I posted these a few months ago (late June) to BoyChat. They were five separate posts, and (except for the last one) they were all written just a few hours after each day's events occurred (so hopefully I remembered it all pretty well ;-). This is all true, with the exception of changed names, slightly different settings, etc. etc. I hate having to be so paranoid :-\. I posted this before but it got truncated, and since I've recieved a request for the rest of it I figured I'd post all of it here again. Enjoy! :-)

Anyway, for a bit of background... My church has a Vacation Bible School one week during the summer every year. They don't call it a VBS, though, but a half-day camp (certainly sounds more fun than "bible school," right? ;-). Of course I'm not going to tell you the name of the camp or anything. Use your imagination if you like. I of course volunteer to help with the boys. The first time I helped out at this camp was a little over two years ago when I was 15, just a bit too old to go to the camp myself (it goes through Junior High). I was with the first grade boys' group that year, and by coincidence I got the second grade boys' group the next year after that (last year) - the same bunch of kids. So I decided to stick with them (there were a few I really liked) and when this year came around, I made sure to get the third graders (sadly, the two twins I had totally fallen for the year before didn't come, as you'll see).

If you don't read BC, you might not understand a few references but I'm sure that won't ruin the whole thing for you. If you like it, great. If you don't, great, just don't complain if you read it anyway ;-). Now, lets get on with it...
 

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Day 1
Twentysomething 8 year old boys = ?
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*Fun* of course! If you didn't get the answer to that, shame on you! I'll admit that it's not all fun and games, of course - but it is definitely worth it :-)

I arrived at church in the morning, went to the councilors' meeting, and then grabbed the sign for my group and went outside to wait for the kids to arrive. "My" group is the 3rd grade boys (boys going in to the third grade; they're about 8 years old). There are two older councilor (I hope I'm spelling that right!) ladies in the group, along with my friend Rob (17) and Brad (15). I held up the newly-made sign (the ones we've been using the past few years were seriously in tatters at the end of last summer ;-) with our group's name and animal on it (can't tell; lets just say it's big and ferocious :-) and waited for the boys to come.

The two councilor ladies were waiting with me; one with a handful of name tags, one with a large stack of camp t-shirts. Rob and Brad were gone, practicing somewhere for the skit (every year, we have a skit that we show a bit of every day. The kids love it... No, *everyone* loves it. They're so good and funny :-). Eventually, boys began coming. Unfortunately, I as busy holding up the sign, so I just had to boywatch for a while (what a horrible job! ;-). As one woman bent down to put a name tag on one of the boys, a couple of other name tags fell out of her grip and landed on the ground. I caught a quick glimpse of the one on top: "S"

Was it, possibly, my S? (S, if you don't know, is the cutest, most perfect 8yo boy in the world :-) It *is* an unusual name... and our group was the right grade... I tried to remember if there was an S in the group last year, but unfortunately my bad memory wasn't too helpful (now that I think about it again, I think there was). Whoever "S" was, he didn't come today, so I was unable to find out. We can always hope, can't we? ;-) Speaking of boys not coming... The twins weren't there! That was a major disappointment; aside from S, they are probably the best boys in the world - cute (beautiful!) and great (but very different) personalities. I know there were a few name tags left over when we finally went into the gym to sing; since I didn't have a chance to see them it is possible that W and E (the twins) just missed today. I hope so.

Anyway, back to me holding the sign... It is a boring job, but for some reason all the boys always want to hold it up. We weren't supposed to let them (the signs are brand new, we don't want them to end up looking like last years already ;-). Keeping the sign away from them meant holding it high above my head - though of course they were all trying to jump for it. Soon, they were trying to pull my arms down or climb up me to reach the sign. Boys aren't too light, especially when you've got three hanging off of you ;-). Rob and Brad came back fairly quickly and I was able to pass the sign over to one of them. The boys followed, of course, but I was okay with being boyless for a few minutes. Rob and Brad passed it between each other and back to me every minute or so. Once we couldn't take the onslaught, we'd pass the sign to someone else.

They tired us out quickly, though, and I eventually had to ask them to stop. Amazingly, the mob of boys obeyed right away (with the exception of a couple of the more disobedient ones ;-). I looked around at the boys that were in our group just before we had to go in to sing. D was there, as expected (his mom works in the camp). He is a rather large boy, probably the biggest in the group, and unfortunately also one of the more disobedient ones. When he's being good, though, he's a great kid. Cute, too (medium length brown hair, freckles). O was also there, as expected (his mom is working at the camp too). He is one of the smallest there (if not the smallest), and he's cute too (okay, so they're *all* cute ;-). Blond hair, bowl cut. Like D, though, he's a bit disobedient at times. Joshua was there; about average height (how tall is and 8yo usually, anyway?) with longer (a bit more than ear-length) brown hair, and the most incredible blue eyes I have ever seen. He came here from some European country some time before last year's session. He had a strong accent (couldn't place it, though) and wasn't too good with English yet. This year, though, I barely noticed the accent and his English seems to be doing great :-). There was also Matt, a small freckle-faced redhead (and I mean *really* red) that loves to cling on to everyone. He really liked Brad last year, but this year seems to be more attached to Rob (who wasn't in our group last year). The rest, I'll leave for later, otherwise you'll be falling asleep ;-)

We went in to the gym to sing (well, the kids sing, I don't. Otherwise, they'd probably throw me out and I'd never help out at that camp again! ;-). We went in and sat on the floor (I hope they cleaned that floor recently!) in the middle of the room, right in front of the stage. None of the boys sat in anyone's laps yet... We've got to get reacquainted first. With the exception of Matt, who sat in Rob's lap as soon as he came back from doing the first part of the skit (sorry, can't talk about that either; but I will say it seems like its going to be great this year :-). A few minutes before, Matt had been sitting next to me, and eventually he ended up leaning against me too. I put my arm around his waist and gave him a squeeze. I would have left it there except that I needed to put it behind me to support his & my weight. Actually, he *did* hop into my lap for a few seconds (literally; seconds), but it he jumped right back out and went over to Rob when he noticed that Rob had arrived. Fortunately I'm not the jealous type ;-)

After the singing, we went into the sanctuary and sat in the pews, listening to some missionary babble on about [some place]. Last year, we had an exciting missionary lady from Africa; she showed us videos of her and her kids in Africa, eating live termites and stuff like that. You can bet the boys loved it ;-). This year, though, it doesn't look like the missionary stuff will be that exciting. Matt of course sat in Rob's lap, but none of the other boys sat in anyone's laps yet. Since our group (out of the four who were there at that moment) got in the sanctuary last, we were stuck pretty far back in the pews, so when the lady showed us this boring video about [some place], our group went and sat in the aisle. Once she was done, it was time to walk down to the classrooms at a separate part of the church that was just down the street. The land that the classrooms is on as bought by the church years after the church was first built, so there is this sometimes annoying separation of the two parts. Of course, if it gives me a chance to carry boys around, it can't be bad :-).

Matt tried to get a piggyback ride from Rob, but someone else had gotten to Rob first, so he came to me instead. He hopped onto my back and we traveled the approximately one block down to the classrooms. Actually, half a block is sidewalk, the other half we cut across the soccer fields to get to the rooms. Once we were away from the street, the boys all started running towards the rooms. I had to keep up with them ;-). With Matt still on my back, I yelled out to Brad (in front of me) that he had better get moving (he was only walking) otherwise I'd run him flat, and then I went after him. Matt bounced around on my back and giggled happily as I tried to catch Brad. I didn't get him, but then again he wasn't weighed down by a 60 pound boy ;-).

