On Friday I left Central with 20 students. We went to Sky Ranch at Cave Springs - one of the prettiest camps I've ever been to! The facilities were great, the workers were friendly and quality, and the creek and scenery was beautiful!
It was a weekend of firsts for me. It wasn't my first time at camp - but it was my first time as a Children's pastor. It was also my first time on a water slide, on a slip and slide (since I was a kid with the blow up kind in the yard), first time on the BLOB, first time on a zip line, the first time away from my kids...
We had a lot of fun, but I had to purposefully not call to check on the kids - after the first night I called because I heard there was a big storm, but when the sitter told me that Trace would randomly start crying that he missed Mommy several times...so I knew that if I called and heard him doing that I would start to cry. The only time I've ever been away from Trace was when I was in the hospital having Alyssa - and I've never been away from Alyssa. The kids did great though.
Ok - so the BLOB.
The creek water was a little chilly outside, like 64 degrees chilly on a 110 degree day. Everyone suggested to me that the best way to get in the creek was to just jump in all at once - not to try and walk in. Kyle suggested that I let him BLOB me...This means I sit on the end of this long tube balloon in the water and Kyle jumps off of a platform and with a little help from physics launches me in the air about 12 feet in the air. After this - I land in the water...
Now here's the deal. I was prepared for the cold creek water. I was prepared for how I was supposed to jump on the BLOB. I was prepared to crawl to the end and wait. I was prepared for Kyle to jump on the other end. I was even prepared to be launched in the air.
What I was not prepared for - how to land in that very cold water.
Problem...I realized this about the time that Kyle was leaving the platform. So when I was launched in the air I got a little scared. This made me get a little...stiff, and by a little stiff, I mean I went as straight as a board.
Now this would have been fine had I gone in feet or head first. I did not. I went front first. I'm calling this a BLOB flop. One of the worst parts is that I realized it was going to happen about 2 seconds before I hit the water, which meant I had a few seconds to anticipate how much it was going to hurt.
And it hurt...it hurt a lot. My legs were beat red for hours after I got out of the creek...hours. I even have a bruise across my left thigh that is the nastiest black and purple mark I have ever had.
When I came up out of the water I could still hear the people who watched groaning! The life guard called down to check on me while Kyle swam over to me to apologize. When I asked some of my students if they had seen me BLOB they answered, "No, but I heard the splash!"
There was something good that came out of all of this.
A flop of this magnitude comes with a great deal of pain...and with all the stinging, I never did notice how cold the water was....so there was that.
Alyssa was a bit cranky tonight - so she's already in bed, but Trace is enjoying some quiet time without sister stealing all of his toys, books, cups, lap space....
Oh yeah - Kyle kept his voice and I lost mine...that's cause I did all the awesome things like the zip line and he just swam in the creek the whole time! haha
It was a weekend of firsts for me. It wasn't my first time at camp - but it was my first time as a Children's pastor. It was also my first time on a water slide, on a slip and slide (since I was a kid with the blow up kind in the yard), first time on the BLOB, first time on a zip line, the first time away from my kids...
We had a lot of fun, but I had to purposefully not call to check on the kids - after the first night I called because I heard there was a big storm, but when the sitter told me that Trace would randomly start crying that he missed Mommy several times...so I knew that if I called and heard him doing that I would start to cry. The only time I've ever been away from Trace was when I was in the hospital having Alyssa - and I've never been away from Alyssa. The kids did great though.
The creek water was a little chilly outside, like 64 degrees chilly on a 110 degree day. Everyone suggested to me that the best way to get in the creek was to just jump in all at once - not to try and walk in. Kyle suggested that I let him BLOB me...This means I sit on the end of this long tube balloon in the water and Kyle jumps off of a platform and with a little help from physics launches me in the air about 12 feet in the air. After this - I land in the water...
Now here's the deal. I was prepared for the cold creek water. I was prepared for how I was supposed to jump on the BLOB. I was prepared to crawl to the end and wait. I was prepared for Kyle to jump on the other end. I was even prepared to be launched in the air.
What I was not prepared for - how to land in that very cold water.
Problem...I realized this about the time that Kyle was leaving the platform. So when I was launched in the air I got a little scared. This made me get a little...stiff, and by a little stiff, I mean I went as straight as a board.
Now this would have been fine had I gone in feet or head first. I did not. I went front first. I'm calling this a BLOB flop. One of the worst parts is that I realized it was going to happen about 2 seconds before I hit the water, which meant I had a few seconds to anticipate how much it was going to hurt.
And it hurt...it hurt a lot. My legs were beat red for hours after I got out of the creek...hours. I even have a bruise across my left thigh that is the nastiest black and purple mark I have ever had.
When I came up out of the water I could still hear the people who watched groaning! The life guard called down to check on me while Kyle swam over to me to apologize. When I asked some of my students if they had seen me BLOB they answered, "No, but I heard the splash!"
There was something good that came out of all of this.
A flop of this magnitude comes with a great deal of pain...and with all the stinging, I never did notice how cold the water was....so there was that.
This was my splash at the end of the slip and slide...it was pretty much like a water slide, with less water. It was pretty steep and really fun! I was sad I only did it twice!
It was a lot of fun. Our kids had a great time. I talked to several parents who told me this morning that their student said they wished they were still at camp today!
Out of my 20 students - 10 of them had never been to camp before. These were not all my little guys who could only go for the first time this year - I had big kids, 4-6th graders who had never been to camp before! I had 5 calls/texts from parents checking on their kids. I only had 2 who got a little homesick - and I think the homesick kiddos were more exhausted than homesick. I sent no kids home, I had no one call home, and I really didn't have anyone upset for more than about 5 minutes.
I also think for a lot of my campers, this was the longest they had been away from video games and tv screens. This has definitely opened my eyes to how much of these things I am going to let my kids do.
Speaking of my kids. After the reunited hugs I got - I asked Trace what he did while Mommy was gone and he said, "Ms. Mandee played games with me, I ate a banana and I took a ride in an ambulance!"
Which made ask Ms. Mandee about that ambulance, especially since he had a bandaid across his cheek! The ambulance was the Playschool car that is actually a police car, but Trace likes to call it an ambulance (which I have seen him do before) and the bandaid was to keep him from scratching at a bug bite on his cheek.
Alyssa was a bit cranky tonight - so she's already in bed, but Trace is enjoying some quiet time without sister stealing all of his toys, books, cups, lap space....
Oh yeah - Kyle kept his voice and I lost mine...that's cause I did all the awesome things like the zip line and he just swam in the creek the whole time! haha
