campers defended their flags and filled the air with socks as they were attacked by other clubs over and over again. At the end of the night, we did have a winner and heres the moment you’ve all been waiting’ for….. (drum roll please)…Rangers 3rd, Troopers 2nd, and the Mighty Mounties 1st!!! Way to go girls they all played hard!!!

Tomorrow night we’ll have another wild and wacky time here at Skyline as we play our camp wide CLUE!! The campers will be enjoying dinner when all of a sudden someone will bust into the dining hall and break some news that someone on the staff has been taken and its up to our campers to figure out who, how, and where (you remember…Prof Plum, in the Library with a lead pipe etc…), except our campers will be in their cabin groups and travel around camp to ask all sorts of characters questions, but to get answers from them, the campers will have to do all sorts of crazy task to get bits and pieces of answers to be able to eliminate people, places and things. Hopefully bu the end of the night, they’ll be able to have enough people marked off their papers to figure out who did it, where they did, and how they did it. We;ll be running around (and I do mean running around) getting all the pics so you can see your campers performing the task to get the answers. Its a wild time. If yo know of any parents that DON’T read the news (I know its hard to believe that some people don’t wait for this every night!!) yo might want to tell ‘em to read it tonight, ’cause when they see the pics, they’re really gonna be confused if they don’t have an understanding of whats goin on. It’s a fun night and everyone loves all the crazy things they have to do to get the answers. Be sure to check back in and see for yourself!!

Before I forget, you guys can get up to the minute updates when anything exciting is happening at camp by clicking on our Facebook link at the top of our webpage. Lindsey and others are walking around camp and posting pictures on our Facebook using “instagram” and she’s bringing you the results of competitions as they happen. Be sure to click on the Facebook link at the top of our webpage to be updated!!

Weather on the mountain: it was another perfect day at camp (especially if you’re a cactus), quite frankly, I’d be pretty dad gum happy to have one of those things we used to call a rain day once again. Thank goodness it wasn’t too hot as the temps only got up to 90 this afternoon. Warm, but still not too hot to stop all the excitement of the first day of classes. Hopefully a little cooler and maybe some of the “R” word if we cross our fingers.

Well folks, thats about all for tonight and whats in store for tomorrow, somewhere there’s a nice soft pillow with my name on it just waiting for me to drop my head into. You guys on the other hand, still probably have several pages of pictures to go through, so take your time and pace yourself as you start to get crossed eyed from studying each picture for just a glimpse of your camper (don’t say you don’t do it……..I would if I could for the next two weeks)

Y’all have a good night, I’m outta here.

LJ

Well HO HO HO Hellloooooooo Parents (it IS Christmas in July this session!!) and welcome to the first edition of Camp News for 3rd session 2012! Congrats to all you parents that made it through check in this morning. Let me first apologize to all y’all that had to wait in longer than normal lines this time. As you can tell, we made some changes to our screening process and things went a little slower than we expected. (Hey, Coca-Cola thought it would be a good idea to change their formula one time too…that didn’t work so well either) Needless to say folks, you won’t see that set up again. It WILL be different and quicker the next time you come through check in. (an hour of prevention IS worth about 3 days of cure though!!) The good news is your campers are all now squared away and have spent the whole day playing and having fun with their new cabin mates. Over the next two weeks, we’ll keep ya informed and up to date with all the going ons while your camper is having the time of her life and you guys are at home spending way too much time on the computer. (trust me, its gonna happen…don’t say I didn’t warn ya!!).

Before we go too far, let me fill ya in on how all this works. We’ll be taking pics (WAY too many of them !!!) and postin’ them online just as fast as we can from here at camp. Usually we’ll get the morning pics up just after lunch, the afternoon pics up after dinner and then for you strong willed parents that want to stay up as late as me, we’ll have the nighttime pics and your own newsletter each night after we finish with the nighttime activities. Now if I had taken keyboardin’ in high school, you’d probably be gettin’ the newsletter a lot sooner and it would be a lot easier for e to type this thing. But since I didn’t…were both outta luck and I’m huntin’ and peckin’ just as fast as I can for ya!! As you can probably tell by now, my typin’ sounds a LOT like I talk. It’s not mis-spelled words, it just sounds better that way anyway so sit back, keep your arms and legs in the car while this session is in motion, ‘cause were gonna have a wild ride these next two weeks from camp!!!!!