I put down Matt and went off to catch all the stray boys (not too many, fortunately) and bring them to the classroom. When I got to the class, one of the councilors was asking the kids to sit down on the floor so that she could tell them a story (which, inevitably, came from her little brown bible ;-). "Out of the chairs!" she told everyone. The two boys that *were* in chairs just sat there and stared at her. The closest one was Matt. I walked over to him, picked him up, and put him on the ground in front of the chair. He thought this was fun and tried to get back into the chair, but Brad sat in it first, backwards (leaning forward against the back of the chair, as Riker had a habit of doing on Star Trek: TNG ;-). Matt seemed content to sit in front of Brad. I then went after the other boy. He enjoyed it, too (boys seem to enjoy anything that involves taking their feet off the ground :-). I sat down, Riker-style, in the chair behind him. Rob came and sat in the empty seat between Brad and I, also backwards. Matt leaned up against Rob's right leg and Brad's left, and wrapped his arms around both. Not long after, the boy in front of me scooted back a bit and leaned against the back of the chair I was sitting in. He started softly banging his head against the chair, so I reached down and ran my hands through his medium-length brown hair, hoping he'd stop before his brains were all over the chair. He stopped banging and didn't pull away. I figured it'd be a good idea to know who it was, so I leaned forward and glanced at the name tag. "Jason," it said.

As the councilor lady started talking, Jason reached up behind him and put his hands on my knees. I reached down with both of my hands and put them on top of his. The shape of the chair and the position I was in made this uncomfortable, though, so I let one hand go so that I could lean forward in the chair. Both of his hands remained on my knees, one by itself and one with my hand on top of it. I ran my fingers softly over his own. We sat like that for about fifteen minutes (I switched hands a few times) and every once in a while he'd start banging his head against the chair again, an invitation for me to run my hand through his hair again. When the story was finished with, I ran my hand through his hair one last time.

He got up and sat down at one of the tables with the other kids - it was time for arts & crafts. Half the kids was going to be making animal-shaped bars of soap while the other half did a crossword puzzle, and then they'd switch. I helped out the group doing the crossword puzzle, which wasn't quite a crossword puzzle. It was a strange variant, and at first it seemed like it would be too hard for the boys, but most of them eventually got it, with a bit of help from Brad, Ozy and a few pieces of licorice ;-). At this point I noticed P, a cute blond boy. But he was also fairly wild and disobedient. After he finished the crossword puzzle, he started making a bunch of noise. I got him to quiet down, but then he sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the room. It took me a while, but I finally got him back in his chair.

After that it was time for snacks. A few kids were lagging behind in the room, including one that was still sitting in a chair. The one in the chair was Lewis, who is blond and looks a lot older than 8 (except for his height). He apparently had seen me picking the kids up out of their chairs earlier, and was waiting for me to do the same to him. So I did :-) We marched the kids outside to the tables near the playground and gave hem a couple of cookies and juice. P was having trouble standing still and quiet in the line for the snacks, so I came up behind him and took both his hands in mine (like I usually do with S at the dojo). He didn't mind, and we stood together like that for a few seconds. My mother (helping out with snacks) ran up and grabbed me, telling all the boys I was *hers* and that they couldn't keep me permanently. Why do mothers have to be so weird?

After the kids gobbled down their cookies, they had about 15 minutes of free time to play on the playground. I wandered around a bit, not having much to do besides make sure none of them broke their necks. I passed Jason a few times, but he gave me strange looks whenever I looked at him. Did he not like me? I was thinking about that when Lewis ran up to me. "Pick me up!" he asked. "Huh?" I said. Yeah, Ozy isn't quite as vocal in real life ;-). Actually, he had caught me off guard. I didn't even know him; I think it was his first time at this camp. "Put me on your shoulders!" he asked. Who am I to say no? I spun him around, lifted him up by his arms and set him down on my shoulders. "Now what?" I asked, "Where should we go?"

He led me around to various places on the playground, before finally coming up with a better destination: the big slide, which was quite a distance off. I took him over to the slide, where he got off my shoulders and slid a few times. I put him back on my shoulders for the return trip. I set him down and gave my shoulders a bit of a rest, but he was back a minute later, wanting to go to the slide again. Of course I took him :-). Matt was at the slide, and he asked to get the ride back. Since Lewis had already been on my shoulders for quite a while, I gave the ride back to Matt (though Lewis wasn't too happy). Matt and I met up with Rob, who had a boy on his shoulders too, and we decided to travel all the way to the swingset and back (it was even farther from the main playground than the slide was. When the trip as finished, and we were back to the playground, I put Matt down because my shoulders were dying. But then another boy ran up... I forgot his name. Anyway, I put him on my shoulders, and despite his small size, he was *heavy*! Fortunately, it was time for the tug-of-war so I didn't have to carry him too far.

It was us against the second grade boys in the tug-of-war. At first I didn't help them (Rob and Brad were pulling though) in an effort to make it more even. They jerked each other back and forth for a while, but soon our side began losing. Well, I couldn't have that! ;-). I grabbed the very end of the rope and started to pull. We won :-). They won the next one, though, but we won the third (and final) game. Then we did a water-related game, which resulted in many wet boys. When it was time to go back to the gym to do some end-of-the-day singing (and see a bit more of the skit), we tried to get the boys in a nice single-file line. But when boys get wet, they seem to get rowdier. It took us a while. Some of the boys started taking off their wet shirts. For most, this wasn't a problem, since they were wearing the shirts they came in the beginning of the day with underneath their camp t-shirts. Matt, though, decided that *both* his shirts were too wet so he took them both off.

I have no problem at all with shirtless boys ;-). Unfortunately he was eventually ordered to put a shirt on. I looked around and noticed that Jason had taken off his shirt, too; he was wearing a yellow Lakers jersey (#6, if you care), which was over a blue shirt. He must have been hot earlier with all that plus his camp shirt on. He saw me staring at him and it seemed like he was about to give me another strange look. Instead, he walked over to me and asked for a piggyback ride to the gym. He climbed on to my back and we walked the one block (or two blocks; now that I think about it, it is pretty far) with the rest of the boys back to the gym. I led the kids to an empty patch of floor and had them sit down. I went hunting for a few stragglers and brought them to our spot half a minute later.

I sat down and looked around. Jason had disappeared. Then, suddenly, my head was covered with a wet camp t-shirt. I pulled it off my face and looked behind me - there was Jason, giggling and smiling at me. I smiled back, reached for him, and pulled him into my lap. He made himself comfortable and I put one arm around him and squeezed. We sat like that for about a minute, until we sang a song that required standing up. After I sat down, Matt quickly jumped into my lap. Jason didn't seem to mind much, and we ended up standing most of the time anyway. When it was time to go, I was looking around trying to find all the boys so that I could lead them out of the gym when I felt a few taps at my back. Thinking someone had just brushed by me, I continued looking around. The taps came again, a bit harder, and as I was turning around to find out who as doing it, they had almost turned into punches. Someone wanted my attention pretty bad. It turned out to be Jason. His mom was with him, ready to go, and he just wanted to say goodbye to me. I guess he does like me after all :-)

That's about the end of it... I gave the really heavy (though not fat! Must be all muscle :-) boy a ride out of the gym on my shoulders, and then we waited around for a while for all the kids to get picked up. Tomorrow, I hope the twins are there. If not, I guess I'll write them a letter and tell them that I missed them (last year I wrote them a "thanks for coming" letter [all the kids get one] and I still remember the address. They don't live too far from me, actually :-). And perhaps S will be there (though it will almost for sure be a different S. But with a name like S, at least he's gotta be cute ;-).

See you in 24 hours!
 

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Day 2
Second day and I'm already dead!
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They're still fun, no doubt about that! They're also a *lot* of work. Now I remember why this camp is only one week out of the whole summer ;-) But it's definitely worth it! So, on with the story... I didn't have much time (had to see the X-Files for the second time with JT; he just got back from Mexico and hadn't seen it yet). That’s why I'm a bit late... *And* I have to eat!

