Camp

Eric works with the 5th/6th graders at our church so he had the opportunity to go to junior camp this summer. Camp starts when you have finished 4th grade. But, if your parent is part of the staff, you can go when you have finished kindergarten. You're called a "camp kid". Grace went to camp for the first time this summer as a camp kid. Eric was there as a staff member. He taught a bible class each day, organized/supervised sports, and just did whatever was needed. I have to admit that I was nervous about Grace going when I learned that she would not be staying in the same room with Eric. That meant she had to take care of herself and her things all week by herself! That seems really big to me. She's independent but I was still nervous for her.

The staff go to camp on Saturday and the main campers come on Sunday afternoon. Lyla and I were able to go on Saturday with Eric and Grace. We left on Sunday after lunch. That made me feel better because I could help her set up her bunk bed and get all of her things organized so she could take care of herself all week. The staff and camp kids don't stay in the cabins like the campers do. They get to stay in a very nice, air conditioned, building that has rooms full of bunk beds. All of the girls/women are together in one bunk room and the men/boys are in another. One of my friends from church also has a little girl the same age as Grace. They know each other from church and they were going to be at camp too. Grace was so excited to be at camp with her little friend, Ella. They wanted bunk beds right next to each other. They, of course, wanted to sleep on the top bunks! She was soooooo excited to be on a top bunk!

We didn't have much to do on Saturday other than set up her bed area. The little girls ended up sitting on the top bunks all afternoon playing, drawing, playing their DS (thank you Reesi for letting us borrow yours), and being silly. They thought they were big stuff on those top bunks with their sleeping bags and a DS! At one point Grace asked me if they would get to do this everyday. I said yes, for a little while each day. She smiled really big and said, "this is going to be like a big sleepover every day"! She loved it.

I had all of her clothes for each day separated into individual ziplock bags. It had her clothes, socks and panties in the bag for each day. She also had a laundry bag hanging on the post of her bed. So she just had to throw her clothes in the bag at the end of each day and get out a new bag for the next day. Some other experienced camp moms gave me that advice and said that's how everyone does it for camp. Pretty smart! Then she had a little bathroom tote with her soap and shampoo in it to carry to the showers each night. She seemed so grown up. All too soon she'll be carrying that little tote down a dorm hallway!

Anyway, little Lyla loved it there too. She wants to be just like the big girls. She was up on those bunks with them the whole time. She was sad that she didn't get to go too. She'll be able to go next year!

Every day during camp week, the camp kids got to go tubing on the river and some days they went swimming in a pool too! Grace had a blast. On the first night of camp week Eric said she ran up to him at devo that night, jumped in his lap, laid her head on his shoulder and said, "when do we get to go to bed?" She was worn out but she absolutely loved it! She did absolutely fine all by herself too. I had Eric call me a few times during the week so I could talk to Grace. Each time I talked to her she was having fun and in a hurry to get off of the phone! We are so blessed to be a part of a church that focusing so much on the youth. I'm so glad my girls will be able to experience camp with this church! Hopefully this is the first of many camp pictures! This is what Grace did immediately when she and Eric got home from camp. If you notice she's even laying on a heating pad! The cord is hanging out of the blanket. I don't remember why she had that. I just noticed it in the picture. She didn't even want to tell me all about camp. She just wanted to lay down! All of these pictures were taken with a disposable camera that I gave Grace for camp.

This is Whitney. She was a babysitter for our life group. She was a counselor at camp. This is Olivia. She was our life group babysitter for two years. She was a counselor at camp too.

This is a view of the river behind the building Grace stayed in. She was taking the picture from the 2nd story balcony.

This is Ella. They're standing on the balcony where they stayed. They tie-dyed these t-shirts during craft time one day.

This is where the devos were held. It overlooks the river too.

One night they had a Mexican theme night. The girls are all dressed up and posing.

These are all of the camp kids with Chris Smith, our preacher.

This was Grace's favorite thing. They went tubing every day!

Little Lyla Belle. They took this on Saturday night when we were there.

Grace lost a tooth on the morning we left for camp. She seems to have a record of losing teeth at inconvenient times (Christmas Eve). She's showing me her teeth in this picture.

On top of their bunk beds playing the DS.