Last Few Weeks at TP

It's been a bit since my last update. Summer is coming to an end. It's gone by so unbelievably fast. In just two weeks I will be back at school getting ready to be an Orientation Leader for the class of 2015. I will also be a senior which 100% blows my mind to think about.  

I'm looking forward to living in the townhouses and cooking my own food. It gets a little repetitive eating the same exact meals on the same exact day every week. Besides Mexican Monday that is. Mexican Monday is the very best.

After quite some time with the younger groups I was with the Teens last week, which was awesome. It was a huge group of 25, but we had a great week. This week I'm with the Pre-Teens, which is almost as good. I do miss eating guest dinners every meal with the Teens though. Delicious.

Amy and I before staff semi-formal.

Of course I've made time to enjoy the last bit of times with friends from TP. The few months of summer seem so much longer when you spend every hour with people. It'll be really hard to leave even though I'm so excited to get back to my friends at school. Not everyone is coming back next summer. TP changes from year to year so it's always hard to see it come to an end. Until then I'll be loving every karaoke night and dance party. Plus, I'm only an hour away when at school. I may make a trip or two back after I leave...

Karaoke night last week.

Some girls after karaoke at The Slab.

With Michelle and Meghan at semi-formal.

Quick Life Update

I've been blogging a bit recently, but haven't had the chance to post any pictures or fun facts from my summer. So here it is.

With Michelle in the fort we built with
the seniors. We were so proud.

I've been living up at Tyler Place for the summer, which has been so nice since it really limits the driving I have to do. I've worked with every age group except for teens and have been back in the Playhouse with the little ones this week. The summer is absolutely flying by. I only have five weeks left, which is sad. Not too sad though since I'm pretty pumped for orientation this year! Until then I'll be loving the TP lifestyle. I'll babysit a good amount but also leave some room for fun like Thursday night Dance Parties!

Lilly, Patricia, and I at Dance Party a few weeks ago.

It was also my birthday on June 18, which was a really fun day. I was home with the family for a little while and had a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cake. Yum. Then I headed to Burlington where I spent the night with Coligny and Maria, who I'll be living with this coming year at SMC.



Keep checking in for more posts. Next Friday I'll be putting out my Top 6 Favorites of Church street, which is kind of a continuation of my last post, My Top 4 Favorite Places in Burlington.

A view of the sunset on my way home from work.

Sweet Summertime

So, as it turns out, I'M STILL ALIVE. It's been just a little less than a month since my last post, which is completely out of character for me. I've been so unbelievably busy. Once exams were over things DID NOT slow down.

My brother, Evan, and I at his graduation.

I traveled all over for various reasons. The day after I got home I was up at 4:30 to fly from Burlington to Rochester, NY. The next day I drove the 7 hours back home. A few days later I was off to Hartford, CT to see my mom's family. We drove 5 hours to and from in the same day. That next weekend I was off to Burke, VT for my brother's graduation from Burke Mountain Academy.

View from the screened porch at the cottage.

Finally, after one day of full rest I moved into a cottage on the lake and started work at The Tyler Place. My first week was spent running all over after 2 1/2 - 4 year old kids. We went to a marionette show, played on trampolines, hung out in the Bookmobile, went fishing, and (thankfully) had a movie night. It was a crazy week to say the least. After the kids left Friday all of the counselors hugged it out in the Playhouse in celebration of making it through the first week.

This isn't to say that the kids were terrible. They were actually pretty awesome for the most part. It's just that we have a lot of new counselors joining us this year and a week as a counselor is a lot to jump into. Now that we've all gotten through the first week it'll get easier as everyone gets used to how things go here.

I'm now working with Seniors who are somewhere around the ages of 8 and 9. Today is my day off and after this post I expect to spend it at the TP pool, which you can check out in this post from last summer.

I promise to have a post of some substance at some point. Things will calm down as the summer gets rolling and I'll have a little more time to focus on something other than how nuts my life is!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

I was going to wait to put this on my blog. At least until, you know, tomorrow considering I already posted today. But it's too good to wait.

The extended version of this was heard all over the Tyler Place all summer.

Now that it's a popular song all over the U.S. it's spread to SMC XC.

As far as I'm concerned (and as far as Andrea's concerned...she's had it on repeat for the last week or so) it's the official SMC WXC song. Others think that it's Teenage Dream, but they're oh so very wrong.

I hope you love it as much as we do.

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.

