Heart o' the Hills

Well, I'm officially back from camp. There's always this sort of sadness that comes with being home from camp. You're extremely happy to see your parents, your family, your dog, your nice clean bed, and (well for me at least)  Whole Foods. However, you can't shake the feeling of wishing you were still swimming in the crisp Guadalupe  River or stargazing with your best friends under a Texas hill country sky. This was my tenth summer at Heart o' the Hills, and it was one of the best! I got to be a sponsor for the Pawnee tribe with one of my best friends, Christina- at camp her nickname is "Socks", I had an AWESOME cabin filled with the sweetest, craziest, One Direction loving girls that mean so much to me, and wonderful counselors from everywhere - from San Antonio to New Zealand. What a rewarding experience!! Hopefully I will get to go back next summer because I can't imagine a summer as fantastic as this! Every single counselor was incredible, all such beautiful role models for the campers. I actually got to be on Staff with two of my cousins this summer, and because I have looked up to both of them for so many years, I felt like the luckiest person in the world. 

My cabin was so much fun, and I miss them already!! Everyday we would jam out to One Direction, High School Musical, Drake, or original songs by Erin. We may not have had the cleanest cabin, but we had the best times. Crazy pranks, glow stick camp fires, Mean Girls, the list goes on and on. I started tearing up on closing day when we were sitting by the river singing a camp rendition of "Tonight" by FUN that talked about camp ending, and then when we sang "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts I lost it. Seriously you guys are so wonderful, and I hope hope hope that I get to come back next year as your counselor!!! 

Disney Field day with our amazing chieftain (tribe leader) Sherilyn. I was Wendy...Socks was Captain Hook. 

 Naturally I used my craftiness to make a lot of gifts for my girls, but of course I didn't take any pictures of the things I made- except for this one! We had a contest out of the entire camp to submit a design to paint on the door of our art studio, and I won! My painting was called "La Luna". It is a starry night sky with a bright silvery crescent moon surrounded by silver and gold streaks. Along the borders of the doors are sunflowers and bluebonnets, and in the middle there is a bold red heart with a quote from one of my favorite camp songs, "All That Matters".

"All the world's knowledge can make you right smart, but the difference is made in the Heart."

Beautiful words. At the bottom I signed it and dedicated the painting to my family because if it weren't for them I never would have known about this wonderful place.

My vision so to speak was from the short story "La Luna" that precedes the movie Brave. The moon is also a Pawnee symbol and secret, so I felt it was special to camp.  I'm going to ask some of them to send me pictures of the gifts I made them so that I can put them on my blog. In the meantime I'll leave some pictures from camp on here so that everyone can get a peak at what the 60th summer at Heart o' the Hills was like! Love love love!

Heart camp girls we'll always be, 'till we meet again.