After the councilors morning meeting, I took our sign (the one with the large, ferocious mouse on it ;-) and went outside to wait for the boys. A couple were already there, and I was almost instantly attacked by Joshua, who wanted to hold the sign, but I couldn't let him do that because I had to make sure it'd stay in good shape (ours is already a bit bent up ;-). A few more boys came up a second later; I fended them off for a couple of minutes until Rob came along and got them busy putting on their name tags. One boy, though, ran up behind me and asked if he could sit on my shoulders.

It was the heavy boy that had been on my shoulders yesterday. I remembered his name this time, Evan. He has medium length blond hair and nice light-colored eyes (blue I think. Damn my memory! ;-). "I'm holding the sign, I can't put you on my shoulders right now," I said to him. He offered to hold the sign. I made him promise he'd take very good care of it, gave it to him, and then lifted him up onto my shoulders.

He sat on my shoulders for the next fifteen minutes. After the first ten, my shoulders hurt so badly that I almost put him down (the other boys that were still jumping on me trying to get the sign from Evan weren't helping either ;-) but I managed to keep him there until it was time to go in and sing. I'm still feeling it now :-\. When it was time to go in to the gym, I led the group (with Evan still on my shoulders, holding the sign) inside and sat them down as close to the stage as possible. I took Evan off my shoulders and took the sign from him. I still had to hold it up so that all the latecomers could find our group (which reminds me, no twins, no S today).

Evan sat down next to me, and eventually Sean (a small, cute, short-haired blond boy) hopped into my lap. I stopped leaning on my right arm and instead wrapped it around him and gave him a squeeze. When I tried to pull it back so that I could lean on it again (man, I'd give anything for a small lawn chair in there; or maybe and even bigger guy whose lap *I* could sit in ;-), he had already put his arms around it and was holding on to it. I left my arm around him, even though it was a bit uncomfortable (I was still holding up the sign with my left hand). Thankfully, one of the older councilor ladies came along and took the sign from me, so I was able to support myself with my left arm. A minute or two later I felt a tap on my shoulder – I looked back and it was Jason. He smiled at me and said hi; I said hi and smiled back.

He remained in my lap for the rest of the singing time (except when we were standing of course!). When it was time to go in and listen to the missionary lady (who was, fortunately, not nearly as boring as yesterday), Sean asked me if he could sit on my shoulders on the way there. No problem, of course :-). Fortunately, he's way lighter than Evan. When we got in to the sanctuary, we sat down in the front few rows of pews (In the meeting that morning we were asked to keep the boys' groups near the front, so they could focus better ;-). I took Sean off my shoulders and sat him in my lap. With a backrest (wow, did that feel good), I was able to put both arms around the boy. At first he sat in my lap straddling both my legs, but after a few minutes he turned 90 degrees to the right, hung both his legs down one side and leaned sideways against me.

I pulled him closer to me and he leaned his head against my chest. As we listened to the missionary lady talk about [some place], I ran my fingers along his hands and arms. His right thumb had been put in a small, makeshift splint. "I hurt it yesterday," he explained. The boy in front of us (don't know his name) looked back at us once in a while and smiled. One of the times, I stared right back at him for a few seconds, then reached up and squeezed his cheeks (on his face, you perverts!) together, causing his mouth to pucker. Then I shook my eyes at him. This got him to giggle :-). He looked back at me a few more times after that, and I always shook my eyes at him.

After cuddling with Sean for fifteen minutes (damn, I can't wait until tomorrow!), it was time to go to the classrooms. Evan wanted to have a ride down there, so I put him on my shoulders and got at the end of the line of boys to walk down to the class. Jason ran up to me and asked to go on my shoulders; I told him it was Evans turn (he could see that!) and that I'd give him a ride on the way back. We walked down to the classrooms (amazingly, all the boys stay in a nice, single-file line on the side of the road). When we began cutting across the field, Evan asked me to chase after Rob, who had Matt (the cuddly redhead) on his shoulders. I started chasing, but I couldn't catch Rob (not only is he a fast runner, but he was carrying a much lighter boy; there was no chance). We did manage to get to the classroom first, though, since Rob had taken the long way around the playground to get away from us :-).

When we sat down to listen to one of the ladies talk, Sean sat in my lap again. I put both arms around him and attempted to lean back against the desks, but they are such small desks, they just slid back against our weight. I had to settle for only one arm around him (oh, gee, why did I even bother? ;-). He started playing around with his name tag, fortunately he never stabbed himself with the safety pin (though he seemed close a few times). Eventually, he put in on his pants and pulled his shirt over it so that nobody could see it (?). Suddenly, my leg fell asleep. I had been sitting in a cross-legged position, and I had to stretch my right leg out and hope it would come back to life. When I stretched it out, I accidentally bumped Jason with my foot. He moved back a bit to give me room to stretch my leg out, and then a second later he began wrestling with my foot. It woke up pretty quickly ;-).

Arts and crafts time came next, and the kids sat down at the tables and we showed them what they were supposed to be doing. Today's project involved writing a bible verse. I had made a quick example for the boys at my table so they'd know what to do. "Wow, Ozy, you've got horrible handwriting!" O said to me. Awww, and I had tried to make it look legible, too! Of course, his was no better ;-). When that project was done with, it was time for them to finish their crossword puzzles. "Hey, Ozy, come over here!" I heard Evan yell, "I want to sit in your lap!"

I walked over to where Evan was standing with his crossword puzzle, and sat down in one of the tiny little-kid chairs at the nearest table. I pulled him into my lap and wrapped my arms around him. He set the crossword puzzle down in front of him, but didn't start doing it. "Aren't you going to do the crossword puzzle?" I asked him. "In a second," he replied, "Can you massage my back?" Oh, hell, why not? I began massaging his back. He made no sound until I got to the base of his neck, "Ooooh, yeah, right there..." I continued a little bit longer and then stopped; I didn't know how long he wanted me to do it.

"Hey, I didn't ask you to stop!" he said. So I kept going for another minute, until someone brought him a pencil (he didn't even have one before – he obviously had had no intention of doing to crossword puzzle ;-). Then he turned to me and made me promise to wait for him and continue the backrub after he went to sharpen his pencil. It took him a while to sharpen it (apparently the sharpener had broken... Rob eventually got it working again) and while I was waiting I helped the other boys at the table with their crossword puzzles. Lewis was sitting across from me – I know I mentioned yesterday that he looked a bit older than 8; I don't know if I mentioned that he was *cuuuuuuuute!* Today he was wearing glasses, and he looked even better :-) He's a great kid, too.

Evan finally got back with a sharpened pencil. He hopped into my lap and leaned forward over the table to do the crossword puzzle. "Keep going," he said to me, "I'll tell you when to stop." (needless to say, he never did). I started massaging his neck and shoulders, but this was a bit awkward because of how he was leaning forward. Eventually I just started running my fingernails all over his back. The one time I did that to S, he really enjoyed it, and I always liked it too, so I figured I wouldn't get any complaints from Evan. I didn't :-). For about seven or eight minutes I did that, while helping him and the other boys at the table do their crossword puzzles (actually, they had it down pretty well; I merely gave suggestions on what to do next if they needed them). Then it was time for snacks. Evan didn't want to get out of my lap :-). Not that we had much choice, though.

On the way to the snack area, Lewis asked to sit on my shoulders. I picked him up and sat him on my shoulders; somehow his shorts drifted up pretty high on his thighs (I had nothing to do with it!), and he did his best to readjust them as he was sitting on my shoulders. I still got to hold on to bare boythighs as we walked to the snack area :-). When we got to the snacks, I put him down and he grabbed some cookies and ran off to the playground. I wandered over to the playground, too, and soon enough there was another boy on my shoulders, Evan again. As we wandered around the playground looking for something to do, we came upon Rob with Matt on his shoulders. Of course, we ended up chasing them around the playground ;-). Rob had the lighter-boy advantage again, so he was hard to catch. After a bit of chasing, him and Matt split up and ran in opposite directions, so Evan and I did as well. This eventually turned into a big game of tag that involved a lot of boys (including many from the second grade group).

After chasing boys around for a while, I went over to another group of boys playing on a zip line sort of thing. The thing had gotten stuck in the middle of the wire and the boy on it asked me to push him over to the end. I recognized him as one of the boys in the second grade group. I had caught him smiling at me during rec time yesterday while we were playing the water game; I think he was planning on soaking me ;-). He is a very cute boy, light brown hair in a bowl cut, light eyes... (actually, he's a lot like S in many ways, except the darker hair). I walked up to him and pushed him (purposely) in the opposite direction of the one he wanted to go. "That way?" I asked. He giggled. "No, the *other* way!" "Oh!" I said, catching him and pushing him in the right direction. Just before he got to the end, I caught him and pushed him the wrong way again. "Are you *sure* you don't want to go that way?" I asked. He giggled again and I pushed him one last time, in the right direction.

When I came back to that spot a few minutes later, he was still there, getting in the way of some of the other boys who were using it (on purpose, no doubt ;-). I ran over to him and picked him up, dangling him upside down and tickling him. When I put him back down, he ran off giggling and I chased him around a bit. He's very cute, I wish he was a third grader!

Rec time came, and all the boys (second and third grade) surrounded a large parachute. We played all the usual parachute games, and then finally got to one I had never seen before. We all sat down with our legs underneath the parachute; five boys were "crocodiles" and five were "lifeguards." The crocodiles went underneath the parachute and would try to pull other kids under by their legs, and of course the lifeguards' job was to keep the people from being pulled under. I wasn't attacked until the last time we played the game. I felt a tug on my leg (8yos are a lot stronger than I thought!) and then all of a sudden a tug on the other leg. Gee, they were ganging up on me! Then again, I *do* weigh a bit more than they do... ;-). "Aaaaah! Lifeguard, lifeguard!" I yelled. The nearest lifeguard ran up and started pulling on my arm.

It was Triss! If you don't remember, he was the boy who went on the ski trip with us (his father was a counselor) last March. He's cute (yes, I realize I'm saying that about all of them, but they really are!). I doubt he remembered me, though. Just when I thought I was going to be torn in two, another councilor called the end of the game. Triss let me go, and I lifted the parachute to reveal two smiling boys holding on to my feet. One as Jason, the other I didn't recognize. "Hey, time's up, guys! You can let me go," I told them. I reached forward and grabbed Jason, rolling him over my legs and into my lap. I gave him one big squeeze and let him run happily back toward the classroom.

As I walked back to the classroom, trying to get all the other boys to follow so that the rec counselor could fold up the parachute, Lewis ran up to me and asked to get on my shoulders. I told him I had promised Jason the ride back to church and that he'd probably have to get off pretty soon. He didn't care. I picked him up and set him on my shoulders. When they sit on my shoulders I usually hold their legs down by their feet, or their thighs, or their hands. Jason has a habit of wrapping his hands around the sides of my face and holding on when he's on my shoulders, so I usually hold his thighs.

As we walked over to the classroom to get all the boys in a nice, single-file line to walk over to the church, he was holding on to my cheeks (I've said this once before – my *face* you dirty old men!). He rubbed his hands up and down the sides of my face a bit; I hadn't had time to shave this morning, maybe he liked the feeling of the stubble. Whatever reason it was that he was doing it, I sure didn't mind! When we were standing outside the classroom, waiting for all the boys to line up, his hands slowly drifted up to my ears. He was caressing my ears just like I usually do S's :-). Wow :-). "Can I say up here until we get to the street?" he asked me. That boy sure knows how to get what he wants! "Yes," I told him, "But then it will be Jason's turn!" He agreed to this, and so did Jason without much complaint.

I began walking across the field, and instantly the nice line of boys turned into a stampeding mob. I yelled at them to stop at the fence just before the street and wait for me, and then I ran after them. Jason had to hold on to the top of my head as I ran... No more caressing (but I promise to get that kid on my shoulders more often!). All the boys obeyed, waiting for me at the fence. As I led them out onto the side of the road, they made a nice, single-file line :-). Smart boys. I had Jason on my shoulders then; I walked with him the rest of the way to the gym. I found a nice spot in the gym and had all the boys sit down there.

I put Jason in my lap, but when Sean asked if he could have the spot, Jason got out right away. I don't think he likes sitting in laps much. Just as Sean was about to sit down in my lap, Lewis jumped up from where he was sitting and got there first. This of course got a lot of complaints from Sean. I moved Lewis over to my right leg and pulled Sean onto my right. They both were satisfied with that. I put one arm around each of their waists (though its really hard sitting up cross-legged with two boys leaning against you and no support for yourself). The three of us sat together a while (supposedly singing... ;-). Lewis put his arm around Sean's shoulders and pulled him close, and Sean responded by putting his arm around Lewis (though after a while it became uncomfortable and they removed them).

The singing and the skit ended, and it was time to herd the boys outside so that their parents could find them. I had promised Joshua a ride on my shoulders, so he got the last ride of the day. When we got outside, we found Rob with another one of the boys on his shoulders (a really cute boy whose name I don't know). We ended up chickenfighting for five minutes or so (making sure, of course, that nobody actually fell over. That would have been pretty painful!). The camp photographer saw us and came over to take a picture :-).

Eventually, all the boys were gone except two – Jason and another one (I promise to find out all the names tomorrow! ;-). Jason was jumping around a bit on the grass while the other boy sat on a nearby table, watching him. As I walked over, Jason hopped up on the table, too. He had a flyer for the Friday night end-of-camp thing in his hand. He threw it up in the air and it fell to the ground behind him. I picked it up and gave it back to him. "I don't need it!" he said, and tossed it into the air again. I picked it up a second time and gave it to him again. "You're not going to know when to come if you don't keep that thing!" I told him.

"Nah, I know when it is!" he said to me. He crumpled up the paper and tossed it at me. I caught it and hopped onto the table next to him. "Okay then..." I quizzed him. What time was it? How much was the food? Etc... He failed ;-). "Ha! See, you don't know! No, keep it!" I said to him, and tossed the paper back at him. "Sure..." he said, and then he ran over to a trash can and pretended to throw it in. As he walked back towards me (paper still in hand), I heard a voice next to me. "So, Ozy, what belt are you now?" I turned to see Kyle sitting on the table next to the other boy. Kyle used to go to my Aikido class... I hadn't seen him in years! Not only that, he was as cute as ever (if not more!). I could tell by the shirt he was wearing that he was in the Junior High group. I talked to him a bit and found out that he is thirteen now.

Jason walked up to me as I was talking to Kyle so I grabbed him and pulled him into my lap. Kyle left about a minute later, so I went back to questioning Jason. He got most of the information right this time. "There, now I don't need this anymore!" he said as he tossed the paper towards the trash. He completely missed, so I jumped up and got it. "Nope, I don't let you throw it away until you get *everything* right!" I said. I picked him up and hung him slightly downwards, digging past his three layers of long shirts (camp shirt, that jersey again, and another shirt) to get to his pockets. For a second it occurred to me that it might look as if I was trying to get into his pants... But there were no idiots around to assume that so I wasn't worried. I finally got to a pocket and stuck the crumpled up piece of paper inside, then I got back on the table and sat him in my lap.

I quizzed him one last time, and he got everything right (he had even memorized the description of the event!). He happily dug into his pocket and tossed the paper into the trash. His mom came to pick up him and his friend right at that moment. Since they were the last two boys, I could leave, too. So I chased the two back to their car ;-)

The end. Damn this thing took a long time... Well, I gotta sleep now if I want to have any energy to carry around those boys another day. See you tomorrow!
 

