Arizona Visits!

I’m so excited to introduce you to our first camper from Paradise Valley, Arizona!!  Jaden is currently in 4th grade, and she cannot wait for her first year as a Lower Inter Girl this summer! In the picture above we are hanging in her backyard in the middle of March on a sunny AZ day – she gets to wear shorts and tanks all year long!  Here are some important things you need to know about her:

  • She loves being up on stage and is a great actress!  She has been in pretty much every show twice, including Suessical the Musical, and Alice in Wonderland.   Even though its hard work, loves it!
  • She was in the newspaper when she was 4 years old playing the role of Dinah, the cat in Alice in Wonderland.  She’s also been in Grease, Willy Wonka and more!
  • She’s really brave, there is a high dive at her school, and the first time she did it she wasn’t afraid at all!  She’s going to love our zipline this summer.  She also likes roller coasters.
  • She’s got blue eyes, which you might get to see under her sunglasses!
  • She once won a gaga medal on a cruise.
  • Jaden really ikes tennis – and is excited to play at camp!
  • She gave me a tour of her house, including her awesome new room makeover!
  • She goes to a really good school, and she gets around three hours of home work every night!  She loves the “specials” classes, like art, music and technology.  She learning how to use iMovie – and she is creating a documentary about sea level rise.
  • She says she used to be the teachers pet, now she’s known as more of a class clown.
  • Blue and gold are also the colors of her school, she has lots of great things she plans to bring to camp for spirit and dress up!
  • Everyone should watch out, Jaden knows how to do tae kwon do to protect herself.
  • For electives, she is excited to try Canadensis Today & Glass Fusion.
  • She loves to go horseback riding, on a horse named Candy.
  • Jaden has a candy addiction (to the sweets, not the horse) and she even had some on display in her room – I’m impressed she’s not tempted by it all the time!
  • We have a lot of her favorite candies in the canteen, including milky way, sour straws and gummy bears.
  • She loves to be clean and organized, she is going to help her bunk win Honor Bunk every week!
  • She loves mushrooms, but is not a huge fan of pizza.
  • She has two awesome dogs named Joey and Whitney – (Whitney is named after Whitney Houston)
  • She loves monkeys
  • Jaden is a big sister, she has a younger brother Dylan (currently in Kindergarten)

While in Arizona, I also got to meet with one of the new staff members that will be joining our Health Center team this year!  Karen is so warm, and welcoming.  She is a Grandmother to 11 Grandkids, and there is one more on the way! She has so many hobbies: she spent a lot of last summer fishing with her brother, she is taking a quilting course, and she would like to learn how to crochet.   She also loves to travel, she’s see pretty much every corner of the country!  She’s been to Alaska (which reminded her of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she grew up), but her favorite state she’s ever visited is Oregon.  We can’t wait to have her join us in Pennsylvania for a great summer at camp!

Last year I was lucky to meet a lot of amazing Northern Arizona University students, and we had a great group spend the summer with us.  We will have a lot of new NAU staff joining us in 2013, and some returners as well coming back for their second summer!  In the photo above are our ’12 staff members, (from left to right) is Drew Freeman, Brynna Caldwell, Duke Ayers, (me), Ryan Triplett and Tyler Barnard – we went out to dinner in Flagstaff and got to catch up about life!
Next, I headed down to Tucson to hire staff at the University of Arizona – this is where I spent my college days (Beardown Wildcats!!).  Alex Entrikin was an amazing helper during the day…he was next to me for pretty much every interview that day!  We can’t wait to have him back as a returning general counselor this year!  That night, Catherine (CatRad) Radachi joined us for dinner, and it was so good to see her and here about the many ways she’s keeping busy on campus!
While on the U of A Campus, I met with some of my AEPhi sisters who were applying to work at Canadensis, and we actually did the interviews at my old sorority house.  Above is a picture of me in college from the sorority composite!
My parents live in Arizona, so we were able to celebrate Passover together, in the desert…haha.  On the left is my sister who came in from Texas, it was great family fun!Even Annie got to come to Arizona, she’s my favorite hiking buddy!  It such a wonderful state, but it’s awfully hot there during the summer…I’m glad that at least 10 AZ residents are leaving the 120 degree heat behind, and will be joining us for a wonderful summer at Camp Canadensis!