Church Camp Weekend

Silas and his buddy enjoying camp treats while sharing a lawn chair.
A highlight of this past weekend was definitely the rock climbing wall. Guess who has been obsessing about this wall for the past year? Roman couldn't wait to get geared up and scurry his way to the top.
Silas ...not so much. Actually he was too terrified of the young man with the shaggy hair and black hat to go any where near the harnesses or wall. He watched from a safe distance. Could two boys be any more different?

Aili surprised us all by decided she would give it a try. She swore off climbing after trying it last year. I was proud of her for getting up there again.
Roman went up all the routes he thought were the hardest...even the one with the "lumps". Of course he made it to the top each time without even a moment of hesitation. Scurried would definitely describe how he climbed.

We joined a whole big group of our friends for a weekend of camping at a local kids camp. It is the same camp that my kids will go to for days of parentless fun this summer.

It has been a VERY wet summer. In fact I don't think I've seen this much rain in this usually dry part of the world since the year I got married (1996). The campground has had 18 inches of in the last couple months. It dumped the day before we arrived so it was nice and muddy. The facilities and the main cafeteria/lodge are great though and we spent loads of time sitting, visiting and drinking coffee while the little ones entertained themselves for hours in the nearby beach volley ball pit...turned giant muddy sand box. It was fascinating how one rubber made tote filled with sand toys and trucks kept an army of little ones happy. The sun did come out on Sunday and made for a lovely warm day to enjoy the swimming pool and all the other activities.

The kids went through A LOT of clothing in one weekend. I thought I had over packed but we ended up running out of some essential items. The kids had a blast getting dirty, muddy, wet and running around with all the other kids. Our church group is largely made up of young families. There was quite a big group of us that made it out this year despite the weather... and I think children made up half of the population.



I had a really good weekend despite the mud and the mountains of laundry waiting to be washed when we arrived home. So often our church family is just a bunch of faces we see on Sunday mornings, we shake hands, greet each other and go our separate ways. This weekend is one more way that we make an effort to form deep lasting friendships, share our lives, and offer support and encouragement.

It was even kind of fun to be back in our trailer again. I was a little apprehensive about packing ourselves back into it after living in it for 6 months this past winter. It felt like home in a way though. Silas even asked me part way through the weekend if this was where we lived now. Poor displaced little boy assumes that anywhere we park our trailer is our new home :) I make good gypsy children.

Miss Cece did fantastic sleeping in the trailer too. It was fun to take her on her first camping trip. She is teething though (started at 2 months and has many bottom teeth almost through at 3 months!) and has been a bit fussy lately. She did great all weekend other than one gassy fussy evening....which I'm totally used to by now.

We are loving her to bits though and she is rewarding us with lots of smiles and even some giggles.