Family Camp

Last weekend the 3 of us went to the Moms, Pops & Tots family camp at Camp Magruder - my favorite place on earth. My friend Christina and I were the deans of this family camp designed for families with kids ages 2-5. As far as dean's jobs go, this one was pretty easy. We put together some fun family activities (to the left is a photo of Sophia, Paul & Gabe enjoying a "micro-hike" where you examine things very close to the ground with a magnifying glass), organized free time and threw together morning worship and campfires.

I went to camp at Magruder with my family and my church as a kid, and in high school. It's a very important place to me, as is the experience of going to camp. Paul didn't spend much time at camp as a kid, and never went to a church camp. So he was very brave to come with me into this world in which I'm quite familiar and comfortable. He was a good sport and says he had a great time. I even believe him! It probably helped that one of his closet friends, Derek, was there with 2 of his sons. So Paul had a friend who also had never been to this camp to hang out with.

Sophia loved it. From the moment we got out of the car she was running around, giggling in delight and very excited. She says that her favorite thing about camp was riding the donkeys, and Jenny was her favorite. She also says she enjoyed boating. Each time we'd take her on the big swing, properly supported by Paul, she'd laugh and giggle like crazy. She also enjoyed craft time, but her patience for that was pretty limited. I'd been teaching Sophia some of the camp songs, so she was able to sing along with a lot of the music at campfire and she had lots of fun with the other kids. I couldn't have hoped for a better first experience at camp for Paul and Sophia. Christina and I are committed to being deans of this camp for the next two years, so I'm glad Sophia and Paul want to go back!

Sophia tries to get all the attention

A few weeks ago, Sophia's day care was closed for the week. We weren't sure that I was up to having her on my own all week, so we hired the daughter of a friend to come help me. Sophia loved having Jane here to play with. Jane had lots more energy than I did and was very patient and fun for Sophia. Sophia's best day care friend, Julie, came over for a few weeks and Sophia really loved having her friend in her space, where she can rule the roost. It ended up being a wonderful week.

Then Uncle Patrick and Aunt Meghan came to visit and we spent the weekend in Battle Ground with the family. It was a bit tight with 10 of us there, but we had so much fun! Sophia got enough attention from everyone that she didn't mind too much when Lindsey was getting attention too, although she often would want to be involved. She got to help give Lindsey a bath on Saturday night. (Bath and other photos from the weekned here on Lindsey's blog.) On a visit to a park, Uncle Barry helped Sophia climb a large, fake, rock and she was quite proud to be up so high. There was also a fun game of uncle-jumping. She loved riding a tire swing with Uncle Patrick. Aunt Meghan spent a tremendous amount of time reading to Sophia and playing with her. Meghan is a braver soul than I am and tried playing Risk with the boys. Sophia and Lindsey managed to keep the rest of us entertained while the game was on.

Last Saturday my parents came to visit. She got in my mother's lap and they read stories. I hadn't realized that Sophia could still well enough for this to be possible and it was wonderful to see. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it.

Sunday Sophia and I attended a baby shower and she got to wear her offical "party dress." Whenever someone would compliment her on it she would say "this is my party dress." After the party, we pulled out the air matrass, ordered pizza and watched Finding Nemo. It was great fun and Sohpia was a bit dissapointed on Monday when we told her we would eat at the table that night.