Family Camp 2009

About this time last year we attended a Family Camp up at Solgohachia outside of Morrilton. My best friend had talked it up a lot to us, and then my college roommate Heather also started in. I'm always game for something fun to do, but Paul needed a little convincing. (I think he was worried it would be lame.) Well, long story short, he did, in fact, agree to let us go. Coincidentally, they assigned us to a cabin split with my old roommate! (They had no idea we even knew each other!) It was just like old times. Well, except that she and I didn't stay up late chatting in the dark (...in our sleep) and she didn't fall out of her bunk (...that I know of... LOL!) and her family was on one side while mine was on the other, with a sliding door separating us), and she was lulled to sleep with the sounds of my baby crying in the middle of the night. Okay. Sort of like old times.  ;)

The cabin was great. I loved its rustic simplicity. I loved its porch swing in the evenings once the kids were asleep. I loved its teeny, tiny sink. The stairs to the loft were a little scary in the middle of the pitch-black night for this nursing mama, but I survived. And I kept imagining spiders crawling up through the cracks in the floorboards (by far the hardest part about it)! And we had a ferocious storm one night, during which our door blew right open at like 2:00 a.m.!! The door, by the way, was right. by. our. bed. Talk about a rude awakening! Paul and I sprang up to close it--it took both of us with all our strength! That's how crazy-hard the wind was blowing. The whole ordeal mostly scared us, though we and about 4 feet of cabin got soaked in the process. Amazingly, the children all slept through it. Get this. Maybe 30 seconds after getting back in bed, it flew open again!! This time we piled everything we owned against it for a barricade. Craziness. But very charming craziness.


Okay. Back to the camp. Kiddos age five and below get to go to Sonshine Kids where they play all sorts of fun games, make things, and sing songs with Ms. Bobbie, aka "Super Grandma."

And to make it even more awesome, they got to ride to and from their building in this:

Get a load of this sugary treat they made themselves! (To this day, Saylor still talks about doing this!)

Dress-up nights:

One night was "Luau Night." I don't know how we managed to not get any pictures of that. The boys all wore some sort of Hawaiian-print shirt and a lei. Saylor and I had grass skirts and leis. I even had some shell jewelry from my days as a classroom teacher.


Another night was "Western Night."

He DID have a cowboy hat. Perhaps it fell off while he was scarfing down the chocolate cake he so obviously enjoyed.

The little ones made these hobby horses to bring home. So cute!

I think I'm in love...

Looking the part!

Big kids have their own "camp," complete with getting messy, wet, or both. And they ride to and from activities on a tractor-pulled hayride.

There was so much to do!! We cooked out S'mores, the parents had a square dance, there was swimming, the kids enjoyed the playground, and Daddy took the big kids out in a boat.

And then...there was high stuff for certain daredevils. One, in particular, named "Noah."

There were lots and lots of fun memories made. Like when I got drenched in a downpour and had to borrow my friend's clothes. Or when we Davidsons decided to surprise Heather and her family with CHRISTmas caroling at their door late one night. Or how Daddy would let the kids drive on the dirt roads from the cafeteria to our cabin. Even the littlest fella!

There was an awful lot of smiling going on.

And good friends to hang out with.

And us parents? While the kids are well taken care of, we have speaker sessions to attend. (We can always stand to learn more!) All this and more had us convinced we would HAVE to return every year, if possible. (In other words, stay tuned for the "Family Camp 2010" post. And send money!)


*Some of these pictures were taken by Kim Magnus. Thanks, Kim!!