One final hello from British Columbia!
June 22, 2022
One final hello from BCO 1B!
We made it to Tofino and couldn’t be happier! Today, we started the morning paddle boarding on the pacific coast with the help of our awesome outfitters! Grant started the war of tipping people off their boards and then everyone was in the water. After paddle boarding, we made some sandwiches at the local souvenir shop and shopped around a little. Next we got ready for surfing! This was a fan favorite by far. Margeaux was the first up and Katie was soon to follow! Everyone got up and tried it and we were so proud of them. After, everyone was a huge help taking the boards back to our outfitters van then we set off for shopping in downtown Tofino. It was the cutest little village and the kids loved it. We got t-shirts, sweatshirts, and lots of stickers. Lastly, we stopped at a candy shop and got some treats. For dinner we challenged the kids with an iron chef competition. It was boys vs girls and the competition was intense. After the two teams grocery shopped around, we got into the kitchen! First up, the girls made veggie chicken kabobs, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a side of coleslaw with a lot of love from Ashby. Campbell, Margeaux, Eliza, Katie, and Ashby used mayo as war paint. The kabobs were delicious! They even came up with a kabob song to present the meal to us judges. While the girls cooked during the first round, the boys played spike ball on the beach. O’Neal and Land defeated Davis (who said he was unbeatable) and Grant, but Cooper and Andrew returned in full force to take their crown. Then the boys came in with an Italian style meal: garlic bread, Alfredo, and bolognese. Andrew was the inspiration for the meal with the Italian roots of the team and Cooper held the cook team strong! Everyone worked so well together and the meal was wonderful. To finish off our fun night of iron chef we had a quick moonup led by LOD’s O’Neal and Campbell to get ready for another morning of surfing and paddle boarding. The next morning we had pancakes for breakfast! We ate, then packed up and got ready for surfing. We got out to the water and everyone got up on their boards! Eliza said it was her favorite day and Katie agreed too. After, we went paddle boarding again and saw so much bulb kelp! Eliza and Ashby made a wig with it. We got to learn yoga on the paddle board and Campbell did a headstand. We played bumper boats next and Andrew and Cooper were the last ones standing. We all pushed each other off after paddle boarding was announced as our favorite activity, but now it just sounds like they all were! After drying off and changing we hopped back in the van for a road trip back to our next campsite. After a sing along car ride, we settled in our new open field campsite on the river side for a night of BBQ chicken and mac & cheese. We finished the night with moonup and some geese as our special guests (Herbert became the honorary 13th member of the group). We got up bright and early then made our way to our original campsite. It was sentimental heading back to where we stayed on the first night to compare how much our group had grown together in our 2 weeks of time together—and how much time had flown by together. Once we got there, we hung out and made some bracelets. Eliza and Margeaux taught Land and Grant how to make them too. After some chill time, it was time to clean! O’Neal, Ashby, Katie, Aubrey, Lawson, and Grant stayed to help deep clean the dishes and got to shower first while Land, Eliza, Cooper, Campbell, Margeaux, and Andrew went to help Lizzy clean the van we’ve been living in! Everyone was a huge help and we had a great time with it. Now it was time for the banquet! We dressed up in the funkiest fits we could find and got to dinner! We ate delicious Mexican food and everyone had a laugh at the outfits everyone picked out. Once we got home we had our final moonup led by LOD’s Lawson and Aubrey. We reminisced on our favorite memories and it was a really sweet time. The kids all hung out after till they fell asleep to get ready to wake up for our early airport day the next day. As we sit in the airport and write our final update we miss our kids already. We had an absolute blast traveling British Columbia and growing with them. We truly had an fantastic trip and we couldn’t do that without these amazing kids.
Signing off,
BCO 1Best!
Views from Vancouver Island!
June 21, 2022
Good day from Canada, Moondancers!