After you guys finished dropping off your camper this mornin’ all the campers got to know their new cabin mates by playin games and lookin around camp. They eventually ended up in the gym and signed up for all their classes they’ll be takin the next two weeks. You’ll be getting a post card in the mail in afew days with their class schedule on it so you guys will know what they signed up for. Don’t take time off work to wait by the mailbox for that postcard though, I don’t want to say the Mentone mail is slow, but it takes the post man an hour and a half just to watch “60 minutes”, if ya know what I mean!! You’ll also find out which club your camper is in when you gst the card and this is some important information so hang on to it and make sure you remember the club and what color they are (more info on that in a later letter).

Now after lunch, we split the camp into half and had the younger campers take off one of their shoes and put it in a big bag. The bag was taken to the older campers and each on picked out a shoe and when they returned to the gym, they had to find thei owner of the shoe they were holdin’. This is their new Skyline sister and bestest camp buddy. Its sorta like a big sis- little sis thing and the campers really appreciate having an older/younger new friend for the session.

After dinner all the cabins got to pick whatever activity they wanted to do for “Cabin Fun Night” here at Skyline. Each cabin chooses their own activity, this way they get to keep learnin’ more about all their new cabin mates. As you can see form all the pics (and trust me on this parents…its SO much fun trying to take pictures of 10 different events all going on at the same time…..can you detect the sarcasm in my voice???) shaving cream wars and giant waterslides seem to be one of the camper favorites. Other campers got to “Sundae” their counselors by turnin’ their counselor into a giant ice cream Sunday (they had to answer a question about their counselor to get the chance to put a scoop or some chocolate on ‘em) and of course the ladies of riverside enjoyed their game of “Ultimate Charades” out in the field. Other cabins had spa night, karaoke, and tie dyed all different types of clothing!

Then it was off to campfire where some of the cabins got to enjoy smores for the evening! YUM!!!

All the campers really enjoy the first night of playing with their new friends and counselors and what a perfect way to kick off the start of 3rd session!! (thank goodness non of them wanted to play “Sundae the cameraman”!!!).

Now tomorrow, we’ll start our first day of classes and al the campers will be going around and learning the ins and outs of everything from archery, ropes course, horseback, circus, fun swim, canoeing, cooking classes and more!! We’ll be right there with ‘em shootin’ all the campers (you know what I mean, with the camera of course…besides, campers aren’t even in season right now anyway!!) so you guys at home will get to keep up with everything they’re doin’ and feel like you’re right here with ‘em every day.

Tomorrow night we’ll have our camper favorite “SOCK WARS” …episode III (3rd session get it?). This is where each club will hide their flag out in camp and each camper will have several stuffed socks. Once we ring the bell, the clubs will head out to try an find the other clubs flags, but WATCH OUT!!! If you’re tagged by a stuffed sock that was thrown by a member of a different club, you’ll have to report to the scorers table to get back in the game. It’s a fun filled time with plenty of socks filling the air and camper smiles as they tryin’ to keep from being tagged. If you think your confused by readin’ the description about it, just wait till ya see the pics…then you’ll really be confused!!!

Well folks after a full day of check in and afternoon games and cabin fun night, I think I’m gonna head off to bed and get some sleep ‘cause its gonna be a long session and there’s plenty of action just waitin’ ahead for you and your camper so you guys be sure to pace yourself while you on the computer. If ya don’t, you’ll find yourself spendin’ way too much dad gum time looking through pics tryin to spot your campers elbow, tennis shoe, etc…(you get the idea).

So you guys enjoy the pics, don’t stay up too late and have a good night and a great 3rd session. I’ll be back here tomorrow night with more details about everything here at camp

See ya,

LJ

Helloooo Parents and Happy Birthday America!!!!!!

We had a fabulous birthday celebration for America up here at camp today and it all started early this morning when our very own horseback crew rode through camp yellin’ and warnin’ all the campers that the British were coming. Of course our campers rose up to the challenge and sprang from their cabins to watch the horses and riders run through camp.

