After art ‘n crafts I made my way to the windsurfing and kayaking dock and found the first aid kit there. The dock was deserted as all the campers were on the lake in the middle of their instruction. I knelt down on the dock and got to work. I found a finger splint in this first aid kit. Huh. That would have been nice a couple of hours ago when I ended just taping Alex’s finger to a tongue depressor before he got his ticket for the ER bus. I tucked it into my back pack to put in the health office, thank you very much!

As I closed up the kit, I sat back on my heels and looked out onto the lake. It was alive with activity. There were about a dozen campers wrestling with their brightly striped windsurfing sails and another dozen paddling around in their blue kayaks. A couple of the counselors were zipping around in their little motor boat monitoring and shouting encouragement. It was a heartwarming sight! A beautiful sunny day, sparkling waters, colorful boats and sails, kids learning something new, and lots and lots of laughter. Awesome. An image of an idyllic day at camp. And then I remembered my little group of walking wounded going to the ER and that I still had to call Amanda’s mum and the feeling of calm quickly dissipated. Ugh. I would try to find a time that the office was empty so I could make that awkward phone call.

I next went to the climbing wall. They were in the midst of their instruction so I arrived to see two kids almost to the roof of the main building, three stories high. Two counselors were belaying the climbers. I was greeted again by name (yeah!) and was offered many items in more attempts at bribery; comics, Goosebumps books, a plastic watch, a beat up People magazine, a dream catcher made in arts ‘n crafts. Ahh! So SO tempting! But I held strong and just reinforced the need to wash their hands. 

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“No way guys. You can only buy my vote with your squeaky clean hands. Healthy campers is the best reward for me!” I said as I inspected the first aid kit.

Truer words were never spoken, as dorky as it sounded! Less barfing meant less worry and less work.

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Next I jogged across the camp to the boathouse. I pulled the kit down from the wall mount. It was almost entirely destroyed, so it took me a while to clean out the band aid wrappers and replenish those supplies. I didn’t mind though because I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on the canoeing instruction that took place just outside the boathouse. One of the counselors played his guitar as the kids sang songs about canoeing. Now, as you can imagine, there are not many songs about canoeing. But, these creative counselors had made up songs. They sang the parts of the paddle to the tune of “Dem bones”. That was cute. But the best was the song they made up to “I want it that way” by the Backstreet Boys that was tearing it’s way through the charts at that time. When all the singing was done it was time to push the first year counselor, Nate, into the lake before everyone piled into their canoes. This apparently was a daily occurrence and Nate seemed to relish the attention as he wore a prom dress from the costume closet.

It, quite frankly, was hysterical! I sat in the boathouse listening, smiling and giggling. Who knew canoeing class could be so entertaining? How much fun was all of this? I felt the warm fuzzies again and was basking in that feeling when my thoughts returned to the ER gang and the pending pregnancy test. Ugh.