Thursday I got to meet the two groups that came in during my day off, Grace Covenant, and a youth for Christ group. Rob, Cephas, Jordan & I played Halo & then prayed for bible study in the afternoon. Thursday night I made my second appearance of the year at camp timber rock, as Super Scout. I really had a blast, for some reason that slow, 32 year old cub scout character is really funny, and is really fun to act as. I think the counselors got into it a little more than the kids, but I keep hearing good things. I came home afterwards and hung out for a while before going out to Frontier Village. I told a simplified version of the deerman story to a cabin of kids before hanging out with Cephas & Fanta. We made delicious MREs, I had Turkey with potatoes in gravy, cephas had the beef enchilada, and fanta had the cubed chicken. We had a great time hanging out, eating our military rations, and laughing. As I got into bed around 11:00, I got a page with the code “007″ on it. I didn’t think to much about it, and figured because it was so anonymous, if someone needed something they would page me again, or use the text message access number. I found out the next morning that there had been an accident during the night game, and that my assistance was needed to help direct the emergency technicians when they got to camp. It wasn’t a big deal that I wasn’t able to make it out, but I felt pretty bad for blowing it off.

“hanging out” is something that we do often here at camp, so i’ll be adding more and more pictures to the ‘hanging out’ gallery!

I have been taking pictures at timber rock events this week (there are a few scattered in from the ranch too). They can be seen in the ‘gallery’ section.

Tuesday we left camp around 6:00, we got home and hung out with Isaac, Andrea, Matt, Nicole, Evan, Eric & Sarah. We picked berries, and had cheese cake. On our Wednesday day off we got to sleep in until 11:30! Lydia went and had lunch with her mom, while I got copies of our support letter. I then went into Seattle and picked up some MRE’s for frontier village Thursday night. We left the Sommermans earlier than we had in previous weeks, and were back at camp by 8:00ish.

Monday came around & it was time for the guest group to come. They were scheduled to arrive around 2:00pm for setup, and 3:00 with kids. Everyone came a little early, but that was ok. Monday afternoon we were supposed to have bible study, but because of schedules we just ended up hanging out in Rob’s office for a while. Monday afternoon we also got all our new sports bags in! We spent quite a while in the conference room blowing up the new basketballs. During dinner, the coordinator from the guest group asked me if it would be possible to pull 14 bunk bed mattresses from other rooms, and put them in Lakeside meeting room. Usually, unless I have something else to do, I consider myself “off” after dinner, however still on call. I knew that this job would take quite a while to complete, and that I would be working late. I grabbed Lydia & Pocky and had them help me out. We started with extra bunks in Timberidge. We grabed 4 from one room, 3 from another… We got to room 7, and were supposed to take all 4 because there was just one person using the queen. I knocked on the door, and walked in. I found a very displeased man, who loudly asked if I could come back later. I did. We finished moving bunks around 7:30. I dropped Lydia off at home, and headed to Timber Rock to catch the last part of chapel. I sat down during the middle of squishy’s message, and got paged 4 minutes later. I drove over to nisqually to find out that the speaker needed new accommodations. The group asked me if we had *anywhere* else on camp that this guy could stay. I told them that everything was booked for the week. Ryan, one of their leaders told me that if they couldn’t find anything here that we were going to need to find a hotel. They had their speaker staying in timberidge, in their all girls lodge with shared bathrooms. “This is the kind of guy you pick up from his house in a Limo, take him to your church, he preaches for you…then you take him back home in a limo.” Great, everyone loves a servant. We were in the office until 9:07 looking for a hotel in the area….NOTHING! I had to kick him out of the office because I had planned Monday night worship to start @ 9:08. I got to staff worship just in time, this week I had planned it to happen at the ranch. Jordan led worship for the first time at Monday night worship, and jumball gave her testimony. I went home very tired!

I decided to lead by example this week. I always talk about how important it is for members of the o-team to be involved with timber rock activities. However, because of my random work schedule I have never gotten the chance myself to cabin buddy. I thought that this week would be different. It started out great! After dinner Sunday night I went up to timber rock and hung out with my new cabin kids until chapel started. I had talked to Gibberish before, and it was all set. There was a kid from KCC in the cabin, someone who was in my cabin when I was a counselor, and a kid with mild autism. I was really excited about the cabin dynamics, and they all seemed *really* cool. Hanging out was great, we goofed around, and it took me back to the good ‘ol days of counseling. After a while we went to chapel, I sat with my new cabin. John (Squishy) O’Malley is the speaker this week. Squishy was my last counselor as a camper, so I was excited to have him here for the week. After chapel, while the kids hurried off to swim checks, I thought I should go get some personal time before the night game. 9:00 rolled around, and it was time to meet at the shop. The game was animal safari, and it went great! Pocky led the game because Afleck was off for the evening. I was all camo-ed up and even had my face black. I started playing, but about 15 minutes in, I found pocky who was driving around protecting the staff, and scaring the kids. I jumped in the truck, and helped him yell for the rest of the evening. When it was all done, I went home to take a shower, but our hot water was out…so I used the shop bathroom.

after an exciting round of watermellon water-polo this morning, you too can join in on the excitement through the northslope.net gallery.

click here for mellon fun.

I’m sitting here in Kent, enjoying the last few hours of our day off. The weird thing about having a day off from camp is that I feel like I could just stay here and everything would be fine. Its not like I’m visiting from a summer at camp, or like I am out of place. When we come back, I feel like this is where I belong. Its definitely home here. As much as we love working at camp this summer, there is something about being in Kent during July. Its the slurpees, the sun, lake Morton, freedom, and the feel of ‘nothing’. Summer can be addicting. Last year was the first time in a few years that we actually had a “free” summer, and it was amazing. I would work from 6am to 3, then go golfing, fish all night, watch crappy summer reality shows, and just enjoy myself. When we come home for a day off, I feel like we get one day of summer and one day to do ‘nothing’. As I sit here in the Sommerman’s air-conditioned office, with the voices of Sarah, Evan, and others playing outside in the lake…I’m preparing to go back to camp, where despite the sun, the fun and the friends, its not a Kent summer.

well, a friend of mine (and regular visitor to this site) has decided to enter one of the pictures I took on his camera into a photo contest for me. I’m excited to see how it does.

said photo can be viewed here

well, the new camera has increased picture taking, for now. Check out photos from the last two days in the “july 18 & 19” section, under cascades 2004. Enjoy!