After our flag raising and breakfast, we headed out to our last day of classes and everyone enjoyed the last playtime in all their activities. You cans see in the pics, our canoeing class had a fun time in “Splashout” where they get to try and swamp everyone else in the canoes down on the river. Our equestrian program had their horseshow and those ladies really put on a show.

Tomorrow we’ll have our Grand Championship where winners from all the classes will compete for the Grand Championship and some big club points for their club. We’ll be there getting all the pics so you guys playing at home can keep up with the winners!

After the Grand tomorrow, our Musical theatre will put on their presentation of Annie for the rest of camp to see. I’ve been watching those campers practice throughout the session and I can’t wait to see the final performance! You’ll get to see a lot of the pictures form the show so you’ll feel like your right there too!!

Now tonight after dinner, we had our 4th of July parade right through the middle of camp and all the campers lined the driveway to cheer on their cabin float and try to catch some of the candy that was bein’ thrown out to them (you can’t have a parade if you don’t throw candy…I think its written in the bylaws somewhere). After the parade we had Showtime and those girls that performed in showtime really did one heck of a job. I think the rest of camp probably has leg cramps from all the standing ovations they gave tonight. But I tell ya, everyone of them was earned the old fashioned way, they EARNED them!!

Well folks, can you believe this is the last news letter for second session? Where has the time gone? I just can’t believe the whole session is almost over and the girls have been here that long (I know for some of you at home it seems like its taken forever) but I gotta tell ya, while we’ve been here at camp, its been just a blink of an eye and BANG! The session is over!

After all the performances tomorrow, we’ll wind down our session with our banquet night where the campers will sit with their clubs at dinner and each class will give out their awards. Not to mention the awards for the campers that have been here for the numbers of years, and then the biggie, the honor counselors and honor campers. To wind it all up, we’ll announce what every camper has been waiting for and that’s the cup winners. Each club has been competing for the the point cup (for the club that’s accumulated the most points in all the competitions during the session), the horse show cup (given to the club whos camper won the Grand Championship) and then its time for the biggest of ‘em all… the Eloise H Temple spirit cup (given to the club that’s shown the most spirit, sportsmanship, citizenship, etc… throughout the session). This cup is voted on by the counselors and it’s the one every camper wants to claim for their club.

Its also one of the saddest time during the session ‘cause after all the awards have been handed out, its time for the campers to realize that camp is almost finished and everyone will be going home soon. I’m pretty sure I could get Kleenex to sponsor the banquet if they only knew how much crying was involved once the campers start saying “good-bye”. It really is a sad time when you see just how close all the campers have become in the short time they’re here and how important the friendships they’ve made are to them.

After banquet (and all the tears have been mopped up, hey, its girls whatcha expect?) all the campers will head down to the river for river vespers where our counselor choir will paddle downstream singing and our club leaders will give their fairwell speech along with the campers that have aged out of camp. It’s another really touching moment when you get to see just what these girls get from camp. I’d take some pictures for ya, but pictures just wouldn’t do the moment any justice for all the emotion that’s coming out during this time.

Speakin’ of time, I guess its time for me to sign off one last time and say good bye to all you that have spent entirely too much time on the computer these last two weeks. I really can’t say how much fun it was to have ya’ll tune in and keep up with all the going ons up here at camp these past two weeks. You guys at home have no idea how much we appreciate the fact that you let us have your most prized possession here to play and grow with us for second session. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have but I really doubt that would be possible ‘cause we’ve had a blast these past two weeks!! I also wanna thank you guys that have stayed up way too late each night or got up way too early each mornin’ to ready these silly newsletters. I often wonder just how many of ya’ll are out there reading these and really appreciate the post some of ya’ll have made throughout the session to let us know you’re involved with your daughter even though you’re not here at camp with us (some of ya’ll would have no problem moving into camp if we offered…this is not that invitation though…sorry).

Well folks, you guys have a safe trip up (or down) here when you head this way and please be careful on your way up. We look forward to seein’ ya when you get here. One owrd of warnin’ though, your campers will be really happy to see ya, but that doesn’t mean they’re gonna be happy to leave. Just so you’ll be prepared. (there, I told ya!!)Be sure to stop by the front office when you get here and say “Hi”. I’ll be the one out front that looks as tired as most of ya’ll. So….. theres still plenty of pics to come tomorrow, enjoy checkin’ ‘em all out and congratulations, you’re almost there.

