camp drop off 2018.

Can you believe it’s been a whole year since we sent our oldest away to camp for the first time!? Boy, was that emotional for me.

This summer our nearly-9-year-old wanted to join in the fun. It’s funny how things go with kids. They get to have the same experiences progressively younger, don’t they? So Amelie is a whole year younger than when Judah was for his first time. He forged the way and showed us all how wonderful it is and made her want to go. Don’t we love our oldest “experiment kids”!? I’m speaking as an oldest experiment kid, of course.

This year we took along some good buddies, Jon Mack and Hannah. Their dad is a pastor and took a church in Greenville this spring, and saying good-bye to their family this year was hard. So we’re all excited for the kids to spend a week at camp together. Judah and Amie are also excited to have their cousin Owen and a couple of other friends there.

Some very generous volunteers helped build all new girls’ cabins at Bethel this year, and they are amazing! Look at those wood floors!

Amie and Hannah are both worried about missing their Mom and Dad, so I’m glad they have each other to talk to about it. In some ways it was harder for me to leave Amie because she’s more like me; and I got terribly homesick at camp. But I remember also having a wonderful time and feeling like it was all worth it in the end. I know she’s going to do great.

The most torturous part is spending 6 nights apart not knowing. We can send email and snail mail to our campers, but they can’t communicate with us. I’m sure it’s for the best.

Bethel Christian Camp has the sweetest atmosphere, and I instantly loved Amie’s two camp counselors. In the five minutes after we met, we talked a mile-a- minute about books, and David laughed at the difference between girls and boys. He said, “I could barely get two words out of the guy counselors.”

I can’t wait to hear about all their adventures!

Here’s the boys too-cool-for school photo when David dropped them off.

David: “Okay, I want you guys to do a good job of being friendly and including other guys!”

Jon Mack: “I’m a pastor’s kid. I know how to include people.”

The house is awfully quiet today without our two big kids but we’re so excited for them.

Gabe was dying to go too, but we told him he needs to wait until next summer when he’s 8 (see, the third will be even younger). Apparently we have a tradition of consolation Pelican Snoballs after drop-off (try the black cherry with cream. it’ll change your life).

I’m very excited for a week of quality time with our 7-and-5-year-old!