Kamp Kennedy

On Sunday afternoon it was time to take my little girl to camp for the first time.  The camp she is going to is just down the road from us at the cottage, literally a 10 minute drive.  We got her all packed up and off we went.

Kennedy didn't know anyone that was going so it would be all new friends…I did tell her that you never know who you might run into though, as it can be a small world.  Sure enough, as we are getting out of the Jeep something hits me from behind.  Someone had thrown a sleeping bag at me so I turned around and it was friends of ours that we hadn't seen in years…turns out their daughter has been going to that camp for a few years now.  Unfortunately her and Kennedy don't know each other, but maybe they will after this week.

We got Kennedy through registration no problem and then set off to find her cabin.  As this is the All-Girls Week at the camp, they are using both the Girls' and Boys' cabins, and Kennedy was in Boys' Cabin 1.  We found the spot and I told her that is the cabin I used to stay in (who knows, it might have been??) and she thought that was pretty cool.  The old cabins I stayed in back in high school have been torn down, but it seemed like it was about the right spot.

We got her bunk set up (smart girl, took the solo bed underneath the window) and then went to explore the camp.  We headed down towards the lake and stopped along the way to check out the mess hall and chapel.  It was a new mess hall since I was there, but the same old chapel (renovated though).  I told Kennedy stories about pranks that were pulled, like stealing all of the chairs from the mess hall and putting them on the chapel roof, and I showed her the flagpole that we ran one of the leaders' dirty undies up for all to see.  She thought it was pretty funny.

We passed the horses and the old campfire area…I joked that the chapel hadn't changed since I was there and neither had the horses.  Those poor guys looked well-ridden.

Then we got to see a couple of the cool new additions from over the years, the climbing wall and high ropes course…Kennedy knew that they had these, but when she saw them her jaw dropped.  She thought it looked awesome and couldn't wait to try it out!

Very cool!

Before long it was time to take her back to her cabin where she made up a nametag and we said our goodbyes.  They had a small BBQ dinner for the parents where the camp director assured us all that our kids were in good hands and were in for a great week, then we were able to wave goodbye to the kids as they began their opening ceremonies for the week.  We waved to Kennedy and she had a big smile on her face, so I guess that was a good sign!  I'll be back up there on Friday afternoon to pick her up and I can't wait to hear how her week went.

Yesterday I was back to work and that meant back to my lunch runs…yesterday I added a twist one of my usual routes and was able to stretch it out a bit, getting in a solid 8 miles.  I'm really trying to get out of that 10K rut and stretch my runs out to get back my endurance…so far so good as I seem to be able to keep up a decent pace and build the speed as I go!  Looking forward to some more solid runs this week!

Do you ever get stuck in a running rut, doing the same things over and over?