Campmeeting 2014

We left for campmeeting on Thursday morning, June 26, at 12:15 pm.  Our flight up was on JetBlue which is our favorite airline, partly because of the TV's.  But honestly, the TV's are really a waste because they never have any channels that have suitable programming on for kids.  At any rate, Elaine was kind enough to drive to our place to pick us up and then come back here to bring the van back.  They were going to be out of town when we came back so we needed the van back here for Allen to pick us up.  Everything went very smoothly until I caught a glimpse of our plane...with NY Jets emblazoned on the side.  I know JetBlue is out of New York but as a Patriots fan, this just isn't something you like to see.  There was a bunch of logo stuff on the inside too.  My hope was that the pilot wasn't as inept as the "pilot" of the Jets in years past, aka Mark Sanchez. He's gone, I know.

Ugh!

We had three seats in one row and then two across.  We left the middle seat empty but someone did claim it so we had him take the window instead.  The girls, Colby, and I were together and Duncan drew the Brady card.  Lucky duck.  The girls were fine but Colby, of course, wanted to be out of my lap and crawling all over the place.  Naptime isn't usually until 2:30 and since we were landing at 3:00, he only slept about 30 minutes.  But, there was no screaming so it was all good.  My mom picked us up and it was a joyous reunion.

Flying warrants a binky, apparently.  He did fall asleep for quite awhile with his head on the arm rest facing the aisle.

My flying companion(s) and I.

We picked up a rental car on the way to my parents.  Clearly our stuff takes up a whole minivan so we needed another form of transportation to campmeeting for my mom and her stuff.  Freddie and Kathy typically take stuff up for us but they were at Southern New England campmeeting (which was the week before Northern New England this year as opposed to the same week) so I figured the best solution was a rental car.  We got a Durango and everything fit just right on Friday morning for the drive up to Freeport. My dad still had responsibilities at Southern New England through the weekend but fortunately we did get to see him for a few days in Freeport.

This year we had two tents rather than one which turned out to be really great...not just for the extra room but for the fact that our second tent was at the end of the row of tents.  This meant that we could set up our screen tents for our kitchen at the end of the row next to our new tent rather than between two tents that we did last year.  Much better!  In all, we now have six tents in our little village.  The sleeping arrangements were (1) Duncan, Corey, Brady, Colby (2) Nobody in our second tent...just food and clothes (3) Shawn and Camden, (4) Mom, Dad, Calleigh, Aubree, (5) Sean, Shannon, Finley, Griffin, (6) Aunt Toni, Aunt Lori (a few nights), Nanny (a few nights).  Camille started out sleeping in her tent with Winslow, who is now three months old, but it was tough going.  During the day it was too hot for her to nap, even with fans on her, because she has to be swaddled still and she woke up enough times at night to make it just not fun for Camille.  So she, along with Acadia, sought refuge at the Peltons after the first few nights and that worked out much better.  We really missed her in the evenings though!  Alison and Heath got a travel trailer a few weeks ago so they were in that this year with Tyson and Westin rather than a tent.  Kelly, Steve, and Caleb were also there, as usual, but were in the trailer community with Steve's family.

Tent # 1

Tent # 2.  Ricky actually slept in this tent a couple of nights while he was there.

Cooking and dining.

From another angle.  This was on the second Sabbath when the ground was wet so we moved the kids to the road.