Yall have a great night, I’m gonna head off to bed and get ready for the onslaught of tears tomorrow night!!

For the last time second session….Ya’ll take care, I’m outta here!!!

LJ

A wild and wacky hello to ya parents!! I hope everyone had as good of day as we had up here on the mountain, but I seriously doubt that was possible. Its been pretty awesome today with the sun N fun going on around camp. As you can see from the pictures today the girls out at the equestrian ring are really getting in some serious riding and now working n the jumps. The girls in quidditch class (yes..THAT quidditich form Harry Potter) has finally mastered flying on their brooms while chasing the snitch. If you don’t believe me, just look through todays pics and you’ll see them flying all around on their brooms!!

By now I would assume that you guys have already looked at the pics from tonights activity and you’re wondering what kind of relays are they doing? Well… wouldn’t you know as we were all enjoying tonights dinner, just sittin’ around waiting on the chocolate chip cookies to be passed around for desert when all of a sudden …. Those mean ol boy counselors from Camp Laney (not really, it was just our counselors dressed up to look like that…but don’t tell the girls) burst into the dinning hall, and stole the club flags from your dear precious little campers. Well folks, I’m hear to tell ya, your campers just ain’t gonna stand for that! I mean, someone’s gotta pay when you think you can just walk right in and take a clubs flag from them.

Fortunately for us, we happen to have some clues as to where those ol stinky boys took the flags and all our brave little campers had to do was go out and try to get 4 campers around the legs of the counselors without being tagged by one of the stuffed socks the boys had. If they were tagged by one of the socks, all they had to do was go back to the scorers table and then they were right back in the game tryin’ to get back around the counselors legs. You can see from all the pics, your campers didn’t lack any desire getting’ those flags back. Once they got all the counselors out at one location, they’d get a clue tellin’ ‘em where to go to find the next set of boy counselors and the next clue. At the end of the night, after all the socks had filled the air and the campers were clingin’ to the counselors legs, the final results were…. Drum roll please…. Rangers 3rd, Mounties 2nd and Troopers 1st!!! Way to go girls!! All of ‘em should sleep great tonight after all the energy they spent trying to get those mean ‘ol counselors tonight!!

No even though the Rangers came in 3rd in tonight’s activity, don’t worry about those guys, they grabbed a chunk of club points this morning when they found the hidden golden horseshoe!! All the campers have been looking for the horseshoe and the girls have even been singing request to Alisa at lunch asking her for clues to the horseshoe. Some of ‘em must have been good, cause when they found that horseshoe, you should’ve seen them coming to the dinning hall to ring the bell signaling everyone in camp that they had found the horseshoe. We caught some of it on video and will get it up on our youtube in a day or two fro all you Ranger parents to see!! (ok… the rest of you parents can look too!!)

Would you believe tomorrow is our last day of classes here for second session? This session has flown by and I can’t believe were down to the final few days. I know some of you parents think its taken forever to finally get here, but trust me, the campers feel like they just arrived. All the campers will be getting’ their final rides down the zip line, on the blob, their favorite horse, finishing up their arts n crafts, etc… tomorrow as we finish our last day of classes here at camp. They’ll also be wrappin’ up all the final practices in gymnastics and all the other classes as we get ready for our big even tomorrow night, SHOWTIME at SKYLINE. That’s when the campers will get to show everything they’ve learned to the rest of camp. Its bound to be one heck of a show as we get to see everything from flag and baton, to gymnastics, glee, cheerleading, dance and more all throughout the evening. We’ll be right down front and center to catch all the action for ya and bring it to ya here on this same bat channel, same bat time, same bat website, you get the picture.

Weather on the mountain: it was a bit warmer today, but nothing like this weekend, even though the highs only got to the lower 90s today, there was still plenty of time to grab some water and cool off and get right back out there to the fun and excitement of camp.

Well, before I head out tonight, I do want to pay a quick tribute to the sad news of Mr. Andy Griffith. Even though we spend every night on the computer here at camp, we still try to make every day feel just like it would in Mayberry by letting the campers enjoy the fun of catching a lightenin’ bug or swimming in the creek, just like they did on his show. So long Andy, there’s a bunch of folks that sure are gonna miss ya and really miss out in their life, if they don’t get to watch any of your reruns. I’d be telling a fib if I said I didn’t try to make the newsletter sound like it was written by Andy himself sometimes.