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Day 3
Another great day
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How's that for a good title? It was a great day again, but if I was dead yesterday, I'm somewhere beyond that today ;-). The boys somehow managed to find a way for me to have one on my shoulders while giving another a piggyback ride *at the same time.* There's more, but you'll have to read on (bummer, huh?) because I'm not going to say everything in the first paragraph.

I got to the church and was walking towards the sanctuary where the councilors' morning meeting was to be held when I heard, "Ozy! Hi!" I turned and saw Sean getting out of his car. I yelled "Hi" back to him and waved. I would have waited for him but I had to get to the meeting. The meeting was uneventful. I grabbed our sign and went outside after the meeting to wait for the kids.

Joshua ran up to me and immediately asked to get on my shoulders and hold the sign. I picked him up and set him on my shoulders and handed him the sign. A minute later, though, Sean ran up and told me that I had promised him that *he* would get my shoulders that morning. I couldn't really remember if I had or not, but I told him that in five minutes he would get his turn. Five minutes later he came back; I took Joshua off my shoulders and put Sean on. Evan ran up at that point and started complaining that I had promised *him* that he'd get to sit on my shoulders that morning. He was making that up, I was sure of it. "Nope, you're gonna have to ask Rob," I said to him. He ran over to Rob and asked. Rob took Brendan (really cute boy with dark curly hair; usually wears a blue hat) off his shoulders, and tried to pick up Evan and put him on his shoulders.

"Watch out, he's heavy!" I warned Rob; He hadn't ever had Evan on his shoulders before. Rob lifted Evan up to shoulder height, but couldn't get him over his head. "Let's try this again!" he said to Evan. Rob grunted and he tried getting Evan over his head again. It was an amusing sight. Eventually, Rob just bent down and let Evan hop onto his shoulders himself. The boy really doesn't look heavy at all. Maybe he's all muscle...

Anyway, we waited outside for the kids until it was time to go in and sing. I led the boys into the gym and found us a nice spot to sit down at. I took Sean off my shoulders and sat down; he immediately got into my lap. A minute or two later, Lewis arrived. He walked over to Sean and me, and Sean moved over in my lap to give him a spot to sit. I handed the sign to one of the other boys since I couldn't hold it myself anymore. With two boys in my lap me legs started falling asleep again, but I couldn't do much about it without kicking one boy off, so I let them fall asleep (who needs legs anyway?).

A minute after Lewis arrived, Jason came. He arrived while we were standing to sing one of the songs. This song involved a lot of hopping around, which as made even harder by the fact that Matt (the redhead) was on my shoulders. Jason squeezed his way through all the hopping people and came and stood in front of me. When the song ended, I put Matt down next to me and sat down. Lewis and Sean wanted their spots on my lap, but Jason was also there... They got in a small argument and Lewis and Sean won ("we were there first" carries a lot of weight). They sat down in my lap. Matt then leaned against my left side. Jason sat right in front of us and leaned back into my lap between Lewis and Sean.

With four boys leaning against me I had to use both arms to hold myself up almost the whole time. I did manage to put an arm around Lewis for a while, and then one around Sean for a while (Jason was nearly out of reach, I rubbed his back a bit though). The singing eventually ended, though, and it was time to go listen to the missionary lady. Jason got to ride on my shoulders since he hadn't yet (I promised Lewis he could on the way to the classroom later).

We filed into the sanctuary and I put Jason down in front of me. I sat down in one of the empty pews and waited for him to follow. He didn't. There wasn't anywhere else to go (the other pews our group was in were already filled) but he just smiled at me and shook his head. So I got up, grabbed him, tickled him a bit, and then sat down in the pew with him in my lap. He jumped out of my lap a second later and scooted down the pew as far away from me as he could. I scooted over next to him and just put my arm around him (since he doesn't seem to like sitting in laps) but he jumped up and sat down a bit farther away again. Well, okay...

I got up and moved past him to another boy, Dan. I've never seen Dan sitting in anyone's lap, or riding on anyone's shoulders... He was leaning forward so I rubbed his back a bit. Not much response. Joshua was sitting in the pew right in front of me, so I reached forward and began running my hands through his long hair. He tilted his head back and began purring like a cat. After about five seconds of purring, though, one of the boys next to him told him to stop it. I couldn't exactly sit there leaning forward and stroking his hair while he purred for fifteen minutes anyway. So I sat back and figured I'd be boyless for the rest of the time.

Or not. Jason eventually came and sat next to me again. I tickled him a bit occasionally, and eventually he ended up leaning his head on my shoulder. I decided to try putting my arm around him again; I did so and he didn't run away this time (I wish this kid would make up his mind!). I pulled him a bit closer and held his hand. We sat together for the rest of the time (which wasn't very long, unfortunately). He wanted a ride on my shoulders down to the classrooms, so I picked him up and put him on my shoulders. Then Lewis ran up. "I thought it was my turn!" he said. Oops... I asked him if I could take Jason halfway there and him the other half. He said okay. Then Evan ran up. He wanted a ride too.

I pointed out to him that I already had Jason on my shoulders. He said no problem, I could give him a piggyback ride. So somehow I ended up carrying two boys down the street. When we got to the halfway point (the beginning of the soccer fields), Evan hopped off and ran for the classroom with the other boys. I put Jason down and put Lewis onto my shoulders, and began running to try and catch up with the rest of the boys. "Can I hold on to your hands?" Lewis asked as I started running. I reached up and held his hands and continued running to the classroom.

By the time I got to the door, I was exhausted. We had to wait for the older councilor ladies (who didn't run) to come unlock the door, and I almost put Lewis down so that I could sit and catch my breath. But then I realized that if I left him there, he might start playing with my ears again; no way was I going to put him down. Sure enough, once I let go of his hands, he reached down and started running his fingers up and down the sides of my face. Then he worked his way up to my ears, running his fingers in circles from the outside inwards, until he had one finger stuck in each ear (good thing I keep my ears clean ;-). Then he started over again. What can I say but :-) :-) :-) and one hundred times more :-) ?

The door was eventually unlocked and we all went inside. I put Lewis down and ran around trying to get all the other boys to sit down and be quiet, too. When I finally sat down, the boy in front of me, Brendan, sat in my lap. Jason was sitting behind me, slightly to my left, which I didn't realize until somebody started playing with my left hand and I looked back and saw him. While one of the ladies told a story about being humble, Jason continued to play with my hand, crossing my fingers, bouncing my fingers (like I used to do to Elmo) and stuff like that.

Then it was time for arts & crafts. Actually, today we got into groups and did skits... After that was done with, though, they got to finish their crossword puzzles (if they haven't already) or whatever else it was they were doing in the workbook (there was a maze and other stuff, too), and then they were supposed to write a nice note to someone (anyone). During this time they also got to recite their memory verses to get beads on their bracelets; there was a big line of boys waiting for that. I walked up to the line and found Sean playing with the sink (which they were lined up next to). He had plugged it up and turned on the water... It hadn't overflowed yet when I caught him (he wouldn't have let it anyway). I made him unplug the sink and stop wasting the water.

After he did that, he tried to get into a fight with me (pretending, of course! ;-). I asked him how much he weighed. "Oh, I dunno, 56 pounds," he told me. "Well, I'm about 130 pounds heavier than you..." his smile vanished as I lunged at him. I caught him and picked him up, way up over my head. "Aaaah!" he giggled, "Wow, I can see everything from up here!" I put him down a second later, and he fortunately didn't try to attack me again (he's just the right height that some well-placed punches could do a lot of damage ;-). Lewis had seen us, though, and ran up to me asking me to pick him up that high, too. I did it, and when I put him back down both him and Sean wanted me to do it again. I was too tired to, though, and they were supposed to be in line to say their memory verses...

So I left them in line and wandered about the room a bit more to see if I could be useful (or whatever ;-) anywhere else. As I was walking, all of a sudden I felt somebody tugging at my pants. I realized fairly quickly that whoever it was was trying to put something in my back pocket. This led me to guess that it was probably Jason (since I had stuffed something into his pocket yesterday). Being the pervert that I am, I let the boy finish running his hands all over my butt before I turned around to find out who it was. I was right – Jason. He smiled at me. I reached back into my pocket and came out with a small, folded, blue piece of paper; the paper they were supposed to be writing nice notes on. I unfolded it to find a crudely drawn stick figure, and my name on top.

"What?!" I said, "That's *me*?" He giggled, "Yes." Hmm... "Do I really look like that?" (you shoulda seen the hair on that thing!). He giggled again. "YES!" So of course I had to grab him, flip him upside down, and tickle him ;-) "Okay, if you say so..." I said to him through his giggles.

Soon after that it was snack time. Joshua got on my shoulders for the brief walk to the snack tables. After all the kids got their snacks, I went to the playground. I soon had Jason on my shoulders. As we wandered the playground looking for something to do, Rob started another game of tag with all the kids. Fortunately he eventually moved it to a nice open area on the grass (running around all the playground equipment with a boy on your shoulders isn't easy). Jason ran off to do something else, and Lewis got on my shoulders for a while. I get a nice laugh out of imagining some of you old dudes (PJ, Mouse... ;-) running around trying to play tag with boys on your shoulders... Wheezing and gasping... tongues hanging out... sweating... Wait, that’s what *I* was doing, too! Never mind...

Lewis eventually switched with another boy, and then another... It finally ended when all the boys had caught Rob (after declaring that everyone had to catch him, he had a mob of 20 or so boys chasing after him; he is a good soccer player though, and was running circles around the boys and dodging them for quite a while ;-) and they all piled on top of him (it was a *big* boypile). By some great timing that was exactly when rec time started, and Rob had already led the group of boys to where we were supposed to be.

We played some games (but only after doing some stretching... Some of those kids are *really* flexible! ;-), including one game of tag that involved holding the hand of each person that gets tagged, until you have a big line of people chasing after everyone (though after the "blob" reached 8 people, they would split into two blobs of 4). I was caught early on by Lewis (yes, I let him catch me ;-) and we ran around for the rest of the game hand-in-hand. It wasn't a very successful game though, the boys were too hard to catch ;-)

When that finally ended, we started lining up all the boys for the walk back to the church. Rob came up to me with M, who had hurt his ankle during the game of tag. Since Rob had to leave right away (to get ready for the skit) he gave M to me to carry up to the church. I set M on my shoulders and got in line with the kids. Sean ran up, "Hey, you promised me that you'd carry *me* up there!" He was right; I had. I told him that M had hurt his ankle and that I had to carry him up instead. "He doesn't look hurt!" yelled Sean, very upset. I bent down, took his hands, and promised him he'd get his turn tomorrow. "*All* day tomorrow!" he said. "No way," I told him, "Other people need a chance too." He got even more upset at that, pulled his hands out of mine, yelled "Fine!" and ran away from me to the end of the line.

I went to the end of the line, too (that’s where I am supposed to be; to make sure everyone stays in a nice single-file line). When Sean saw me walk up, he ran away again to the middle of the line. "I don't think he wants to be near you..." M (still on my back) said. Oh gee, thanks for telling me. How'd you guess? (no, I didn't actually say that. I think I grunted a "yeah"). I walked up to the church with M on my shoulders. I was also sweating like crazy; it was hot, and after all that running... M's legs were beginning to stick to me (not nearly as good as wrestling a sweaty S though!).

When we got into the gym, all the boys were already seated (I was last in line). I put M down and looked around for Sean. I found him and sat down behind him. "Come here," I said softly to him, and pulled him into my lap. He resisted for a few seconds, but I wrapped both arms around him and pulled him close to me. He either decided it was futile to try to get out of my lap, or he didn't want to. I don't know. I talked to him a bit more and he was calm and happy again (he did try demanding I carry him around all day again, though... I told him I'd only promise him a ride down to the classroom).

A second after Sean and I had agreed on things, Lewis came (good timing!). Sean scooted over in my lap and made room for him. When we came to the first standing-up song, at first neither of them wanted to stand. They stayed in my lap for about ten seconds, and then realized we were the *only* ones sitting... So they stood up. As soon as I stood up, Sean wanted to sit on my shoulders. Since we were at the back of the gym (not blocking anyone's view), I said okay and put him on my shoulders.

When time came to sit down again, he didn't want to get off my shoulders. He stayed on my shoulders as I sat, and Lewis got my whole lap. After a few more sitting-down songs, there was another standing up song. Lewis and Sean switched places, Lewis sitting on my shoulders and (after we sat back down) Sean in my lap. This time, Lewis didn't caress my ears, but instead worked his way from the sides of my head down to my chin. I love that kid :-). A little while later, Sean had snuggled up a bit closer and reminded me that I'd have to carry him down to the classroom tomorrow. I said, "Sure," and gave him a squeeze – and kissed his shoulder. I didn't even realize I had kissed him (just a peck, really) until after I had done it; his shoulder was right next to my mouth...

"Eeek!" he squealed, "Don't *kiss* me!" Oops... "Okay, sure," I said, and gave him another squeeze. He was satisfied with that. We continued talking about other stuff until it was time to leave. I stood up, and Lewis (still on my shoulders) asked me if he could stay on them until we got outside. "Okay," I said. A few seconds later Joshua ran up, "Hey, it's *my* turn!" I promised him me could sit on my shoulders right after we got outside. When we got outside, he did so until his mom came to pick him up.

After that I wandered around a bit, until I found Jason. He smiled at me and, before I could even ask him, told me everything that had been on the flyer yesterday. "See, I know it!" he said proudly. I picked him up, gave him a squeeze and a tickle, and then his father came to pick him up. Evan came by a second later, and stole our group's sign (which I was holding) from me, making me chase after him for it. I caught him and tickled him till he let it go ;-)

That’s about it. Can't wait for tomorrow....
 

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Day 4
Shirtless boys & bare boyfeet
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First off, I'm going to say that tomorrow's post will probably end up coming on Saturday; right after camp I have a dentist appointment, and right after that I'm going to my Aikido class (I doubt S will be there though) and then right after that I'm going back to church for the end-of-camp dinner thing. I hope they'll make a video out of the slide show so I can take it home :-) Anyway...

After the morning meeting, I went outside to wait for the kids. Joshua came up almost right away and got on my shoulders. One of the other boys was holding the sign (it’s a bit too late now to try and keep it intact ;-). We were only there for a few minutes when it was time to go in (since the meeting had gone on so long). The boys ran into the gym and found themselves a spot right in front of the stage; I sat down behind them. O, the smallest boy (cut; looks a bit like S... Has the same silky blond hair anyway :-) sat down in my lap.

About a minute later as we were standing for one of the songs, Sean came. When we sat back down he jumped into my lap. O started to complain but Sean moved over and gave him room to sit, too. Lewis arrived a couple minutes later. When he couldn't find a spot in my lap, he hopped onto my shoulders. After another ten minutes of singing, it was time for our group to go to the sanctuary and listen to the missionary lady. Sean and O got out of my lap and walked there on their own, Lewis remained on my shoulders. Halfway out of the gym, Evan hopped onto my back too. Thank God the sanctuary is very close to the gym!

Once inside the sanctuary, I put Evan and Lewis down and got into the fourth row. Lewis wanted to sit in the front (actually the second row; the first has stuff on it) so he ran off (with Evan too, I think). Sean ran up and sat in my lap instead. I wrapped one arm around him; the other arm was being held by Parker, another boy who seems to have taken quite a liking to me. I put my hand on Parker's thigh and left it there for a while. After a minute or so, I slipped the hand off his leg to get ready to wrap it around Sean.

