We opened up our first full day of Camp Oz with beautiful clear skies and enthusiastic campers as they rolled into breakfast. Eggs, sausage, hash browns and cereal powered everyone up for a big day of activities spread all across the camp. But first in order to continue to respect our surroundings and show responsibility, cabin clean-up was the first thing on the menu post-breakfast. After those painless chores, the fun truly began with the first of three activity periods during the day. We had swimmers, we had climbers, we had outdoor cookers, and we had crafters!
Lunch was gobbled down quickly and then plenty of campers snuck in some shut-eye during our rest time to recharge their batteries. Good thing they did because our afternoons are double packed with can’t miss action. There were visits to the Enchanted Forest, a magical place filled with team-building challenges, and scavenger hunts across camp to score points as they solved riddles and searched for mystical four-leaf clovers. We also had our first two cabins make the trek over to visit the horses and got in a few laps in the saddle. The YMCA horse wranglers did a great job encouraging our campers and made sure they were super confident riders.
After dinner, we got to enjoy our very first all-camp game! Although the rain yesterday pushed it off, the wait was worth it for some fierce rounds of Capture the Flag. Our campers absolutely loved that they got to mark which team they were on by painting their faces and loved it even more when the final round was counselors versus campers. You can already tell how much fun the kids are having with their counselors by the amount of extra effort they put into trying to tag them out with big grins on their faces. They certainly made the staff work hard!
Speaking of counselors, did you know that the Camp St. Croix staff all go by a special camp nickname? Get ready to ask your campers how much they loved spending time with: Bees, Twister, Bark, Auntie, Jets, Fish, Ink, Notes, Spice, Loaf, Chips, Scooter, Fidget, Stretch, Strings, Hope, M&M, Friz, Lollipop, Lemon, Splash, Dougie, DJ, Crash, Carb, Sassy, Curly, Thriller, Big Money, Flame, Hammer, Mo, Pebble, Flick, Ernie, Flame, Pitbull, Mojo, Juice, Skittles, Sauce and Styx. Surprise! I slipped in the name of one of the horses that we rode today. Can you guess which name is a horse and not a person? 🙂
It is only the end of Day 2 but it already feels like the cabins have been together for ages. We are all having so much fun together!
Can’t wait to tell you what tomorrow brings!
Erik
Assistant Camp Oz Director
Thank you to Mayo Clinic for sponsoring Camp Oz!