The weather worked out pretty well for us.  I don't think I check the weather more often in the week leading up to campmeeting than the rest of the year put together.  Rain at campmeeting is like doomsday.  It is the absolute worst and a few days of it probably would have had us seeking other arrangements.  The weather was showing a great week all week.  Eventually, it started showing some rain for the end of the week but we really enjoyed the hot days through Thursday.  Duncan and I are obviously accustomed to the heat and when it's bright sunshine in the low 80's, it feels pretty good to us.  It did get REALLY hot in the tents during the day though so I only had Colby taking a morning nap in it (we got some shade from a tree in our second tent in the mornings) but for the afternoon naps for both of the boys, we would have drive around in the van.  At night, it gets pretty chilly so the kids wore sleeper pajamas and I would get all bundled up in several layers. It's pretty nice cuddling with the hubby on nights like those! This year we also ditched the air mattress that we had used the last two years.  I don't sleep very well on those with another person.  Instead, we used the beds that are provided and put a board under the mattress so the beds wouldn't creak every time you basically breathed.  Worked like a charm.  All the kids did so great with their sleeping.  I wasn't worried about Calaubra, of course, but Colby exceeded my expectations.  He would fall asleep nursing every night and I would transfer him seamlessly to his bed.  There were a couple of nights that he woke and I would bring him in our bed but it was only about two or three times and it was only once during the middle of the night.  The others were in the early morning.  So no screaming babies coming from the Grodack tent.

Speaking of Colby, this kid was like a whole new kid.  I seriously can't wait to be on vacation again.  His middle name is Cabot and one of his nicknames is Colby Cabby which recently had morphed into Colby Crabby, courtesy of Calleigh, I believe.  I have stated numerous times that if he were kid # 2 or # 3, there may not have been # 4 because he can be such a pill during the day...constantly wanting to be held, crying whenever I leave his sight, etc.  But it was like a transformation.  He barely cried at all and was perfectly content with other people holding him and all that. And he even popped out his first two teeth without a whimper. I don't know if it was the outdoors or what but I tell you, what a blessing it was not to deal with a crabby kid.  Apparently it must have been something or someone up there because as soon as we got home, he was right back to his old ways and maybe worse.  Fortunately this week things have gotten better.

Love this picture!

So what do we do with our day while we're up there?  The biggest thing is that the kids go to their meetings. For the 0-3 crowd, that is once a day from 11:00 - 12:15 which was taught once again by Janel Sabnani who is amazing.  She is such a great teacher which makes sense because she...is a teacher!  Colby didn't make it to many meeting because of his morning nap schedule but Brady was there usually with Duncan.  I woudln't say he was always perfectly engaged with everything...no fault of Janel's.  Sometimes he's in the mood to participate and do all the activities and then other times he's distracted with other stuff.  Here is something about him - - he will get fixated on some object and he'll carry that object around and play with it for the whole day.  It's usually some non toy item that strikes his fancy.  One day it was a tent stake. Another day it was a big ring to some game that you throw darts into.  He insists on taking it to the meetings, sleeping with it, etc.  On the last night we were there, he had that tent stake and he had it in his pack 'n play.  The next morning when we were packing up, Duncan chucked that thing way far away when Brady wasn't looking - - it was a piece nobody needed - - in the hopes to get rid of it. But Brady is like a dog with a bone.  A few minutes later he came trotting back to the tent, held it up all excited, "Look what I found!" It never occurred to him that his own father had tried to make it never be found again.  What was my point in all this?  Oh yes, it was a crapshoot on whether Brady participated in the meetings or not.

The theme was "The Farm"

Pretty happy to get one of the daily toys they gave out.

One of the few days that Colby made it and he tried to dig up the garden.

The girls were in separate classes this year.  Aubree is in kindergarten with Camden which met from 10:40 - 12:15 and from 3:40 - 5:15.  Those two are such pals and it was nice to be able to just drop them off together and they would be fine.  The theme this year was Joseph and one of the mornings Camden stated he didn't want to go because Joseph was going to get thrown into the pit that day.  But he must have been convinced to go somehow.  Their teachers are the sisters Kandice and Krista and again, we just love them. It takes some special people to lead a kids' class for three hours a day, nine days in a row especially when you aren't a teacher or a parent in "real" life.

They did slip 'n slide one afternoon.

Colby was content to watch them and eat watermelon.