Today we headed out of our campsite and dressed our fearless LODs, Cooper and Margeaux, in fairy gear for the ferry (ferry fairies!). Once we got on, we got to see some amazing views heading to Vancouver Island. The kids all ate some PB&Js and talked about how excited they were to rock climb the next day. Once we got off the ferry, we jumped back in the car and jammed to some Olivia Rodrigo as we made our way to our lakeside campsite in beautiful Cumberland. Grant and Land started the Moondance rule to jump in every body of water possible once we got settled in and the whole group followed! We had a laugh at how cold the water was and it was the best intro to our burrito dinner. Thanks to Ashby, Katie, Aubrey, and Campbell dinner was top notch and the kids were thrilled to finally have some queso. After dinner, we hung out with the beloved BCO A group, played some football, and took photos on the beach. Once the group said their goodbyes, we set off into our moonup to conclude another fun day.
The next morning, we got up to rock climb! We started the day with some oatmeal and met up with our awesome guides, Hannah and Julian, to get our gear set up. Grant, Katie, Cooper, and Andrew were our muscles of the day and helped carry our rope. After our safety and belaying lessons our kiddos headed to climb the rock. Everyone got a turn climbing and it was incredible to see the encouragement being passed around. Everyone completed a wall they didn’t think they could! After climbing we set up to rappel a 60-foot cliff. Unsurprisingly, our incredibly brave kids loved every second of the trek down. After finishing our challenging day, we shopped around the little town and got some goodies and souvenirs. We decided to surprise the kids with a local food stop at the famous Cooks! We all enjoyed burgers, hotdogs, and fries. After dinner we kept the surprise going with some ice cream from Loves! Then we drove back to our campsite and set up a spike ball game. Land and O’Neal were the winners of the night with 9 games. We met up again with BCO A and hung out on the beach to watch the sunset. We ended the night with a beach moonup led by LODs Grant and Eliza.
Then we woke up and had bagels for breakfast to start another day of rock climbing. We started with a more challenging climb that Grant, Cooper, Campbell, and Lawson completed with the help of their belayers. To set up for an even bigger rappel, we went down a 100 ft drop to prepare for the later 250 ft one. After rappelling, we hiked to the lookout climbing spot that overlooked the whole lake and mountain line. O’Neil, Cooper, and Andrew successfully completed this extremely challenging wall with the help of Land and Davis belaying. We had 3 people at a time set up to go rappel the famous 250ft devil’s ladder. Land, O’Neal, and Cooper were our first people down. After we hiked back down, we said goodbye to our beautiful campsite and set on our way to Tofino. We did a pizza stop for dinner and got excited for our days of surfing ahead. Once we made it to our beach campsite, we sat out by the pacific for our moonup led by LODs Katie and Land. Our whole group is so excited to start our final activity of the trip, surfing!
Until then,
Sierra, Davis & Lizzy
From the kiddos…
Thank you for allowing me to go on this trip I love you and will see you soon-land
This trip was amazing and I can’t wait to share the memories with you love you!- Eliza
Thank you so much for letting me come on this trip. I am so excited to tell, you everything about the trip. -Margeaux
Thank you so much for letting me go on this trip, I had such an amazing time and can’t wait to see you in a few days. COOPER
Thank you for allowing me to come here it has been such a great time and I can’t wait to tell you everything about it. -O’Neal
Thank you so much for sending me to Moondance! I have had such a great time and I can’t not wait to tell you guys everything! – Ashby
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to go on this trip! I have had a blast and can’t wait to see you soon and share all of the memories I have made. Love you both! – Katie
Thank you for allowing me to go on this trip! I have had an amazing time, I have made amazing friends, and made amazing memories. I am so excited to see you guys and tell you all about it! I love you both so much, and thank you for everything! -Campbell
Thank you for sending me to Moondance! I had an amazing time and I can’t wait to tell you about it. Love you. -Aubrey
Thank you for sending me on an amazing adventure. Love you -Andrew
Thank you mom and dad for giving me the opportunity to go on this trip. Love you -grant
Thanks mom and dad for sending me to this camp. I have had so much fun and I am excited to see you tomorrow.-Lawson
Thank you for allowing me to go on this trip! Can’t wait to tell you about it – land
Greetings from Canada!
