Beavers Bend/Camp

So, it may seem a little strange, but Maggie is almost 15 years old and she has never been away from me for more than one night! We are not sure how we managed that - but that was our situation. This year I was unable to go with her to girls camp (yes, i had mixed emotions about that, as I LOVE CAMP!) so she was off to Beavers Bend alone! She did great, but I cried like a crazy baby! I missed her so much before she was even out of town!

This was her 4th year - which meant that she was an Indian Princess! The parents of the princesses are invited to drive up on Wednesday evening to watch the girls perform the Lord's prayer in sign language. It is really nice - the stage is set up on the banks of the river at dusk - the water is cold and the air is hot, so it creates a nice rolling fog on the water. Then the other camp girls arrive chanting and singing a haunting Indian song, while the 3rd year girls light the way and line the audience with torches. The story of the Indian princess is told and acted out and then the girls are spotlighted, followed by the dance. Maggie most definitely did NOT want to participate, but once she had done it, she was glad that she did! Nana made her cute dress for her.

Since we had to drive up to Oklahoma anyway, we decided to rent a cabin and stay until Maggie was finished with camp. We ended up going canoeing with the girls - Tommy, Tim and I had a bit of an accident that scared us all (we flipped and due to a crazy fast current and deep waters, lost our boat and came out battered and bruised and not excited about canoeing again!), and Maggie had to climb a tree to save herself after a canoe fiasco of her own!

We played in a creek with Tim, explored a bit and really just enjoyed the great outdoors! Well, I'm not sure how much Tommy enjoyed it - On the morning we were set to leave, I caught him on the front steps of the cabin checking news on his iphone and yelling "SHUT UP!" to the hawks in the trees above! Very Funny!

waiting for the show to start

maggie - pre-show. Do you like how you can see her dark clothes underneath? all of the girls had to use the same fabric...it was see through!
angelia, mariah, maggie
my favorite move!
maggie and tim
maggie, mariah, dani, amber, carlie - in their tent after the show making a quick retreat out of the tent just as the thunderstorm hit - all of the fourth years stay in tents by the river - they all had to move to the mess hall to sleep!
good thing daddy was there to help everyone move their stuff!

Tim in a creek bed
hunting baby frogs, minnows and crawfish
our cabin living room - not bad for the woods, huh?
our cabin
tommy beating us in a game of Sorry Sliders
Brooke, Angelia, Maggie, Carlie before hitting the unusualy high water
tim the canoe-er (before the near fatal crash!)
carlie and maggie - they started off pretending to be Pocahontas, but -because she is Maggie - she had to dance a little bit! Your not surprised are you?
Mariah and Amber Dodging the treacherous trees - they were our downfall!
After we were rescued by President Kimball! Someone had finally caught our boat too - thank goodness! You can't tell by the pic that Tim was freaked out - me too actually! You also can't yet see the MULTIPLE bruises that were forming!
Maggie didn't like the idea of Tim walking back to the bus with no shoes on - they were lost to the raging waters of death! They have met a dark watery grave, i'm sure. No, i'm not dramatic.