Happy Birthday, America!

As usual, I've been ridiculously busy. I worked all last week with the Pre-Teens, which was fun. It's nice to be with the older kids and do things that the younger groups don't get to do like going to St. Albans to go bowling on Monday night. A highlight of the week? It was definitely 100% convincing the ENTIRE group of Pre-Teens that another counselor is my half-brother. The clincher was our fabricated childhood story about me sitting on his head. All in all the week went by pretty fast. Then it was Fourth of July weekend, which was marvelous.

Day by day run-down of an amazing Vermont weekend mostly spent on the wonderful Lake Champlain:

Friday - Friday nights at the Tyler Place are great. The younger two groups do parades and get s'mores and whatnot. Juniors and up play Capture the Flag with the famous rubber chickens. (Check it out!) Then comes the traditional Tug o' War match. I got some good action shots as I sat this round out after chasing after one of my Pre-Teens in the woods during Capture the Flag and twisting my ankle in the process! Capture the Flag is quite obviously very serious business. After the kids play Tug o' War against one another they team up against the counselors and a few parents. I'm sad to say that the odds are just too great and the kids ALWAYS win. A few always come complaining that we let them win, but let me tell you, I do not end up on the ground every time just for show!

The action shots

Saturday - On Saturdays we see off the kids in the morning with a good-bye breakfast and then have the afternoon free until the next round of guests arrive. This past Saturday was one of the Staff Boat Dock Days for the summer. From 11-3 the boat dock boys were on duty to bring the staff tubing, water skiing, wake boarding, etc. It was awesome to have a sunny day for once and even better to get to spend that day on the lake!

After the day had ended I made my way down to Burlington to hang out with my friends from my ex-school and watch the fireworks. We worked our way toward the waterfront and ended up with an awesome view.

My fave firework picture of the night.

Sunday - Sunday was my day off. It was also the Great Race Triathalon in St. Albans Bay. I've been doing the thing since I was about 10 and haven't missed a year since. The race is a 5k run, 13ish mi bike, and 3 mi paddle. This year I ran, my dad biked, and we paddled a giant, heavy, ridiculously slow canoe together. Had it been a fast boat we would have had a good time, I'm sure. The run didn't go well, but overall it was fun as usual. My lovely friend from St. Mikes, Coligny, made an appearance and we went to lunch in St. Albans. It was good to see her and I probably won't get to again until school starts back up, but let's not go rushing that.

After the race I went to my boyfriend's family's camp on the lake and had dinner and went tubing in the gorgeous weather.

We then ended up going out on a friend's boat to watch the St. Albans fireworks to finish off the awesome day and weekend.

Heading into the bay to watch the fireworks. Pretty sunset!

Fireworks over the bay. A little blurry with the boat rocking, but still cool.

I'm now in the Playhouse working with some cute little Junior Midgets. We're in the middle of a full on heat wave. I think I'm going to lose at least 10 pounds this week in sweat. For now I'm not quite as busy as I was over the weekend. My biggest priority other than work is staying semi-cool. Wish me luck. It's probably not going to happen.