I left work at 4:00 hoping to get to the retreat by 6:00 or 6:15 to give myself a little time to mentally shift from work to camp. Well, my plan didn't exactly work – I ran into heavy traffic and was caught behind some accidents. I didn't arrive until 7:15, by that time everyone was there.

I located Hunter rummaging through the books with his Mother. She said her good-byes, wished us luck and headed out. Hunter looked pretty much like last year only bigger and (as I was soon to find out) faster. It was obvious that he remembered camp.

There is a door in the back of the main lodge that leads to a storage closet. The door has a small hole in it (big enough to put a few fingers into). Hunter said there was an alligator behind the door, so I jokingly put my fingers in the hole, then quickly pulled them out and pretended that the alligator bit me. From that moment on whenever Hunter got near that door he would run up and quickly kick it then run back away.

Jimmy was also sharing a room with Hunter and I. Jimmy is a very pleasant and happy young man with down's syndrome. He is always singing, usually songs from a church hymnal. I never saw Jimmy sad or angry. He rolls along with whatever is going on with an upbeat attitude and cheerful smile.

On Saturday as we headed up for breakfast it was obvious that Hunter knew where he was going. He took off running up the hill. He stopped at the frog pond. I remembered last year how much he wanted to catch one so I had bought some small rubber frogs and every time we stopped I would hide one in the rocks and let him find it. He would keep them in his jacket pocket – by the end of the weekend he was carrying 10 little frogs with him wherever he went.

We had our first confrontation after lunch. In Hunter's mind after lunch you went swimming – and he was convinced he was going swimming. After knowing Hunter for a few years, I have learned to anticipate when he is going to get very angry and I remove him from the group and find a quiet place for him to sit until he calms down. The angry times never last long and pretty soon he his back chasing frogs and jumping in mud puddles.

Once again the weekend flew by. I can't wait until July.

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