Can I Get a Witness?

I had to take a few days off from writing this blog since my eyes have been bothering me. I think it's just allergies, but it isn't going to stop me from writing about camp!

I first started going to Camp Tecumseh when I was 9 years old. I went with my friends Katie and Jill, and we were put in Catawba cabin. We were also put with two of our other friends, Makenzie and Jillian. We all were so excited to be at camp!

Unfortunately, that very first year as a Brave was such a long time ago that I don't remember ANYTHING! Well...except part of the Catawba cheer. We would always scream our cheer during lunch, shouting, "Catawba, Catawba, so fresh and so clean, clean, to the extreme, streme, CAN I GET A WITNESS?"

I'll have to ask Katie for more details, but that's all I remember. I was 9 and it was my first year at camp. I probably took friendship bracelets and soccer as two of my clinics. Those were the good ol' days.

Indian Princesses & Hearing About Tecumseh

When I was younger, my dad and I were part of a program called Indian Princesses.

My dad and I got to choose our Indian names and were part of the mighty Iowa tribe. He chose Bald Eagle and I chose Hummingbird. One Monday every month, my dad and I went to a local church basement for meetings. We'd play games, do crafts, and talk about upcoming activities. We even got cool vests and headbands to wear. It was really fun.

We'd do different activities to earn badges to put on our vests. Some of them included the Pumpkin Hunt, Bowling, Canoe-On-Wheels, Kite Fly, and, of course, Fall, Winter, and Spring Campouts.

I remember my first ever campout. I was in Kindergarten and we were at a place called Camp Duncan. My dad and I wanted to go canoeing, but he wasn't the best at paddling a canoe. Before I knew it, our canoe tipped over and we were stuck in the freezing water! We screamed help for 5-10 minutes before someone was able to come out and save us. It was a pretty funny experience. In the end, we ended up getting our tribe's trophy for our great canoeing skills.

So you may be thinking "How does this relate to Camp Tecumseh?" Well, Camp Tecumseh was one of our campout destinations. After my first year as an Indian Princess, Camp Tecumseh became the place for the fall campout. They would let us come up on Friday night, feed us dinner, open the Trading Post and let us do archery, riflery, go down the black hole, and have a trail ride, complete with the annual bug hunt and a campfire.

Also, Camp Tecumseh had the coolest cabins (with bathrooms in them, unlike Camp MacLean) and it was something all of us princesses looked forward to. So me and two of my friends (Katie and Jill) decided to go to Camp Tecumseh for a week during the summer.

And so the journey begins...

The Beginning of Something Great

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately (especially those of my camp counselors) and decided to write a blog of my own. I had to write a blog for an English project freshman year, but we didn't get to choose what we wrote about so it wasn't very fun. After reading other blogs, I realized how much I missed writing about things I love, and how others can see what an impact those things have made on my life.

Lately, all I've been able to think about is camp. Whatever I'm doing somehow always relates back there. So I've decided to share my whole camp experience - from Indian Princesses to being a wee little Brave to my recent adventure CILTing - to everyone who wants to know about it.

I hope everyone enjoys this and is able to take back something from the knowledge and experiences I share.