Summer Camp Fun!

Last week, both of my children were gone to camp for the first time without me as a chaperone (usually my husband is working so it’s me who gets to go with them). It was kind of nice for the first day, but then I really missed them! You know those kind of days where the tears were right behind your eyes and if someone said ANYthing about them, I would have burst out in the ugly cry!

Isn’t it amazing how many things our children get to experience that we didn’t? I grew up getting to go to little church camps and they were fun. But, since we went to a very small church (I mean 100 people on “Homecoming Sunday”…now THAT’S small!!), my circle of friends was pretty small. There are lots of Christian camps, academic camps, etc… that our children get to choose from nowadays.

Last week, we embarked on a 2-day journey to deliver our son and daughter to their respective camps. They were so excited, as you can hopefully tell….

(sorry it’s sideways!!)

Our daughter was first. She went to a week-long camp called Frontier Camp. It was an amazing week for her! I was so concerned that she would have to call us in the middle of the night because she couldn’t sleep. But, just the opposite! The night before she left, she asked if I could print some pictures of our two Yorkie dogs for her to take with her. I asked her if she wanted any pictures of us and she said, “No, that’s okay”. Wow! didn’t expect that!

She went to camp with 3 other girls from church. It was such a great week of bonding for them as friends because, even though they go to church together, they have been at different elementary schools. Now this next year, they will all be at the same intermediate school. What a blessing their friendships are becoming to our family.

It’s fun to watch our children grow and spread their wings. I was really impressed that she wanted to participate in those activities that she interested her. She chose horsemanship, Adventure Challenge (zip lines, giant swings, rock walls, etc..), boatmanship (canoeing, fishing, etc…), and waterskiing. She actually learned to water ski!! Quite impressive!

Here are some snapshots of her week…

Rodeo…

Watching the Giant Swing…love that laugh!

End of the week Sports Banquet!

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Next it was time to drive to Austin and take our son. He was recommended a couple of years ago by a teacher for the Lone Star Leadership Academy. It is amazing! It’s a camp led by certified teachers who are out of school for the summer and want to continue to work with kids. Last summer he went to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and learned everything that made those cities important to Texas and to the United States. They visited the United States Mint and watched how money was made. The JF Kennedy Memorial as well as other really neat places.

My parents, who live in the Austin area, were able to go with us to take him to camp. My dad told my son that he might just go and get his air mattress and come back and camp out too! Needless to say, our boy wasn’t very excited about that. :-)

He was able to visit all of the political hot spots and met with our Legislators. Popped in to the Texas Supreme Court and got to sit on “the bench”. It was fun visiting the Bob Bullock State History Museum and seeing lots of Texas artifacts. They went to Inner Space Caverns (his favorite spot), and even took a ride on the Lone Star Riverboat Bat Cruise and saw those famous Austin bats as they flew out for dinner. Amazing things!!

He was so excited (and tired) when I picked him up near the Texas State Capitol. All the way home I heard about everything he saw and did. It was a wonderful 3 hours in the car.

He left a 12-year-old and came back much older. He actually asked me to stop and pick up a newspaper so he could read it on the way home!!

If this is how our summer has begun, I’m excited to see what else is in store for us!! We’re now enjoying those lazy days of summer and catching up on laundry and our rest.

I’ll keep you posted on our adventures.

Happy Summer!!