Meet Samantha! She’s a current 3rd grader and will be an Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer! She’s from Denver, Colorado but her mom grew up on the East Coast, and she’s excited to share a very similar camp experience to her mom. Samantha is very active and loves to play sports, on the day I visited she had just won a soccer game and had scored 4 goals in the same game! She’s also an advanced bike rider, she likes to take advantage of the many local bike trails in her area and go for long rides with her dad, the longest bike trip to date was 17 miles! Her perfect day after school would be a mix of hanging out and playing tennis, and her top choices for electives this summer will be tennis, soccer and dance. Here’s what else you need to know about this sporty, friendly and kind new camper: She loves to eat sushi, her favorite color is blue and her favorite animal is a dog (see a photo of her dog below!). She cheers for the Super Bowl Champions, the Denver Broncos and she loves singing along to Taylor Swift songs. Her favorite TV show is “Liv and Maddie”, she recently saw “Free Willy” and liked the movie a lot, and her favorite books are in the “Land of Stories” series. She’s really enjoys reading, and is doing a book challenge at school right now! Her favorite hobby is knitting, she likes to make hats and scarves – it’s really impressive! Her favorite candy is a twix bar, so I told her all about the canteen and told her she has to try a frozen twix this summer.
I had a really nice time hanging out with Samantha and her whole family! Her little sister Alexandra (age 3) wanted to join us for a photo, and so did the family dog Riley! I can’t wait for Samantha to see Camp Canadensis on the first day of camp, it’s going to kick off the most amazing summer ever!
Just up the road from Denver, we visited Levi in Boulder, Colorado. Levi is currently in 4th grade, and will be a Lower Inter boy this summer. Remarkably, this is going to be his 5th summer at camp (5 year jacket time!!) and he’s finally out of the Junior division! Dave and I had a great visit with him, and he’s been really busy this off season. When he got home from camp, he learned how to wake board, and he’s been playing different sports every season. Right now, he’s on a baseball team and having a great time playing all the different positions, but pitching is his favorite. He’s also advanced his skiing skills this winter, and has been going down some really steep chutes! We decided to take our photo outside so everyone could see the absolutely gorgeous setting Levi calls home, and make everyone just a tad bit jealous!
While in Colorado, we checked out the Red Rocks area and went on a nice hike. Our dog Annie loves being outside, and even on her little legs she managed to keep up with us! The amphitheatre is absolutely incredible – although we didn’t catch a concert, it was awesome to see everyone working out and using the amphiteatre different ways, just like we use ours at camp for line up, zumba, evening activities, fitness, etc! I joke that our Camp Canadensis amphiteatre inspired theirs, but there is definitely a resemblance…and both Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Camp Canadensis were established in 1941! Coincidence?
After a good hike, we deserved some ice cream and I had the best ice cream buddy around…Groundhog! Jared is his “real name”, but at camp he’s always gone by Groundhog although not too many people know why! He grew up in Allentown. PA and attended Camp Canadensis as a camper before becoming a fixture on staff for many years – he doesn’t even know how many summers he’s spent at camp! He currently is a department head at Colorado Academy, but he still comes back every summer to capture our “official” camper photos by the tree! When you see him this summer make sure to flash him your best smile!
On the subject of treats, I have to show you this photo I took at City Pop in Denver. I love POPCORN, but they took it to a whole new level with almost 80 different flavors! It’s wild, and you can ship it to anywhere so if you are tempted by the photo above click this link to see more: https://www.citypopdenver.com/ (Dave and I both recommend the birthday cake flavor!)
One last photo to share with you today…does anyone remember this guy from camp? Brad was up at camp last year with his video crew capturing all the Canadensis fun and spirit! He’s working on our new camp video, and it should be ready for you to see in the next few weeks! While I was out west, I met up with Brad in Phoenix, Arizona to do some on site editing, and I even got to do a little recording in a sound booth (headphones, microphone, the whole deal was very professional!!). Can’t wait for you to see the result!
