1.       Kitchen creations. If you are skilled in cooking or baking, put it to good use by whipping up one of your specialties. Give your best friend a box of cookies she always praised or your sister a tray of her favorite home-cooked meal. 

Top 10 Reasons to Give the Gift of Camp

From the American Camp Association  April 17, 2009

As summer vacation gets closer, many parents—in fact, parents of more than 10 million children— make the decision to send their children to summer camp. While some families have already decided on a camp, others are still exploring their options. For these families, it can be difficult to choose – especially when the diversity of camps today reflects the diversity of America. There is truly a camp for every child, every interest, and every budget. The American Camp Association® (ACA) recommends that parents ask the following questions to get a better feel for which camp experience best suits their child:

1.What is the camp's philosophy and program emphasis? – Each camp has its own method of constructing programs based on its philosophy. Does it complement your family’s philosophy? Does the camp focus on learning through competition, or through cooperative learning? How does the camp handle homesickness and other adjustment issues?

2.What is the camp director's background? – ACA recommends directors possess a bachelor's degree, have completed in-service training within the past three years, and have at least sixteen weeks of camp administrative experience before assuming the responsibilities of director.

3.What training do counselors receive? – At a minimum, camp staff should be trained in safety regulations, emergency procedures and communication, behavior management techniques, child abuse prevention, appropriate staff and camper behavior, and specific procedures for supervision.

4.How are behavioral and disciplinary problems handled? – This is where the director's philosophy comes through loud and clear. Do they use positive reinforcement? What are the rules and consequences?

5.How does the camp handle special needs? – For a child with special requirements, parents should ask the camp director about needed provisions and facilities. Is there a nurse on staff? A designated place to store insulin or allergy medicine? Are special foods available for campers with restricted diets? Every question is important.

6.What about references? – Parents shouldn’t be afraid to ask for references. This is generally one of the best ways to check a camp's reputation and service record.

7.Is the camp accredited by the American Camp Association? Why? Why not? – ACA-Accredited® camps meet up to 300 health and safety standards. This does not guarantee a risk-free environment, but it's some of the best evidence parents have of a camp's commitment to a safe and nurturing environment for their children.

About ACA

The American Camp Association® (ACA) works to preserve, promote, and enhance the camp experience for children and adults. ACA-Accredited® camp programs ensure that children are provided with a diversity of educational and developmentally challenging learning opportunities. There are over 2,400 ACA-accredited camps that meet up to 300 health and safety standards. For more information, visit www.ACAcamps.org.

Did you know Bicknell was not the town's orignal name?    It's true. 

The town was originally called Thurber after A.K. Thurber who built the first house in the area in 1875.

Thomas Bicknell, a prominent educator and historian of Providence, Rhode Island, wished to perpetuate his name to Utah and offered a library of 1,000 books to the town that would take his name. The town's name was changed in April, 1916.

And now you know!

Yummy for these cold days!

Simply Mix: 

1 cup milk
3 tablespoons instant hot chocolate mix
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch cayenne pepper

Really hits the spot!  

Super fun creativity game!  No supplies needed.  Also good for car rides, rainy days, hikes...

The starting player says something innocuous, like "I almost couldn't find the syrup." Next player says something like "It could've been worse. You could have been covered in syrup." Then the next person says something worse, like, "It could've been even worse than that, you could've been on Dancing with the Stars at the time." And then the next player tries to find something worse than that. Or, the next person says "it could be better..." And so it goes...

I always loved these tissue paper crafts as a kid. Easy to do with simple supplies, but looks great!   Something fun to do over the weekend! 

Here's a simple little camp or party game:  

Everyone closes their eyes and lowers their heads, everyone chants 1-2-3-Look! As the leader calls "look," the campers look up at one specific person.  If that person is looking back at him/her, both players are out. If that person is looking at a different person, the camper puts their head back down and waits for the next chant of "1-2-3 Look."

Continue the game rapidly until only two players are left.

We like to play a similar version that avoids players being called out of the games.  Simply form TWO circles.  When a pair is "out", they join the other circle.    Remarkable easy and fun!

A fun simple art activity with supplies you may already have around the house: 

Supplies:
knife
potato
pencil
spoon
tempra paints and brush
paper
Technique
1. With the help of an adult, cut a potato in half, with a pencil, draw a simple geometric shape, letter, or any created design on the sliced portion of the potato.

