camp drop-off, 2023.
Well, I discovered Sunday that if there’s anything more bittersweet than dropping a beloved child off at summer camp for two weeks, it’s dropping three of them off.
After an extremely long, busy week — a week that threatened to make my brain explode — of preparing myself and our four kids to travel in different directions, we loaded the van and drove up to the mountains on Sunday. David and Amie stayed home for church and for Amie to leave for her own trip to North Carolina with some friends.
Our packing week was so full that I actually found the three-hour drive to Cashiers, NC, restful.
I’d chosen an audio book for us, the newest Alan Gratz novel, Two Degrees. While no one expressed enthusiasm at my choice (Judah wanted to listen to his Spotify playlist; Gabe wanted to read The Guinness Book of World Records 2o22, Noah wanted to talk nonstop), we were all hooked from the very beginning. All I’ll say is that it’s an adventure story that involves three kids, a California wildfire, a polar bear, and a hurricane. Talk about making your brain explode.
The boys and I exclaimed and laughed and chatted on the drive up, pausing the book to discuss redwood trees and global warming and my childhood hurricane parties growing up in Florida, while snacking on Goldfish crackers, baby carrots, and movie theater candy boxes from Target (that’s our kids’ favorite road trip treat. Or anytime treat, actually!).
And then, the joy that is Deerfoot Lodge, our favorite camp.
This is Judah’s third year attending, and I loved seeing his excitement as we arrived and checked in and he recognized lots of faces. He was clearly back in his happy place. Gabe and Noah didn’t remember Judah’s first drop-off in 2019, and were immediately enthralled with the wild, green, simple beauty of this little corner of the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains.
Noah exclaimed, “This is the best day of my life.”
Is there anything in the world like Gabe and Noah’s boundless enthusiasm for life?
It’s a constant check on the rest of our family to cultivate wonder rather than cynicism.
Deerfoot has had such a tremendous impact on Judah’s life that David and I are thrilled that the younger boys are able to join him this year.
The camp is divided into three sections by age, so they’ll be in the youngest and Judah the oldest. But it’s a small camp (about 100 campers per two-week session), so they’ll see plenty of each other. Gabe and Noah are in separate cabins that are next-door to one another, and our whole family agreed that’s probably for the best. They are best friends but are getting to that age in which some space is needed from time to time.
Happy camp, boys! We miss you already!
