Last week David and Elijah went to day camp at Ohdakota. Four days of Scouting including the standard swimming, crafts, knot tying, camp food, shooting BB guns, archery, fishing, bug hunting and slushies. Ok wait, the slushie thing was the story of this year…. Every year there’s something that kind of sets things apart. (Bee Hive Disaster the most famous so far.) This year, the camp counselors started really drumming up excitement for the slushie machine, and the boys could get commemorative Camp Lyle cups for half price (or something). (Mom commentary - Lyle is now closed, they’re trying to get rid of those cups that have the wrong camp name on them but make it sound like it's a very special deal - Mom commentary now complete.) An hour after getting the kids all excited for slushies, the kids go to the Trading Post and the sign on the door reads “Slushie Macine Broken.” I wonder if anyone cried? Anyway, there was so much disappointment that David took E to the gas station after camp to get him a slushie. Tuesday. NEW slushie machine has been installed (or the old one was fixed?) BUT nothing’s frozen yet. No slushies at camp. Wednesday, finally working, E got his slushie. Sadly(?), the special Lyle cups ran out right before E got to the front of the line so he got a regular cup. But whatever, he got his slushie finally.
The best part of the week was the end, where Eli told David that next year he wants to do camp for two weeks. He was so very sad that the week went so fast. It was so very wonderful that the two of them had four days together to enjoy the sunshine and meeting new friends together. I don’t know if they’ll do two weeks next year, but I hope they get to enjoy at least one week of adventures once again next summer.
{Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the adventures. If I come across any, I'll try to add them someday.}
This morning we met up with Archer’s group and waved them off as they headed out to Scout Camp once again. This has been going on for so long that it almost feels routine at this point. Archer packed everything himself with very little input from us. They had already loaded all the gear into the trucks and trailers yesterday, so this morning it truly was just enjoying some powdered donuts and deciding who was riding with which drivers. Enough hugs and kisses to embarrass Archer and then, “Have fun, seeya next week!” And the caravan was gone. And all the parents went home to go back to bed. Except not us, not this time, not back to bed.
This time, a new event. Definitely not routine. Shelly is going off to her own camp adventure for the very first time. At ten years old, she’s finally been able to join the campers’ world and we dropped her off at Camp Anokijig for her very first week away from home. She’s super excited (horses!), a little nervous (new place, new people, what to expect?) but I’m really happy that she gets to have this experience. I’m confident she’s going to have the best week ever and hopefully she’ll share a few stories with us when she gets home. We’ve given her postcards so perhaps we’ll hear from her. But I’m not holding my breath for that, she’ll probably be too busy to take time for writing. I will admit… I may have almost cried when we walked away from her. She did not bat an eye, she was too busy looking forward to getting started.
And now, we have a week with Eli, maybe this is the first time in his life that he’s an only child? I wonder how often he’ll end up in our bed, since he doesn’t have anyone in his room to protect him from monsters, or pester him with talking, or steal his pillow and blankets when they share a bed. I often think that he gets a little lost in the shuffle and no one hears him because there are too many other voices in the crowd. Hopefully we hear everything he as to say this week. And I’m confident that Shelly and Archer will come back with some wonderful stories to share.
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