Last night, while in the office, I had a little fun celebrating the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show…take a look at the video below of me pretending to welcome guests onto Canadensis Today in the Oprah voice!

Camp isn’t just my career, it’s also my hobby!  I love everything about overnight camping, but most of the industry centers around NYC, and I live in the Philadelphia area.  Last year, I banded together with some other friends who live in the Philly area and work at camps, and we decided to start an organization called PAYCE (Philly Area Young Camp Enthusiasts).  We started planning monthly events for camp professionals in the Philly area, and two years later we now have a great group of around 40 professionals that come together to learn from each other.

This past week, we had our last PAYCE event before camp, and we took tours of several Poconos area camps.  We had a great turn out of 25 people, and we went to see four camps total.  We visited Canadensis for lunch and a quick tour, everyone was impressed with our eight passenger go-karts, the lake, amphitheater and arts and crafts room.  It was a super fun day, and got us all so excited for camp!  Picture above, you can see Eric, myself, and Karen from Canadensis, with our PAYCE friends Rachel, Anna, Gary and Johnny.

Today marks the 1 month until Summer 2011! We are so excited for all of you to get here.

I arrived at camp this afternoon, and when I walked into the camp office I was greeted by “Happy Birthday’s” from my fabulous co-workers, and I noticed that my desk has been decorated with a sign and streamers by Jason “JCal” Calabretta – he is the absolute best!!  At dinner, I got to meet a bunch of our new staff for 2011, and I got to enjoy the delicious cake pictured above (sadly, it took me three attempts to blow out the candles).  Today is my 30th birthday, so I’m getting old…well at least by camp standards!

I’ve heard from so many amazing friends, family, campers and counselors today – it’s so nice to hear from people that you’ve might have lost touch with during the year.  There were so many special memories from this bday weekend (my dearest friends even arranged for us to make s’mores on my driveway in Philadelphia!!) – but one of my favorites was this picture emailed by my friends Suzy and Gary.  They live in New Orleans (my adopted home town) and their boys Evan and David are getting bigger every time I see a picture of them…and this one was just so cute!  In last year’s bday photo, they were in the tub…haha!

I had a great evening this week with some of the lovely Camp Canadensis Senior Girls of 2011.  Pictured above, Remy will be a new Lower Senior, and Mel, Elizabeth (E-beth) and Alix will all be back for their 6th summers as Upper Seniors.  We drove around the Villinova, PA area in circles for a while – but while on the car ride the girls discussed their favorite camp activities and stories, and they even caught me up on some basic pop-culture things I don’t know now that I’m old.  Apparently, there is a song called “Friday” by Rebecca Black, that everyone in the free wold has heard of besides me!  I just watched the video on YouTube, pretty hilarious.

While enjoying our ice cream at Hopes Cookies, we relived some of the best memories from 2010, including the 3-day trip to Lake Placid that all the Lower Seniors go on.  We explained some of the best camp traditions, including Color War and Sing, Prom, and so much more.  Now it’s only 36 days til new camp memories begin!

Wow, camp is coming so soon!  At this point next week I’ll be living at camp (I’ll also be turning 30, but that’s another story…)!  I know we are all looking forward to being back around Lake Lenape with our favorite camp friends, or coming to spend our first summer at Canadensis as a camper (or staff member), and meeting some of the most amazing people in the world!  In light of that, I thought I would dedicate this ‘Annie the Dog’ post to friendship.

Above is a picture of Annie with her BDF (best dog friend) Cooper.  This photo was actually taken at camp a few years ago, and the reason they are so excited with their heads out the window is because they are looking around at all the trees, grass and small animals to have fun with!

Below is a photo of Annie with her friend Rinker.  They were only at camp together for one year, but they had each others back – just like a true camp friend!  Just remember, friends come in all shapes and sizes…this photo isn’t doctored at all!

And finally, here is a picture of me and my two best Philly friends, with all of our dogs!  Clearly, you can see how well we have them trained.  This photo is the result after 5 minutes of trying…oh well!  Annie will totally write Stella (left) and Bishop (right) letters while she’s up at camp this summer.

Annie the Dog, making lots of friends – – Annie the Dog, hopes the summer never ends!

(Don’t forget to submit your rhymes for the Annie the Dog music video that JCal will be filming at camp this summer!)

Coming soon, you’ll be receiving a postcard with information about the Indian Summer Family Camp Weekend that we run at Canadensis each summer.  The postcard features two of our current campers, Brett who will be in the Freshman Boys Division and Katie who is back for her second summer as a Lower Inter Girl.  Also pictured are their parents (mom Meredith and one of our Camp Doctors, Ross) who loves spending time at Canadensis!  Keep an eye out for it in your mailboxes by the end of May!  More information about the weekend is posted below…we hope to see your whole family at Canadensis this Labor Day Weekend!