June 17, 2022
Hey Moondance family!!
We’ve made it to Canada and are having a blast!
We had an early start to our travel day up to our northern neighbor with oatmeal and the works. O’Neal loved it and said it’s been his favorite meal to date! Grant and Campbell were our LODs as we drove to our ferry from the San Juan Islands back to the mainland. The ferry was gorgeous, and we successfully began our drive to the border. Along the way we stopped at a park for a delicious hummus wrap lunch that everyone happily devoured. At the park the kids learned the game “birdie on a perch,” where Land and O’Neal beat Margeaux and Eliza for the win. As we neared the border, the kids were jamming together—belting songs like God’s Plan, Good for You, and Firework as they bonded together. We then saw the Peace Arch and the Canadian flags to many joyous exclamations in the van—we had made it to British Columbia! After we crossed the Canadian border, we drove though Vancouver and onto a stunningly gorgeous seaside highway called the Sea to Sky Highway through the Canadian Cascades as we traveled to our campsite to outside of Squamish. We entered our beautiful campsite in a luscious coastal rainforest and had a dancing-in-the-rain-type dinner. We made scrumptious pasta with sausage, mushrooms, and Caesar salad—prepared by Margeaux and Eliza. Grant, Cooper, Aubrey, Lawson, and Land were rock stars and manned the cleanup crew before we had a fantastic group moonup where we talked about our influences and our excitement for the overnight white water rafting the next day.
The next morning, we were able to sleep in! Land and Ashby were our LODs for the day and Davis made breakfast burritos with eggs, sausage, beans, onions, tomatoes, and the works that the kids absolutely loved. We then headed to the rafting base and met our amazing guides. We had a quick sandwich lunch before heading up on our “class 3” bus ride (listening to many guide jokes like this along the way). We then got onto our rafts after safety talks and getting into our wetsuits and life jackets before beginning our rafting expedition down to stunning Elaho-Squamish River! We began on the Elaho river, rafting in glacier water between gorgeous mountains. Lawson, Eliza, Cooper, Ashby, Katie, Andrew, Margeaux and Grant all “rode the bull” or individually stood on the stern of the rafts while grabbing a rope from the guides as the rest of the group turned the raft to flip them off. During one section, everyone got out of the raft (wetsuits and life jackets on of course!), grabbed the outside ropes of the raft and “rode” through the rapid. Aubrey showed her rafting experience by perfectly executing pulling her friends out from the water after everyone was able to get out and swim. We then rafted the extremely fun Class 3 & 4 sections of the Squamish River where we had many paddle high-fives, grins from ear to ear, and Grant nearly fell out but held on strong! We finally made it to our island paradise campsite where we took pictures, ate appetizers, and had our outfitters show us the beautiful land we’d spend the night on. We all felt like we were on vacation! As if the day couldn’t get any better, the guides prepared a delicious steak and salmon dinner with salad and potatoes. We then had hot chocolate and an assortment of pies sitting around a bonfire on the beach. We had an amazing moonup where we discussed what we want to be and do in life while enjoying the stunning mountain scenery and gorgeous stars before sleeping on our beautiful island. Nearly everyone reflected on the amazing day as being their favorite thus far.
We woke up the next morning to a yummy egg and bacon breakfast with yogurt and granola before getting back on the river. The day’s rafting section was tamer—like a giant lazy river through gorgeous waterfalls and mountains. Everyone chilled on the rafts—and some of the kids even took naps! The boys along with Lawson helped the guides carry the rafts and gear out after reaching the takeout spot before a quick bus ride back to the rafting base camp. Lawson and Aubrey were the LODs for the day during a sleepy drive home back to the campsite that resulted in an afternoon full of naps. The group then got super into spikeball, especially Aubrey, Campbell, Lawson, and the boys, before a personal naan pizza dinner that was a fan favorite. To escape the rain, the group hung out in the van after dinner as Lizzy prepared a big cookie cake surprise that resulted in grins across the board. As the kids ate their delicious cookie cake and ice cream dessert, we had a great moonup where we discussed how we could make the world a better place before hitting the hay in our last night in Squamish!
