Hot & Humid in Houston: Kamp

Monday morning, the boys were all ready to head off for camp. The night before, Henry mentioned that his deodorant was broken. It wouldn't rotate up. He showed it to me and explained how he could squeeze the plastic together pushing the deodorant up, allowing him to use it. I looked at him and explained how the leaders explicitly stated that deodorant was the most important item to take to camp. Despite continuous efforts at convincing me that he could make it work, I went out early Monday morning for a fresh stick for the week. It was a bustling crowd when we dropped them off at church. There were 400 kids going - junior high and high school (and 100 leaders/counselors). 9 busloads full - the big fancy buses, too. Josiah found his group and waved goodbye from a distance. Henry waited for his friend to get checked in and then they boarded the bus. They really wanted to find a seat together.

When we got the information about camp, we were told the kids would be divided up into 12 groups. Each group had a color associated with it. They got a Kamp shirt in that color, but they could also bring more things in the same color when they played rec games. On the list, Henry was in the purple group, so we bought a purple hat and purple bandanas. We got to church and he had been moved to the red group. It was all good, except that he had to go to camp with a purple hat. We have so many red things at home that he could have brought, too. Josiah's color was hunter green.

Caroline's goal was to secretly board the buses with the boys. She is going to miss her camp because we'll be out of town the week it happens. She really, really, really wanted to go to camp. Despite her disappointment, we went home, had lunch, and then I showed her my new retractable feather duster. She was impressed with its long pole and dusted a few spots. Then we set to work on her room. She wanted to rearrange a few things especially her closet, so we spent a few hours on that and she was happy with the results.

We both had the cleaning bug with the house so quiet, so we got to work on our own projects. One afternoon, she asked for help cleaning up Henry's room. It wasn't messy per se, but a little cluttered. We weren't sure how he would react, so we chanced it. She was very thorough, too. She took everything off certain shelves and dusted them before putting his things back, grouping them by color. (His reaction was not as enthusiastic as Caroline had hoped.)

We watched A League of Their Own. Her little introduction to chick flicks.

We got burgers for dinner one night.

Because we would not make our Friday morning pool time with the boys, Caroline and I went one afternoon earlier in the week. There was a boy there a few years younger than Caroline that kept asking her to play. She didn't really want to play and told him she didn't want to play, but he still checked with her every few minutes to make sure. So she practiced her freestyle a lot. She also practiced how many Mississippi's she could hold her breath. 24.

On Friday morning, Caroline cleaned the playroom. That afternoon, after the boys had been picked up, Josiah set up his stop-motion animation station again and cluttered up the floor with his Legos. Caroline was less than enthused to see her work destroyed so quickly. I understand...

Before picking the boys up at noon, Todd and Caroline hit a new burrito place for lunch. They had five different tortillas to choose from and after you picked the one you wanted, they took a ball of dough and cooked it fresh. Caroline chose a steak burrito. It got her seal of approval.

The boys had a smile of their face when Todd picked them up. (I was at a Practicum all day.) At home, however, they told quite a story of their time. Josiah's cabin of 8th grade boys had a few kids that were on the rebellious side. The floor of their cabin got messy every day with water spit from mouths, sour cream, and other food products. There was urine in trash cans, clogged showers and toilets. There were dead wasps hidden in beds. There was also a lot of, Mickey came in and gave us a lecture, Curtis came in and talked to us about respect... There was a lot of cleaning up of their cabin, too. Despite the craziness, Josiah said he had a good time and wants to go back next year. He assured me he was not a part of destruction. He had a goal of getting all the leaders signatures and he succeeded in his endeavor.

Henry, meanwhile, had a bit of a rough go. On the plus side, he got to bunk with his friend as well as all the 6th grade boys. In stark contrast to the 8th graders, Henry's cabin won Cleanest Cabin two days in a row. The reward was free snacks. Unfortunately, his rec team did not win a single game - they lost 7 and tied once. That was hard for a very competitive boy to stomach. There were issues in the chow line with ordering, and one day, instead of getting the meat burrito he ordered, he was handed a tray with two bowls of beans. While he likes beans, he didn't get silverware at the beginning of the line because he didn't think he'd need it for the burrito. While Josiah seemed to like the food, Henry wasn't a fan. Henry did try out the ropes course with his friend, so at least he did something. We're glad he experienced it and he'll learn from both the good and the bad. However, he does not want to go back next year.

Each day they were at camp, there was a photographer walking around and they would upload a bunch of pictures for the folks at home to look at and confirm their child was alive and thriving. Each day we checked the website often, but never saw the boys. When they got home, they checked the pictures to see if they could find themselves. Josiah found himself. Sort of. Here is his team playing volleyball. Josiah is just to the right - out of the frame.