Today was a Deeley Day, which is a day 7 in each session that is a break in the routine for a really fun day at Deerhorn…And today was the best yet! We got to sleep in an extra hour and have breakfast at 9am. After breakfast, kids enjoyed some rare free time around camp. There was a movie playing in the basement of the Hall. (The coolest place in camp!) There was also a sprout ball game and ultimate frisbee game this morning too. Polly gave the Words of Wisdom in the lodge at noon, and then lunch was at 1:00. After rest hour, it was time for the biggest team event of the summer, the Monkey Relays. It’s the granddaddy of them all, and has been happening at Deerhorn since 1930! It’s a team relay that involves carrying a ping pong ball on a spoon all over camp, with different kids doing different camp activities along the way. There are also so many random events too, like standing on your head and singing Mary Had a Little Lamb, or eating a cracker and whistling Pop Goes the Weasel, or cooking a pancake over a camp stove. The event culminates in the Leader of each team building a sandcastle on the beach to a certain height, covering up an arrow buried in the sand. The day of the Monkeys is WILD at camp. So much frenetic energy. There are monkey calls in the dining hall and the energy is electric. Today was another HOT one at camp, so we wanted to make sure kids stayed cool and hydrated. One of the things we did is haul out the hose to keep kids cooled off, so I sat under the tent with the hose. And let me tell you, I think I had as much fun as the kids did. They wanted to play “Jet Roulette” where they gave me a number and I turned the hose nozzle that number of clicks and then sprayed them with whatever jet came up. Eventually that evolved into kids taking their water cups and just dumping them on each other. It was wet and wild fun for after kids were done with their event and were waiting for the Leader sandcastle. So much laughter and so many smiles. The Eagles won the Monkeys, followed by the Bears, Bobcats, and Wolves.

The Monkey Relays went so long this afternoon that we didn’t even eat dinner until 6:20, and then kids had koogee time. We’ll finish off the day with our C session campfire. Because the Monkeys went SO long today, and Cam took SO many good pictures, he needs time to edit and they won’t be uploaded until tomorrow morning. We promise they’ll be worth the wait. We just packed too much fun into one day to get the photos up by the end of it!  In the meantime, check out our Instagram stories for some of the fun from this afternoon’s event!