CAAAAAAAAAAMP!

Weeks I was at camp as a kid were usually the best weeks of my summer. And the week my kids were at camp this summer...yep, best week of the summer! 

Rebecca and Maggie were both at Champions "gymnastics" camp at WAYA from 9-2 every day. Ah-mazing! The girls had a blast and did a little "performance" at the end that pretty much consisted in a them dancing all crazy to the most popular kid songs of the day (Frozen, Lego, others from the radio w/ clean lyrics that I had no idea were so popular with the elementary school crowd). Rebecca was a "Beach Ball" and Maggie was a "Lil Fishie."

The reason we signed the girls up for camp was because Owen did Pine Cove's "Camp in the City." This is such a cool idea - Pine Cove - a great Christian summer camp that has been around for a long time in East Texas has summer teams that travel the state and southeastern US to partner with churches to bring the camp experience to kids who wouldn't otherwise make it to their overnight camps in Tyler or Columbus. I can't wait for Owen to be able to be ready to stay overnight but in the meantime this camp experience is about as good as it gets. I was aware of Pine Cove during my Buckner days and knew that it was a great camp and this summer only confirmed that. The heart behind it and the way they do fun is as close to Buckner as I think I could hope for for my kids. 

A little of the crazy at the closing ceremony (in the O'Henry Middle School gym - the location our campus of church used to meet in).

Owen with his counselor "Adrenaline Dunkie" aka "Dunkie" - his real name is AJ but we didn't find that out until the closing ceremony. (All Pine Cove staffers are given a camp name (based on things about them that are put together in funny ways) and the kids call them that all week.) It took Owen a little time to warm up to the crazy/funness of Camp - he was stressed out after the first day because it was loud when they were explaining the rules and he couldn't hear them so he was worried he'd unknowingly break one. By the end of the week he was into the rhythm of it all and was able to relax and enjoy himself!

But what made this week SO fun for all of us is that we got to have four counselors stay at our house for the week! The partnering church recruits families to host 3-4 counselors for the week - this was a no brainer for us! Here we are all piled into the mini-van to go grab breakfast (as a large family of 9) the last morning they were with us.

But lets back up. We had:

Megan (Pop-Eye)

Emily (Shutes and Flatters)

Anna (Gully Jeep Willikers)

Kristin (Zenone of Your Business)

What a stellar group of young ladies - I literally can't say enough good things. Amazingly considerate houseguests. Super awesome with our kids in the evening (and that's after spending a long hard day working with kids at camp)! We had awesome conversations covering lots of the big topics - how do you know what do do with your life kind of stuff! I like to think we had some wise stuff to tell them but I know for sure Kyle and I were both challenged and encouraged by spending time with them!

We will definitely do this again next summer, and I hope we can stay in touch w/ the girls! 

Zenone, Gully, Shutes and Popeye: If you're reading this...you always have a place to crash in Austin! We love you!

~Love, Momma Bear and Doc

Oh, I almost forgot this - I love that they do this. This is Owen's "CQ" (character quality) - each kiddo gets one presented by their counselor - they put a lot of time into noticing and encouraging the positive qualities in their kids. Isn't it great?

Last thought: I think adult life would be a lot better if 1) someone wrote CQs for us on a regular basis, 2) my day began with a run through the "gauntlet, " 3) I need college girls around more even though I got called ma'am.

Okay, not really the last thought. A couple other things I want to jot down.

1) The girls took over the upstairs area (2 rooms, 4 twin beds, bathroom) and our kids all crashed in the guest room - Maggie was in her tent on the floor and Rebecca ended up on a pallet on the floor because she drove Owen crazy sharing the queen bed.

2) I have never made so many breakfast casserole muffin things in all my life. I hope to not see that stuff again until at least Christmas.

3) We will probably be remembered as the house where the shower curtain kept falling down - right girls? FYI: I got a new one so you need to come back and try it out!

4) I got teary-eyed several times coming and going to camp for drop-off because I was overwhelmed by two big emotions - nostalgia for my camp days and all my Buckner people out there AND biiiiiiig excitement for all the projects I was going to get done while the kids were away. :) Take that to-do list!

Ooooooooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee for Camp!