Bible Campers

At church today, Suzanna was taking "worship notes" (about the church service; it's required as part of her confirmation class work) and came to a question about what was notable during the past week.  She wrote something to the effect of, "I went to Badlands Ministries for Bible camp and left my voice there."  Yep, she came back hoarse from a week at Bible camp.

Which reminds me that I haven't written about the girls' week at Bible camp!

Last Sunday, the day that I left for a week in Chicago, Suzanna and Abigail left for a week at Badlands Ministries Bible camp.  Hillary is still too young for the full-week camp, so she had to wait until Wednesday to join her sisters.  That meant that Hillary had Mommy all to herself until then, and Susan had the house all to herself Wednesday night through Friday midday.

The girls have gone to this Bible camp before (2008 and 2009), and they always love it.  When I got back home late Friday night, I was showered with hugs and kisses as soon as I stepped in the door, and then our family sat down for a late-night snack while the girls launched into tales from their week at camp.  Here are a few highlights directly from the ponies' mouths:

"Mommy bought us treats at the Medora Fudge and Ice Cream Depot before driving us south of Medora to drop us off at camp."

Suzanna: "There were ten girls in my cabin, including me.  Nine of us were from Dickinson.  My friend Alex and I had met two years ago, and we've been in the same cabin together each year since.  My favorite memory from camp this year is eating peanut butter with my cabinmates because we made such a big deal about it (stealing each other's peanut butter, hiding it, etc.--and, by the way, peanut butter doesn't float!).  We got into all the songs so much (half of them are 'scream songs') that I lost my voice at camp.  The next two years, I get to do Night Life camp."

Abigail: "This past week at camp was very fun.  There were 13 people in my cabin: 11 of us campers and 2 staff, Kristi and Erin.  I had brought three books to read during daily quiet time, and during the week of camp, I read only two.  We went to the swimming pool in Medora one day, and some people from my cabin and I did dives and cannonballs into the water.  We also played some water games.  During my cabin's activity time at camp, we painted the picnic table in front of our cabin.  First we had to sand it, but there was no more sandpaper; so we had to use scoria and rocks from the road.  It took about two days, but finally we got to paint it, and it looked really good.  I had a great time, and I'm sure next year will be as great as this year."

Hillary: "One of the things that I really liked was writing a letter to a soldier because it warmed my heart to know that the soldiers are fighting on behalf of our country.  Another fun thing was that one of my cabinmates brought a stuffed donkey that we named Mr. Wallace Heehaw, Jr., and we pretended that he was my husband, and I had to smooch him every time I cam back from any activity!  I had a lot of fun leading the cabin's song 'He's Alive' when the parents came to pick us up on Friday."