The Sari Diaries- Monday 7/17/23

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

Our first full day of second session at #TheRanch2023 was a success! Following all the fun that was had today, we are definitely ready to jump into regular activities tomorrow. As for today’s details, I can’t wait to get started!

At 8am, we were all fortunate enough to hear “Nina Pretty Ballerina” blasting throughout camp. After enjoying a lovely wake-up filled with fun songs and a Seven Wonders Quiz, we headed to the lodge for a pancake breakfast…yum! I walked down with the cabin of Rafter^X because they made a trip to the playground before breakfast. They were loving the spinny-thing…arguably the most popular piece of equipment in all of CRC. Following breakfast, we had cabin clean-up. If I’m being honest, we definitely needed a good cabin clean-up today. Lucky for me I had to stop by Blackfoot Trail before the day’s activities got started and I was pleasantly surprised by the extreme cleanliness of their cabin…way to go Blackfoot!

This morning’s activities included activity sign-ups, finishing the tubing rotation, some trampball and nucomb. Fun was had by all and campers were very excited to share their activity schedule for these first two weeks. Grilled cheese, tomato soup and tater tots were a lovely Monday lunch surprise as we normally have picnic on Mondays. Campers and staff alike were thrilled to devour some cheesy sandwiches and plenty of tater tots.

And then we all headed to the Center Fire Circle for the new camper Tan & White reveal. New campers had their hands dipped in red or white paint while blindfolded and were met with cheers from their new team for life when they found out if they were a Tan or a White…lots and lots of smiles as these new Chippies continued to grow their connections throughout Chippyland. The afternoon was full of age group activities- campers climbed the wall (shout-out to Jillian C who I found two-thirds of the way up), leapt across the high ropes course, played a lot of teatherball, enjoyed some pickle and tennis, and made some beaded bracelets in arts & crafts. Campers were definitely busy getting a taste of all parts of camp with their age groups!

Dinner included Tan & White cheering in preparation for tonight’s game. While Cliff gave the cheering only a 4.9 on a ten point scale, I was pretty impressed for the first cheering of the session. While campers waited for the games to begin, main street was bustling. There were campers on the playground, others hanging outside the ice cube, some were playing teather-ball and still others hanging in the gaga pit. Then when I walked towards the North Field, I saw a foursome playing pickleball and Lucy B with her counselor playing soccer…lots of activity all over CRC tonight!

And tonight we had our traditional first Tan & White game of second session…Sandstorm! Tans and Whites worked with their teams to get a mound of sand from the South end of camp to the North. The Braves passed the sand via bowls, the Hunters via cups, the Warriors via tennis cannisters and the Chiefs via pillow cases (don’t worry, not their own). It is amazing just how much fun these Chippies were having moving sand from location to location…it legit seemed like the time of their lives! As the sand gathered at the edge of the North Field, the Chief and Grand Sachems got excited to bring the sand the final stretch to the scale…the first team to tip their scale to the ground wins. The game was neck in neck but the Tans pulled it off. The entire camp was cheering as the final bowls of sand were poured into the scale mechanism…the sky was dark but the energy lit up the field!

There you have it, folks- we had an incredible day at #TheRanch2023. From wake-up through the sportsmanship songs after T&W Sandstorm, this day was full of spirit and happiness. We can’t wait for a “regular” day tomrorow! Talk to you then :).

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari