Today we will be talking about the closing events of Term 4, including Thursday’s Cabin Hangout, and the stacked term-ending events of Friday, including the Amazing Race, Big Blowout, and Rodeo Roundup – three of our most popular camp events and reasons why we are one of the best camps near Austin, Texas!
Thursday, after the last “normal” day of activities at summer camp, boys and girls spent one final dedicated evening with their cabins for our Cabin Hangout activity. Counselors planned special age-appropriate activities for their cabins all over camp. Highlights included the CBS-staple Pamper Night for the Work Crew and Leadership Training campers, during which they were treated to massages, manicures, and decadent treats like chocolate-covered strawberries! Porter cabin in C Compound began their evening signing each other’s white t-shirts, but the innocent craft project soon escalated to a full-on paint war! The cabin was split into two teams, orange and blue, and each girl was given a rag with their respective team’s paint color on it. The goal was to try and get as much of your color as possible onto the other team’s shirts. Afterwards, the girls enjoyed Nutella milkshakes and ended the night swimming in Lake Ted to rinse off. The youngest girls had a spa night, painting nails and giving each other face masks. To finish it off, they enjoyed the ever-popular camp pizookie (chocolate chip cookie cake with ice cream) dessert. Another cabin decorated tote bags in the Arts and Crafts shed, which was decorated with streamers and balloons in honor of the hangout.
Friday morning began with a bang as Term 4’s Team Competition was finally decided in the Amazing Race. The Amazing Race is a camp-wide event that incorporates the youngest boy and girl campers up to our high school students in a series of races and activities across all 250-acres of our Hill Country property. The race culminates in the Gauntlet – the final obstacle course run by the eldest campers (typically the Senior Campers).
Friday afternoon, boys and girls relaxed after the morning athletics and enjoyed our term-ending Big Blowout event. During the Big Blowout, kids enjoy a host of inflatables, water slides, the lake toys on Lake Ted (like infamous Blob), ice cream, snowcones, and all sorts of free-form fun as they hang out with their cabins and counselors for one final afternoon at Camp Balcones Springs.
Friday evening – the last night of Term 4 at camp – began with our tenure awards, specific items given out to campers based on how many years they have been attending Camp Balcones Springs. Afterwards, boys and girls made their way to the camp barn for what is always the most anticipated night of the session – Rodeo Roundup! Rodeo Roundup is an iconic camp event – a western-style dance featuring cowboy boots, funnel cakes, mechanical bull-riding, and two-stepping! Campers arrived at the barn to a horse show and spent the night enjoying cotton candy, the Boot Scootin Boogie, peach cobbler, S’mores, and even a hayride! The night ended with our traditional singalong to “Heroes and Friends” as campers walked a candle-lit path back to their cabins under a sky full of fireworks.
We are so grateful for Term 4 and the amazing personalities we met and reconnected with this summer! It is truly the campers and families that make us one of the best summer camps in Texas. This is a bittersweet session, as its conclusion always marks the end of our summer camp season at Camp Balcones Springs, but we cannot be more thankful and satisfied after nine weeks of fun, adventure, growth, and connection. We can’t wait to see you all next year!