The Barri (more than one Barrus): Camp Big Springs--A Full Report

Brandt returned today from spending the week at Camp Big Springs, the fifth grade camp for Provo School District. I went to Camp Big Springs when I was in fifth grade, and I'm not sure much has changed since I was there. Brandt seemed to have a marvelous time. He got off the bus absolutely filthy, and the clothes in his suitcase were largely disgusting, if he had worn them. There was a pile of five shirts all neatly folded just like they were when I packed them, leading me to suspect that Brandt only changed his shirt once. Everything he had had on was ripe! I had made him promise to change his socks every day. I suggested he put on a clean pair just before he went to bed to keep his feet warm, and then keep those on the next day. This bit of advice he followed faithfully. However, his socks were so filthy, I threw them all away--all five pairs. I couldn't bring myself to put my hands inside the socks to turn them right-side out. He has been singing off and on all day, songs like, "The ___ up at Camp Big Springs they say are mighty fine . . . Oh gee, I want to go to Bi-ig Springs! Gee Mom I wanna go. Where do you wanna go? Gee Mom I wanna go to Camp Big Springs!" and sharing bits and pieces of his activities. We are so glad he had a marvelous time.

Here is a report of what Brandt did while he was gone all week.

We didn't get to do the seven mile hike. There was too much snow. Instead it was a four mile hike. We got to go sledding down an ice slope and had snow cones right from snow. I got all the flavors that they had, which was only two. There was a zipline which I never went on. But I did do the challenge course.

Mr. Mac told us scary stories. One was about him and his brother. They were on a road trip, headed home. They heard a report on the radio about a guy breaking out of prison. He was dangerous. They needed gas so they pulled into a gas station. Mr. Mac went to the bathroom while his brother went to find the guy behind the counter and get snacks. Mr. Mac went to the bathroom. When he was finished he heard someone rattling the doorknob. He said, "Brother, is that you?" No answer. The doorknob stopped rattling, but then started again. It was like someone was picking the lock. He hid behind one of the stalls and the door opened. There was a guy looking in with a knife in his hand. Mr. Mac looked around the bathroom and saw a window he thought he could get out. He bolted for the window. The guy came charging after him. Mr. Mac jumped through the window but his legs got stuck. The guy was pulling on his leg and he was jerking it back. Just like Mr. Mac was pulling our leg.

I got to look through the telescope. It was pretty cool. We looked at Jupiter, the Gas Planet. We basically saw the moons of Jupiter. There were onion plants and I ate one. It made me cry. There was another one that tasted like black licorice and I ate that one too. Very light green pine needles are actually edible, and so is stinging nettle and minor's lettuce. Minor's would pull off the edges of stinging nettle and put them in a pot of boiling water. You can eat it plain but they preferred it cooked.

We played mine field and mushball, which is like baseball only you hit a volleyball instead of a baseball, and Old Sal. To play Old Sal you basically hit a can with hockey sticks, and to play mine field you can't touch the ground. You have to put rocks and step on them. When there is a siren you have to duck down but you still cannot touch the ground.

We did rockets and beads. We had a tug-o-war and we had a thing where you could score points for your team if you went all the way under the water. I went back to my tent until that part was over because they chant your name to convince you to go in and I didn't want to.

I slept in tent 4. It was the farthest away, at the top of the hill. I got to sleep with my friend Spencer, Teva Mataoa, Greyson Bushman, Grant Jensen, and Brigham Richards. Mr. Mac was our tent guy. We had a camp fire every night. Each tent did a skit on a different day. Our skit was The Firing Squad. We all participated. I was part of the firing squad. One night there was a person dressed like a giant chicken who cracked eggs on the top of two kids' heads. And El Flamo was there too.

Top row: Mr. Mac, Brandt, ?? Peter ?

Middle row: Spencer (Brandt's buddy), and five other guys. The one in orange is the other Spencer.

Bottom row: Teva, Cash, Grant, Greyson, Benji, and Isaac

The food was good. We had french toast twice, pancakes, tacos, hot dogs, Hawaiian haystacks, and this morning, before we came home, we made toast, eggs, and bacon using a buddy burner we made ourselves.

We dissected owl pellets. I found a skull. (Little bits of owl pellet came home wrapped in tin foil. Brandt opened it to show me and then little bits of bones and stuff ended up all over the desk. Yum!)

That's Brandt's report. From his schedule I saw that there was "hand check" before each meal. Based on how Brandt's hands looked when he got off the bus, I'm not sure how thorough this hand check really was. Each night the schedule also said 10:00 Light's Out! Sleep (please). I'm not sure how strictly this was enforced either. All three lunches they had jicama sticks, which Brandt couldn't pronounce, and one day they had soy butter sandwiches. This astonishes me. Who would think to prepare a large group of 11 year olds soy butter sandwiches. What the heck IS soy butter? Too weird. Wednesday night was also taco night, and there was a competition to see who could eat the most tacos. Brandt's friend Spencer won by eating eleven tacos, beating out the teacher who was only able to eat eight. Eleven tacos! I wonder how Spencer's mom feeds him on a regular basis.

I posted an "Off to Big Springs" picture or two. Here is one from the Big Springs Facebook page, and some I took following his return. Blythe, in spite of saying she wasn't going to miss him at all, really did miss Brandt. On Tuesday when we were looking at pictures on Facebook hoping to see him, Blythe said wistfully, "When does Brandt come home?" She made him a Welcome Home! poster that included "happy day for everyone!" She also felt cookies and lemonade were appropriate and insisted we bake this morning in preparation for his return. Brandt was happy to see the sugar cookies and wolfed several down before washing his hands (gag gag!). It really was a happy day to have him back.