Posts Tagged ‘canyon’

Meadow Day!

Friday, July 30th, 2010

The Eldorado Canyon program had an awesome, intense meadow day today–we drove all the way up to the Meadow, and then hopped out to start our day! We began with sunscreening, and then played with MDC’s giant parachute–it was tons of fun! We tossed our hats really high into the air. :) Then, we sang a fun morning song with Counselor Kaela, involving gum trees and waffle irons, before splitting into our cabin groups for the day. The Campfire Camping Animals and Purple Water Diamond Thundercats immediately set out on an epic trek–they hiked all the way down to the river on the Walker Ranch Trail! They spent the whole day away from camp, it was amazing! They made bookmarks and played 5 minute mysteries by the river, and had fun creating a new dam by throwing rocks into the river!

The Electric Pinecone Throwing Bunnies trekked across the meadow to do some animal tracking–although they found no animal tracks, they found lots of animal scat and a deer bed as well! In the afternoon, they did lanyards during some free play and also made kites and dissected owl pellets. They had tons of fun “chillaxing,” in one camper’s words, and generally having lots of fun with Counselor Kaela. We finished up our day with some delicious smorgasgorp mixed by Director Betsy, and some afternoon songs, including a special version of “Fred the Moose,” involving a Vermont Moose, sung by two of our returning campers! The Purple Water Diamond Thundercats did an amazing job helping pack up all the gear, and the campers did a great job finishing up their Friday!

The Meadow was an awesome day–expect your campers to be tired, we had lots of campers fall asleep on the bus on the way home! :) We drank tons of water, and the campers will probably want to drink even more when they get home!

Monday, we’re back in the Canyon, and we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Canyon Craziness!

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Today was a great day in the canyon! There were lots of great things going on… The Junior Leaders (The Macaroni Ninja Llamas and Group 17) got   started on their Camp2Grow curriculum. It was great to see their ideas and their knowledge on what a good leader does. It will be fun to get to know more about the campers and see them grow into little leaders. The Fat Funky Green Party Lizards had a great time today making their GORP recipe and making pet rocks. The Flaming Mountain Kids had a fun trek to the cave with the Flying Fire Breathing Pigs. We stayed busy, and it was nice and cool in the canyon!

We are enjoying getting to know each other more, and it is fun to see all the campers get comfortable and friendly with each other. Games are more fun when we know each other, and the songs are louder! We sang the loudest version of Boom Chicka Boom this morning that I have ever heard, and I am sure that we woke the bears! We had a great time! At the end of the day today, we ended with a GORP snack, and another round of FROGGER. Ask your camper how to play… All the campers now know how to play and are getting really tricky!

Tomorrow is our Meadow day! We head back into Crescent Meadow, and do lots of things that we can’t do in the canyon. There will be lots of kites flown, and lots of trekking around to find animals and insects. Remember to wear your long pants, and heavy-duty shoes because there are lots of prickers there! Get ready for some sun and some awesome meadow time! Don’t forget your rain coat… weather up that high can change with a snap of your fingers!

Session 1, day 1!!!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

TALK ABOUT AN AWESOME DAY!!!! We had a great day today in the canyon… We had camper orientation, snack, watched the counselors dress up like crazy people, and got to know our new camper friends who are in our cabin group. We had beautiful weather, and couldn’t have asked for a better day of hanging out with new friends and a great view.

Each group got to know each other’s names, made new water bottles, created a group name, made a cabin code, and everyone had a great time exploring a bit-whether it was to the Ranger Station for lunch, to the cave for teambuilding and lunch, or just a canyon tour. We all had tasty snack of GORP together, played a game of “FROGGER”, and sang end of the day songs.

The ride home on the bus was quiet, and I think everyone was reflecting on the day and everything we had accomplished. We are all looking forward for tomorrow, and don’t forget to bring your swim suit, towel, and goggles if you would like! Get a good nights rest, and come ready for some fun!

Nearin’ the end in Eldo!

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Starting the day off in our usual fashion, the morning was filled with the high-energy vocals of kids shouting into the woods.  Moving into an equally spirited game of “Ship/Island”, the energy reservoirs were tapped early and showed to be plentiful as the day continued.

Splitting off into our cabin groups, the day began with the always beautiful popsicle stick architecture, fashion frenzy of costumes and an eye-opening session of “Life of a River”.  Building colorful frames and intricate shapes, popsicle sticks have rarely been more awesome.  The 80’s and every other style including those yet to be noticed emerged from the box o’ costumes! At the same time, rivers came to life as the kids reenacted the systems that control the waters.

The rest of the day was birthed for the most part from the craziness which ensued from the costumes.  Cabin group skits for the finale of camp were being created left and right.  The creative energies of the young minds seemed to be raging through the canyon, fueling everything from magical lands lost in the bottom of a hole to wacky hypnotists bringing the bizarre to reality.

Looking forward now to tomorrow, the skits shall come alive and bring a wonderful session to a great and funny close!

Finale in Eldorado Canyon!

Friday, June 12th, 2009

We finished off Session 1 with a bang in Eldorado Canyon. We began the day with all of our favorite camp songs, then transitioned into an exciting game of “Catch the Dragon’s Tail.” Everyone got a chance to be a chaser and a protector of the dragon tails, and after the game we all got a quick shoulder-rub!

Then, we split up into cabin groups for our morning activities. The Junior Leaders headed off to pan for some gold–no one got rich quick, but they had a good time playing in the river! The Blue Striped Trees headed out for one last Adventure Trek, while the Cheeseheads had some free play and some skit practice. The Tigers also worked on their skit and had one last free play in the river.

After lunch, we all made our book pages–each book page serves as a permanent record of the camper’s time at camp. We got photos from the two weeks to glue in, and decorated each page with our favorite activities and group names. After finishing up the book pages, we each decorated a puzzle piece, to symbolize our time at camp with our groups.

Then, we got packed up early and got our stage all set for our final skits. After some delicious watermelon for snack, each group performed a fabulous skit–they were lots of fun and the campers had a great time participating and watching! After skits, we sang some closing songs with Director Tommy on his guitar, then we packed up and headed home.

Thanks for a great first session in the Canyon–we look forward to seeing everyone either later this summer or next year!

Climbing and All Together Now Day in the Canyon

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Climbing day in the canyon was very refreshing. Although the cool weather made creek sloshing seem less desirable, but it also made the sun seem more bearable. We started of the day with some songs to get us limber for climbing, such as a very active version of “my bonnie lies over the ocean” and “I’m a wide, awake, alert, enthusiastic,” after which the first group “the 3C’s” headed off to go climbing. The extreme danger lions also climbed before lunch. During lunch we had a special event where the campers form our junior program paired up with Eldorado groups for lunch and some games. After lunch, the Liquefied Snow and the Completely Random Oranges had their climbing times. a few campers did the climb with blindfolds!

When groups weren’t climbing, there were many other fun activities to do. The 3 C’s made pet rocks and played in the creek. The Liquefied Snow mixed our GORP, which was delicious, and hiked to the ranger station. The Extreme Danger Lions made paper bag hats, and did some clay art, and the Completely Random Oranges did some cool team building activities and went creek stomping.

At the end of the day, Director Kay and Counselor Tim had a special secret activity planned for us, even the other counselors did not know what it was. It turned out to be the counselor’s turn to make GORP. So with their cabin groups to give them advice, the counselors had to compromise and come up with a GORP name and recipe. So, tomorrow we will be eating some Counselor Power GORP. Overall, today was amazing.