Arts & Crafts, High Ropes, Wall, Swim

Day 2

The night before, our cabin decided what morning activity we wanted to do. You have the choice of answering trivia at Wake N Wind, going on the Morning Hike or entering enlightenment in yoga with Puppy Monster. As usual, I chose the morning hike like last year. After hiking on a trail wrapped around the camp grounds in my footy pajama's and bunny slippers I was completely awake to do the Sunshine Dance. No matter what, I always have to do the Sunshine Dance FULL OUT, whether I'm in my bedroom or I hear the song playing at the mall or I'm actually at camp (feels less ridiculous when everyone around me is doing it too)!

Once all the cabins were lined up by the bell it was time to do the Sunshine Dance. My friend Marissa and I were chosen to do the Sunshine Dance in front of everyone, since we're such pro's, to demonstrate to the new campers how it's done! Afterwards, we sat down waiting for our number to be called intoxicated by the delicious camp smells of breakfast. Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day at camp! I always over load on the fresh fruit and, how great is it to start the first day of activities with fluffy pancakes and sausage!

YUM!

On the Morning Hike with Aries

Obviously... we haven't done the Sunshine Dance yet

My footy pajama wearin' counselor, Izzy!

Known these girly's for two years; Sammy and Marissa!

Once we finished breakfast it was time to go back to our cabins and attempt the title of Clean Cabin Queens. I have never gone to camp and NOT won Cleanest Cabin Queens so I was a determined little rascal to really kiss up to the med nurses once again this year. After sweeping and placing our shoes into the shape of a heart, we left for our first activity, Art's & Crafts. I made sure to pack a white t-shirt since we were tye -dying shirts this year in Art's & Crafts. I used yellow and blue to make green and I just sprinkled that all over my spiral looking shirt. As of the moment, I don't know if it will turned out good or not but all I do know is that I am definitely wearing it on the last day of activities just because it's lime green!

After giving the Art's and Crafts ladies a bit of a fail camp appreciation we left for the High Ropes Course! Last year, I made it my goal to stand up on the Eagles Perch but I ended up just sitting up there. I don't know why I'm so undefeated by this wobbly telephone pole, but it's completely different when you're actually up there looking down at your cabin cheering you on. This year I had to conquer this thing... it wasn't just a want, IT'S A NEED! I was the first one to volunteer to go first and my belayer, Zoe, was so energetic and reassuring I can do this! It didn't take me long to get up there, but it took me awhile to move both my feet to the surface. Personally, after you have one foot there and you just have to rely on gravity for two seconds while getting your other foot there is the hardest part. That's when I feel like I'm going to fall BUT I'M NOT! My adrenaline was rushing but I kept telling myself, "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FALL! YOU'RE ON A HARNESS! CMON', MOVE THAT FOOT!!" I guess my pep talk worked because I managed to stand on top of the Eagles Perch for a firsty! I was doing the Sunshine Dance, the Squirrel Dance, and shaking my booty while up there but once I lost the feeling in my legs from shaking so bad I figured it was time to come down.

Going up...

Half way there!

Just chillin ;)

After accomplishing my biggest goal for this year, I was ready for anything! I decided to do the Rigidy Bridge and the Catwalk before Lunch.

Made it across the Rigidy Bridge!

#YOLO

Meditation really does exist!

Strutting across the Catwalk!

The bell rang for lunch and I was so ready to eat and relax during Quiet Hour. After that much activity, all I wanted to do was lie down in my bunk before our next activity which was the rock wall. The rest of my cabin was focused on finishing first for this competition to do specific, silly tasks like telling YNOT, "Hey, I'm allergic to bacon..." or asking Ooops, "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a woodchuck would Chuck Norris?" or showing Flipper some amazing hair flips as our best "flip" and in return get a counselor's signature. So far, we are the cabin with the most signatures so we were so confident we were going to finish first to win the mysterious prize!

It seemed Quiet Hour didn't last very long considering I was still tired but I was soon ecstatic once I remembered the rock wall was our next activity! Two years ago, I made it to the top of the wall in 45 seconds. Last year, I made it to the top in 36 seconds. I'm pretty satisfied with my record, so I went up the wall once, recited a quote and supported the rest of my cabin as they went up the rest of the time.

Our next activity was swimming at the waterfront and I was probably most excited about this activity since we were with Senior 2 and Ketch. After jumping on the trampoline with the littliler ones and chillaxing in the water with the other cabins I was freezing and ready for Shower Hour! Before heading towards girls camp, my boyfriend and I were talking about the dance, which led to him going down on one knee and asking me to the dance with his lovely offering of quartz.