Calleigh was now in primary and at first, she stated she wanted to still be with Aubree but then as soon as her friend from last year, Anani, showed up, she was good to go.  Bruno was also in her class because even though he is ten and now in juniors, he decided to stay with primary.   They met at the same times during the day and then also at night from 7:30 - 9:00.  Aubree would go with Calleigh to the evening class.  The big thing for Brady was going to pick up the girls from their class.  I would put Colby to bed at around 8:15 and I was tempted to put Brady to bed shortly thereafter but I was always afraid he wouldn't be tired enough and he would be too noisy and wake Colby up.  So I would put Brady's pajamas on and then let him play by the tents while the girls were in the meeting.  He would play with Camden for a bit (who is getting to stay up later!) and then just by himself.  He is perfectly content to be on his own, thankfully.  About 8:50, I would announce I was going to pick up the girls and he would get excited to come with me sitting in the stroller. When we got back, I would get the girls ready for bed and Duncan would take Brady to bed in the tent. Usually by that time he was pretty tired and he never woke Colby up with any noise (we did have a sound machine right next to Colby's crib so that helped a lot).    

Calleigh's class.

When it wasn't meeting time, the kids did a lot of playing in the big field next the tents, playing in the playground, playing in the tents with a few toys we brought, or going on various little trips around town. Brady just loved going to LL Beans, as he calls it and would get all excited if someone said we were going there.  He must have gone at least five different times and came back each time talking about the mooses (we need to work on his English, clearly), fish, etc.  One of the times that the girls were in their meeting, the remaining four of us in the family took a trip there to get a new duffle bag (I HIGHLY recommend the extra large LL Bean duffle bag...you can get so much stuff in it, it's never over the 50 pound weight limit and most importantly, you can fit four of them standing up in the back of a mini-van).  They have a photo booth in the kid section and I went in with both the boys to do pictures.  Brady got a huge kick out of making funny faces and I thought it was so neat that I got to do it with the boys since I've been taking pictures in there every summer with the girls.  I still sometimes pinch myself at how perfectly my family worked out...my two girls and now my two boys :)

Some of the boy cousins: Bode, Camden, Brady, Tyson, and Westin.  Missing: Caleb, Colby, & Griffin.

One day I got some sidewalk chalk from Target.  Bad idea.

Outing to McDonald's for some cheap ice cream.  Not that $4 stuff from Ben & Jerry's.

Acadia and Finley playing dolls.

Zasha and Luccia made an appearance on a couple of the days.

Fish tank at LL Bean

One of his excursions to LL Bean with Daddy...at 8:00 pm.

Yup, eating one of those $4 ice creams at 9:00 pm.  You're on vacation I guess!

Just hanging out with the cousins.  Love them all in the stripes!

Since the weather was so terrific, on Sunday afternoon we went to the beach at Winslow Park which is only about 12 or 13 minutes from the campground.  It isn't the world's greatest beach but the scenery is spectacular and is a perfectly fitting name for Winslow Brace.  It's so beautiful there that I insisted we all go back on Monday night for a hot dog supper and let the kids run around in the playground.  I'm sure Duncan knows undoubtedly where I get many of my traits from - - on the way there I asked my mother, "Do you have the fire starter?" "Yes," she says but we get there and she had left it back at camp.  Totally something I would do.  She and Duncan tried to start the camp stove using the cigarette lighter to no avail so she ended up tracking down some campers and borrowing theirs.  Problem solved.  

Back for supper the next day.

Saluting Gigi as she rolled in with the fire starter.

The boys played on this wooden boat the whole time.  Brady had such a good time!

Eating weanies next to Finley.

