First Family Camp of the Summer

My fellow facilitator, Diesel, and I working hard!

Well after a few days off to recoup from the super busy training week it was back to work to host our first family camp of the season. The camp I am working for not on takes week long campers all summer long, and day groups but on weekends we host family camps. This is when families have the opportunity to come out together and stay for two nights on the ranch. As a facilitator it is part of my job to facilitate these along with the other 3 facilitators and my manager. Since this was my first time with the family camps I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out it might be the best part of my summer :) The family camps are so relaxed! I had found with the day groups it is non-stop go go go until they leave, but with the family camps it is much different.

On Friday evening the families arrived and checked in at the hall. From there they got their things together and hopped on a wagon with me and we delivered them to their teepees for the weekend. For me this consisted of sitting on the back of the wagon for an hour riding around the camp dropping of families. We gave them time to get settled and get their beds together before it was time for a snack at the hall. The families made themselves comfortable and set up their teepees. We had about 20-25 families on site, so we weren't full but a good amount of people. After setting up the snack the families helped themselves while we hung out in the hall. After snack we walked around speaking with families and making sure they had everything they needed. We handed out fire starters and offered assistance where needed. Then, it was time for bed.

Saturday was such nice weather these families really lucked in. After breakfast Zaza (I can't remember if I told you before or not, but we all have camp names so none of the names I use are these peoples real names) and I filled up the water jugs for around the camp and delivered them to where they needed to be. Around 10am I led 3 families on a nature walk around the property for 40 mins, and by the time I was done that it was time for my break. I had break until 12, and then hung out for lunch till 1pm. I was stationed for the pontoon boat for the afternoon so I headed down to the boat house. On the weekends we don't have a regimented schedule like day groups. We have people stationed at different activities all day and if the families want to go to them they are welcome to swing by. So on this afternoon I hung out in the sun on the dock with my toes in the water from 1pm-3pm because they all took a pontoon ride in the morning, and they were off doing other things. Around 3 some people showed up for a ride and I did that until 4 when the pontoon had to be docked. I tied up the boat and hung out with Lemon Grass who was manning the canoes till dinner at 5pm. We went up for dinner from 5-6pm then I had break from 6-7pm. After break I had to go to the family campfire and marshmallow roast and hung out there while a sweet little Spanish boy roasted me marshmallows. After a while we traded campfire off to Dragon Fly and went to set up evening snack in the hall. The rest of my evening after snack consisted of making rounds helping families with teepees and hanging out until 10:30pm when we do our rounds and tell everyone it is quite time.

All day there had been a very small group of about 5-6 teenagers that were acting like jerk balls. I am sure all of you know how teenagers can be.....well these guys were no exception. So all day they were causing minor aggravation just by pestering to go swimming where they weren't allowed, smoking out of the area, leaving materials around and not putting them away etc. You know, regular teenager disrespect stuffs. So by night time my tolerance for said teens was pretty low. At quite time I had to make my rounds to my section and on my way I passed the teens on the steps of Gabs Place. I nicely told them that it was indeed quite time and that they didn't need to go back to their teepees but they had to be quite because people were trying to sleep. They said okay, and I kept walking. As I was crossing the bridge to my section I could still hear them horsing around and knew that I would have to speak to them again on my way back. I went to my section and did my rounds and headed back the way I came to pass in my radio and get ready for bed myself. The teenagers had seemed to quite down and had moved to the edge of the woods. I myself thought it was a dumb idea to be hanging out in the woods when there are cougars and bears in there, but I figured they could learn that lesson on their own! So I was going to leave them alone and head back. Then just as I passed their group I saw one of the girls duck into one of the empty teepees by herself and then she was loudly making sex noises and they were all hooting and laughing again. That was enough! I turned on my heal and b-lined for them, and since it was dark and they were preteepees. I also informed them that if I had to come back I would be escorting them to their teepees myself. I must have made an impact because they all simply responded with a "Yes ma'am" One boy thought he would get smart and said, "Yes Colonel" I just looked him straight in the eye and nodded my head as if to say, "That's right!" I left them with the knowledge that J-Mo was in town! And headed back to the managers cabin to pass in my radio. Upon returning Zaza, my manager, alerted me that we had 3 missing campers. I replied "Are they teenagers?" Indeed they were, so I just said, "They are over there shitting their pants, I am done for the night" and sat down. I wasn't wrong the 'missing campers' were the teens I had just spoke to, and they were found in less then 2 mins. Bed time!

Sunday the families leave in the morning. Breakfast is between 8-9 and after that they leave. They are responsible for cleaning  up their area and packing everything up. We just have to wait until they leave and then straighten up the camp for the week long campers. At breakfast we were all joking around and hanging out, then LJ went to get more breakfast. As he was crossing the hall full of families and children, over the radio came, "Code Brown (large dangerous animal on site) there is a cougar on the sports field!" LJ grabbed his radio, turned down the volume and quickly walked into the kitchen to avoid panic. We started our rounds to tidy the camp and we saw the operations staff coming back across the playground with airhorns so they must have gone up to scare it off. I hear it was just a young one, which means 2 things. 1: Where there is a baby there is a mama, and 2: that brings our cougar count up to 3 in the area. Next time the teenagers fuck around I am going to quietly slip some hamburger from the kitchen into their pillows!

Zaza and Dragon Fly

After we cleaned up we were all feeling the heat so our manager said our next task was to change into our swim suits and join her in the lake! I love my job! So we all took turns jumping off the dock and paddling around for a bit. After that, I was off until Wednesday! Pretty sure this summer is going to be awesome!!!