Parker immediately picked it up and put it back on his thigh. Since he obviously wanted it there, I left it there for another few minutes. A bit later I was able to wrap both arms around Sean, though. I slipped my left arm underneath his and put my hand on his stomach. He took my left hand in his right and leaned his head against my chest. I wanted to kiss him again, but of course I didn't. We just cuddled for fifteen minutes or so; until the missionary started passing around food from [some place] and all the kids jumped around trying to get some.

When it was time to walk down to the classrooms, Sean got onto my shoulders (just as I had promised him yesterday). Evan wanted a piggyback ride at the same time, but I told him there was no way I'd make it with two of them all the way to the classrooms. I promised him the ride back up (I had also promised Parker the ride up but I had forgotten about that already). When we got down to the fields, Sean made me run all the way to the classroom; he was quite happy when we passed a couple of the other running boys ;-). Once we got to the door, though, I was so exhausted I had to put him down. A second later Joshua ran up asking to be on my shoulders (reminding me that I had promised him he could once we got to the classroom).

A promise is a promise; I put him on my shoulders and we waited for the door to be unlocked. Once inside, I put him down and he sat on the floor with the other boys. I located Jason and sat down right in front of him (hoping he'd play with my hand again ;-). Toby, who I had sat down behind, moved back a few feet and ended up in my lap. Only a few seconds later I felt Jason start playing with my hand again :-). He was poking at it, watching it change color (push on your arm with your finger for a second and then take it away; the spot will be slightly lighter for a second. After all my running, I was a bit more red than usual so the color change was pretty big ;-).

I sat there with Toby in my lap and Jason poking at my hand for ten minutes until the lady finished her story about the Good Samaritan. Then we got into groups and did another skit (while we were preparing for the skit Jason and I got to do a bit of cuddling :-). After that was arts and crafts; nothing much happened then. After that came snack time. Joshua hopped onto my shoulders for the trip over to the snack tables. Once there, I put him down and went over to the playground. I noticed Evan was only wearing sandals...

Yesterday, Tangie was telling me about his barefoot Bunny Rabbit. "You should really try to hold a boy's bare feet!" he said to me. "All the boys at camp wear shoes, though..." I told him. When I saw Evan in sandals today, it was like some miraculous coincidence. He ran up to me a second later, sandals in hand. "Here, can you hold these for me?" he asked. I took them and stuffed them in my pocket, and he ran off to the playground barefoot. I had promised him the ride back up to the church later, and unless he specifically asked for them, I wasn't planning on giving him his sandals back until we got up there ;-).

Rob started up another game of tag and Lewis got on my shoulders for a while and we ran around attempting to get tagged (any boy that was "it" would just try to get Rob, though, so we never got tagged :-\). Matt was also on my shoulders for a while. At one point when I didn't have any boys on my shoulders I managed to become "it." It’s a lot easier to run around when you don't have an extra 60 pounds on you (not to mention having to worry about bumping their heads on playground equipment!). I chased a giggling Jason around a bit and finally tagged him.

When the game of tag died down I went back near the snack area. There were a few boys there, smiling, stuffing cookies in their mouths, and looking very suspicious. I walked up to them; one was from our group (Brendan), and two were from the second-grade group. One of the second graders was the really cute one that had been smiling at me the first day (K). "Hey, are you boys stealing cookies?" I asked. They all giggled, cookie crumbs falling out of their mouths. "No, but these are our third cookies..." Brendan said. They were only supposed to have two cookies... "Your third; and you say you haven't stolen any?" I asked him, suspicious. He giggled again. Something was up... (no, not that! Man, you people really *are* perverted!). "They were extra cookies. J (a councilor) said we could have them!" Brendan told me.

"Well, that’s okay then..." I said and tickled Brendan a bit. I then picked up K, the cute second grader, turned him upside down, and asked him if Brendan was telling the truth. More giggles; "Yes!" I swung him back rightside up and gave him a squeeze. "Good. As long as you're not stealing them..." They all smiled as I walked away. I never checked with J to see if they were telling the truth... But if they weren't I'm sure a few missing cookies won't matter ;-).

Rec time came next. We played "steal the bacon" (I think that’s what it's called) first. Joshua got kicked in the shin pretty hard and fell down crying. He as able to stand up though, and he walked back to the line next to me and I held him for a while. He was fine a few minutes later :-). Then we played another water game, where I managed to half-soak Lewis. A lot of the other boys got soaked too, which led to...

The removal of shirts. Just like on the first day, Matt started it. Once we had walked back to the classroom, he peeled off his soaking wet shirt and started swinging it over his head, and at the same time swinging his hips... "Hey, we've got a little stripper!" Rob joked. He was very cute with his red hair and very white skin :-) A few other boys took off their shirts then, too. Evan came up to me at about the same time. "You promised I'd get a ride up there!" so I put him on my shoulders. Parker came up and said the same thing a second later; so I promised him that he could switch with Evan at the halfway point.

Tangie was right – bare boyfeet are *great*! :-) As we walked across the fields I played with Evan's feet (I tickled them a bit too but he was bouncing around and laughing so hard I was afraid he'd fall off ;-). Halfway across the field, his shirt suddenly blocked my vision. He had taken it off. I reached up and tickled his bare sides for a second, but then went back to his feet, running my fingers up and down each toe, and after that (as best I could; I've got big fingers and he's got small toes) between each toe. Whenever my fingers got underneath his toes, he would curl his toes and try to hold on to my fingers ;-). When we got to the halfway point I reluctantly gave him his sandals and he switched with Parker. I noticed after a few seconds that Parker smelled *very* good. Why do boys smell so nice? It was almost worth not having any bare feet to play with anymore ;-).

When we arrived in the gym I put him down, then sat down with the group. He sat behind me and started massaging my neck and shoulders :-) Toby once again sat in my lap, and Lewis came by a minute later and sat on my shoulders (no more massages from Parker after that, unfortunately). After the first standing up song, Toby squeezed into a spot nearer the stage. Lewis remained on my shoulders for a while but eventually moved to my empty lap.

When we left, Joshua got on my shoulders. His sister met us outside as soon as we got out, though, so I had to put him down. Sean ran up to me and asked me to put him on my shoulders; once I did he asked me to "go over to my mom!" Once I figured out who his mom *was,* I went over to her. He asked his mom if one of his friends could come over to his house, and him and his mom argued about that for a couple of minutes. I just stood there like a big piece of furniture ;-). When his mom said it was time to go, I took him off my shoulders and said goodbye to him. Then his mom introduced herself to me (forgot her name already... If it's not something young, male, and cute, I forget things pretty quickly ;-).

Once they left, I wandered around a bit until I saw Jason (I knew he'd still be there; he always was). I came up behind him and picked him up by his elbows, bringing us cheek to cheek for a second. When I put him down, he smiled. Then I quizzed him on the flyer stuff again. He got everything right again (including the stuff that wasn't important ;-) which earned him a big squeeze and a bunch of tickles. We talked a bit and then he asked me if I had seen where the fourth grade group was. "Are you looking for your brother?" I asked him. "Yeah," he replied. I didn't know where his brothers group was, so we decided to go look around.

I put him up on my shoulders and we wandered around trying to find his brother. He spotted his brother quickly, underneath one of the big trees on the lawn by the parking lot. I walked over to his brother and put him down. I was amazed by how similar they looked. His brother was only a year older; they could have almost been twins. Even their teeth were the same – the space between the front two, the way they were just slightly crooked... Yet Jason had the more beautiful smile for some reason. I wrapped my arms around Jason's neck and we stood talking to his brother for about thirty seconds when their mom walked up.

Jason immediately turned to her and said, "Mom, this is my friend Ozy!" She smiled and offered me her hand. "Hi Ozy. I've heard about you. Jason talks about you." Another smile. I smiled back. "He's a great kid," I told her. "I hope he's no trouble," she said. "No, no trouble at all!" I replied. "Great. Thanks for taking care of him!" Then she turned to Jason and asked if he knew where his little sister was. Jason didn't know, so she went to find her.

