Vacation Part 1: Campmeeting 2016

The kids and I left for campmeeting on Wednesday, July 13 which meant that we had ten days between getting back from Utah and leaving for up north. It felt like it was just long enough to get laundry done and repacked! The summer definitely felt like it was moving by quickly.

Last year we were all aghast when campmeeting was scheduled for the second week of August due to a variety of factors. We were not pleased and were hoping for new dates for this year...which we got. This year it was July 15 - 23. I was not altogether pleased with those dates either since it meant that Duncan would not be able to go to all of both campmeeting and Nova Scotia as they would be back to back. When campmeeting was held the last weekend of June/first weekend of July it had worked out so nicely because it gave us a nice gap between events and also it was so neat being in Freeport on July 4. In hindsight, it was perfect that it wasn't those dates after all since we would have had the Utah conflict. Plus, I suppose it IS nice not having to fly up twice during the summer.

Since Duncan was obviously not going to take three plus weeks off work, it was just the kids and I that departed that Wednesday evening. As we drove to the airport (where Ron and Elaine met us to take the van home with them), I explained to the kids that since there were only five of us, and there were six seats in a row across, most likely one of us would have to sit next to someone we didn't know. That got them in a little bit of a tizzy (mostly the girls) but we finally worked it out that it would be Brady sitting next to a random person. It sort of felt like the lottery when we boarded the plane and sat down and waited to see who it would be. Thankfully it ended up being a mom who had the dad sit with her kids while she sat with mine. It worked out perfectly! The kids were really great on the plane and I actually dared to think "Wow, I am enjoying this time of quiet where I can read my book."

Obviously, I was sitting next to this kid.

The mom who sat next to Brady.

Campmeeting started on Friday but I like to get up north with an extra day to spare so that I can get all of our stuff organized. I leave bedding, toys, tables, etc in my parent's basement so all that needs to come out and get packed up. My dad was already in Nova Scotia so it was just my mom who would be coming up with us. She took Friday off from work so we were able to get a pretty early start for the three hour drive to Freeport. The kids were very anxious to see their cousins! I did rent a car for two days because we weren't able to fit everything into just the van. I had to laugh when I picked the car up at Enterprise. The guy took down all my info and printed off the paperwork for me to sign and explained he was the manager and to give him a call if I needed anything. We go outside to inspect the vehicle and as I'm signing off on it on the paper, I notice that the lessor of the vehicle says "Shirley Casey." I was like "What in the world?" The most bizarre thing. The manager said that my phone number must have been hooked to her name somehow and it just autofilled her name in. Clearly he should have noticed that! I'm still scratching my head because when would I have ever helped Aunt Shirley rent a car?

The cousins soon arrived after we did and the festivities officially began. And what a great week it was. I know there are some who don't find campmeeting quite as relaxing and charming as I do but I truly love it. Once again, this year I splurged and got us all passes to eat our meals at the cafeteria (along with Shawn and Camille who get it free). Honestly, it's like being on a cruise for me. When I don't have to cook and clean up, it's pretty much the best thing ever. But beyond that, I feel very relaxed while I'm there. The kids have their meetings, friends, activities and I can spend a good portion of the time sitting under a tree just watching them and chitchatting with whomever happens by. In the evenings, the kids would conk out pretty fast after their busy day and then the adults would sit in our extra tent (too buggy outside) talking. When things broke up, it would only be about 11:00 pm, leaving plenty of time for some reading. What's not to love?? Yes, some people complain that it's too hot (not at night where sometimes it would get too chilly) but I love it being sunny and in the 80's which is what it was pretty much every day.

Unloading and organizing

Which one is my tent and which is...

Camille's?

Enjoying a bag of grapes that seemed to disappear very quickly.

This year some of the kids were in new classes. Calleigh should have still been in Primary for this last year along with Aubree and Camden who just entered it but when she realized her friend Anoni was going to Juniors this year, she begged to go too. Our friend Kathy was the teacher and she was fine with Calleigh attending. I think it was the right choice. Kathy is a great teacher with a lot of singing and hands on stuff both of which Calleigh loves. They had meetings four times a day with the crazy time being at 7:00 am every morning! But Calleigh got up faithfully each morning because a guy was telling a continuing story and she didn't want to miss it.

The Junior tent

Hard to see but Calleigh got a backpack in her class to keep all her projects and such and she wore it every day, every where.

