When Astrid celebrated her first birthday, we started an escalating tradition – we went camping for 1 night. When she was two, we went for two nights. Last year, we spent 7 nights camping at Christina Lake. But that was the end of the tradition. We still love camping and will try to go every year, but more than a week in a tent is too much to sustain.

Luckily, Astrid has started a new tradition in its place. This summer she had her first overnight camp experience. She spent 5 nights and 5 days away from her family, eating and sleeping with new friends, and having amazing adventures at Evans Lake. And she loved it!

I was confident she would do well. She’s good with strangers, makes friends easily, and is generally flexible. Last year we all went to Evans Lake for family camp, so she had a rough sense of what the councillors would be like, how the food would work with vegan options, and what activities would keep her busy during the day (she loved the rock climbing and low ropes courses). She also had an adventurous friend who went with her.

But it was still anxiety-inducing waving goodbye as she got onto a bus for a week away. Would she remember to brush her teeth and put in her retainers at night? Would she make new friends? Would she be homesick?

When she got back she was filthy and had a ton of scratches and bruises, but the report was overwhelmingly positive. Here are some of her highlights and lowlights, in her own words because I wasn’t there.

Highlights

• Spit and Polish is a dance we do and we eat fancy food. We dress either very fancy and shiny, or dirty and gross. My whole cabin did polish – the shiny one.
• The food was really good. I liked how they kept my (vegan) food separate so I wouldn’t get confused.
• We did a short hike to Frog Hollow. We dropped our bags and did a hike up and down the mountain. In Frog Hollow, we played in a fort, pretended lots of things like Georgie was hurt. We slept under tarps tied to trees in our sleeping bags. It was kind of scary to sleep outside.
• We had campfires in the evening every night. We got treats and we sang songs. My favourite song was the Oh Bananas song.
• One day we had Pirate Games. We did 3-legged races and dove off a pretend plank.
• Climbing and low ropes were my favourite activities. I really liked the Eagle’s Nest.

Lowlights

• I got stung by a wasp (for the first time!) when I was eating dinner at Spit and Polish. I didn’t want to cry because I was worried I would miss the dance.
• My stuffie got wrecked and lost its bow.
• I missed my mom and dad.

What a memorable week for her.

I can’t believe they did an overnight hike and slept under lean-tos! When I asked if she was afraid of sleeping outside, she said, “yes – we were worried the boys (who were sleeping farther up the hill) would roll down and start kissing us.”
They started every morning with a polar bear dip in the lake. They motivated the kids by giving them certificates at the end of the week (shockingly that’s all it took).
She adored her councillors, especially Charlie (her cabin’s LIT).
The cabins had rotating responsibilities, like gophering (bringing food to tables and collecting dirty plates after) and cleaning washrooms.

It was a good experience for her. She gained independence, learned some outdoor skills, and made new friends. She’s keen to go back next year. We’re so proud of her for being brave and adventurous.

And I’m so grateful to Evans Lake for the excellent program they run. The staff are awesome, the campgrounds are in a beautiful setting, and they took photos and shared them with us at the end of the week (this would have been a very boring blog post without them). I highly recommend checking out their programs if you’re in the Vancouver area.