Skylemar hits the road!  Lots of comings and goings just about every day. 

The Stars and Seniors took a trip to Tabers Mini Golf and Driving Range.  It’s a really cool family-owned place that you feel good supporting.  The ride is just about an hour long, and the food’s really good.  After hitting buckets of balls, they went to Range Pond State Park.  Nothing like hanging out at the beach with good friends.

The Tigers headed to the Ossipee Valley Fair.  It’s an old-fashioned country fair with lots of animals, an oxen pull, egg toss and so forth.  The highlight was the frog jumping contest.  We didn’t bring frogs, but one gentleman was kind enough to loan us a few.  The kids quickly learned how to make a frog hop (you sort of hit the ground nearby) and Skylemar was well represented with five ribbon winners:  Henry R (B7), Theo Q, Alex F (B6), Troy and Dillon L.  Note for next year:  We need to come up with some frogs!

Arethusa Falls was the main destination for the Freshmen.  They hiked through Crawford Notch State Park to get to the tallest single drop waterfall in New Hampshire.  It was the perfect place to be on a 90-degree day.

Back at home, we remembered to drink a whole lot of water to stay hydrated.  Ate some popsicles too. 

Fishing in Trickey Pond with Jack is so much fun.  And when you catch a big one it’s even better.  Bunk 15 caught 20 fish in just one afternoon!   First things first when you get to SkyPines…the safety talk.  Jack teaches everyone the correct way to cast and how to bait the hook.  Most use “fake bait”, or you can dig up your own worms. 

Our guys are typically good for about 20 minutes max of fishing.  It’s tough to stay still for so long.  So they swim, snorkel and paddleboard too.  There’s the giant hammock to hang in as well. 

In other news…

Chilltop, our crafts program, has a new toy.  It’s called a ChompSaw.  The boys love to create masterpieces with recyclables, and now it’s even more fun to work with cardboard. And there’s lots of it available at Skylemar, between cases of food and what the counselors order from Amazon. The ChompSaw cuts the cardboard into whatever shape you want.  Soooooo much better than scissors and a whole lot safer than an X-Acto knife.

Chocolate Factory!  Yay!  That’s when you go to the Garden Cabin with Kristen and Holly to make sweet treats.  Of course you get to eat just a little in the process.  A batch gets made for your bunk, and then the boys pick another lucky bunk to surprise with a snack.  

Food Science at Yellowhorn with Michaela! Today, they picked blueberries behind the Bunkline and made both vanilla- and blueberry-flavored ice cream.  To make the vanilla they split open Madagascar vanilla pods and scraped the insides into cream, milk and sugar.  Then they learned how rock salt lowers the temperature, and makes the mixture freeze quickly without forming ice crystals.

The boys take tremendous pride in watching things grow.  Whether it’s the abundant wild blueberries along the rock wall, what’s in Adam’s vegetable garden, or in the sunflowers they just planted — growth is rewarding.

That kind of development is what we see daily at Skylemar.    Your son is growing taller, wiser and more accomplished right before our eyes.  Wait till you see!