WT TLC

  
We’ve started a new tradition at home that you may have seen posted on social media: Thankful Saturday’s. As a family of divorce, while the weekends with no kids are great, there is nothing better than the 5 of us all getting together around the table or counter on a Saturday morning and starting the weekend with what we are all thankful for.  

Last weekend, it was Marleys turn to go and she paused and took a deep breath while thinking. Then she turned to me and said ‘Mommy, how much does sleep away camp cost?’ To which I responded, Marley, you have no idea how thankful you should be for the summer you are about to endure.  
Tomorrow morning, my baby gets on the bus for seven weeks away. Over the last few weeks I’ve been telling her about all the things she’s going to experience at camp – the decisions she will be able to make without me telling her what to do, the friends she’s going to make from the minute she steps on the bus, the experiences she will have that she will never forget and all the amazing things that are still so vividly clear to me after not having been at camp for 30 years.  
Sitting here tonight I am so thankful for the summers that I was able to spend away at Timber Lake and all of what it brought to my life. I always say that I am the person I am because of the experiences I had as a kid at Summer camp.  

So here is my list (which could go on forever) of things for my daughter that I am, and she should be, thankful for this summer and every summer hereafter that she gets to spend at Timberlake: 

Cold mountain air and slimy lakes

Bug juice, jax, and griddle cakes.

Mess hall chants and the girls HC,
Waking each morning to Revile. 

Canteen, colorwar and Ron Degon
Rainy day movies with your PJ’s on.

Visiting day and a huge water balloon fight,
Campfire songs and raiding bunks at night. 

Catching salamanders in the stream
Passing inspection with a bunk so clean.

Razzes, sing night and Intercamp games
Yelling at Ropeburn to increase the flames.

The far far field and the tushy house
When JJ talks, it’s as quiet as a mouse.

The Gordon cup and hiking the north dome 
Getting a slip to make a call to home.

Murals and alma maters up on the wall
Arm and arm with friends and having a ball. 

Friendships you’ll make and have forever
Memories and good times that will last forever. 

Green and white always true
Timber Lake, we love you.