All Things Water At TP

I've been meaning to put up some pictures from the Tyler Place for some time now, but I haven't gotten around to it. I've "borrowed" a bunch from my Aussie friend and fellow counselor, Brad. I'm making him a friendship bracelet during Pre-Teen hang out time, so he owes me. He had a bunch from one of the first weeks of summer when we were at the pool and at the boat dock/water tramps, thus the title. Here's a look at all things water at TP!

The outdoor pool (aka practically my home last summer) The building on the left is the indoor pool.

The indoor pool - parents doing water aerobics

View of the boat dock

Going to the swim dock and making moves toward the tramps/slide

"The Death Slide" on a floating dock

Jumping off the lake tramps (l to r: Andrew, Emilie, me in the back, and Brad upside down)

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's been a pretty rainy summer so far. It's raining as I write this. Yuck.

It's sunny every once in a while, though. I've found time to sit by the pool during the four hour break from work. I've also made it to a couple of dance parties and karaoke nights with the guests.

With some of the girls before DP. (Laura creeping over my shoulder, me, Jeanine, Julia)

This morning I ran in the Run for Empowerment. I happened to run into my boss, Gen, while writing her a note for work yesterday and she told me about it. She and two other girls from TP were also there. It was a fun out and back 5k/10k race (I did the 5k with my mom, my friends Michelle and Alexis did the 10) that started at the Echo Center in Burlington. It was for Women Helping Battered Women, which was quite obviously a worthy cause. The finish had just about THE BEST food spread I've ever seen. I'm kicking myself now because I can't remember the name of the bakery (Great Harvest Bread Co.?? Hmm...) that provided the baklava, apple strudels, spinach and cheese spinner pastry things, etc., but I can tell you right now that it was DELICIOUS. After some awards (yay, I won cookies!) and a great raffle in which my mom, who never wins raffles, was the first to be called and picked out a gorgeous $100 pendant, my mom and I headed up to the mall for a little shopping at our all-time favorite store, Ann Taylor Loft. Is it disgusting that we used up our 2 hours free parking in one store? Oops! It was a successful trip though!

It's been a busy, busy week work-wise, but a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to being with the pre-teens this week. Bowling in St. Albans Tuesday!! At the end of this week we will be 1/3 the way through the season at TP. AHH! AND I'm not even around for the last few weeks because of school. So I'm AT LEAST 1/3 done summer. Scary, scary thought. I'll be enjoying every last second of my last 2/3rds!

3 Weeks In

Well, I feel like I've been there forever, but I've only been working at the Tyler Place for 3 weeks now. Time there goes by so strangely. You're with the same kids for a week straight and then the guests rotate and you say good-bye to those kids in the morning and meet new ones in the afternoon. Because of this weeks go by slowly and events at the beginning of the week seem so distant at the end, but they also go by quickly because of the quick rotation. It's very strange.

This is going to be a quick post as I have to head out for a run and I told myself I HAD to go by 5:30. First, a quick explanation of how TP kids groups work so you'll understand a little somthin' somthin' in the rest of this. The age groups are rough. I'm not exactly positive, but it'll give you a good idea.

In the "Playhouse" are the Junior Midgets (2 1/2 - 4 years old)

In the "Clubhouse" are the Senior Midgets (4 - 5 years) and the Juniors (5 - 7ish years)

In the Inn are the Seniors (7 - 9 years), Pre-Teens (10-12), and Teens (13-16ish)

Like I said, the age groups are rough.

This is my second week in a row counseling in the Senior Midgets. Being in the Clubhouse for the second week is really nice. The first week gave me the opportunity to get comfortable with the way that things worked and this week I felt like I could step up a little and not completely rely on counselors that have worked at TP before. While I did work there last year, I'm a complete newbie at counseling.

The kids have been fun. This week I've been working a lot with one in particular that had a hard time with being away from his parents. He's still a little reserved around the other kids, but there have been a lot of improvements from the first day, which is encouraging.

On another fun note, Friday is my birthday! I'll be putting on my dancing shoes (aka cute new flip flops from TJ Maxx, one of the best places on earth) and chillin' with the guests at dance party tomorrow night. It's the first one I've been able to go to all year, so I'm quite excited. Expect pictures.

I'm not exactly sure where this blog is going to go this summer, but my picture on the SMC Bloggers homepage says I'm a counselor, so I'll tell you all about TP. As my friend Adam said though, it seems to just be a story about my life. I am a SMC Blogger, so please, any questions about St. Mike's and whatnot are completely welcome. Not being there makes it hard to talk about it, but I'm sure I could come up with something with a little push in the right direction!

