MILITARY DAY at OPC!!

 What a day!! We’ve had a great adventure and so much fun!

First of all the day started with DOUBLE birthdays! We love birthdays at camp and celebrating two kids is double the fun. We marched in singing and doing our birthday crew dance for Payten and Heather. We ate biscuits and gravy and fruit and then it was time for MILITARY DAY!

We loaded two buses and headed off to Camp Ripley. Camp Ripley is the second biggest National Guard base in the country and they had a full day of activities planned for us! The bus ride was about an hour and a half but luckily we were in comfy coach buses watching a movie and the time flew by. 

When we arrived to Camp Ripley we were greeted by a group of soldiers. We watched a short presentation and learned all about the base and were briefed on our day. We divided into three groups and then headed out to three different stations that we rotated between (each station was one hour). We ate bag lunches at our stations enjoying sandwiches chips snacks and juice picnic style outside. 

One of the stations was land navigation. We learned to count off steps and read maps to find our way through the forest. Camp Ripley has a lot of wildlife and the last group of the day even saw a bear! 

The second station was the obstacle course. Campers leapt over hurdles balanced climbed and army crawled their way through the different initiatives. In full gear it takes an adult soldier 1-2 hours to make it through every obstacle. We didn’t complete every single one but we definitely got a good work out as we made our way through. 

The final station was lots of cool things all together. The gun simulation range had campers practicing their aim shooting actual guns that had been converted to instead shoot at the turkey hunt game (like a big video game!). At the same time campers were sampling MREs (asian stir fry being the favorite) putting on face paint trying on gear and playing games. 

After a busy and fun day we hopped back on the busses to return to camp for dinner (fettuccini alfredo) and then spent some time resting (for some) and playing games (by that time some had gotten their energy back and were ready for more action!)

And then it was time for a campfire singing songs getting onstage to share our cabin cheers and of course- s’mores! 

What a fabulous fun military themed excellent day!