Aubree and Acadia performed "Sanctuary" one evening while I did a little talk about my trip to Russia when I was in high school (Kathy was focusing on missionaries and the continents as her theme).

As I mentioned, Aubree and Camden had their first year in Primary. They had new teachers this year - a lady and her father who came in from Washington state. They have sort of a business and I was never clear if they were paid to come or not - - they were friends with the lady in charge of all the kids programs for campmeeting. They are more conservative than what we've experienced in past years so it was a bit of a change. Things started off rather slowly but improved over the week and they did enjoy themselves. We did have an interesting thing take place though one of the days. The class was going out one afternoon to a garden for a field trip. They were supposed to take the bus but something fell through and they had to take the kids in people's car and vans instead. I quickly volunteered to drive Aubree, Camden, and Colby (who was with me) in Shawn and Camille's van. As we all started loading up, I realized that all of the kids were getting into random people's vehicles and not one kid had a booster seat. There were quite a few kids smaller than Aubree and Camden who are certainly still in booster seats. I told the older gentleman teacher who was loading six girls into his van (which was a little odd in itself), "Some of the kids still need to be in boosters. Do their parents know they aren't taking the bus and are in this van now?" Unless things have changed, my understanding is that a bus is a bus and you don't use boosters or car seats in it which is what parents thought their kids were taking when they signed permission slips. The teacher says "Oh, I thought they didn't need them anymore." I was quick to inform him that the recommended height is 57 inches which my 9-year old hadn't even reached yet and she's tall for her age. These kids are WAY shorter and plus, it's a decision a parent should be making, not a teacher. I don't know if they were too happy with me for making a fuss but I would have been pretty peeved if Aubree had been driven off in a stranger's van with no booster. In the end, they contacted parents and it all worked out although we ended up with only about 30 minutes to spend at our actual destination. But can you imagine if there had been an accident or something??

Primary

They worked on a health "passport" over the course of the week which involved measuring various things like height, weight, oxygen levels. etc.

At the gardens on the field trip. It was very pretty so I guess it was worth it in the end!

Primary singing for the adults on the last Sabbath.

Last year Brady had primarily attended Cradle Roll even though he was four. This year, he did make it to his regular class, Kindergarten, along with Acadia and also the extended cousins of Tyson and Finley. Since Cradle Roll only meets in the morning, last year I had tried to get him to go to Kindergarten in the afternoons but he never wanted to and I didn't push it. This year, he did go although towards the end he started complaining a little. He also attended the Primary night meeting since Kindergarten doesn't have one. It was easier to get him to go to that one since Camden was there.

Finally, there's Colby who is in his last year of Cradle Roll. I can't believe I'm saying that! I suppose technically he'll still be three next year but almost four and I'm sure we will move on so he can be with Brady. The aforementioned lady, Lisa, who was teaching Primary with her dad, also taught Cradle Roll for its one session a day. Our friend,Janel Tyson, had always taught Cradle Roll and she was so good at it. She has a really nice loud voice and is very engaging with the kids. We knew she wouldn't be doing it this year and we knew it would be "tough" accepting a new teacher and then when the new teacher ended up being her opposite, it made it doubly hard. She did not get off on the right foot when for the first class, she had technical issues for the first 30 minutes of it. We could clearly see that there was a problem with the computer and she was busily trying to fix it but she never acknowledged us once as in "Welcome to Sabbath School. I'm trying to fix this problem but we should be starting shortly." It was very strange. Oh, how we yearned for Janel. But, we did give her a chance and things did improve like they did for Primary. It was definitely a different style of program than in years past but I will say the crafts were really excellent and Colby loved doing them.