Summer Summer Summer

As usual, it's been pretty busy. I've been getting a lot of 9/10 mile runs in lately. This coming Sunday is the Burlington Marathon and I'm doing the half relay with my mom. Wish me luck. I haven't been doing a very good job with the training thing, so it could be iffy. We'll see how it goes. I was smart and took the first leg. This way I can't stop because if I do my mom will never get to run. Smart, no? I'm forcing myself to finish the thing. Ha.

Last weekend I went down to southern VT to watch Evan run the GMR. The Green Mountain Run is a Burke Mountain Academy tradition. The entire school runs the length of Route 100 from bottom to top. Each student, whether alpine or nordic, gets a leg and runs individually for about 4 or 5 miles. Each little section has its own record, so a lot of the runs are not just leisurely strolls to the finish. They all paint the vans the day before (Evan's was painted Ben and Jerry's style). The vans arrive at the bottom of VT early in the morning and the run lasts until about 3 am the next day. No wonder it takes so long...100 miles is a long way to run! It makes my 13.1 look like nothing! It's cool to see the whole school so involved. All the kids cheer like crazy for each of their classmates and everyone runs along for little section of other runs just for support. Not to mention all of the parents that come from all over the U.S. just to watch the run! It would be awesome to get something like that going at SMC.

Nordic and alpine team up to run the length of Route 15? Hmmm...

Evan had promised that there would be pictures up on facebook to steal for this bloggy blog, but apparently the kids at Burke have better things to do than get on facebook. Like mountain bike and run and train and stuff, so obviously they're too lazy to get the pickies on fb. Ugh, those Burkies. I did take these two lovely pictures of southern VT on my dad's phone.

How could you possibly not love VT??

The past few days have been all about Tyler Place. Orientation was busy busy busy. Being a counselor has so much more involved than life guarding. There's the boat dock, the pool, the playhouse, the club house, the inn, the children's garden, mountain biking, countless games and songs to learn, and God knows what else. I'm glad to be done orientation and starting work. I'm with the Junior Midgets this week, which is the youngest group, around 2 1/2 to 4 years old. I've literally never changed a diaper. Potential problem? Ehhh. We shall see.

My camera is dead and I've lost the charger, so while I'd like to promise pics of TP soon, there might be a bit of a wait. For now, I've got the next few days off and some brownies in the oven. Nom nom nom.

Meet the Tyler Place

I've made very little progress in the last few days...my room still looks like a bomb shelter. On the plus side I've kept occupied enough for it to be Wednesday already. I'm just counting down the days until I start working! Am I a crazy person to have said that? Most people absolutely love the time off. As it happens I actually have obtained THE best summer job on the face of this planet. I am SO excited to go back for my second summer! So not crazy. Not for that reason anyway.

I work at the Tyler Place (TP) in Highgate, Vermont. It's a family resort that families come to for a week (Saturday night - Saturday morning). Each family gets a small cabin for the week. Every morning the kids go to "group" where lovely counselors (myself included this year...last year I lifeguarded) lead them in swimming at the pool and in the lake, rock climbing, fishing, banana boating, making arts and crafts, hiking, and countless other activities. Parents have this time to relax and do just about whatever they'd like...or nothing at all. In the afternoon the parents get to spend time with their kids as a family and, again, do anything. In the evening the counselors take the kids to "group" for a second time where the kids have a pool party, movie night, carnival, etc. It's something different every night. After the second group sesh of the day parents have the option of hiring a babysitter and going to the event for parents, which is usually at the inn. These events include Karaoke Night, Game Night, and Dance Party with a DJ. As staff we are welcome at and encouraged to go to the events and socialize with the guests.

Basically I just play. ALL. DAY. LONG.

Almost all of the staff is college aged, sometimes a little older. One of the really cool parts of TP is that a good percentage of the staff is international. This means that there are kids from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the UK, Russia, Columbia, etc. that all work and live at the TP for the summer. I met so many great people and spent the summer hanging out in the woods of Northern Vermont getting to know them all.

I honestly can't explain TP well enough for anyone who hasn't been there to fully understand it. It's a whole other world. A lot of people relate it to Dirty Dancing (you know..."Nobody puts Baby in the corner."), which is funny because it's fairly accurate. And of course, one of the fave songs at Dance Party (DP) is "Time of my Life", which is the big song from the movie. Figures.

In my excitement for the start of TP (MAY 26 AHHH!!) I looked through all of my pictures from last year. THEN, due to my new obsession with slide.com I made a slide show.

Welcome to the extremely short version of TP '09! Check in soon...I'll be writing all about TP '10! (And my adventures with training for skiing!)