Hey Hey, CFA!

Hey, friends!

Well, I’ve just had the most amazing weekend ever, and I am so excited to tell you about it. Every year, my homeschool group puts on a Teen Conference at YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow in Hunt, Texas. You might remember my post about it last year. Well, it’s that time again! This was our third year there. We headed up to CFA on Thursday afternoon and were there till Saturday afternoon. It. Was. Amazing.

And guess who else was there? Miss Kathleen from Kat’s Health Corner! We’ve gotten to spend a lot of time together over these past few weeks, which has made me so happy.

This is the camp stage, where our speaker and the camp skits took place. The counselors put on the funniest skits. They crack me up every year. Rick tick, rickety rick, oompa oompa oi! I absolutely LOVE the CFA staff. MaryAshley, Richard, Ryne, Becky, Polly, Hannah, Tiffany, Lillian, Allison, Bill, and Curt are all so awesome!

We got to do a horse trail ride, which I was so excited about. I love horses, but never got into riding. I’m riding Snickers in this picture.

This is not Snickers, but this horse was being very sweet when I took the picture.

A quick shout-out to MaryAshley! I meant to get a picture with her, but we had to move onto archery. MaryAshley is the Equestrian Director and is so very wonderful. She also reads my blog, which meant to the world to me to hear. She has two great blogs, as well! Her husband told me that he likes my blog, too, and so did our program director, Becky. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated knowing that. Thank you, MaryAshley, Richard and Becky!

Here’s a picture of Kathleen and our friend Ana at archery. Lillian, who is SUCH a fun counselor, helped us out there.

I also got to teach some ballroom with one of my partners, Reed. We focused on Rumba and it was really neat. I loved seeing all the kids dance.

They had a super cool high ropes course that I got to do Saturday morning. I felt really accomplished, to say the least.

This is Kathleen and me gearing up for high ropes.

Me on the Cat Walk!

I did all three: the Cat Walk, the Hourglass and the Leap of Faith. The Leap of Faith is where you climb to the top of a telephone pole, stand on a little tiny platform, and jump to grab a trapeze. It’s crazy!!

This is the Hourglass. I somehow don’t have pictures of Kathleen, but she did all three as well! It was so awesome, especially because it was on her birthday! I was really proud of her.

By the way, she is 16 now! Make sure to wish a her a happy birthday.

The staff and activities are amazing, but I know you’re wondering about one thing: the food! This is a health and nutrition blog, after all. Well, I am happy to report that the CFA food is absolutely incredible. It is by far the most accommodating camp I have ever attended and all the meals are homemade. I have never been to a camp where I haven’t had to bring a cooler loaded with “Kelsey food,” but I didn’t have to at CFA. All I did was email Allison, the main director and head chef, and tell her about my dietary restrictions. She had a vegetarian and vegan option at every single meal! There was lentil lasagna, quinoa stirfry, and an absolutely incredible salad bar at lunch and dinner. Don’t even get me started on the fruit bar at breakfast. We’re talking strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, grapes, watermelon, and more. Kathleen, my other friends and I were basically in heaven. I was so impressed and grateful that Allison took the time to accommodate myself and the other vegans/vegetarians there. (I wasn’t the only one surprisingly, so that was really nice.) Thank you, Allison!

Another extremely cool thing was that Allison used a lot of recipes from my blog! Above is one of my very favorite sandwiches, the BAT Sandwich. Black beans, avocado and tomato? Nothing better. She also made a loaf of my favorite whole wheat bread and served it on that! Oh, and the morning before, everyone else was having cinnamon rolls. She used the same bread recipe to make some homemade whole wheat cinnamon rolls for us vegans! Allison totally winged it, but it turned out awesome.

This was an apple cinnamon bread pudding/french toast bake thing that she based off one of my french toast recipes. She also used the homemade bread. It was just really cool.

I don’t know, maybe it seems silly that I’m so excited about it, but honestly, it was just so nice. All of you fellow “food bloggers” understand the preparation and time that goes into taking trips. You know you won’t be able to eat what everyone else is eating,  so you have to plan your own meals. That means a trip to the store, preparing the food, packing and bringing adequate cooling to keep it cold, etc. It’s a lot of work and is pretty inconvenient, and I can’t tell you how nice it was to not worry about that at CFA. I didn’t have to think about it once, because I knew it was taken care of.

Thank you once again, Allison and all the CFA staff. My weekend at Camp Flaming Arrow this past weekend was unsurpassed. That camp truly delivers on every level. I want to go back right now. If you are ever in Texas and are looking for a summer camp, YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow is the place to go. Also, check out their blog. It’s called Hey Hey, CFA, which is the saying they use to get campers’ attention. They yell “Hey, Hey!” and everyone else goes “CFA!” Then you are completely silent. You can check out their Facebook page, too.

Question of the Day: Have you ever been to a place that accommodates your dietary needs/preferences? What about summer camp—did any of you ever attend?

Thanks for reading!