Lake Owen Gymnastic Camp

I am going to do my best to keep this abbreviated, but it was such a great week and I have so many photos and videos, that it's going to be hard.

Kaiya and I first talked about going to this camp in the winter when we found out that one of the coaches from her gym (but not her coach) goes to this prestigious gymnastics camp in Cable, Wisconsin every year. She's been going for quite a while and mentioned that they are always in need of camp nurses. Then, we found out that my going as camp nurse meant that Kaiya goes for free ($850 camp). So, Kaiya and one of her teammates got excited about it and decided to go. The only problem was a few months later, the friend quit gymnastics altogether. I left it up to Kaiya if she still wanted to go and she never wavered.

We flew into Minneapolis, which left us with a 3 hr drive to Cable. Fortunately, one of my nursing school buddies lives there and was able to meet us, give us a tour of the city and let us crash at her place. It was great to see her and the city. She lives right on the Mississippi River, so we had a great run the next morning (except I do not enjoy humidity!).

Running along the Mississippi

So good to see Karen!

The drive to Cable was absolutely gorgeous. Mostly 2-lane highway with tiny towns about every 10-20 miles along the way. Lakes, red barns and cute towns made it an easy drive. It is nestled in a wooded area right on a lake. Hard to believe this huge camp sits in this area, but it does. As the camp RN, I had to be there a day early to get set up and take over for the outgoing RN. The camp was a ghost town when we got there, so it was nice to get a tour and get acclimated before all the campers arrived. The other nurse and I had to go through all of the forms and get organized for 160 kids to arrive the next day (30 of which took regular prescription meds!). Kaiya enjoyed meeting some of the stay over campers and getting set up in her cabin. My cohort for the week, Connie, was a nurse from Duluth who had a son there as a skater. The camp has both gymnastics and "action sports", which meant skateboarders and BMX bikers. Their camp was totally separate, but we were in charge of both groups as nurses. Fortunately, she took care of most of them. :)

Arrival at last!

My headquarters, The Health Hut

Kaiya's cabin

Choosing her bunk before the masses arrived

Cafeteria straight ahead

Dock down at the lake

Look at that excited face

One view of just the bar gym

Floor gym--a totally separate building!

Sunday was casual in the morning and I quickly found an awesome running path through the woods. At 3 pm on Sunday, the campers began arriving and it turned into a madhouse fast! We had to get all of them checked in with their meds and figure out a schedule for each camper taking medications. It's a little sad how medicated even our youngsters are these days! They were not allowed to take even ibuprofen without getting it from us. Sunday night was testing night for the gymnasts--they had to show what they already knew how to do so they could be placed in a group of girls with similar skills. Kaiya was already figuring out that the talent there was amazing, so we had to have a little pep talk about not comparing herself to anyone else!

Monday was the first full day of camp and I was prepared to be super busy. Uh . . . not so much. Gave out morning meds, got breakfast and then had the day to watch Kaiya at practice, read my book and occasionally give out some ibuprofen or Tylenol. There are 2 athletic trainers on site who take care of most of the injuires, so my job was so easy! There was one kid with stitches who needed dressing changes, but that was about as difficult as it got. We had to be in our "Health Hut" each day from 8-9am, noon-1, 5-6pm, and 9-10 pm. Other than that, we were free to roam around the camp with our walkie talkies and backpacks. I finished a book in a matter of days, sitting on my deck in the shade. Not too shabby! Kaiya did the ropes course on Monday, which was amazing and then on Monday night, Kaiya got to meet Courtney McCool in her cabin for a Q&A session. Courtney was also one of her coaches during the week, but it was fun to be get up close and personal with her. She was on the 2004 Olympic team and a fun girl. Kaiya also got to meet Paul Hamm, who is a 2-time Olympian and training for the 2012 games right now. He was amazing to watch!

Ropes course

Ready to climb a tree!

