Hey Everyone!
Hope you are all well and happy. Suzi and I just made it up to camp…last night. I have so much to tell you. It’s Friday morning and we are unpacking and cleaning. We woke to the sound of rain pittere fill you in on the last few days…
To recap you all know Suzi and I got married right after camp last summer. I continued working/teaching in Milwaukee and miday I closed up shop in Milwaukee and Suzi and I drove cross a fulle Idahoan! But of course 3 weeks later we are back in Wisconsin. The last few days were a bit hard on Suzi. The thing is all you parents know how hard it is to put your children on a bus or plane. You’re going to miss them so! Well in Suzi’s case it’s HER who is the one doing the leaving. Though we know the boys have fun the first half of the summer in Boise and they come to camp midp at 6:00 last night (I know when supper is served!) Emily Gurner was right there to greet us and the smile started to return to Suzi’s face. It was wonderful seeing everyone though we are small right now. Josh and Jaclyn were there (Jacob was at his baseball game) Brandon Rachel Amy and Johannes and of course Mary. We also met our new nurse Casie. She is very nice. Our first meal…Alexander’s Pizza!!! Yum!!! (Are you jealous yet???)
Then Suzi Emily Amy Johannes and I went in town to see guitarist/entertainer extraordinaire Brad Emmanual (I don’t care if I misspelled his name) and to see game 5 of the Finals. (It brought back memories of past years when someone named MJ was winning multiple NBA championships with our entire north on. It was disgusting!!!) We had so much fun catching up! For those who may not know Amy and Johannes are engaged and will be wed in late August. Amy was filling me in on the latest with our tripping program. Wow. I want to tell you a little story about Amy. Up until we hired her 4 years ago the tripping program was run by various people some who didn’t live in camp. I had wanted an in camp experienced female trip leader for years so when Mike Fried told me he was driving to Wausau to interview someone and asked me to go along I said sure. We met with Amy at a Starbucks I think and at the end of the meeting offered her the job immediately. After her 2nd year at camp (this will be her 4th summer!) she came up to me and said she had all kinds of ideas of where our program could go. Tell me!!! I thought her ideas were great. I told her to put them down on paper and I will tell Mary that we need to have a meeting. So at the end of the summer Amy presented her ideas to Mary. Mary was all about it! “You tell me what you want I’ll get it” she said. We were off and running. Amy’s main objective was to give girls who wanted an avenue to more outdoor adventures an outlet. Now we have 3 people devoted to our tripping program. Hearing her telling me what she has planned for this summer was so exciting. Hiking canoeing camping! I just wanted to give Amy a big shout out for taking our program to new heights. But it’s not just camping look what we have done in so many other places. Gymnastics for example and all the cool stuff up in the Rec Hall that Suzi brought in. We don’t want our activities to be just a place where campers go for an hour and have fun. We want them to come away from their individual activities with a sense that they have learned grown and accomplished something. And don’t you worry that will continue to be a place of emphasis with our administrative staff.
Ah so much to say I could just keep going on but Suzi is ready for me to help her in the cabin so I better get back to work. I love you all and can’t wait to see everyone in less than 2 weeks. We have a very fun and busy prep just ahead but with our eye on the prize…Wednesday June 22nd!!! See you then!!!
MP