Our son's first camp was a full week of all day basketball camp located close to his dad's work. They went to/from work/camp together each day and went out to lunch together a time or two. After the frustrating Upward season of not really getting a chance to learn new skills or play competitively, this camp was a good way to provide some of what we had hoped he could have gotten in Upward. He played hard all week and got into better shape, which he will need for football which starts next week with two hours of practice very day. Since my husband always took him to camp, I have no pictures to share.
That same week our daughter went to a 3-day science camp three hours/day in downtown. Since it was closer to drive to my office than back home and traffic is terrible in our capital city, I should have worked at my office while she was at camp everyday. I did that for the last day or two, though. She doesn't get as excited over hands-on science as her brother does, but she loves being around lots of people, so she had a fun time. The older kids don't give demonstrations for parents, so I have no photos.
The following week was her brother's turn to attend science camp. He was bored at first because the teacher was new and slow to get in the groove. Plus, he already knew plenty about electricity and magnetism (the themes), but it got better for him as the week went along.
In July, our daughter traveled to Liberty University for camp with her church youth group. She loved staying in the dorms and feeling like a college study for a week. It was a great time of growing closer to the Lord and getting to know the other girls from our church better. They all go to different schools, so it's almost an entirely different group of friends. She's gotten to know some of them during weekly Bible study this summer. She was the youngest participant at camp and in summer Bible study, but she is a lot like I was at that age, tiny but mature for her age, preferring to hang out with older girls, but only the girls who are positive influences so as not to grow up too fast in the wrong ways. I wish I had pictures to share from her week, but phones were not allowed and she didn't think to take a camera.
Last week, our son experienced overnight camp for the first time ever. This camp is a very special place for many people. My college roommate met her husband there while they both served as camp counselors during our years as roommates. They got married at that camp, and our son will be baptized there next month. All of us bridesmaids spent the night in a cabin together the night before the wedding. It is such a peaceful, rustic place.
My college roommate and I taught classes there last fall. She still teaches her art classes there, but the distance was too great for me to continue with my STEM classes, so I had to back out for the spring semester. I have too many jobs in too many different venues, and continue to find myself overextended. It's hard to say no and to give up great things, but this camp is truly a wonderful place and I miss teaching in that cabin in the woods where deer would greet me at the door each morning.
To get a top bunk, campers need to get there two hours early to get a low number as selection of bunks is on a first-come, first-pick basis. Our boy didn't care where he slept, so we arrived only about 15 minutes before check-in began. Praise God for giving us an easy-going second child as we had so much to do that afternoon. Here he is beside his bunk after we put sheets on the sagging mattress and duct taped a fan to his bed frame.
The camp posted hundreds of photos online to give parents a peak into their week. Our son must be camera shy because we only saw him in a few of the photos. Staff pics are shown in the following collage.
We dropped him off on Sunday afternoon and picked him up Friday evening. I sent him a care package with a card, candy, toys to share with his cabin mates, and letters from his sister who wrote him a letter to open each day of camp. Then she wrote him a letter every day he was at camp, telling him what we did each day and including funny photos to let him know he was missed while he was gone and to keep him updated on all the happenings back home. She's such a great sister. These pics below show him at the assembly (he looked SO handsome when we picked him up - freshly showered, hair neatly combed, a sight for sore eyes!) with a church friend and pics of him in the van on the way home opening letters from his sister. Nana sent him a card while he was at camp, too.
The camp sent us home with the schedule shown above so we would know what he was doing at any given hour while away. Just reading the schedule makes me tired. After teaching kids this age only a few hours a week, I am amazed at what these counselors do all day long all week long for these campers. They also gave us a summary of Bible lessons covered each day and a family devotion to do back home that corresponded with his lesson that day, so we could all study the same passages at the same time. He was very tired when he got home with a bit of a cold, but he had fun and wants to return next year.
This week his sister is running around in record heat for our area (110-115 degree heat index at times) for three hours every morning for field hockey camp. She worked hard, hydrated often, and received lots of prizes and gift certificate to Omega Sports for being awarded "Most Aggressive Player". Based on this video a former student (now in college) sent me while helping out with the camp this week, she has also been providing musical entertainment during the water breaks. This girl....she may be new to the team after playing volleyball last year, but she doesn't have a shy bone in her body.
After I drop her off, I've been taking our son 45 minutes through rush hour traffic to the opposite end of a neighboring city for Digi Camp. This camp is held at another exclusive private school which sits on 135 acres of beautiful land in a prime location. (We're surrounded by private schools that cost between $22-$26K per year for K-12...so given that parents are willing to spend that much for schooling, I guess it's no surprise that goods and services in our area are priced well above the cost for the same items in neighboring cities.) At this camp, he's been working with Mindstorm Legos and Minecraft game figures to produce a stop-motion movie. He said the hardest part was trying to fake real life physics for real characters when they were using paper figures with very different masses.
It's been a fun summer, but it's gone much too quickly. Orientation is next Wednesday, and school starts back next Thursday. So long summer!
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