Sound Bites & Snap Shots

Camp Ondessonk is our kids’ summer home away home and it’s exactly where we wanted to be for Labor Day weekend.  This last hurrah of summer is open by invitation to anyone who has given time, talent or treasure and for many, it’s a highlight of their year.  The current camp staff members return to camp and volunteer their time so that the activities are open for families in attendance.  We were Walker’s guests thanks to the work weekends he did last fall and spring.  We arrived early Saturday morning in time to join to other campers for breakfast in the Dining Hall and then we set up our space in the Lalande unit. Once registered, we laid out our plans and signed up for activities.

Getting to do Challenge was Mason’s priority as the zipline is only open to older campers.  He was thrilled!

In case you missed him, I zoomed in.  He’s zipping down on the left. While Mason waited for his turn on the zipline, Walker and Bill helped other campers do the giant swing. 

Then Walker got his turn both on the swing and on the zipline.

After all the kids were finished, Bill and I got a turn too.

I love Bill’s smile.  No doubt he was telling me a joke at this point.

There was also a lot of down time.  Walker was working hard to finish Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance.  It’s a hefty tome, worth a possible 60 AR points. 

While Walker read, Mason played gaga.  There were so many folks around with the same passion.  Who’d pass that up?

Saturday after lunch we took a hike with a few of the counselors and another camper.  We were driven out to Trigg Tower, a fire tower that overlooks the Shawnee National Forest, and then we walked back to camp. 

The view from the top was pretty spectacular.

From there, it was all trails and creek walking back to camp.  We even got to walk through a long and dark tunnel.  I love that camp pushes us all to do things that are a little out of our comfort zone. 

Saturday night before the campfire, we had dinner with the camp director and his wife and the boys had dinner with their kids.  The director and I have something in common.  We share an exact birthday in date and year and, get this, his wife’s name is Suzie. 

Sunday morning we got to do archery.  Mason hit the target in an unusual and impressive way.  This takes skill.

I even gave archery a shot and I liked it far more than I thought.

We had an hour horseback ride on the trails but alas, no pictures. I do have pictures of Mason doing the double zip line.  He waited and waited for this.  Campers get to start at the top of the hill and then zip into the lake.  Walker opted to do the Tarzan swing since he had many opportunities to do this during Lodge weekend.

In the spirit of “It’s a small world,” this is Ben.  His mom is a nurse at one of the local hospitals and she works with one of my KBFF (that’s knitting best friends forever).  I was so happy to meet him!

The rest of the weekend was just as delightful as the first part.  We attended Mass in the chapel on Sunday night and enjoyed a huge Wizard of Ondessonk shindig complete with a band. It was hard to leave on Monday morning but we know it won’t be long before we’re back.