2. With the spoon, scrape away the part of the potato that is not part of the shape. The shape will be raised; the background will be cut and scraped away.

3. Paint any color on the remaining raised shape. Then, firmly press the potato on the paper to make a print. Make several prints before repainting. Each print will be lighter than the first.

4. Shading Step: With the spoon or other digging utensil, scoop away a little more of the remaining shape. Paint a different color on the potato shape and press the potato on the prints already made. Try to print exactly on the area of the first print. This will produce the look of dual colored shading. Continue this method to make more shaded prints or additional prints.

Variations:
Explore making prints with other objects from around the house, such as these suggestions:
bar of soap
carrot
block
nuts and bolts
eraser on a pencil
crumpled foil

Wayne County, home to Navajo Trails


1.  How'd Wayne County get its name? 
A:  In honor of a delegate's son who was dragged to death by a horse.     
B.  After Wayne State University in hopes they would help fund the building of the elementary school.
C.  After Wayne Newton, Singer Songwritter
D.  After Wayne National Forrest in Ohio, the first settlers wanted to honor home.   

2: How much of Wayne County belongs to the Federal and State Government?
A:    A mere 13%
B:   almost half 47 %
C:   nearly three quarters 74 %
D:   almost all  97 % 

3:  How many people live in the county?
A:    2,400  The size of some high schools
B:    8,100   Same as the Blackberry Pearl Phone
C:    21,000  Same as how many people said they were attending a teens 16th b-day party on facebook
D.  120,000  Number of Ipad sales on the first day

4: What's the Elevation Range?
A:    3,000 Feet in capital Reef to 5,000 feet at Boulder Mountain
B:    100 feet at the lowest  to  10,000 feet at the highest
C:    8,400 feet  at the west end of the county to 4,200 feet at Hanksville.
D.    2,000 around the center to 11, 500 feet at the top of the mountains

5.   About the county seat, Loa,
A.   It is home to a former Miss Utah. 
B.   It has the second highest elevation of any county seat in Utah
C.   The Grocery Store is named,  Miss Loa's.
D.   It's home of the county pool and the swim team, "The Seals"

Answers:
1.  A.  Wayne dragged to death from a horse, county named after him.
2.  D.  97 % of the county is state or federal land
3.  A  Only 2,400 people live in Wayne County
4.  C.  8,400 to 4,200 elevation (Navajo Trails sits at 7,125 nice and cool)
5.  B.  I wish it was Miss Loa's or the Seals, but alas it has the second highest elevation of any county seat in Utah at 7,000 feet.    Tell all of your friends.

Scoring:
5 Right your Super Wayne County Smart
3-4 Right  Your almost as Super Wayne County Smart
1-2  Retake Quiz to obtain Super Smart Status

Pumpkin Dip

2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese sofened
1 large 30 ounce can of pumpkin
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teas cinnamon
2 teas ginger

Whip together and serve with giner snaps for dipping!


Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake
Graham cracker crust (buy one premade, or crush graham crackers with melted butter)
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
1/2 sugar
2 eggs
1 - 16 ounce can of pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Bake crust for 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
Mix cream cheese sugar and eggs until smooth.
Add pumpkin and spices.
Put over crust, bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees

Girl Scout Troop 630 from Salt Lake City, Utah came to Navajo Trails the first weekend in October, 2010 to do service for the camp!

They grabbed shovels, rakes, and other tools to clear away weeds and cement from old fence posts to extend the lawn, cleared away dead and down from around the dome, and moved tons of fire wood for campfires for next summer.

Check out Smug mug at:

June 30 2010,

The survival trip has been very fun. We swam and saw petrogyphs. We are on time to do a solo. in the night we saw satelites and Venus in the sky. We told a lot of jokes. Jared Carried 2 packs and was a pack mule. It was awesome.

Climbing in Maple Canyon has been great! I haven't been rock climbing at all before this, but everyone says that I've been doing good. The other good thing is that I have learned to belay. I am soooo glad that I came on this trip, because now I think I have found my new sport after gymnastics! The harest I have climbed is a 5.9, but I'm gonna try to do a 5.10 before we leave.... even though I don't want to leave. This whole entire week has been wonderful and I wouldn't change it for anything!!!

