The Happy Campers return home

We got back from camp tonight. We've showered. Piled all the dirty stuff in the laundry room. And are getting ready for bed. It was fun.

The camp was a Family Overnight and it was a bit different than what we were really looking for. We wanted scaled down versions of the regular resident camp sessions with moms and daughter attending together to let the girls get a feel for camp until the girls are ready to go on their own. This was moms, dads, girls, brothers and every combination you can think of all going to spend the night at camp. There was even one family group that was a grandma and grandpa, at least 2 daughters and sons-in-law and a handful of grandkids. They've been going to family night every year for either 6, 7 or 8 years. They weren't sure. The grandma and one mom are bigwig volunteers in that Girl Scout council. They were really friendly and nice.

That was one difference I noticed. The people this weekend were so much more friendly and talkative and nice than the past 2 summers at our camp in the northwoods. It took us aback at first. But it was really nice. (How many more times can I say "nice" in this post?)

Anyway when we got there we got settled into our units and had dinner. We had a campfire and s'more afterwards. Then there was a night swim. That was fun, swimming under the overcast.

We got into bed and Violet was doing her usual panicking about not being at home but really holding it together much better. We had made a deal. For every night she spent camping I'd buy her a book. This summer only to help her through her phase. And the night in the backyard counted so she already had one coming.

We finally got to sleep late. The family reunion people restarted the fire and stayed up late talking. One of the counselors was complaining about that the next day too. Violet felt better that it wasn't just her being kept awake by them. She fell asleep sometime shortly before midnight. I woke up at 1:30 to the sound of very heavy rain. I dozed. Then Violet woke me up at 3. She had to use the latrine. We went. Then at 5 I woke to 2 HUGE cracks of thunder. A few minutes later a counselor appeared at our tent to say we were being evacuated to a nearby screened in shelter.

As Violet got her shoes and socks on I stuffed her stuffed toys and blankie plus our books we brought to read and flashlights in the backpack. I knew we weren't going to sleep at the shelter.We waited forever (under trees - was this a good idea?) waiting for all the families to finally be ready. Then we walked to a nearby unit to find very little room in the screen shelter and it was only screened in, not super secure. Funny thing was after the two big booms there hadn't been much more. Turns out, we didn't even stay at the shelter. Less than 5 minutes after arriving the counselors got the call on their walkie-talkies that we could go back to our tents. Another storm was expect around breakfast but that we'd be fine until then.

Now Violet didn't need to hear that another storm was coming. She was nervous, but handled it like a pro. We went back to our tent. I told her we didn't have to go back to sleep, but that we should lay back down and rest more. Like a cat. We did doze off.

No more storms came. Just rain at breakfast. It was cloudy and threatening all day so we lugged our rain ponchos around. And everything was soaking wet.

The activities were set up neat at this camp. They had about 8-10 options running concurrently and families could pick and choose and hop around to whatever they want. Many families crammed a lot in. Others like us, did only a few and did them for a longer time.

We visited the trading post (we love gift shops!) and Violet spent the money my mom had given her on stuffed toys (that will please mom who wanted Violet to get what she wanted with the money not what I wanted her to get). I bought us camp bandanas (I seem to be starting a collection) and patches. We had pre-ordered t-shirts that we got later at lunch.

We also did the corn maze. They grew a field of corn right there in camp and built a maze. It was muddy, but fun. Then we went to the pool. We were surprised to be almost the only ones there. Turned out the rest of camp went in the afternoon (when it turned hot so maybe they knew what they were doing).

After lunch we chatted with a high school girl we met last summer at camp. She was a Counselor in Training I (CIT) last summer and in her second year of it this summer. She is such a nice girl, just earned her Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting. A terrific role model for Violet and all the other girls at camp.

We went on a hike after lunch which was fun, but since it got humid really wiped us out for the rest of the day. When we got back we drank lots of water in the shade. We tried to do the corn maze again but Violet was just too wiped out. We went up to the car and broke into our cooler. We split a Coke and ate granola bars and cookies. The snack helped tremendously.

We stumbled into lanyard making and Violet started one. We were supposed to be headed to the all camp activity - Quiz Bowl. We were poking along, stopped to look at rocks. Stopped to photograph a cool looking bug to try to identify later. We didn't really want to go. Apparently no one else did either because when we were almost there the camp director and a few counselors stopped us and said only one family showed up so they were canceling it. We could head out of camp if we liked. We looked at each other and said, "Ok." It was fun, but we were hot, tired, sweaty, stinky and hungry.

We were asked by several people, counselors, the family reunion, others, if we were going to be back next year. We said we just might be.

Back at home.

Violet earned herself two books for making through the night not only away from home and in a tent but being evacuated to a shelter during a storm. She wants to get a Manga version of Warriors and a Littles book. She earned them. We'll get them ordered from Amazon tomorrow.

There is a litter box, litter and cat food just inside the front door. No extra cats yet. I haven't asked Mr. Incredible. He plans to keep them in an extra bedroom. I'm avoiding the topic because I don't want to think about it and all the stuff I want to get out of that room before the cats move in.

Maybe I can rent a tent at camp for later in the week. Or maybe I can set the cats loose in the corn maze. Tonight after Violet is tucked in, there is a bottle of Merlot with my name on it.