Well, that’s about all I have to say tonight, I think I’ll head over to the house and pull out some of the old DVD’s and settle down to a few episodes from Mayberry and enjoy the “good ‘ol days” you guys keep looking at the pics and watching all your campers enjoy their good ol days right here at camp.

Have a great night

LJ

AP: breaking news out of Camp skyline this morning where at approximately 8:35 local time members of the Rangers club found the golden horseshoe and receive mega points for their club. Check back later for pictures and more updates!
Also- important email news, Regular email will be delivered today and on Wednesday at 10 AM. Thursday email will need to be sent in by 5:00 on Wednesday afternoon. Don’t forget, it needs to be in by WEDNESDAY at 5:00 central time

thanks

A cool and breezy howdy to ya parents!!! Yep, it was a great day up here on top of the mountain as we enjoyed much cooler temps and a constant breeze all day long. Everyone enjoyed getting into their second week of classes you should see what those girls are doing in circus, on the ropes, in arts and crafts and everything else. Not to mention tomorrow we’ll be back out at the equestrian ring watching some of the campers out their work on their horse jumping (actually the horse is the one doing the jumping but it would be impressive to watch one of the campers try to jump over a horse now that I think about it).

Today we had several out of camp trips and as you can tell from all the pics, our campers aren’t scared to let their hair down and get a little wet or muddy to have some fun. Our Ocoee River rafters had a cool time enjoying the rapids and riding the waves, While our spelunkers got down and dirty with a cave close to camp. It didn’t take ‘em long to get their hands dirty and stat explorin’ the whole cavern. And if you ask me, I’d say by the looks of their faces, they had a great time gettin’ down (down in the cave, get it??…when you’re as tired as I am that’s funny, I don’t care who ya are!). . There’s lots of pice for you guys to look at from today so have a good time going through ‘em all.

Now for those campers that stayed in camp today, we enjoyed all sorts of fu with fewer people in each class, that meant there were more rides down the zip line, on the blob, rides around the horse ring, you get the picture.

To top off the perfect day, we had movie night here at camp (my favorite night!!! ) where each group of campers got to go to a specific place to what the movie of their choice. Each camper came to dinner tonight all decked out in their PJ’s ready for a quiet evening to settle down, relax and enjoy the show. Not only did they come dressed in their PJ’s but each camper also brought their sleepin’ bag and /or pillow so as soon as dinner was over everyone headed out and settled down for the show. It pretty much looked like the worlds largest slumber party when they all spread out and got ready for the movie. What movie would be complete without a bag of popcorn? That’s right, each camper also had their own bag to enjoy the show. The campers from Hut Row and The Lodge took over the gym and watch “Billboard Dad” while the ladies from Pickle’s Palace, and Summerplace enjoyed the top of Pickle’s Palace to watch “The Parent Trap”. Of course the lovely ladies of Riverside had the dining hall to themselves and all enjoyed tonight’s showing of “Tangled”. I’m pretty sure that even though everyone has been playing in the water to stay cool these last few days, tonight’s activity was perfectly planned to enjoy a cool night of quiet and calm (I know I sure enjoyed it!!)

Tomorrow night we’ll get back to our cabin Olympic relays as each cabin group will travel around camp and compete in a variety of different (and messy) relays. They’ll be going from the circus field to the sports field and even the waterfront to compete in all the different relay events. Its bound to make some great pictures so be sure to check back in tomorrow night and look for your camper (like you weren’t gonna do that anyway…right B.C.?)

Now tomorrow we’ll have another outta camp trip that’s a lot more my style, our golf class will be headin’ out to try their luck on the links (why don’t I get to go on that trip??? I think I need to speak to someone in upper management about this!!) and we’ll send SOMEONE else with the camera to catch those award winning drives and putts!