My dad got to campmeeting on Monday evening so on Tuesday we decided to take a trip to Popham Beach which is about a 45-minute or so drive from Freeport.  It is well worth the time because it's just beautiful.  I was a little hesitant about the beach with Colby because it had been anything but a relaxing time when we had gone to the beach for Memorial Day.  He kept trying to eat the sand and just needed constant supervision.  Nevertheless, I was excited about our beach day.  We got a perfect spot, quite a ways from the actual ocean but right near a little wading pool formed when the tide had gone out.  It was perfect for the kids to "swim" around in.  The ocean water up in Maine is like a thousand times colder than here in Florida so it's actually way better to just be in a little wading pool! Colby was a freak of nature.  He ate sand only about one time and was perfectly content to play with all the toys and crawl here and there but stay right where we were. I was dumbfounded.  At one point, my mom took him to the wading pool and watched him while he splashed around next to the other kids and I actually laid back on the sand and took a little snooze. Heaven!  And speaking of snoozing, we got there at about 10:00 am.  Almost immediately, Brady said he wanted his binky so I asked if he wanted to just sit in the stroller with it.  He slept in there for almost two hours.  Poor kid was worn out from so much campmeeting fun.  So the beach was a big hit although the aftermath was not so much.  We were covered with sand but the showers to clean off had only one water temperature which felt like about -50 degrees.  Talk about shrinkage!  You seriously could barely keep a limb under it for more than two seconds.  There were more than a few sandy bums on the way home.

Sleeping Brady.

So glad to have Papa around this year!

Colby in the water.

The rain did eventually get to us but not until some on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  It rained heavily for awhile after we were in bed on Thursday night but we were very glad to see it gone on Friday morning. It was the 4th of July and we had some big plans.  First up was Duncan running in the LL Bean 10k race which he did with Ron Pelton.  That took place at 7:30.  Ron picked him up and then we all went to the finish line around 8:30 and got there just in time to see him finish.  At 9:10 was the one mile fun run which Calleigh, Aubree, Camden, Acadia, Brady, and Finley participated in.  The adults did too but we didn't get the numbers for our shirts.  I went at a slow pace pushing Colby in the stroller but Duncan ran with the kids and they actually ran the whole time, including Brady.  Seriously, they are better athletes than I!  After that was the parade down Main St.  The sky was ominous and we felt a few drops but the weather held and the parade went off without a hitch.  I personally love a parade so it was one of the highlights of my time there.  The kids got a ton of candy (including a piece that hit Winslow in the head) which was thrown from the various floats.  They had a few pieces and now it is sitting on the top shelf of our pantry and has apparently been forgotten as I was hoping!  Later in the afternoon, the skies opened up and it started pouring and continued that way for the rest of the day.  But it stopped during the night and Sabbath ended up being a great day so I think we ended up pretty good with the weather all things considered.    

Ron and Duncan

Who knows if he saw something really exciting or if he's just making one of his numerous funny faces.

No thanks

Awesome picture that Camille took.

For our meals, the ladies each took a day to make the supper so we didn't have to cook every night.  I took the first Saturday night (tacos) and it felt good to get it out of the way.  We ate breakfast every day at the tents but for lunch we pretty much ended up at the snack bar after their midday meeting got out.  The grilled cheeses and hot dogs are $1.50 and I couldn't see myself making the effort of preparing a meal when the food is that cheap!

Eating at the snack bar.

Despite the news that we got the last evening about the fire, we had a terrific time.  Some who have children that might not have done as well as mine during the nights may think differently but for me, I love it!  More importantly, the kids love it and who doesn't love to see their kids having fun?!

I wanted to mention one awkward thing that happened there with Calleigh as reported to me by my mother. There was a 5-year girl there named Charlie was was attending with her grandparents who had an RV next to Alison and Heath.  She latched on to Tyson and came over to our tent with him one day.  Someone asked her if she had any siblings and when she said "no" they responded by saying "Oh, well, maybe you will someday." And she replied, in front of Calleigh, "No, I won't because my dad isn't going to put his seed in my mother's belly." Calleigh just looked at her wide eyed, trying to figure out the meaning of this and then finally said something like "Well, there are other ways." Fortunately she has not asked for more information on this whole seed thing!

Other pictures from campmeeting:

The girls' friend Anani.  She was pretty much with us all the time because her parents just let her roam around unsupervised.  We find this quite interesting since we don't even let any of our kids leave our sight.

Girl cousin photo op!  Kelly, Alison, Shannnon, and Corey (the friendly giant).

Aubree and Camden's class had a parade on July 4...not that you can tell it's a parade from this picture!

It's hard not to stop taking pictures of the "twins."

