A Letter from Camp Tecumseh

One of the 367,810 reasons why I love to send my kids to Camp Tecumseh is because the counselor's take time to write a letter to parents, summarizing their campers experiences of the week. I think this is so cool! Here is the letter we received from Nick's counselor, after his week at Camp:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Kubatski,

Greetings from Camp Tecumseh where the stars shine bright, the leaves are green, and the brotherhood of Ottawa Cabin grows strong with each passing day. The "Ottabros" engulfed themselves in Camp T culture this week with the crazy campfires, the traditional baked oatmeal, and the Blazer unit which has been going strong since the beginning of time.

Nick was quite the active athletic in the mornings as he participated in his clinics. He had flag football, basketball, and water polo. Nick had a blast with Jared in flag football and liked being able to cool off in the pool for water polo after two clinics in the heat!

Afternoons brought the cabin back together as the Ottabros did activities as a group each afternoon and night. Nick got to swim at either the pool or lake every day for unit swim time. On top of that, we had extra blob time at the lake on the trampolines and we swam at the pool Wednesday and Thursday night! When Nick wasn't swimming, he was playing fun games like tennis, baseball, circle rules football, or carpetball - all great activities.

It was great to welcome Nick to the Ottabro family this week at camp! He is an extremely nice kid and fun to talk to. As a third year camper, he was able to help spread the camp culture to others who were experiencing Tecumseh for the first time. Nick always had a positive attitude and was helpful at meal times. His helpfulness will be missed and I hope he has a great school year and hope to see him back next summer!

God bless,
John

P.S. "Georgia, Georgia, we have peches!!"

Nicklas at Camp Tecumseh

Last week, it was Nick's turn to spend the week at Camp Tecumseh. Here he is on check-in day. He was rolling his eyes at me because I asked for a photo.

He was in the Ottawa cabin again this year. He was pretty surprised to be in the same cabin.

It's next to the Creative Arts Center.

The camp folks took this photo of Nicklas and the Polack moving in to his cabin.

The last two years, Nicklas has gone to camp during the week where the theme was Country Ho-Down. Being as sports obsessed as he is, he asked if he could go during Sports Week this year. As camp week approached, he was bummed to realize that Sports Week was during the Olympics. I think he would have rather gone to Country Ho-Down instead of missing the Olympics but luckily, Camp T was on board with an Olympics theme. Here's a photo of everyone heading to the opening campfire.

It rained Monday morning so chapel was held indoors. (Nicklas is in the middle of the photo, with the blue shirt.)

 His cabin, heading to the swimming pool.

Time for an afternoon activity. A typical camper day begins with breakfast, chapel, three clinics in the morning, lunch, quiet time, and afternoon activities with the cabin and then dinner, I think.

Nicklas playing his favorite game ever, GaGa.

Looks like he got out...

One of his clinics this year was flag football. It was the first time he chose that clinic and he LOVED the counselor who was in charge of it. His second clinic was basketball.

He also participated in water polo. (Upper left hand of photo.) He loves water polo.

Here are a few photos of the closing campfire that I wanted to include. It seems like such a special ceremony and I'm sure if I was privileged enough to see it, it would bring chills.

During the ceremony, the 15-year-olds "graduate" and become torch bearers. It's their last year as a camper. Nicklas says all the girls cry and cry and bawl their eyes out. I'm sure he'll get a bit choked up when it's his turn.

Week 8 Ottawa!

The Polack and I were on our anniversary trip so we weren't able to pick up Nicklas from camp. But we did receive this photo from Mimi on Saturday.

Nicklas is already talking about next year's camp. And one of his friends from Lafayette wants to go with him. It would be great for Nicklas to have a friend attend with him so I hope it works out!

Seeger at Camp Tecumseh

Over the weekend, we headed to Lafayette to pick up Seeger and drop off Nicklas at Camp Tecumseh. Although this is the first year Seeger could have participated in resident camp, he decided he'd rather stay with his cousins and attend day camp with them. One of many things I love about Camp Tecumseh is that they post photos of campers all the time. Every morning I arrive at work, fill up my cup of water, check facebook, and then I get on the Camp Tecumseh Parent Connection website to look for photos. Here are some they posted throughout the week.

Seeger on the first day. He's in the middle of the next two photos, in the blue shirt:

 I'm not sure what they're doing here but it's a good shot of him in the middle.

In this photo, they're playing Gaga. Nicklas loves playing Gaga and this year, so did Seeger. At the end of the week, he was named the Gaga Guru.

In this photo, Seeger is in the middle left center. I love his serious praying!

Log walking in his flip flops. I should have suggested that he wear his tennis shoes every day.

He's in the bottom left of this photo at the pool. This year he received a blue band for swimming which means he can swim wherever he wants in the pool. He is so proud of that band; he's still wearing it!

In this photo, he's also in the bottom left, next to the blurry head.

LOVE LOVE this photo! I wish I knew who his counselor was.

Here is Seeger with his cousin Ben. They are two peas in a pod.

The group is walking somewhere but I'm not sure what Seeger is doing in this upper middle of the photo. Hopefully he's not getting in to trouble.

He looks tired in this photo (right and center).

The last day of camp is World Carnival. Campers participate in the carnival type activities.

He's at the back of the line, waiting so patiently.

Swimming time! He's hanging on the back of the counselor. 

Now it's Ben's turn to hang on!

This is a photo of Ben (in the white shirt), getting ready for the Black Hole. Seeger didn't do it because it was going to be too dark.

Looks like Ben enjoyed it!

I didn't see many photos of Anna, possibly because she's in the older group. But here she is (in the green shirt) hanging out in the Fort.

We were told that Seeger bawled his eyes out on the last day. He loves Camp Tecumseh and he can't wait to go back next year. He's debating on whether he'll do day camp again or if he's ready for resident camp. I told him he has a few months to decide.

Nicklas should be enjoying his third day of camp right now. I've been sending him notes every day and I know he's having a great time. I'd love to give a special thank you to my mom. She pays for camp for both boys as a Christmas present and provides memories and experiences that will last a lifetime. Thanks momma!