Well folks, you’re about to see why I love movie night so much. I’m almost finished (even as slow as I type) and it ain’t even midnight yet. Why I might get as much as 7 hours of sleep tonight and that would be unheard of at this time of year (I could probably get that much most other nights if I had taken keyboarding in high school…$!&%*(@) Anyway, you guys enjoy all the pics, there’s still more coming tomorrow as Skadonnelly and I cover the camp and send the images to ya just as fast as we can.

Before I go I gotta tell ya three things I heard today as I was refilling the coke machines at Summerplace (that will narrow it down to who might have said it, I’ll just let you guys try and figure out if it was your campers). I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did:

3. “is that the inside of a coke machine? I’ve waited my whole life to see what the inside of a coke machine looks like”

2. “Can I take a picture of you and the inside of the coke machine?” (this was a group comment as the number of campers climbed when I opened the machine and they actually ran inside, got their cameras and stated taking pictures

And the #1 comment I heard today….”has my mom texted you today to ask you to take pictures? She really needs to get away and have some fun like we are!” She could be on to something there, maybe we need to switch camps and do a mom camp, I’m pretty sure the current campers wouldn’t be checkin’ the pics like you guys are though!!

Before I go, I do want to commend you parents for making it through the session so far. Your campers are so proud of you. All this surfing on the internet and you don’t even have your computer expert at home (I know this ‘cause she’s here with us!!) Just think there’s less than a week to go before you head up here to pick up your camper and you guys are doing great.

Weather on the mountain: after a nice rain last night, it was a cool 67 this morning and this afternoon it only got up to the upper 80’s maybe 90 at the highest (yea I said it, it was that cool up here) all the campers had a little more pep in their step and you could really tell there was a change in the air. Just wait till it cools down a little more tomorrow!!

So after a peaceful and cool evening activity, I’m outta here. Yall have a good one.

LJ

Happy Sunday! Skadonnelly here with fantastic news!!! I hear rain outside right now! What a GREAT way to kick off the hot, hot weekend, huh? Usually rain is something wished away here at camp but there was quite a loud sigh of relief when we heard rain was on its way. Looking forward to a much cooler week!

Sunday’s are always a Skyline favorite for many reasons. First being that we got to SLEEP IN! We kicked off the day around 9:00am instead of the regular 7:00am. And to make that even better, for breakfast we had our famous Skyline homemade donuts! My faaavvoorriiiteee.

After a delicious breakfast, we donned our Sunday best (all white) and headed off to Sunday school! Each group had their own class and participated in the “Skyline Olympics”. The activity consisted of several different team building relays that brought us all back to our theme verse, 1 Corinthians 9:25.

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

After an upbeat Sunday school, we headed to the gym for our church service. The counselor choir led us through worship and we even had a performance from our Glee class, singing “Jesus is my Superhero”. Dr. Lill, our camp doctor for the session, gave us her testimonial and spoke about how God has blessed her and used her in the realm of adoption. She is just such a wonderful and empowering woman to listen to.

We headed to lunch and then welcomed an extended rest hour! During the peak heat of the day, everyone appreciated the time inside resting, playing games, and writing notes home to their fabulous parents ☺. I took a good long nap and loved every minute of it. Squinting to snap all those photos, really takes it out of ya!

Following rest hour, we headed to our (early) 4th of July celebration carnival!!!! Snow cones and inflatables galore took over the Skyline campus and provided the girls with a couple hours worth of super soakin’ fun. The snow cones were the hit of the day. The line to get your hands those icy, sweet treat was a mile long the entire time!! The water slides on the tennis courts were a big hit too. A fun, fun way to cool off! We also had activities inside the gym including face painting, balloon darts, karaoke, coloring, friendship bracelet making and more! It was another great afternoon where the girls tackled the heat and had a great time.

Usually at Skyline on Sunday nights we have a picnic dinner outside but because of the heat we decided to post pone our picnic dinner and move it back inside for the night. We still had our picnic cuisine consisting of hamburgers, chips, watermelon, and the coveted snickerdoodles though!

We then meandered over to the gym for our nighttime activity, COUNSELOR HUNT!! It’s basically a massive game of hide and seek where the counselors dress up and all over camp and the 3 decked out clubs come and try to find as many as they can for points. Some counselors take this game super serious and deck out in black and camo and others like to take a more obvious but fun route and dress up as the “fire” at campfire or the paint splattered arts and crafts table. It is a crowd favorite activity and we unfortunately had to cut it a little short tonight because of the rain coming in but we still had a great time none the less!