Heath and Alison

Ricky and Eric

Ana, Yully, and David.

Sean and Griffin

The Peltons had us over for supper one evening and they have a big black dog which did NOT go over well with the kids.  But eventually they warmed up to her.

Griffin turned one on July 2 and we had a cake for him.

Leigh and Bode.

On Sunday our flight didn't leave until 5:50 so we didn't need to rush to leave.  Some other did though because there was a big family wedding in the afternoon.  My second cousin, Adam (Megan's brother) was getting married.  We had contemplated changing our tickets and staying until Monday morning but I just didn't see myself going back to my parents' house and having to partially unload stuff and then re-load again to leave the next day.  But maybe we should have.  We got to the airport at about 4:00 and then at 5:00 they said our flight was delayed until 7:45.  I muttered to myself "Whose bright idea was it to fly into Orlando in the summer at that time of day?" Yeah, yeah, it was me.  So we had some time to kill at the airport.  Colby killed about 15 minutes of it by doing a big poop explosion in the highchair while we were eating supper. Thanks kid!  On the bright side, since it was now later in the day and close to bedtime, Colby slept about 90% of the flight.  The other three eventually fell asleep too so it was a pretty peaceful flight until we had to jerk them awake and walk all through the airport.  Mercifully, Allen (and family!) was there to pick us up so Duncan didn't have to retrieve our car from long term parking at 11:30 at night.  We have wonderful friends, what can I say!

So now we're back and things are going on.  I don't have time to recount it all so I will let the pictures do the talking.

Went to Mimi's Cafe on the 9th to celebrate Jennifer's 35th birthday.

Kids were a little wild so we were glad to have a separate room.

Hmm.  What do we have here?  No children were harmed in the filming of this.

Time for this!  We actually did not use safety locks with the other three kids because we were able to keep the kitchen closed off in our other house.  Not an option here.

Tiffany and Anthony came over for supper Friday night and I gave them preemie clothes for Greyson.

Calleigh threw up a couple of times Friday night.  It was a short night which is why I found her and also Aubree sleeping when I woke up from my Sabbath afternoon nap.  Thankfully it was only a 24-hour bug.

Playing at the Z's during a birthday party for Addison and Devin.

Birthday girl

Birthday boy.

I guess this face means it was good?

I went to visit Greyson in the hospital on Sunday afternoon.  He was born June 16 at 27 weeks weighing 2 lbs, 10 oz..  Almost a month old and almost to 4 pounds!

Haitian free?  That's a little cold, isn't it??!

Man, I love couponing.  These four items for $3.74 including tax (normally about $35). Also got a huge baby haul at Target on Saturday night.  Seriously, that data breach was the best thing to happen because they have such good deals now.  Maybe the breacher (not a word, apparently) was a couponer.  Just sayin'.

Cleaning out the toy closet and came across some stuff we hadn't used in awhile.

A Brady story in closing.  Ricky lost his wedding ring a few months ago at my house.  He was CERTAIN he had lost it upstairs and we looked everywhere for it with no luck especially after he promised a reward. Fast forward to the day before campmeeting and as the kids are playing with the couch cushions downstairs, Brady finds the missing ring!  He was so excited because he remembered the cash reward.  While we were at campmeeting, Ricky paid up and gave Brady $10 (and the girls $5 each).  I told Brady that we had to give $1 of it to Jesus and that we needed to put some aside to save but the rest he could spend at yard sales if he wanted...which of course he did!  But he was really having a hard time with the thought of not keeping that $1 for himself and stated several times that he did NOT want to give it to Jesus.  I talked to him about a little but didn't press it.  And then this happened at the end of the day:
Me:"Good night Brady." I start leaving the room.
Brady:"Wait!  Mom.  Come back."
Me:"Yes?"
Brady:"I AM going to give the money to Jesus."
Me:"Oh great!  That is going to make him so happy.  You can give it to him tomorrow at church."
Brady (you can see the wheels turning in his brain):"He's going to be there??!!"

Have a great week!