Living the dream!
BCO B!
Beautiful Day in British Columbia!
June 13, 2022
Greetings Moondance family!
We’ve made it to beautiful Washington!
We started our trip with a family style pizza dinner that the kids all enjoyed at a local pizza shop then hit the road to our campsite! After a busy day of travel and a night of getting to know each other, we handed off the torch to our first fearless LODs (leaders of the day) Katie and O’Neal.
We said good morning at sunrise and started on our way to the ferry. The car ride was full of card games and laughs! Campbell and Lawson almost beat Lizzy in a game of ERS.
The views were incredible on the way to the San Juan Islands and the kids had so much fun getting to explore the ferry.
Once we got to our spacious campsite, we got competitive in a game of spike ball with the help of Andrew and Grant then Eliza made some flower crowns! Davis even wore one for the rest of the night. For dinner we got to eat some delicious veggie burgers and mac and cheese prepared with the help of our amazing cook crew Katie, Ashby, and Campbell!
Next, we made it to our exciting day of sea kayaking through the San Juan Islands! The kids destroyed some chocolate chip and blueberry muffins for breakfast and helped each other with a speedy pack up to start the morning.
Once we got to the breathtaking port our new friends Reina and Steven helped set us up in our kayaks to start our adventure! Our new LODs Margeaux and Andrew were the leaders of the kayak pack. We had tons of fun racing throughout the pacific ocean. We even saw a seal! Land, Ashby, and Cooper were our team in the 3 person kayak and the speed demons of the trip!
We got a little break on a quiet beach with an ocean view on all sides. The kids shared a sandwich lunch together prepared by our wonderful outfitters. Ashby even ate a core of an apple that ended in a shared laugh! We’re proud of her for using the LNT principles!
We continued on our journey to our island campsite and made it there in record time. The sun was shining and our kiddos were grinning ear to ear when they saw our campsite. Once we rowed to shore we were greeted by a deer! From the gorgeous campsite we could see mountains in the distance—Canada!
That night we had the group’s favorite dinner so far, burrito bowls! We got to all sit around the picnic table together and giggle trying to figure out the riddles Sierra and Reina were telling us. Aubrey quickly understood the pink elephant riddle and was the first to keep it going!
Then we all went to Eliza’s hair salon and got our hair braided. Even Land and our outfitter Steven got their hair braided!
To end the night we shared s’mores and got into a heartfelt Moonup circle to recognize what we were thankful for throughout the day. Everyone was so excited to kayak again in the morning!
We woke up on our island campsite to start day 4 and got ready to hit the ocean! Cooper and Andrew gave the guides a huge help by moving kayaks to the shore. We made it back to the harbor in record time and the kids munched on some BBQ chicken sandwiches. After, they were a huge help in getting the van ready for our next adventure. Grant queued up some Taylor Swift and the whole van was singing along!
Once we got back to our campsite, the kids got ready to set up the tents. We hung out for a while and Land, Lawson, and O’Neil hung up their hammocks for some mid day relaxation before our big whale watching tour.
Once it was time to go we set on our way to find some orca whales! Campbell pointed out our first fin and then our whole group watched in awe as the family of 4 whales followed. We got to see all different sizes and ages of the whales and learned they always travel together as a family, kind of like us. As the whale tour ended, we got to see the sunset over the islands and Vancouver city line that got us even more excited for our next journey to Canada.
For dinner we cooked up some tasty Pad Thai. To end the night, we had a quick Moonup led by our fearless LOD’s Cooper and Eliza and we got to share our favorite things with each other. We said goodnight then set up for our early morning departure to Canada!
Safe and Sound in Seattle!!
June 9, 2022
Hello British Columbia Families!
We just heard from our leaders that the group has landed safely in Seattle. The trip is off to a great start and headed to their first campsite, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventures.
Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips but we will be posting up to three trip updates throughout the next couple of weeks! This will allow you to follow along with the trip and the students will also give a special shout out mid-way through! You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to this summer!
-Moondance HQ