We have uploaded a bunch of pictures from both the Carnival and our famed Counselor Hunt so please go check them out in Camp Stuff!! Another Sunday success ☺. Now despite all the rest I feel like I have gotten today, this camera girl is exhausted! Everyone still stay cool and until tomorrow, have a wonderful night!

Over and out!

Skadonnelly

Helllloooooooo Parents!!! What a great weekend were having up here on the mountain, yea, it’s a little hot, but you wouldn’t know it by the way our campers are enjoying themselves. All the adaptations to water sports in each activity helps keep everyone cool and even tonight we moved our dance out to the tennis courts instead of in the gym and it was AWESOME!!!!

Yep, out under the lights, rockin and rollin to some great tunes, cool breeze blowing how can you help but not to have a great time? Everyone was able to dance, move around and relax throughout the night as they enjoyed the music from all of todays artist and even some of the oldies (it was great when they played “Shout”). Of course, it started out just like all the other dances, when the campers saw old yeller(s) pull in the back gate with all the boys from the boys camps you couldn’t hear your self think from all the shoutin and so forth. You’d have thought Taylor Swift pulled through the back gate instead of the boys camp. Actually the girls had a little heads up before the boys pulled in, not that you could see the buses through the woods, as much as you could detect the AXE body spray about a ¼ mile away. Anyway, they were all excited when the buses pulled in and it only got better from there.

Anyway, as you can see from the pics, everyone had a great time and enjoyed their night under the stars. What a perfect way to end the first week of camp. Many thanks to the boys from Camp Laney and LMC for the dance tonight!!

Now after such a busy week of playing and learning new skills in all our classes, we’re gonna give the girls a little extra sleepin’ time tomorrow morning (thank goodness, I know THEY’LL appreciate it) and then we’ll have our breakfast with homemade donuts!! After that we’ll head to church and then get ready for our Patriotic Carnival where we’ll have all sorts of inflatable toys here as well as a dunk tank and even a sno cone maker. Not to mention all sorts of activities in and around the gym for the girls all afternoon long. There’s always some great pictures from carnival so be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon to see your camper. It’s gonna be a blast!!!

Now tomorrow night, we’ll slow it back down just a bit and have our camper favorite “Counselor Hunt” where each of our counselors will hide throughout camp and then the camper will team up and head out to find all of ‘em. Best part is when they find ‘em they bring ‘em back to the gym to see how many club points they’re worth. Its pretty important to get the club points, if you don’t belive me, just check out our first week highlights on our youtube channel and see how hard those girls work to earn club points. Theres a link at the top of the website to take ya to the page, hope ya like the videos!!

Well folks, I’m about as worn out as worn out can be. And after all the fun of tonights dance and the first full week of activities, I’m gonna head off to never never land and start dreamin of a long night of sleepin. You guys stay up and enjoy the pics, we’ll have more of them for you tomorrow at the carnival so youll be able to enjoy the carnival too. And don’t forget that your campers will be getting’ email tomorrow so be sure to send it in before 12:00 Eastern Time for them to get it at lunch

Weather on the mountain: it was another beautiful day up here on the mountain, especially if you’re a cactus and are in to those long hot dry day things. Actually, in the water and shade, it wasn’t that bad and all the campers got plenty of water and shade all day long. Looks like the heat wave is starting to break up tomorrow and the temps next week should be back down more towards the normal range. Its Ok, we don’t care, we’ll finds all sorts of ways to play at camp heat or not.

You guys have a great night, I’m checking the backs of my eyelids for leaks and I plan on doing a through job of inspecting!!!

Night Ya’ll

LJ

Hellooo Parents!! I happy TGIF to ya tonight. Larry here again since Skadonnelly has the night off, and before go any farther, let me make one correction to last nights announcements about the talent show winners, In all the excitement of the event, we forgot to include in our announcement that Kalista Prame had also tied for 3rd place in groups 4, 5, & 6. Sorry about that Kalista!!

