LBBC - Trailblazer 1

 After a long wait over the winter, it was, at long last, to Viggo's delight, time to go to camp.

On our way there we drove through Little Falls and found ourselves behind a pickup complete with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

That truck right there is one of the 10,000 reasons I love living in Minnesota.

 I love going to camp for plenty of reasons but the drive in and of itself makes me happy.
Fields and horses to see, and maybe a car or tractor on the road.

First Viggo had to go through the usual embarrassing routine of doing something silly before going into camp. 

 Once allowed inside camp, we found Viggo's cabin he was assigned to.

Cabin 12 - home sweet home.

And we found his buddy Evan.  Evan is six months younger than Viggo and, I also suspect, about 6" taller.

Inside Viggo's cabin we found his counselor, Kevin, and Kevin's cabin decorations.
The camp theme this year is "Year of Jubilee:  Proclaiming Freedom to All Nations."  Each cabin was a different country; Viggo's was Lichtenstein.

 

I wasn't aware of this at first (despite the obvious Lichtenstein flag painting next to the door) and was befuddled as to why there were bible verses written in German posted on the walls.

So I asked Kevin if he was majoring in German in college. 
To me this seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to ask Kevin.
He told me no.
Well, I thought to myself, what in the world are the German bible verses all about?
Then I was told that each cabin was representing a country.  And these were the decorations Kevin came up with.

Oh. 

And here's another one.

And another one.  Actually, several others.
Kevin had been busy - wundebar!

 Quick tour of camp!  Here's the lodge.
If you were here for our wedding this is probably looking a lot different.
I am happy to say, it has changed for the better!  It looks fabulous!

And here's another side of the lodge, all decorated for camp.

The view of the lodge from Viggo's cabin.
Last year he was in the nosebleed row, so this year it was just a nice short walk to the lodge.

 And the main drive through camp was clogged with lots of buses and cars filled with happy campers.
That's the end of the tour.  (I told you it was quick.)
Then we left Viggo with Kevin and Evan and said goodbye.

Fast-forward 5 days later:

The last chapel was lots of fun and full of tired and exuberant campers and staff.

 Viggo and some of his cabin friends, with Kevin (to the left of Viggo) and Trent (to the right).  Trent was Viggo's staff buddy.

 

 Nate and I are thankful for the time and effort these guys poured into our son.

We were just about ready to go home when Viggo proudly showed me a concoction he mixed up just that morning. 

It contained:
- water
- sunscreen
- bug spray
- army worms.

And it was fresh.

Now right there, that's what makes a mother really proud.

I told him no way was that coming into the car with us.
He threw it away. 
Because I don't know if army worms drowned in SPF 30 are recyclable.

 The girls and Viggo stood on the Ziggurat, and then it was time to go home.

If you thought the army worm death mixture was bad, it was the ride home when things really started going downhill.

I was driving along enjoying the beautiful countryside when I smelled something.
"Hey Viggo!  Cover up your FEET!  They STINK, bud!!!"
"But Mom, my feet are hot!"
"I don't care!  Put a towel or something over them, for heaven's sake your sisters and I need some fresh air or we're going to asphyxiate!  Oh my goodness!"  (Insert groans of despair from the girls.)

Viggo was sitting in the back of the van.  His stinky-feet smell permeated the entire car. 
But that wasn't the worst of it.  Have I mentioned that Kevin admitted that none of the kids in the cabin took a shower?

We got home and Viggo dumped all his stuff in the entryway and skedaddled.
"Hey Viggo!  You need to move those stinky shoes and socks to the laundry room!"
Because I was not even getting close.
Viggo seemed to think it was strange that I was not willing to move this stuff around myself.

And a better view of the ground-in dirt and grime.  These socks used to be white, you know.  In their former life.

Then I started going through his bag of stuff:  items that we packed, according to Lake Beauty's list of what to pack for camp.

We packed plenty of clothes in his bag so he could change his clothes when they got dirty.

Well look what I found:

 Clean socks!  Snowy white - how about that!
Still folded, even!
They showed every sign . . . . of never being worn.
Okay, so one pair of socks for five days.  Hmm.

 A Star Wars novel.
As far as I'm concerned this book was not effective at camp. 
After smelling and seeing those socks, it was pretty obvious the Force was not strong with this one.

I was happy to find a Bible.

Because I needed some good news.

 

Now prepare yourself.





 What is this?
One pair of clean underwear.

Hold on - five pairs of clean tighties.
Sparkling clean.  Neatly folded.

You can draw your own conclusions.

We made Viggo take two showers that night.