I Promise I Didn't Sit At Home ALL Month...

Hey 4-Hers, HOW DO YOU FEEL!
We feel good, oh we feel so good uh! We feel fine, all of the time uh ahhhhh....

I guess I'm kind of still in camp mode.  After two 4-H camps in a row with only 3 days in between, you can imagine how much fun I had, not to mention how badly I lost my voice. I guess screaming camp songs for 3 hours in a bus isn't the best thing you can do for your vocal cords. Who knew?

Proof that I wasn't making the whole thing up

I attended 4-H Dairy and Livestock Camp as an adult volunteer rather than a counselor, but that doesn't mean I really acted like an adult.  And yes, you read that right, I went to a camp for those crazy animal people!  I just told those kids that the only thing I knew about livestock is that it's tasty, which in my eyes basically made me an expert.  I learned a lot of interesting things, and some misguided farmer actually let me clip his steer and walk one around.  Props to the people who show those animals, it's a lot harder than it looks to move those stubborn animals around and keep yourself from accidentally beating it with the stick thingy.  We also took a tour of a butcher's shop, where I learned in full detail exactly how an animal is prepared from beginning to end. (Now I'm imagining what my college friends were doing during this time, probably working or hanging out with friends at the mall or getting food.  I'm not sure if some of them could've handled it, much less volunteered for it.  Hi friends!)  But they gave us free beef sticks, and I'm all about that free food so I was sold.  Hopefully I'll be able to help out as an adult again next year.

Some of us counselors after the obstacle course and epic Jell-O fight

But my favorite camp will always be traditional 4-H camp where I was a Jr. camp Senior Counselor for my final year.  The theme was "Mystery Machine", so all of the activities were mystery themed in some way. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Council exchange trip to Kentucky in order to go to camp, but I think I made the right choice.  I mean, I got to scare people in the woods wearing a werewolf mask, sing the bluebirdy song at 6 a.m., and take part in an obstacle course that included pools filled with ooblek, oatmeal, and Jell-O, crawling through mud, and going through an enormous slip n slide that I completely wiped out on. I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Preparing for some devious plan including a clump of oatmeal

As you can imagine, I'm the type of counselor who likes to bring a lot of stuff to camp.  And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT.  (Surprisingly though, I really don't bring that many outfits.  Don't worry, I try not to be that girl.)  The stuff I like to bring is things to decorate my cabin and make my girls feel more at home, and since this was my last year, I decided I would go all out.  From rubber band bracelet crafts to obnoxious amounts of candy, streamers to stuffed unicorns, a Swiffer to glow bracelets, and balloons, posters, Christmas lights, coloring books, and bedtime stories in between, you could say I had a ton of fun packing.

Keeping the cabin clean every year is almost impossible.  Let's just say it was so bad one year, the staff members who go around camp taking photos for the memory CD actually took pictures of my messy cabin and put it on the CD because nobody would think it was real.  And of course, things get lost.  I end up with half packs of markers, random suspicious socks that I throw away, and one year, one of my campers mailed me one of my shirts home that she somehow found in her bag.

Senior Counselors 2014

But despite the mess and craziness and lost things, I always end up leaving with more than I bring.  I leave with more friends, more more memories, and more excitement for 4-H than I did when I showed up on the first day.  That is truly the most rewarding part of attending any 4-H camp, and I'll never forget the amazing things I've gained in the past 7 years.

Well, maybe my body can forget to gain the weight from the amazing amounts of food I always seem to eat at camp.  I live for those camp taco salads, but someday it'll catch up with me...

Wipeout!

Have a jazzy July, and I hope to see you at State Days!
Sophie Hutchinson, Council Representative