Now on to tonights activities!! For those of ya’ll that’ve been playing along at home with your own fun calendar, you’re probably wondering what kind of cabin challenge we had tonight with all the pictures of the kids traveling in groups and then “bouldering down” and trying not to laugh in front of counselors with bandanas (I’ll explain it all later).Well, we mad a little adjustment to the nighttime activities and tonight instead, we brought back a camper favorite “Underground Railroad”. (Its one of my favs too since I DON’T have to run around all over camp to get the pics on this night!! ) In tonights activity, the campers have to travel in groups from one side of camp to another, going from one safe house to another, but WATCH OUT!!!! (here comes the part about the counselors in bandanas), we had our very own bounty hunters (not so much like DOG the Bounty hunter, these were a much friendlier version) and when a bounty hunter would yell out “Bounty hunter sees you!!” the group would have to boulder down (sorry UGA fans, I just can’t bring myself to say the words “hunker down”) and pretend like they were rocks so the “evil” bounty hunters wouldn’t capture them. If a bounty hunter could get one (or more) of the girls to smile, laugh, or just pretty much give up their cover, then that camper would have to go to the jail and wait for another group of campers to make their way and then join up with them to continue on the journey. Don’t worry moms and dads, our campers always made sure that if one of their group had to go to jail, the group would head that way to get them or any other camper that might be there out (its all part of the “no camper left behind act” of the late 90’s). I’m happy to report that at the end of the night, all the campers had successfully made their way to freedom and successfully dodged the bounty hunters!!

The best part was after a busy and warm day, this was a perfect low pace, but hi excitement game that everyone enjoyed (I know I sure did!!)

Speakin’ of high excitement, I don’t think its could get any higher than all the buzz around camp about what happens tomorrow night. Thats right, its time for the dance with the boys from Camp Laney and Lookout Mountain Camp. We’ll have all sorts of fun as the gym fills with campers dancing to songs by Taylor Swift and some guy named Bieber (doesn’t that sound like fun to you?? Why didn’t I sign up for Sat.night out??) We will have lots of fun though and don’t worry dads, I’ll be right out there shooting all the boys that dance with our Camp Skyline beauties (with the camera of course!!…don’t get your hopes up) so you’ll be able to see who all your campers got to dance with. Its bound to be a fun time for all.

Here’s a little tip for ya parents.. go by stock in Alabama Power before tomorrow night, ‘cause once all our campers start firing up their hair driers to get ready for the dance, our electric meters will be spinning like tops. Why, I bet the power company will have to hook up another squirrel on the treadmill just to keep the electricity flowing tomorrow afternoon!!

Well as you can see from all the pics, the campers haven’t even realized its gettin’ hot out there (it hasn’t been near as hot up here as it is once you go off the mountain). We’ve been adapting all the classes to make sure everyone stays hydrated and cool. As you can see in the pics, our tennis class found a way to make a splash, and on the tower they were climbing up and the other campers were tossing wet sponges at each other as they climbed. Even circus found a way to transform themselves into a sort of “Cirque de Aqua” routine today. Needless to say, everyone is still going full speed and still having the time of their lives.

On a sad note, our Minis will be leaving us tomorrow (Saturday) but before they left, they treated the rest of the camp to a great dance routine tonight that got a standing ovation from all the other campers. You should have seen the smiles on their faces as the other girls stood and cheered for them (if you just look at the “mini dance” pics, you can see those smiles!!) Anyway, we sure are gonna miss those little guys. Its been great watching them travel around camp flowing their counselors like a bunch of little ducks! So long Mini’s we’re gonna miss you.

Now before I leave, don’t worry mini camper parents, your mini camper (and all campers next week) will get a DVD with every picture you guys have seen so far on the website, so you guys will be able to keep those pics and have your camper explain every one of them to you!! (better make plans for that to take awhile, they get excited when they see their picstures!!)

Weather on the mountain: a warm 73 this morning and the hottest I sow it get to was 94 this afternoon. Still pretty hot, but not enough to dampen the spirits of our campers (our cameraman…not so much, I was feelin’ the heat plenty…)

You guys have a great night, get plenty of rest (we sure are) and remember to pace yourselves. For you parents or our 2 week campers, you’re half way there (man, time flies when your having fun!) but you still have a lot of picture to look through in the upcoming days!!

Ya’ll take care, ‘cause like a slow kid in dodge ball…..I’m outta here!

LJ