There are many small moments that happen around camp that might not strike you as momentous.  But those small moments happen all the time at Deerhorn, and it’s part of what makes this place so magical.

For instance, you might watch Jacob Thomas walk up to Katniss and squat down to pet her and not think anything of it…unless you knew Katniss, and knew that last summer she spent most of her days under the lodge, so frightened of people that she wouldn’t come out. Or that one day last summer his dad couldn’t find Jacob, until we realized he had crawled all the way under the lodge just so he could pet her.  And that even this summer, she is still skittish about letting people pet her, but that clearly Jacob is her friend. As her “mom,” it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

Or as you watch Luke Carroll get up on two skis, you might not realize that he had never done that before and after a tough fall, he tried again and got up on his second try…a proud moment for him, for his dad, and for all of us who were lucky enough to watch it happen. Another awesome father-son moment.

The weather forecast didn’t look great today, but somehow the rain held off all day until it let loose at 5pm. Fathers and sons were grateful to have a whole day of horseback rides, riflery, archery, and lots more waterfront action.  But after a full day of activities, a little downtime was a welcome change of pace. After dinner, we had a movie going, a rafter ball tournament, and ping pong games in the Wolf Den. We started the campfire early at 7:30 and all enjoyed lots of great songs in the lodge.

Breakfast this morning was pancakes, lunch was Italian subs, and dinner was chicken tenders. Everyone agreed it was a great day of camp meals!