Hello Again!

Howdy! It's been quite some time since I last posted. The reason for this lack of diligence on my part is really quite easy to explain. For the past week Vanessa and I were counselors for fifth graders at Whiskeytown Environmental School.

It is also known as the N.E.E.D. Camp, or National Environmental Education Camp. The camp is located above Whiskeytown Lake along a creek and on the edge of the woods. It is a really beautiful location and my stay there would have been absolutely perfect if it had been me, family, friends, and a couple of the naturalists. As it was, it was just plain ole good fun and both Vanessa and I had a great time.

As counselors, we had to stay with our kids for 22 1/2 hours a day. I had eight boys to watch over and Vanessa had eight girls. I was originally going to stay with girls, but when they discovered I was eighteen, and therefore an adult, they put me with boys. I had to eat, sleep, hike, play, and everything else with them for five days. It was just a little challenging, but really a great experience that was very educational for me at least! Really, I was very nervous about having to care for eight boys, but now I'm rather glad I got boys because they are so insensitive compared to girls. I was able to keep them in line (maybe a little too well!) and nobody's feelings got bruised. It seems like pretty much everything runs off of little boys like water off a duck, unless you are really mean or strict with them, which I wasn't. I think the boys had as good a time as I did.

Sadly, both Vanessa and I forgot to take camera's so I had to get these two pictures from the WES website. This is the ampitheatre were we met with our naturalist every day and where the evening program was. My group was Cabin 5, also known as Cuyahoga Valley. Our assigned seat was the top bench on the far right, right by and in front of that really big tree. We saw some great plays and sang some great songs from that seat. Ah, good times, good times. :)