Valley Camp Durango: Photos

Photos .... to give you the gist of things!

June 2015

week 1

Sierra and Rowan dusting home made donuts.

Week 2

Last year

It all starts with a scavenger hunt to get the lay of the land.

Lunch on the rocks.

My A#1 counselor! Thank you Max!

"Do not smile." I said.

"Now be your freaky selves!"

I did not say "Charlie, bite your neighbor."

For right now, Charlie is the watermelon eating king of the world.

Our new favorite spot! Swimming and damn building in the cool clear waters of Junction Creek. To get warm we bask on the boulders. We caught our own bait and fished and even found a sandy beach. Pure heaven.

If a lanyard isn't made is summer camp even real?

The boys made these cute paper mache beehives and we talked about bees. The girls made beautiful stained glass glitter jars and did a darling sewing project...felt embroidered owl or elephant book marks, which I failed to photograph. I didn't have my camera on me much this week, but here are the highlights. 'Pass the Onion' is back by popular demand and is as strange as ever. Ask your kid. We made home made lemonade every day and then made lemon lickers, to cool off with later in the day. We melted chocolate and made yummy, organic peanut butter, banana bites topped with it. We talked about our hopes and dreams, we shared our odd talents and distinguishing traits, and we read a beautiful book called the The Golden Rule. And then we tried to practice it.

The boys were wild for making traps and building all sorts of cool devices to attract a crazy squirrel and they gave the trampoline and the hose a workout. We started Farley Mowat's wonderful book, An Owl in the Family, and I hope you might encourage them to read it at home or read it aloud to them. It's the fun story of how a famous naturalist and writer got his start. All his books are amazing.

We had a spelling bee and trivia quizzes. We made friendship bracelets. We made duct tape quarter holders.

We made a mess.

I didn't have my camera 'on me' most of the time, but I think you get the gist of things. This is an awesome group of kids. All so kind and such originals.

Thank you all for sharing them. They make Valley Camp fun.

WEEK 2

Face masks.

Cake decorating.

We made snakes out of old ties. They are SO dang cute.

Yes, boys like to sew. They say they don't, but they do.

Every day ends at Junction Creek.

Counting trout under the boulders.

Tiger spice tea with milk and honey keeps us going.

After so much time in nature, it's fun to visit the city.

And make our own.

The onion continues to be passed.

Another wonderful week with such great kids!

WEEK 3

Week 3 was a field trip week. We found a favorite spot and went back every day.

The whole week can be summed up with one photo.

WEEK FOUR

This week was awesome. We talked about my favorite artist, Andy Goldworthy, and then we made our own Andy Goldworthy creations. His books are in the fine art section of the library and you should totally check them out for your kids to peruse....they are always fascinated and inspired by him and the only art supplies needed come from Mother Nature!

Chocolate chip croissants with our Tiger Spice Chai.

This is how we wash our hands. A little dish soap and then we wait for the rubber glove to explode as we pass it around. Always thrilling...even for me.

Lunch.

Awwwwwwwww. The rest of the time she was biting your children. It makes her very tired.

And you do believe in Gnomes, right. Because I present them as real things. And then we build gnome homes. And sometimes we might also build gnome traps, because how awesome would it be to really catch one. Alas, they are tricky, and they left us some treats but we didn't get one.

One day I will do an official scientific study. What is in our DNA that predicates a willingness to join a watermelon eating contest. It's a distinct line. There are two camps..."heck yes, let me at it" and "you guys are idiots, I'll eat mine the normal way." Which are you? Hhhhhmmmm.

We tie dyed.

We made lemon lickers. Look at that tongue. Barron, you should be a tongue model!

PTL, we finally caught a snake. We have been short on reptiles this year and it was really bringing me down. I feel better now. Thank you, Bode.

There was lots of puppy love.

We have spent hours upon hours excavating golf balls from the bottom of the Animas. It's deep and they are everywhere. Sydney wins the free diver award. My ears exploded at about twenty feet and she just kept going down for them. Because Durango NEEDS another extreme sport, I think that next year we'll have a camp just to train up world class golf ball free divers.