Labor Day Loll 2013

Every Labor Day up at Camp Loll, they have a work weekend.  A bunch of the Alumni go up the weekend before Labor Day and work on one or several projects that are needed to help improve the Camp.  We've loved participating in this tradition.  This is some of our crew from this year.

We (mostly the boys) helped replace a rotting log on the "girl's cabin,"  and helped place wooden shutters over all the visible windows in the lodge for the winter.  We also placed extra locks on all of the lodge doors to help keep anyone out over the winter.  Even though we always leave the "guest cabin" open for travelers or anyone in need over the winter, someone broke into the lodge last year and stole a bunch of the BSA's equipment.  The Camp leaders and Alumni association thought that we should be a little more secure this year.  We also placed the bear boxes in the KYBOs for winter storage, and shut down the lodge as well.   Luckily after work, comes play!  

We spent a lot of time carving swords and Russell even made me a large wooden spoon in honor of me helping out in the kitchen for the weekend.

We all went swimming later, but didn't get a picture of Morgan and I, just the boys.  Can you find Kevin??

The waterfront was covered with butterfly's which was weird, but cool!

We went on a short canoe ride and played around at the waterfront :)  Don't worry, we'd all passed our swim check this year!

I love this picture!  It was so scenic when Aaron and Morgan went fishing.  I couldn't resist. 

We wanted to use the rope swing, but Kevin had to lasso the end first...

So then he got to go first!

then Justin...

Then me.  I wasn't going to go, but I have this thing where I don't want to wimp out when all the boys are having fun.  After watching them go, I knew I could handle it :)  Although I didn't like Kevin trying to count to get me in faster.  I may have yelled at him a little, but hey what are sisters for??

It was so fun I went in twice!

"Short heads"

On our way back.

 

One of my favorite things about this trip was that we all decided to make a pile of mattresses and sleep out on the porch under the stars.  It was so beautiful and the perfect temperature most of the trip.  It did get chilly at night, but we were prepared for that.  I loved seeing those beautiful stars every night.  The first night the moon rising was so bright and orange that some of thought it was a wildfire!  It wasn't :)

Playing games late at night.

So the last morning we were there, I woke up early.  Russell and Kevin had gotten up to go fishing, and I could tell by the sky that it was a gorgeous morning for taking photos of the lake.  So I walked down to the waterfront and the campfire bowl and took some time to soak it all in... When I got back I tried to wake Justin up to go to Polar Bear, but he just wasn't ready to get up.  So I told him I'd be careful, and I went by myself.  I was a little nervous, so I sang and tried to stomp my way down the trail to keep the wildlife away.  It worked!  I survived and got some awesome pictures of Lake of the Woods. 

Do you see the bird in this one, that had just taken off?  It was perfect timing:)

After my hike I got back to find my sweetie, still tucked in bed...

As we closed down the lodge and started packing up, it started raining.  I had to go to the landing and get one more picture of the lake with the rain.  Luckily Justin made me get in the picture.  It didn't turn out too bad :)

We slept a lot of the way home.  It was so fun!  Definitely a trip to document, and one to repeat again and again.  (hopefully next year:)