I'm Thinking Happy

This week I’ve been helping out at a camp for 3 and 4-year olds. I’m an assistant and only come from 12pm-4pm. Wednesday afternoon we decided to take a walk down to the creek. The creek holds many memories of mine, some good, and some not so good.  Playing in the water with my friends, good. At Fairy camp 7 years ago having a friend step on a bees’ nest and having a whole swarm of bees attack us who were then, 3, 4 and 5-year olds, not so good. But hey, that was a one time deal right? That wouldn’t happen to me AND Nicole (a teacher at this camp that happened to be working at the fairy camp 7 years ago ) twice, right?  Well, when we went down to the creek this week, we decided to go off the trail, which is what got us in to trouble last time. When we went off the trail I got this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach but over looked it. It was a one time deal I kept telling myself.  Then, all of a sudden, one kid started yelling and I felt that familiar sting on my leg. It happened again! Mining bees were after us this time. Instinctively, I began to run but quickly remembered I’m not a camper this time, I’m a helper here. So I took the two boys that were closest to me and we ran until we were on safer grounds. Being on the other side of the creek, I didn’t want to cross it to get back up to the school. Frazzled and shaking. I stopped and asked both kids about 20 times if they were okay and if they were allergic. Corbin was fine. He didn’t get stung, but Peter was crying. He got stung on his hand but was not allergic. Minutes later Evan the other teacher, came up the creek carrying two crying kids, asked me if  we were okay and told me it was okay to bring them back up to the building. After helping Peter over a log or two he walked up the hill with Corbin and me. I knew I had gotten stung, but didn’t realize how many times until we got back to the building. I got stung the most, a whopping 8 times! After applying a baking soda and water solution to our stings, the kids soon recovered and went on playing.  They came into camp the next day telling all their half-day friends about their adventure at the creek with the bees. Still itching and slightly swollen, I took the time to put together a bee slide show…

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Man, what a coincidence that it happened to both me and Nicole,  twice,  in the same woods, when we were together – again! Thankfully, Nicole made it out without being stung, this time but she got her fair share the first time. This was an experience I won’t forget any time soon, and neither will Nicole. I don’t think we will be going off the trail again any time soon either! But I have to say, Peter and Corbin were real troopers and followed all my instructions which made my job A LOT easier!