Fifth Grade Camp

Bailey had fifth grade camp in October and I am just getting to the pictures. I went with her - I was not going to send her away from me for a week. We had so much fun. I had my own cabin of girls, but she was just a few doors down from me. I was able to give her a hug before bed and that was nice. We went to Alliance Redwoods which is up the coast of California near Santa Rosa. One of the activities was a night hike. They took our groups on a hike with out any flashlights. We were taught about our eyes and how night vision works. Then we stopped. Our leader explained how we are now going on a SOLO Hike - yes by ourselves in the dark. Now I was not to fond of this and I am an adult. I still sleep with a night light. I can tell you that most of the kids didn't like it either. I had several girls in my group crying. It was the only way to get back to camp. We all did it and survived. Bailey had a hard time with it in her group. She was worried that someone was going to jump out and scare her. Her teacher had to tell her to stop being dramatic - That's my Bailey Bops!


Bailey with some of her friends in her cabin.


These were the girls in my cabin. They were all very good. I think that I had the most sleep out of all of the cabin counselors.
Some Camp Songs..
Bailey - learning about recycling. Doesn't look like much but they played a very fun game to teach them.
Sitting at Fire Circle. We had to meet here 4 times a day. We met here before each meal and were excused by groups. If you had cleanest cabin than you were able to eat first, if you answered the trivia, or if you didn't have any food waste the meal before. YES, we had a food bucket and we had to put all of our food waste. They came and weighed it. This drove me so crazy, but it did teach the kids to take only what you will eat.


There were several challenge courses. Bailey went on the zip line and she had so much fun. My group went to the flying squirrel. It was a platform hooked to a redwood tree. You would get strapped into a harness and then jump off -- 70 feet up. It was scary, but I was glad that I did it. Some of the kids were so afraid to do this. I was to once I got up there and saw how far down it was. I get more chicken the older I get. I use to be such a thrill seeker -- I would go on any roller coaster that there was. I am becoming afraid of heights. Maybe now I realize that I have major responsibilities and so things that seem like they could cause injury are not so fun any more.



I had to turn around and look the other way while I was waiting so I didn't chicken out.

these were two of the camp leader there. They were hillarious. The kids loved them. They are all dressed up for skit night. Each cabin had to come up with thier own skit. They then performed them at a bon fire on the last night.

Myself with two of the other counselors.

Bailey and I the last night of camp. This is such a funny picture of Bailey with her red punch mustache. They had what they called a juice bar -- AKA-- sugar water. I think that Bailey drank this red punch every meal. I was glad when I could regulate a litlle more of what Bailey ate. The food wasn't horrible (for cafeteria food), but I was glad to have home cooked food.

While we were there, the kids were taught about animal adaptations. One of the nights they sent us back to our cabins to make up a new animal and tell about its adaptations. The catch was that the cabin counselor had to be the animal and the kids had to tell about the different attributes and their purposes.

Bailey with her Cabin Friends.