Another Busy Week!

Camp life is busy and exhausting as ever and I love it. The skill of falling asleep in an instant at any point in time is quickly becoming a valuable asset. But who wants to when there is so much awesome stuff to do all the time! Last Tuesday was when I started this post (like a month ago camp time.) so there is a whole bunch of stuff to share and a lot to remember that happened so long ago!

To start with my hockey debut - something I have been looking forward to ever since the MHL (Manitou Hockey League) was first introduced to me. It a ball hockey league made up of keep staff member who are up for a bit of friendly competition. Ball hockey is the same rules and regulations of ice hockey, and also in a concrete hockey rink. Just a bit less aggression and a team full of uncoordinated players. My team are the Mouseketeers! Me and a bunch of my collegues from the fresh kid unit play along side me. The others who I had not met before are all super positive people who all support each other and are up for a match. This suits my attitude perfectly - because as soon as I get involved with an competitive game I start shouting and hyping up my team. I already embarrass my campers when we watch other peoples games by creating fun chants and shouting for my friends. Its great. Plus it helps! A girl on my team praised my positive vibes and loudness which made me smile.
So, more about my hockey career so far! My last game was certainly my best - Im a bit of an underrated draft thanks to my field hockey background so its fun to surprise people. I scored my second league goal, as well as setting up 3 goals for my team mates! Boom! Super happy!

Swimming. Love it or hate it fresh kids go in every single day! Some fake injuries to get out of it, some rush down in excitement.. Im somewhere inbetween. I was not comfortable when doing my swim test. It was a challenge. So its fun to try and improve my own swimming and stamina whilst helping out with the kids! Coaxing them into the water is the first challenge, from then on most get stuck in. By most i mean one kid is the least keen to swim in the unit and hes my camper BUT today he actually went in the water straight away and even complete his laps in the pool! (Pool as in a square made by floating docks in the lake.) Such a proud dad moment, particularly because hes my mini-me and my unoffical favorite.

Beach day! Last week the whole unit packed onto 3 school buses and headed to the local lakeside beach in Parry Sound. Classic camp scenes of a sing along bus journey, beach and water games it was really fun. Luckily we had perfect weather that day for it, terrible storms and dreary rain still plague us. So much so that we had an incredible lightening storm that lit up the sky with every great crack. It was so fun to watch from a far as the cascading rain was over on the other side of lake Manitou-Wabing. Thank goodness.

Now we have reached the second week mark most of the camper know where theyre heading, which is great! Less rushing around for me and more time to spend enjoying activities like high-ropes, tennis, OCS (other camp sports like lacrosse NFL frisbee etc) or even pottery. Getting out on the lake is also a favorite of mine, in a kyak sail boat or canoe! With all the positives of really bad pirate jokes and water fun! Sailing as a cabin for our morning activity was a lovely morning.

Which brings me on to Drama Inc. Every morning for the first hour of the day the whole cabin comes together to do an activity. This is a fresh kid specific initiative so they can try different activities at camp they might not always try. Like Drama. The staff their are super fun and we played a bunch of name learning games and then musical mats (instead of chairs.) but the best part was the game after this.. musical mats WITH a story. The staff at drama were super suprised that i wanted to get so involved in all the games bit it got all the kids super pumped and happy. Involving the cabin, me, my marriage to another female counsellor and the ensuing alien abduction and wedding party! So good!

My next memorable moment was the fresh kid canoe trip. 20 odd kids and 8 staff canoed across the river to *Fresh Kid Island* for an over night trip in tents. It was a lot of fun, we had a bbq and a fire; as well as some little games with the boys.

Best moment in hockey or my entire sporting career... or possibly life. (I hope I can write it in a way that does it justice to how I feel!)So its my third game of the season and our team is down a player due to injury so we've all been run ragged. Midway into the second half, I pick up the ball in our final third from a controlled pass. I look up and non of my team are open or even ahead of me so I grit my teeth and decide to run at the 5 opposition players in front of me. A side to side drag manouvre down the centre of the pitch sends me past 2 players and I'm picking up speed. (FYI there are 2 players left and a goalie between me and the goal.) I sprint down centre field and the second last defender delivers a crunching tackle that sends the ball flying upwards but still in my direction of travel. With the momentum I have going forward, I run past the tackler. Punch the ball midair around the final defender (rules in our ice/ball hockey: one can catch/touch the all in the air to prevent raising their stick) which is also their best player. The ball goes around one way, and I career round the other side, and I'm through 1 v 1 with the goalie. I take the shot first time - ball still bouncing and send a scorcher towards the top right corner. AND I hit the crossbar, and it flies out of the court. I was so hyped! People were on looking with mouths dropped open! Even one of my friends who was on the opposing team wanted to congratulate me but felt it wasn't appropriate at the time. So that's a super long paragraph detailing about 15 seconds of the last week!! Hope you enjoyed!

Last week was the half way mark for the first session (first month of camp) which meant that some of the fresh kids are leaving! Being the youngest campers at Manitou they have the option of staying a shorter amount of time. 7 / 10 of our cabin were scheduled to leave, however, one kid decided he wanted to stay longer! Woo! Consequently we had enough cabin members to keep our cabin open and prevent any moving around and merging. For the next 2 weeks that means we have only 4 kids which makes life a breeze to manage, but i have notice more clashes as theres only a certain amount of freinds you can play with.. so they're kinda forced to get over any minor disagreements.

If anyone wants to send me mail.. Send it to: 10 camp road, Parry Sound, Ontario, P2A 2W7
Its so funny to see how proud kids are when their family send them mail, it can actually disturb the peace! So to make some ripples of my own would be fun!

Love to all my family xxx