What a gentleman! :)

After he totally made my day, I skidaddled to our cabin for Shower Hour and got ready for dinner and tonight's evening activity. I'll never forget my counselor, Mrs. Boinic, staring at me while I curled my hair. A couple of the girls who were in my cabin last year recalled how I did their makeup which I did again for them this year (which might be why I have a sty on my eyelid the size of a tic tac. Future reference, don't share makeup)! I would say my red and white striped shirt, my American flag shorts and shades along with my blue and white eyeshadow matched the theme well since tonight's theme was all about the Olympics. Our last delicious meal of the night led to an Olympic competition. A team composed of multiple cabins would compete in several obstacles against the other teams. I think our team had a bit of a disadvantage since we only had two other cabins with us, Tugboat and Monsoon (which I may add are two of the younger boy cabins), while everyone else had a team consisting of four cabins. Despite that, I think we did an excellent job Team Alpha Awesome! 

A few of ladies in Schooner!

Even though Team Alpha Awesome didn't win, our name still implied that we are awesome! The night was coming to end and we returned to our cabins for cabin closing. This time my high's of the day was accomplishing my biggest goal by reaching the top of the Eagles Perch and having my boyfriend propose to me on the beach. That was just so sweet! My low's? Pretty sure there are no such thing as a "low" at camp!

It's Better Than The Happiest Place On Earth

Before I get into details about my first day returning to camp, I would just like to thank the Nick and Kelly Foundation and all the sponsors of Camp Del Corazon. I feel like thank you isn't even that expressive of a word to show how appreciative I am, so it will only be proper to show my appreciation in a camp orderly fashion...

Camp Appreciation:

*pat pat*

*clap clap*

*snap snap*

YYYEEEAAAAHHH!

I'll approach this like I approached this last year, one day at a time!

Day 1

If there's one thing I learned to change from last year is to meet Nick and Kelly at the airport earlier. The line grows so fast and I always get there when there's already 100 other kids in line. So, I set my traditional camp alarm, with Blame It On The Boogie as the ringtone, for 3:30 a.m. As early as that is and considering the morning person I'm not, I still managed to wake up before my alarm due to the amount of excitement building inside me! After I got dressed, triple checked my luggage, toasted some Toaster Strudel's my mum and I were out the door in a jiffy. Even though I woke up earlier, left the house sooner with no traffic to sit through, there were still about 50 kids ahead of us, including my boyfriend! 

I was so caught up with seeing all my friends again (and being interviewed for the first time) that I forgot to say good-bye to my parents! And to a shocking delight, Lindsey returned to camp (I guess that's not a huge shocker since there isn't one camper I know who wouldn't want to go back)! I met Lindsey last year and introduced her to CDC after I found out that she is twelve years old and hasn't met anyone else with a heart condition. If I was left thinking I was alone in the world battling for my life than I KNOW my whole attitude would be completely different!

Everyone at Camp Del Corazon is the same. We all have our own personal war stories, different battle scars and we just understand one another because we all have been there, done that which unites us into one big Corazon family! 

Once we were settled into our traveling groups and passed through security, we were 600 feet in the air and eating stratosphere breakfast in no time. We definitely didn't waste any time! After we landed at the John Wayne Airport, we took a group picture and were at the boat dock after a thirty minute bus ride. Once we  got there we were introduced to our cabin!

Schooner Girls!

Last year, my cabin was Cutter. This year, my cabin is Schooner and I already knew three girls who I had in my cabin last year. There were five of us from Arizona; Sammy, Selena, Victoria, Marissa, and myself. The other three girls were from California, Kasey, Katelyn, and Brianna. My counselors this year were Kokopop, Mrs. Bionic, Flipper and Izzy along with our favored fanny pack lady, Miffy, our med nurse (who was also my med nurse last year).

After waiting for our luggage to be loaded on to the boat, we loaded ourselves and were finally heading to Catalina Island! The boat ride took a couple hours, but time fly's when your catching up with old friends. You never notice how close you are to the island until you start slowing down and you can spot the girl cabins from a distance.

After high fiving all my favorite counselors leading to the Dining Hall, we went over all the rules and procedures of composting, lost items, boundaries, which cabin eats first, and all that fun stuff. After eating the first of many delicious meals, we headed towards C's Hut to pick up our luggage and settle into our cabins.

(Note to Self: Next year put something really obvious and eye captioning on your suitcase so a counselor doesn't have to assist you in finding you're suitcase out of the twenty others that look exactly like yours)

Everyone in my cabin knows this place frontwards, backwards, upside down, and inside out so the Camp Tour was a breeze. After the camp tour was dinner, another scrumptious meal, which was leading to Disco Bingo. Unknowingly, I brought the perfect 70's outfit to wear for a night of personal parties and conga lines. I've yet to win a bingo under any category so I'm hoping I'll get some kind of graduating camper luck for my last year as a camper.

Sammy <3

Aries <3

Once Disco Bingo was over it was time to go back to our cabins to pass out from a long day of traveling and excitement. For our first cabin closing we named off each our personal goals for this year. My goals was to stand on top of the Eagles Perch during high ropes and to get thirds at least once and still manage to be apart of the Clean Plate Club(CPC). After our counselors left for their Staff Meeting, my friend Sammy jumped in my bunk and we all stayed up talking and laughing about simple things until a counselor came in and told us we're keeping the entire girl's camp awake... Highly doubtful but it made us go to sleep.

The next day was the first full day of activities at CDC!