After having new tires put on my car so we wouldn't get stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a flat tire, we left Saturday morning for 2 1/2 days at the Tucson YMCA Camp with Arizona Adoptive Families. It sprinkled a bit off and on during the weekend and the weather was perfect. 85 degrees, light breeze, partly cloudy, 4000 ft elevation so it was much cooler than at our house. I felt like I was in Camp Fire Girls all over again, however we paid a bit extra to have our own private bathroom and shower. I am not really into group showers. There were many non-adoptive families there too, about 150 or so campers in all.
All of the 75 or so camp counselors had just graduated from high school and were from all over the world. I didn't meet all of them, but there were at least 4 from England, 2 from Bolivia, 1 from Italy who took a special liking to Jasmine, a few from South Africa, Korea, China, Mexico and many many more. I asked one of the camp executives why they didn't have Americans and apparently, due to our laws, it would be cost prohibitive to have American kids because they are on duty 24 hours for 5 days in a row and would have to be paid time and a half. The non-Americans can be paid a salary, so I guess it is cheaper for the camp to do it that way. It's a win-win situation for everyone... unless you are an American kid wanting to be a counselor.
There were so many activities, some that we could participate in, and others not. We did crafts, beading- yes, Jasmine really likes to make necklaces with the bigger beads, print making... we drew a picture of Spirit- since we missed her- and put her name on it, made a rain stick out of a paper towel roll with pins stuck in it and rice inside. We went on many hikes, hung around with the "ponies"... which were really small to moderately sized horses..... went swimming, and made alot of new friends. We also made a little tie dyed shirt that looked like someone just splatted paint on it since mommy didn't know what she was doing. I will paint her name on the front of it.
Jasmine has ridden smaller Shetland ponies before, but she was too scared to ride the bigger horses, but we spent about 1/2 a day just brushing and petting the horses and watching the bigger kids ride. We also watched the big kids do the ropes courses and archery.
Jasmine sure likes junk food. The food there was of course the SAD (Standared American Diet).. bacon and eggs, pancakes, sloppy joes, hot dogs, etc and of course Jazzy gets a cold every time she eats that junk... especially when it is followed by making smores by the fire. It will take both of us a few days to recover. Everyone was mentioning how unhealthy the food was and the counselors will all have some type of chronic disease when they go home caused by the bad American food.
We will definitely be doing this every year. They have camps for all ages. Starting at age 4, they have "Pony Pre-School" which is 3 days/2 nights of pre-school with the ponies... which are really horses.
YMCA
Jasmine with the horses
Always eating
waiting for mommy to get ready
swimming with the Korean swim instructor
games with friends
tie dyed shirt
beading
hayride on Saturday night
waiting to get on the hayride
Jasmine with her stuffed horse and camp necklace
Rainmaker stick