Teacher Lisa

The kids had a terrific time playing with all the cousins and friends they've made over the years. One girl, Kira (aged seven), who lived in a nearby tent, latched onto us somehow (I don't mean that in a bad way or anything just that one day she appeared and started playing with Colby and there was never any formal introductions). We noticed that she never went to any of the meetings though. I would say about Tuesday evening Camille asked her why she didn't go and she told us that her mom couldn't take her because she (meaning her mom) couldn't walk far. Camille volunteered to walk her up and the mom came over to ask what time the meeting ended and when Camille said "8:30" the mom said "Oh, that's a good time. Better than 9:00." When Camille went to pick up our kids, she brought Kira back with her too but we noticed that Kira's mom wasn't at her tent. I told Kira she could just stay around our tent for awhile and I'm sure her mom would be back. Kira would keep checking every few minutes but each time, her mom wasn't back. She was starting to get a little worried so I asked her if she knew her phone number and I could call her mom. She gives me a number but I quickly see that it's only seven digits. It's missing the area code. I asked Kira if she lived in Maine but she didn't know...only that she lived on Main Street. I still put a Maine area code on to the number but it didn't work. By this time, it's after 9:00 pm and Calleigh is back from her meeting and I need to get my kids into bed but I don't want to just leave Kira there. We check again and no luck. Where has the mom gone and why isn't she back?? Finally, at 9:15, I tell Camille that maybe while I put the kids to bed, she should take Kira to find security. Maybe they could look up the tent info and find the mom's name and her phone number or something. As I head to the bathroom with the girls I finally notice Kira's mom walking nonchalantly to her tent. I said "We were getting worried! They got out of class at 8:30 and Kira has been looking for you." "Oh," She says. "I was just up in the gym and I was going to check down here for her and then go to the class and look." For someone who couldn't walk, she sure was getting around. Also, we had specifically said the class got done at 8:30 and it's now 9:15 so what the heck?!! It was all so weird. Camille came back a few minutes later and Kira was crying with relief. Then, the really, really weird part was the next night, it all happened again. The mom didn't show up at our tent until 9:15 again but at least this time Kira wasn't so worried. I just don't get parents sometimes.

Kira

I sure missed having Duncan around but the nice thing was that he was planning to fly into Portland on Wednesday evening so that he would be there for the second half of the week. His flight, coming through Baltimore, was supposed to leave Orlando at 6:50 pm. At about 4:00 pm, I got a call from my mom (who had gone to back home and to work for Tuesday - Thursday) saying "I just saw on the news that Southwest is having some kind of problem and they're in a ground hold." Just great! Of all the days. I called Duncan who was en route to the airport at the moment thanks to Megan. It was the first he had heard of it. Sure enough, when he got there, it was a bunch of chaos. He did manage to check his bags (using a paper and pencil method) and get to the gate where they eventually cancelled the first leg of his flight which meant there was no way he was getting to Portland. Of course, they already had his bags so he had to wait around to get those back and then have Megan come all the way back to pick him up. We were so disappointed. I knew things would probably be bad the next day too and there was no way I was chancing him not making it another day so Southwest was out and Delta was in. I still had some frequent flier miles from the old days so I was able to book him a flight into Boston using those and then my mom picked him up on her way back up. So, instead of getting there at 12:30 am Thursday morning, he didn't get there until 5:00 pm on Thursday. But, what can you do? Southwest did send an apology and he gets 50% off a future flight so at least it's something.

Daddy surprised them in class. One happy girl!

Duncan took the boys to LLBean one day. Weird - - not sure why this picture is backwards.

We had such great weather all week. One day early on it rained in the morning and then that was it for rain until the very end - - the last Sabbath. It started clouding up in the afternoon and pretty soon it was obvious that storms were imminent. Not sure if I've mentioned it here before but Aubree has developed this horrible, horrible fear of thunder and lightening, particularly lightening. I have no idea what caused it but it has gone on for several months and she goes totally bonkers and doesn't care who is listening or watching. If there is any hint of anything, she'll get my phone to look at the radar to see what's going on. So it was that afternoon. I could tell she was already getting worked up and then she grabs my phone and starts going bersirk, "Pink is coming! Pink is coming!!" Pink is the color on the radar for the bad stuff. Once she gets like that it's almost impossible to calm her down. But we finally did long enough for Duncan to take them all up to class which is in the school and thus much safer. The storm did come through but it was mostly some bad wind and rain. Supposedly there was more coming so we were glad we got out of there Saturday night to head up to Nova Scotia.

Some other random pictures from the week:

The first Sabbath. I had gotten the kids all matching outfits so we tried to get some good cousin pictures. Not sure it turned out super great but it was fun!

Off to Sabbath School.

The "twins"

Every one else thought it was too hot for their kids to nap in the tent but I was like "We're Floridians!" I had two battery operated fans blowing on him and he did just fine.

Play Doh was a big hit for young and old alike.

Taking a bath in the sink which he thought was the greatest thing.

The kids had a couple of water fights with some of the bigger boys which Camden declared as the greatest water fight ever. Aubree was taking a break here.

One afternoon I took the boys to the ABC (which is in the school) for a special drink. Love how Brady is looking at Camden here. The cool older cousin!