Summer camps, part 1

Safety Town Care Bear got to go to Safety Town! Now all three of my kids are graduates. We have no more excuses for their risky behaviors. :)

Caroline and M signed up to be in the same session. They were SO excited to have some quality time together...except Safety Town was kind of lame this year. They wouldn't let us request groups, so the girls ended up in two different groups and didn't get to see each other at all during camp. Boo. At least they had fun carpooling together.

Because of all the snow days this winter and make-up days at the end of the year, they had to do a one-week session instead of a two-week session. We knew that when we signed up. But we were also told that it would be 3 hours/day instead of 2. Then when we showed up, we found out that was incorrect. It was a big old mess, very disorganized an inefficient. If this was my first experience with Safety Town, I would not be going back.

With my complaining aside, Caroline had a good time. She liked her counselors. When I would ask her what she learned at the end of each day she would tell me, "Nothing. I already knew everything." :)

One day, the shaved ice truck was waiting outside at pickup time.

Yum!

At graduation 

With her group and counselors 

Safety girl!

Tumbling, karate, rock-climbing camp B chose a fun camp that included a little bit of everything. He really liked the rock climbing part. It was a five day camp and most of the campers were young. But there was one guy close to B's age and they hung out the first three days, but then he didn't show up the last two. Bummer.

B's all the way in the back.

Hi-ya! 

Ready to climb. 

He zoomed up to the top in less than a minute.

He's thinking about taking rock climbing classes in the fall.

(Not sure if Drew's on board with that...)

The girls had fun trying out the climbing walls, too.

The parents didn't to see many of the tumbling moves that 

B's age group practiced. But he quickly got on the tramp and 

showed me THIS new move:

 Double flip. Wow!

Scout camp B does not love scouting. But he does like camping. He had never been to a week-long-sleepover scout camp, but I talked him into trying it this year. He had a GREAT time. He worked on archery, got to swim in the lake a lot, had fun hanging out with his friends. The two down sides: he thought it was too long. He thinks four days would be perfect, not seven. AND he was there on his birthday, which was kinda lame.

All packed up for a week of camping!

Troop 100--all five scouts.

One of the Camp Cherokee traditions is that if you spend your
birthday at camp, you get to kiss the moose.

 B puckered up.

Cheezy B with C in the dining hall.

They have family night one of the nights,

so we got to have dinner with the scouts.

Birthday donut

 Me and my TEENAGER!

Drew and Charlie

Drew took a day off work to spend B's birthday with him up at camp. 

Our troop, getting ready for the "campfire"

(Which doesn't actually involve a fire.) 

Care Bear dancing with some of the leaders before it started.

Scouting is so interesting. It is a culture unto itself.

And it's a pretty cheezy culture.

We made it almost all the way through the campfire.

But it was getting late.

And Andrew's back was starting to bug him.

And we'd had about all the cheeziness that we could handle. 

So we said a quick goodbye and made our way home,

with a mesmerizing firefly display on the drive.

So pretty.