Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures when the kids were on the high elements of the challenge course. I was busy fastening harnesses and holding ladders. Morgan did a great job on one of the courses. It was a telephone pole with a pedestal on top. You had to climb up and then stand on top. Then you had to jump off and try to hit a tether ball that was dangling from a line. Did I mention that the top was about 25-30 feet off the ground.
It is funny to see the tough boys get scared about half way up. (I can't say that I blame them for being scared.) Only 3 kids from our group actually made it to the top and jumped off. 2 boys and 1 girl. Morgan did not make it to the top, she got about 3/4 of the way. She was the only one to jump though. Most were too scared and wanted to climb back down. She said it was fun.
The next one they got to do was the Zip Line. The kids had to shimmy across a tightrope from the side of the hill to get to the zip line. This was quite intimidating itself. Only 2 kids wanted to do this. One girl was first (Morgan's friend Abigail) and then one of the boys. (same 2 that did the other challenge).
If you look closely you will notice that this is not Morgan, it's me! The chaperons were able to do the challenges if there was time. And since only 2 kids wanted to do it, we had plenty of time.
I was surprised to see these pictures. I had one of the girls walk my camera down for me. Morgan was already at the bottom of the hill. She was working the bike that brought the zip line back up to the top (that would be the set of ropes on the right of the picture). When I got down, she told me that she took pictures for me. What a sweet girl!
So this is what happens when you turn your back for a couple of minutes.
I couldn't figure out why it was so quiet. Everyone was happily playing their Nintendos.
The next one they got to do was the Zip Line. The kids had to shimmy across a tightrope from the side of the hill to get to the zip line. This was quite intimidating itself. Only 2 kids wanted to do this. One girl was first (Morgan's friend Abigail) and then one of the boys. (same 2 that did the other challenge).
I was surprised to see these pictures. I had one of the girls walk my camera down for me. Morgan was already at the bottom of the hill. She was working the bike that brought the zip line back up to the top (that would be the set of ropes on the right of the picture). When I got down, she told me that she took pictures for me. What a sweet girl!
It rained the first and last day. But that did not stop them. They were still able to do most of the things that were planned in the rain. The first day they went on a hike in the rain and got to kiss a banana slug. Morgan did not kiss one.
After their hike they talked about the things they saw and recorded them in their field journals. they learned the difference between a Redwood and a Douglass fir. Notice how wet Morgan's pants are. Maybe next time I will spring for the rain suit.
The second day it was nice and sunny all day. It was a good thing too, because they were doing their challenge course today. (They would still do it even if it was raining.) They started with a few exercises using communication and team work. Their group was not very good with these skills and did not do very well on some of the exercises. In this one they were supposed to lower the hula hoop to the ground. It kept going up and not down.
This one they did pretty well. They had to lead their partner through the camp, making sure that they did not trip or fall.
This was another game where you had to get all 11 people from your team across the giant vat of "turkey vulture vomit". They were given only 5 boards and someone had to have contact with the boards at all times. If you lost contact with a board, it was taken away. They struggled a lot with this one. They came close but did not quite get it. On these challenge courses the chaperons could not help them at all. It was very hard trying not to help them.
