Burn Camp!

“You're teaching someone to believe in the confidence that you're beautiful no matter what your scars look like.”

We dropped Tayton off of Friday, August 9th at Camp Nah Nah Mah,  aka Burn Camp.  I don't know where to even begin to start about how amazing this really was for him.  I guess I will try to explain my best what every picture is about.

  So above is Dan (the fireman) who was Taytons counselor and John another counselor that Tayton just loved.  These men are all volunteers who come up for 5 days.  Tayton just loved everything about Dan, he kept saying all the fun things they did together like play soccer, make a boon-doggle (no idea how to spell that) key chain and then pretend it was a spider and scare all the girls, play games, and so much other fun things.  Dan helped Tayton with his wound care, physical therapy, taking his medications, and that all of Taytons medical and emotional issues were taken care of why he was at camp.  Thank you so much Dan!  I could tell Dan sincerely cared about Tayton and that they had such a neat relationship when I picked him up.

This was Taytons roommate Noah.  I don't know too much about his story, but Tayton had such a fun time with him.  There were 4 adults and 8 kids to every cabin.

This was Taytons favorite buddy at burn camp, his name is Nakota.  We got his parents info so hopefully we can see him more often then every summer.  He was in Tayton's cabin and they had so much fun together.

Just some more picture of Tayton and his buddies.

This is a fun fire-hydrant that all the kids at burn camp put there hand prints on.  I guess they auction this off at the burn camp fundraiser dinner in April.  This camp is completely free to the children who were burned and I am so grateful.  There just isn't a lot of extra $$ when we have such huge medical bills. With trials come blessings, and I know this camp is truly a blessing.

They played a lot of games, this was one of Taytons favorite Angry Birds. 

They did Yoga every morning.  I stole this picture off the University of Utah Burn Center facebook page.  I loved it.  We met the man in the photo who had some of his fingers taken off in an explosion why he was serving our country.  It was such an honor to meet him.  Tayton said he liked Yoga but it hurt to stretch his skin.  I think it is good emotional and physical therapy to do Yoga, so we will keep it up.

I asked Tayton what his favorite thing about camp was, and he said everything!  I then asked if you had to just pick one thing, what would it be.  He said "Besides everything, it would have to be archery."  I didn't get any photos of him doing archery but I stole these from an article in the Desert News of his buddies at camp.

Tayton took a few pictures at camp with a disposable camera, I will post some of those when we get them back.

At the beginning of camp they wanted to welcome everyone in.  Just like they do at the Festival of Colors to welcome Spring in.  Here is then entire group before the colors.

Doesn't that look like so much fun!  They were concerned for Tayton and his airway, so they didn't want him in the middle of it. If you look on the side of the mountain, his counselor Dan is filming it, and you can see a tiny speck of white in the trees, that is Tayton.

This is the entire group after, Tayton is the white one in the front row.

He said someone hugged him after and that is how his shirty got all dirty, but he said it was such a fun time.

They did a lot of group therapy sessions, and taught them things to say if kids start making fun of their scars, gloves, or anything else.  They taught them a lot about self confidence.  It is so wonderful to have other people help reassure that his scars are amazing.  I think it is huge when it comes from another burn survivor!

They had a magic show one night and Tayton got to be the magicians helper.

I love the look on his face in both of these pictures.  You can tell he is having the time of his life.

On Tuesday, it was family day.  We got to come up around 4:00.  The kids all got to go to a carnival why the parents went to a parent support meeting.  It was nice to talk to other parents and get some great ideas on things I can do to help Tayton and the rest of my precious family.

At the carnival there was bounce houses, cotton candy, fire truck rides, pop corn, a photo booth, a huge firetruck where they could climb the ladder.  I know the kids had such a fun time.

Tayton was so excited to see Blakeli.  He just wanted to hold her.  Dan (the fireman) said Tayton kept talking about his sisters the entire time.  At dinner there would be bags of chips and Tayton would sneak a pack of Doritos because he wanted Tanna to have one because he knew she liked them.  They also got to earn "Burn Bucks" at camp for doing good deeds, and Tayton spent a lot of his burn bucks on prizes for Tanna.  I thought it was so sweet!

Right after the carnival Tayton was saying he was tired.  I told him he could sit in Blakeli's stroller.  Within two minutes he was asleep.  He has been so tired.  He did come back from camp with a minor cough that has really been hard on him.  He is struggling to breathe at night and just exhausted.  It was so worth it though!  Thanks to everyone who helped at burn camp, I know it was so amazing for him.  I can't wait to hear more stories when he wakes up!