This week has been great!

On Friday after our trips, showers, and dinner. We got together to play some team building games like Everybodies It, Mario Brothers, and Blind Tag.

The Rock Climbing Trip was awesome!

After our trips we went to town for milkshakes and cleaned up. Friday night we did an ultimate challenge with giant dice. We had to complete team challenges like human knot, horse shoes, charades, and poison peanut butter swamp.

The backpackers started on Tuesday on Thousand Lake Mountain. We hiked about 3 miles to camp by a beautiful lake. We had backpackers dinners, instant oatmeal for breakfast, then hiked about a mile to meet up with the horse group.

The horse back riders rode up to

base camp the first day.

Then did day ride adventures each

day.

This is there ride up to flat top to

Dairy Queen for snow cones!

Delicious!

The Backpacking group on our day hike to Capital Reef!

We leave the decision making of trips up to the campers as to what trips they want to go on. We don't do a pre-registration of trips because many kids change their minds while at camp for several reasons. For instance, they might make a new friend at camp and want to go on trip with that friend or they may decide to try something new that they hadn't considered before. We work with each camper to make sure that they are happy with their experience.

Each week the camper chooses which trip he/she would like to go on for the week. Some trips are limited to a certain number of campers. So to best accommodate the campers we ask the campers for the top 2 trips they would like to go on while at camp. This gives us a good idea of what trips we need to offer the following week. The number of trips we run in a week varies depending on campers interests, resources,staffing,etc. Campers who stay only two weeks to get first priority on trips first, because campers staying longer will have the opportunity to do what they want later on in the season.

We try our hardest to accommodate every camper in their wish list for trips. As long as the camper does not care what order they go on the trip we usually can accommodate their wishes for certain trips.

For example: If a camper has a wish list of say a horseback riding trip and a rock climbing trip and they are only at camp two weeks, we try our very hardest to make sure that camper goes on both trips. So we will offer a horseback riding, biking & kayaking trip one week and a rock climbing, backpacking, horseback riding & waterskiing trip another week.

Another example: Now lets say a campers wish list is kayaking and mountain biking, but they are staying four weeks. We may offer a horseback riding, mountain biking, waterskiing & backpacking trip the first week. A mountain biking, rock climbing & waterskiing trip the next week. A rock climbing, kayaking & horseback riding the third week, and a kayaking, backpacking, waterskiing & rock climbing trip the fourth week.

(Note: the above examples are just examples and not the necessarily the order of trips that are offered for this summer. We do not have a set trip schedule for the summer only a tentative one incase campers change their minds. That is why we do not post the trip schedule.)

This is the first week a of camp for 2010,it started of July 4th. We have campers from all over the world like Japan, France, and Spain. We also have campers from around the nation like Missouri, New York, Florida, Illinois, California, Colorado, and Utah.

So far this week we had a awesome campfire, played tons of cool games, got used to the elevation (around 7,000 ft.), and got ready for the trips.

We have two trips this week. One trip is going Horseback Riding and the other Backpacking. The horseback riding group went on an amazing day trip around the camp, up the mountain, and back again.

The backpacking group went to Capital Reef National Park and went on a day hike where they hiked up a stream, went down a nature made slide, and ended up at the base of some super high and really amazing red rock cliffs.

Now both trips have left for the week. The backpackers we dropped of at their starting location first thing this morning. All the campers and staff were super excited to get going. They will hike for a while today and camp at a lake tonight. Can't wait to see their photos when they get back.

The horseback riding group, packed up their saddle bags this morning loaded them onto their horses and took off for the adventure. They will ride all day today till they make it to base camp where they will kick back and enjoy the beauty all round them. They each got assigned their very own horse for the week and have the responsibility of taking care it. After their day ride yesterday, the campers could not wait to get back on their horse and ride up to base camp.

Later this week the two groups will meet and go to "Dairy Queen" on top of the mountain where they will make "Cool Treat & Hot Eats". Cool treats of snow cones from the snow fields and have a snowball fight, and hot eats of their supper yummy and delicious dutch oven cooking.

The Adventure has Begun!

Home Made Root Beer is always a hit for Harry Potter All Camps and 4th of July Parties!!!