MCBC 2012 (Part 1)

So, as I've mentioned, I went to Missouri Children's Burn Camp this summer to volunteer as a counselor. The last time I went was in 2007, just after Brett and I were married. It was definitely tough to leave Brett and the kids for a whole week, and I struggled with homesickness, mainly at night when I wanted to be home rocking Amy and cuddling her before bed. Fortunately, my in-laws made themselves available to come stay with Brett and the kids, which was great for a variety of reasons. I know I've said it before (and probably will many times in the future), but my in-laws are such amazing people, and I am so blessed to have them in my life.

Brett dropped me off at the pick-up location around 8:30am on Sunday morning (Aug. 5th). We drove down in a couple of 15-passenger vans (plus a couple of pickups and a huge trailer for all our junk), arriving at Camp Sabra around, oh, 11am-ish. We spent Sunday getting to know each other and the Sabra staff (or, the "A-team", meaning the staff in charge of the activities.). Camp Sabra supplies all the lifeguards, boat drivers, cooks/kitchen staff, etc.  After a bunch of icebreakers, we spent a while getting our cabins ready for our campers, which meant decorating! This year's camp theme was pirates, so there was a lot of pirate-y stuff...for lack of a better term.

The stage in the dining hall, redecorated:

Campers arrived at lunchtime on Monday, and from there, the week was a veritable whirlwind of activity. I was with the youngest age group, so I had 6 girls ages 6-9 (the "Pony" age), with 2 other counselors.

Left to right: Danae, the "Pony" girls' group leader, me, Nikki, and AJ

A picture of some of my girls (the only picture I can find of all of them is a hard copy and I don't have a scanner) at arts & crafts:

There were a few challenges throughout the week, but they really were a sweet bunch of girls. And fearless. Holy cow. Now, remember that these girls are, at the oldest, 9. We didn't have any 6-year-olds, so the youngest were 7. And these girls did EVERYTHING.

We're talking climbing the climbing wall (two of them, all the way to the top):

They, with the boys, are the only Pony group to ever do the zipline (which was moved this year, and is really, REALLY long and a little more nerve-wracking than before):

Also, Nikki, although a firefighter, is TERRIFIED of heights. I was so proud of her as she chose to do the zipline anyway! Go Nikki!

To be continued...