Rain drops keep falling on my head…

Or in our case...they keep falling on Lake Ted





We are all excited here at camp because we have some big news!

Our very own Lake Ted is officially full. The recent rains have made a beautiful difference here. Camp is looking so fresh and green. The water has even reached the Wedginator, our water slide, which hasn’t been able to be used in quite some time due to the low lake levels. We are praying that Lake Travis will also continue the rise back to normal. It has made some progress, but still has a little ways to go. We would like to send a big “Thank you” to our families, campers and staff for your prayers for rain. We will keep you updated as the fall continues.

In the mean time, enjoy the some more pictures.

On the road again...

October has come again and a few of the camp team find ourselves loading up the suburbans and hitting the road. We will be traveling from the flat plains of West Texas to the windy parts of Oklahoma and around our own backyard, the beautiful Texas hill country. We will even be traveling to Arkansas for a little bit this fall. For Todd, Martin, Ann, and Katie and I we are excited to see all our camp friends. We are also looking forward to meeting new ones. What can be more PHUN than bringing your friends to work with you at camp?!? SO, please check the dates on www.campiscool.com or give us a call in the office to find out when we are visiting your area. And get ready, as we bring a little Camp Balcones Springs PHUN to spice up your semester!

- Willcox

Summer 2009 in the books!

Another summer has flown by and summer 2009, our 17th season, is now officially in the books. The full time camp staff are hard at work wrapping up some loose ends with this summer so we can get started on preparing for 2010.

We are so thankful to our loving staff for how hard they worked this summer. We appreciate each of you and are thankful you chose to serve here at CBS. We wish you the best this fall as you return to work and to school.

We are also ever so thankful for our camp families. Without your trust in us, camp would not be possible. We thank you for sending your kids to camp this summer here at CBS. We have been truly impacted for the better through spending time with your children this summer!

God is so very good. Our hope is that regardless of whether you worked as staff or attended as a camper that you were challenged to grow deeper in your knowledge of Christ. We love all of our staff and camper families and look forward to hearing what is going on in your lives throughout the year.

- Willcox

I can see clearly now, the tree branches are gone....

Today is a work day here at Camp Balcones Springs.... all of the full time staff and interns woke up and put on our working clothes and headed out to Lake Ted to do some tree clearing and leaf raking for a SUPER SPECIAL TOP SECRET PROJECT that we may or may not be working on. ***mysterious laugh***

It was a busy morning! Ann took a chainsaw to a couple of tree trunks and Todd used a chainsaw on a stick to take care of some nasty tangled vines. Conan was weed-eating and hauling off the limbs we cut down. Willcox was using a canoe to haul off the tree limbs that we dropped into the lake, and I was diligently raking an infinite amount of fallen leaves into a HUGE pile. (Science fact: decaying rotten leaves are called 'detritus'. i DID use my biology degree for SOMETHING this year, YAY!)

And although some of those jobs seem treacherous, we here at CBS know that DANGER NEVER TAKES A HOLIDAY and that SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT. We followed all of the proper safety precautions....um...minus that one time when Ann crawled out on that tree limb carrying a chainsaw....

The point of this is that things are getting really busy down here in anticipation of everyone's arrival at camp. The Leadership Staff are going to be here in 2 weeks. After that, we'll blink and summer will be upon us!

I'd love to write more, but lunch break is over and we're ready to head back out and work/play a little more.

See you SO SOON!!!!
Drinks

Sorry for the Delay!

So the story is.....

One night, some of the older campers decided that I would be a great idea to put a whole bunch of trunks out on the floating dock. Through all the fuss of getting the trunks out, into the canoe, and on to the dock, somehow....nobody knows how.....the burb came out of park, rolled down the hill, and splashed into the water. Luckily, no one was hurt, all the trunks were already out, and we have a fun story to tell. Legend has it the burb is still down there.

The office is a tad bit boring today, But camp is just around the corner.....can't wait!

Anyone have any great ideas for movie night movies??

-Martin

I have a little confession.

Many of you may not know this about me, but I REALLY like to pull pranks on people. Who doesn't enjoy a good laugh every now and then. I'm not into those "completely ruin your stuff or humiliate you beyond repair" kind of pranks, but those that bring a smile to everyone involved.

Yes, Yes, it was me that ringmastered the syran wrapping of Willcox's bike, continually changed Todd's facebook status (which always garnishes an alarming number of responses), and sprinkled a tiny bit of salt on the delicious brownies that got served to the leadership table.

While all of these were done in good fun, and with permission of Marietta and Willcox, I am just biding my time for all of it to come crashing back on me. But until then, I will continue to bring some much needed fun to camp.

Which brings me to the real reason for this post. The granddaddy of all pranks gone wrong....the suburban in Lake Ted.

I got the story straight from the owner, and I have all the details, scroll down....all the way...and you will know too!













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......just kidding.......tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story!

-Martin

Easter Turtle

So yesterday was Easter. Well it was such a wonderful Easter for me and any of the camp family that stuck around. Of course I went to church and had a wonderful time at church service. Then for lunch the Willcoxes invited us over for lunch. All I can say for those who haven't had Katie Willcox's cooking is my future wife (if she exists....hmmmmm....maybe I'll blog about that in the future) has a lot to live up to in the cooking department between having momma's cooking and Katie's cooking to contend with. Anyway, Jenn Jones came all the way over from Livingston, TX to visit with us and Conan joined us as well. Well after the meal and some extended talking time with everyone, Jenn and I decided to do a "camp lap". If you don't know the terminology that is just a term we have for walking around camp. During our walking/talking we stumbled upon an interesting site.

Let me preface this tale. As you all should know we are a Christian camp so Easter holds great significance for us. It celebrates Christ death and resurrection which is a huge foundation for all that we believe. But here in America we have also secularized parts of this. One of the images we attribute to Easter, is the Easter bunny. Well I didn't see any bunnies that day, but I did see a turtle.

Jenn suggested that we return Mr Turtle to his home in the lake. I agreed and thought it would be great to let the Easter Turtle have an adventure by sending it down the wedginator. Anyway, we hit the switch for the water, but nothing came out. After thinking for a moment we decided that it would still be great to send him (or her...hey I don't know how to check!!!!).

This simple thing ended up being one of my most fond moments of camp. I launch the turtle down the wedginator and he comes to a stop about 2/3 of the way down. We then watched as he slowly but surely made his way down the wedginator. He stopped every so often, but finally made his way to the edge. Our Easter Turtle paused for about a minute and then like any great wedginator participant took the plunge. Well for those of you who have seen camp you know Mr Ted is really low and b/c of this the drop from the wedge is pretty high. It took the turtle several seconds to finally hit the water and he made a considerable splash.

Jenn and I laughed sooo hard. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in quite some time. But I will leave all of you with this. If ever you find yourself a little scared of doing the wedginator just tell yourself if the Easter Turtle can do, it so can I.


-Todd-

Oh and check back b/c Jenn said she would put up the real pictures and I'll try and add those.