Way up there

Shay & Kaiya, her bunk mate from South Dakota

Kaiya & Olympian Courtney McCool

By Tuesday, I figured out that I could get up and put running clothes on, give out meds, then go for a run and shower. I did that every day for the rest of the week. The running path was so gorgeous! This is the day Kaiya got up super early and did the "polar plunge", which meant jumping in the lake at 7 am. I have no idea how she survived the rest of that day. She was already so sore and tired from doing 6 hrs of gymnastics on day 1. Her schedule was basically, get up at 7, eat, gym from 9-11:30, lunch, open gym for 3 hrs (or go play, which she did some days), eat dinner, more gym from 6-8:30 and then a nightly activity. On Tuesday night, they did a camp version of the Warrior Dash and she didn't want to go, but the camp director spotted her and gave some gentle encouragement. It was a giant obstacle course through the water and around the camp. The night before was Extreme Challenge night in the gym where they did things like stacking foam blocks on the beam. Fun stuff!

The view from my daily running path

Wednesday was a relaxing day as well. Kaiya spent both Tuesday and Wed on the trampoline for nearly 2 hrs each day. She desperately wanted to learn her back flip with a full twist and I am not kidding when I say she probably did 250 of them before getting it just right. My old assistant coach at Utah State (who is now the head coach) was there and he was so awesome to work with her in a little private session for over an hour. The same thing happened on Tuesday with a different coach who knew my old club coach. My being there had some definite perks for Kaiya and she was soaking up the private lessons! Wednesday night was 'staff appreciation' night after the big dodgeball night in the gym and we got to meet a lot more of the staff and coaches that night at a little party in the canteen (a/k/a junk food store that makes bank off the campers who bring extra money to camp to put in their account). I was amazed at the amount of food Kaiya put down during the week, but I'm guessing she burned even more than she ate. She is not used to 6+ hrs of gym every day.

Thursday brought my first real nursing excitement. One of the camp counselors (a mom with a gymnast there) dislocated her shoulder on the giant slip and slide. She was in so much pain and I was able to pop it back into place. Felt gross, but it was also kind of cool (I'm sick, I know). Kaiya spent some time at the lake that day. They have a huge water blob that launches kids off the end, two ski boats to pull kids on tubes and just a swimming area. Thursday night's activity was skit night and Kaiya's group chickened out, so there wasn't much to watch.

Friday was a normal day until about 6 pm when the parents began arriving for the gym expo. The evening practice was a "show off" session where the kids could show everything they had learned and do the dances they had learned during their dance class all week. I saw some amazing gymnastics, especially from the guys. Friday night was packing up, saying goodbyes, returning meds to the campers and getting ready to head out.

With Hannah Hartung, daughter of 1984 gold medalist, Jim Hartung

Group shot

Kaiya and I left around 10:30 on Saturday morning and made a few stops on the way back to the Minneapolis airport. We stopped in a few of the cute little towns, including a famous candy shop and a rock shop to grab some stuff for the family at home. Kaiya slept the entire 3 hour drive, other than when we stopped! I have never seen her so tired in my whole life. We had an uneventful flight hope and now it's back to the real world. We are already thinking we'll go back again next year! What an experience.

Until next year . . . .

Famous candy shop in Hayward--the whole town is flowers!

None of the videos are great quality, but they give a little taste of the week. When we got into the Denver airport, we were greeted with big, fat, happy tears from Miss Kinley. She had a great week at her own camp (post forthcoming), but she missed us. I think she missed Kaiya as much as me. Watching those two reunite was a happy mom moment for sure! Cooper looked at least a year older and Doug looked ready to be off duty for a while . . . but I might add that I came home to a totally clean house, all carpets steam cleaned and tons of honey-dos off the list. I'm a lucky girl!!

The first video is Kaiya doing giants on the strap bar and the second is her best full twist on the trampoline--a culmination of HOURS of attempts!

This is the blob water launcher and Kaiya on the bungee trampoline

Giant swings on the high bar (never done them before) and a new tumbling pass into the foam pit.

Up in the trees on the ropes course and a little snipet of the one-on-one instruction she got from Utah State coach, Jeff Richards.