FC: Friday

"Can you believe its the last day of camp? On Monday it seemed like the week would last forever." It was a fun week but we were ready for it to be over and get back to our own beds. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, there was lots to do on Friday! The schedule had to be adjusted to accomodate the downpour that came in the morning but by the time the kids had their final Little Dudes lesson things had dried out enough for them to ride the horses ON THEIR OWN! They rode in the arena with the wranglers walking in front of the horses, no one next to Shelly to make sure she didn't fall off, no one holding a lead to make sure Archer didn't take off in the wrong direction, and they LOVED it! I was impressed with Archer and Shelly's confidence, way to go kids!

After lunch we went up to the lake (the camp staff called it the lake, those of us who live near Lake Michigan constantly referred to it as the pond) to see some of our friends' baptisms. What a wonderful way to close the week, seeing people's commitment to follow Jesus and singing worship to the Lord in the middle of His beautiful creation.

We left the kids to play on the beach with Miss Courtney and as we walked away David looked back and then turned to me and said, "Ok, don't freak out, but..." Courtney had Shelly in a kayak and they were paddling out into the middle of the lake. Pond. Whatever. Suddenly that little pond looked big and scary and WHY WAS SHELLY IN A KAYAK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BIG SCARY OCEAN??? Really, I'm usually pretty easy going about the kids trying out new stuff but camp was stretching me a little bit. We watched for a little while but I had to just turn around and walk away to calm down.

We got cleaned up for the Fifties Party and then we got to see everyone launch their rockets they'd been working on all week long. First went Shelly, immediately after her rocket went up she joined the pack of kids chasing it down. Next was Miss Courtney and then Archer's rocket was launched. It went up about 20 feet then suddenly turned and shot straight towards the roof of the brand new dining hall, missing the top by only a narrow margin and heading off into the field and trees beyond. The poor kid was the only one to loose his rocket and I think it will be a sore subject with him for a long time.

This was all followed by campfires and s'mores and visiting. The kids played with their flashlights and ran around screaming and laughing in the dark until we corralled them and dragged them inside for bedtime. It was great to see (hear, actually) our kids playing with their new friends. And by this time David and I knew almost everyone's names. The week of saying, "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name" had paid off and we were saying that phrase less and less often. And I was feeling a little sad that our fun was at an end.