Jason went back next to his brother and started playing around on the roots of the big tree (with all the kids that do that, it’s a miracle the tree doesn't die). Since it didn't seem like he needed me anymore (and his mother would be back very soon) I said goodbye. As I began to walk away, Jason yelled, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?! Come back here!" I can't disobey a direct order! I went straight back to him. He was balancing on one of the roots; I grabbed him and picked him up, dangling him upside down by the knees for a second. Then I put my other arm under his back and picked him back up. With him cradled in my arms we talked for a while (which I'm surprised he let me do).

When I put him back down, I stepped back and found a root of my own, about the width of my arm, and started balancing on it. After five seconds, Jason rushed at me and pushed me off. "Only five seconds? I can do better than that, Ozy!" he said to me, and hopped onto his own root (which was about as big as my thigh) and started counting. "What?" I said, "What?!!! No way, you *pushed* me off, mister!" I started tickling him and he did his best to stay on the root. He also increased the speed of his counting. "five... Six.. Seven..Eight.NineTenEleventwelvethirteenfourteenfifteensixteenseventeen..."

When he got to twenty five, he finally fell off the root into my arms. "See, I was on there *way* longer than you!" he said to me, smiling. I squeezed him and said, "Sure, anything you say...." and then tickled him a bit more. His mom walked up with his little sister then, so I said goodbye to them all and started walking to my car. After about ten feet, he yelled "Bye!!!" to me again. I turned to see him waving at me. I smiled and waved back. "See you tomorrow!" he shouted.

Now, is there a way to make tomorrow get here faster?
 

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Day 5
The last day
----------------------

After the usual boring morning meeting, I went outside with our sign to collect the boys. Brendan came up and got on my shoulders to hold the sign. He also took advantage of his new height to pull off the hats of everyone who walked by ;-). He fought over the sign with a couple of other boys, too (including Toby on Rob's shoulders) - our goal of keeping the sign nice and unbent by the end of the week was definitely *not* reached ;-).

Soon we went inside to sing. O and Evan climbed into my lap. As we sang we came to a song with a line that said "Heaven is in my heart." I couldn't help but think it was just a little off – heaven was in my lap! The latecomers eventually weaved their way through the crowd to get to us. Jason and Lewis eventually came, but Sean never showed up (him and his entire family had gotten sick, I found out later).

I let Jason have the ride on my shoulders to the sanctuary when we went to listen to the missionary lady. Once there, Evan sat in my lap. Afterwards, he also got the ride down to the classroom. Sadly, no bare boyfeet that time. Lewis got on my shoulders at the halfway point. We (I, anyway ;-) ran across the field, trying to beat the other boys to the classroom. We weren't first, but we weren't last, either. I'm just glad I never tripped while running to the classroom (the grass is incredibly uneven in some places). That certainly would have hurt!

We did arts and crafts first that day, since it was the last day and the glue would need time to dry. For ten or fifteen minutes I went around helping the boys with their crafts. Once they were finished, it was time for the story and time for me to clean up their mess (the craft was a combination of glue and sand; what a mess!). Evan ran up to me. "Ozy! Massage my shoulders again!" I told him that I had to clean up the room first, and that he should sit and listen to the story with the other kids and I'd be there as soon as possible. He argued for a minute but finally gave in and sat down.

I cleaned up the room as quickly as possible and finally sat down behind Evan. He moved back, into my lap. I leaned back against a desk and started rubbing his shoulders and neck. After a few minutes my arms were getting tired, so I stopped and wrapped them around his waist. He unwrapped them and put them back on his shoulders ;-). I massaged a bit more until my hands became *really* tired (it was hard to do in the position we were in). I put my hands back down in his lap and when he attempted to put them back on his shoulders, I asked him if I could rest for a minute.

"Okay, one minute..." he agreed, and started counting extremely fast to sixty. At sixty, he put my hands back up on his shoulders and I continued once more. After that, whenever I would become tired, I'd put my arms in his lap or wrap them around his waist and he'd count to sixty (which took him about ten seconds ;-), and then I'd continue rubbing his shoulders. That eventually ended and it was time to do a bit of stuff in their workbooks (I don't remember what; but all the crossword puzzles had finally been finished by then ;-).

Evan sat down in a chair and started working on whatever it is that they were doing, then he called me over. "Can you rub my back?" I pulled up a chair behind him and put my hands on his shoulders. "No, my *back!*" he said. I wondered how far down his definition of "back" went ;-). I rubbed his back for a couple of minutes until one of the councilor ladies asked me to help her elsewhere.

Then came, of course, snack time and free play, but I don't remember much about that part of the day anymore. I'm sure there were lotsa boys on my shoulders... I'll leave this part up to your imaginations, just keep it clean ;-).

Rec time came, and it was obviously going to be a very wet day :-). First we played some strange little water game that we had played the first day, but that wasn't too interesting (and they didn't get very wet). Next, we got into small groups of about seven or so and played duck-duck-sponge. If you don't know what that is, I'm sure you at least know what duck-duck-goose is; d-d-sponge is the same except you have a sponge full of water and you soak the "goose" :-). The group I ended up in had only a few of my third graders in it; most of them (about 4) were second graders – including Triss (ski-trip boy) and K (that very very very cute boy I had played with a bit earlier in the week).

We got in a circle and I decided to start things off. I grabbed the soaked sponge, and started going around the circle, "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, SPONGE!!" I tapped all the "ducks" on the head with the sponge, getting them a tiny bit wet, and finally sponged one of the second graders that I didn't know. He chased me around the circle and I dove into his spot, safe. He took the sponge and went around the circle, soaking another one of the second graders. After the brief chase around the circle, the next boy went around and sponged Toby. After Toby chased him around the circle, he got the sponge as wet as he could get it and went around the circle squeezing out a lot of water onto each person's head.

When he finally got to the boy he sponged (Triss), there was about two drops left in the sponge ;-). Triss chased him around and then took his turn with the sponge, sponging me (which I really hadn't expected from him). I jumped up and chased him around the circle. Halfway around I caught him, threw him over my shoulder and tickled him. I put him down in my spot, took the sponge, and went around again. I can't remember who I sponged then. Anyway, we played for another couple of minutes (making sure everyone got a turn) and then it was time for another game.

Rob, a few other councilors and I all stood in separate hula hoops that were lying on the ground. We each had a couple of large water guns. The boys were each given a water balloon or two. They got to run up to a line about ten feet away from us and throw their balloons at us, while we squirted them. I managed to evade all the balloons flying at my head, and soaked quite a few boys. Once everyone was out of water balloons, we were given buckets of water to soak the boys with. They all loved it :-)

After that I gave a soaked Jason a ride back up to the church. We all sat in the gym singing, with a boy or two in my lap (can't remember who again). Then we went outside and waited for their parents to pick them all up.

There was an end-of-camp dinner and stuff that night, but unfortunately all of my favorite boys were absent – Evan, Lewis, Sean (sick), and Jason. Jason's absence was a big surprise (not a good one!) since he had told me earlier that he'd come. While singing that night, I saw his brother come in and sit down with his group (right next to ours) and I looked around for him, but he wasn't there! His brother eventually came up to me and told me that Jason hadn't felt like coming, but that he had asked his brother to say hi to me and give me a high-five (which he did :-). That made me feel better (though I would have rather seen him in person one last time).

The slide show was good. Lots of pictures of cute boys (and girls), including three that had me in them (always with a boy on my shoulders ;-). One of those was me running with Jason on my shoulders, holding his hands. I need to get a copy of that picture!

At Matt (the cute redhead) was leaving, he saw me walking by and jumped up into my arms. I gave him a quick hug and we said goodbye to each other. As he walked away his mom smiled and said "Thank you!" to me :-)

Umm, the end I suppose! At least until next year. I can't wait...
 

First posted to BoyWrite by Ozymandias on October 05, 1998 at 20:06:00: