Flying Horses!

We slept in a little later this morning due to our big night out at the Superman movie. Or at least some of us slept later. David was up at 5 am, apparently. And so was Nancy Jesseau. We bet their counselors liked that. Breakfast was served at 9am and it was extremely tasty. After that some folks left for horseback riding while others hit the studio to bang the drums. Then we had a nice morning of classes. One of them was a photography class. This is a picture Faith took of Julius grabbing hold of Dick:

And this is a picture Dick took of Faith:

And this is a picture Faith took of Sierra and Bryn in pottery class (that's Dick in the background):

She also took this one of Chrike, Jon, Jordan and Melissa:

Then Dick took this one of Mari and David:

Then Faith took these at a dance class:




We set a goal today: Everybody Poops. It was a lofty goal, but still we almost made it. One camper claimed he only pooped once every three weeks, which puzzled us all. It still does in fact. We're hoping to have at least one day when everyone is regular. Perhaps this is more information than you want to hear.

After lunch we took a large group to Oak Bluffs in the big red bus. Everyone walked past the beautiful tabernacle and those funky gingerbread houses...




...and then we headed down Circuit Ave. to the world famous Flying Horses! This is always a lot of fun for us. Skye and Leif both got the special shiny brass rings during their rides. Jason was confused at first because he'd been under the impression we were going to see some real horses out in field somewhere. He got over his bewilderment however and enjoyed riding the wooden horses quite a bit. We'd like to thank the Flying Horses for having supported Camp Jabberwocky for so long (they let us ride for free!).







After we rode the horses we strolled back through town and several people stopped us to say they were excited to see us march in the parade. We're getting pretty excited about that ourselves. C'mon out and wave to us if you're in town on the 4th!

Windy Wednesday...

It has been another fine day here at Camp Jabberwocky. We woke up at 7:30 and everyone made it to breakfast on time, unbelievably. Then we banged on the drums for a while and went to classes. After that we loaded up the bus for a beach picnic. We were worried it was going to rain, but it didn't. Instead it was very windy and we all learned why they call them SANDwiches. We tried to get David G. to hold onto the umbrella to see if he would fly away, but he wisely declined. Julius caught a seagull and we snacked on that as well.







Cathy Discillo and Rachel were the only ones brave enough to swim. Nancy Jesseau wrote a dirty poem, except we didn't realize it was so racy until after she read it at dinnertime. It had some great rhymes in it. After dinner we hopped on the bus again and rode to Edgartown to see "Superman Returns". We probably ate dinner a little to fast because someone puked up his chicken and rice on the way over. Luckily Tyrone was ready with a plastic bag. Maybe it was all the bouncing around so soon after a meal. We'll make a note of that. Anyway, the movie was pretty good and we all had fun loading into the theatre, up the stairs and into those rows of seats. Hannah sat still in her seat through the whole thing and that was quite an accomplishment. Superman dies at the end, by the way. Just kidding! He doesn't! He lives!

We got back to camp after ten pm and got the gang in bed as quickly as possible. Now all the counselors are sitting around rubbing their backs and eating ice cream. And drinking lots of beer. No, that's another joke! We're not allowed to drink here. Not even water.

DR. STEVE'S PHOTOS!

Who would've guessed? Our Doctor is also a photographer. We've kept him busy with various medical maladies but in his spare time he makes us all smile for the camera. Check them out! Thanks Dr. Steve! We promise not to raid your medicine bag this year.

Beach Day

Today was a big sunny day, our first full day here at camp. We all woke up at 7:30 and the couselors tried to figure out how to put their campers clothes on. Somehow everyone made it to breakfast on time and we had french toast and suasage. After that we played some drums and then went to our first classes. Here's some shots from sports and art classes:



After lunch we said, "let's get to the beach!" and the whole camp went for a ride in the big red bus. It was perfect beach weather and nearly everyone got in the water. There was splashing and playing about and only one or two campers drowned. Just kidding, we're all alive. Here's some pictures from our beach trip:










A funny thing happened with the bell. It broke. Madeline was really worried about this and called every place on the island that might have a big bell. A local boatyard wanted to help out so badly that they spent the afternoon welding a propeller rod into a giant triangle. So now we have this quite loud "come and get it!" bell to ring when we want to gather together. Here's a picture of our man Teak giving it a ring:


It's shaping up to be a big summer for toilet triumphs. We all get pretty excited when a camper manages to master the art of toileting. Tyrone offered Jonah a special incentive today and Jonah proudly produced the goods winning a trip to town for ice cream. That sounded like such a great idea that after dinner we all walked the Mad Martha's and ate ice cream together, in honor of Jonah's sucessfull trip to the toilet. Then we went to bed.

We're all tired and happy here. Tomorrow we'll hit the beach again, weather permitting. And everyone's pretty excited to see "Nacho Libre" so we'll try to go see that at night.

First Day!

Well, the day we have been waiting for has arrived. And it was sunny too! It was certainly a thrill to arrive in Woods Hole and see all the happy faces waiting to travel back to the island. We hugged our old friends and said hello to the new ones and then we hopped on board the ferry. Back in Vineyardhaven the counselors had raided the costume cabin and were waiting for us looking like this:



We had almost all of the campers up on the deck waving hello including Faith Carter, Nancy Connelly and Melissa Pepper. Everyone cheered when Bruce Dodson rolled down the gangway. As we all got aquainted the other passagers at the landing cheered for Camp Jabberwocky and then we all walked together through town and up to camp.






Back at camp we unpacked our bags and eventually made it down to lunch. The meal was great and we heard some fine stories from some of the new campers.
David Gordon, a little fellow with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, established himself as speaker of the house right away. He told a story which began "Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to go to camp..."



After lunch we had a short rest and then loaded up the big red bus for a trip to the beach. This was quite a challenge since we had so many new folks, both campers and counselors. But we figured out the puzzle and didn't drop anyone too far, or at least not on their heads. We got the bus and vans moving in about 45 minutes which wasn't bad considering it all, but from now on we're detirmined to cut that time down to under a minute by the end of camp. That' right, everyone on the bus in under a minute, maybe even 30 seconds.




Anyway, we got to the beach and it was a beautiful evening. We ate hot dogs and burgers cooked by Jeff on the grill. The drummers came down and so did all the colorful people from the island and some of us danced while others just talked and watch the sun get low. Skipper Brooks tapped some hot rythms on the skins while David G. hopped about saying "I'm so happy!". On the way home people on the sidewalks waved as the bus drove through Oak Bluffs. It was a fine time.





We arrived back at camp sandy and content and everyone clambered around taking baths and showers and the new counselors tried to figure out how it is we're supposed to do all this stuff. Somehow it all got done and nobody took the wrong meds and as far as we know we didn't lose any campers or forget anyone on the ferry. Yes, the first day is over now, and we're looking forward to many more like it to come...