Back from camp / Camp review

We got back on Saturday afternoon. I am not really sure how to start this post, I feel like I have a hundred things to record. We were with out phone or internet for a week while at camp since the location is so far in the woods. We could occasionally get cell phone reception on the top deck of the registration office building, but it was not a consistent signal. We made the drive down there in one day. It took about 7 hours of driving. We went to Ozark Family Camp and the location was at Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp. This camp runs all through the summer with kids mostly, and the last three weeks are dedicated to families. Turns out this week we went was family reunion week. Our friends Randy and Kim Costello invited us. Randy is the director of that week of camp, so he got us in. I guess its tough to get in since the camp is 100% packed with in a week of the registration letters going out in the mail. THRBC is located 4 miles east of Freeburg, MO. The road to get there is only 4 miles long, but it takes 10-15 min to navigate through the hills, tight curves in the road, and over the rough gravel. The hills, oh my, the hills!! They don't call it Turkey Hill for nothing. The registration office/eating hall is the highest elevation. Everything else is downhill from there. The cabins, the chapel hall, the park, etc...was all down hill. Not very stroller friendly, and made a good work out for the legs that week. All the cars park at an angle, making good use out of a parking break! Violet complained about the hills a lot. Calvin got carried almost everywhere. Violet was especially excited about camp because her friend (Randy and Kim's daughter) Katie was there, too. When we finally got there and parked the vehicle, I knew we got in right at dinner time, so we went straight to eat. Violet and Katie caught eyes and ran towards each other with so much speed I thought they were going to collide...it was like a scene in a movie. Two little friends running at each other with the biggest grins on their faces. They were all giddy and laughing the rest of the night. I don't think either of them ate a bite of their dinner they were so excited. The "camp" was more like a conference. We didn't really expect that. And I don't know how to come across like I'm NOT complaining, because I'm not, because the meetings were great and the teaching was solid and encouraging. But we had certain expectations, and it was very different from what we thought, so we had to quickly adjust. We knew there would be meetings/devotionals since it was a Bible camp, but the entire morning from 9-noon was filled with meetings. The first hour was singing and classes where the kids went somewhere and the men and women split up. Violet went to class, and Calvin stayed with Dave or I - there was no nursery or anything for him to do. He wasn't really thrilled about that, but we got through it. He's really at a difficult age - 18 months. He wanted to run and explore every corner of every building. The afternoons were free to do whatever activity you wanted, but we had to stay close to our cabin since the kids both slept for naps from around 1-3:30. Dave and I went swimming in the pool a couple times, played ping pong one time, and went on a tube float down the river one time. A neighbor offered to keep an ear out for crying while we were gone on the tube float. The one time we allowed someone else to be responsible for our children was the time that Calvin woke up screaming - so she went in to discover he was mad about a dirty diaper - so she changed it and some how got him back to sleep with out disturbing Violet's sleep. The evening was occupied with another meeting. One guy (Warren Henderson) did the majority of the teaching. He covered Exodus 14-16 for the week. The rooms were really like camping. A tiny room, a little bathroom, bunk beds with fiberboard bases and flimsy mattresses. We rearranged the room so that Dave and I could share two bottom bunks put together and we arranged all our stuff on the top bunks so nothing was on the little floor space available. Calvin was in a pack and play crib in the corner, and Violet was in the other corner against out bed at a 90 degree angle in the bottom of another bunk. She wet the bed one night, so I had to haul all her bedding to the laundry room and borrow someone else's detergent. We found an air conditioner that nobody was using and put it in our window, so that brought a little relief to the hot sweaty days and nights. It was also a little challeninging being "the new ones" at the conference in the midst of a bunch of extended families using this week as their family reunion. Everybody was really welcoming and warm, but we still had to meet everybody new for the first time (everybody there already knew everybody and had been coming for years) and learn names every time we turned around. That got a little tiring. But we did meet some great couples and families that we connected with. On Monday night Dave and I had gotten the kids to bed around 9 or so, then didn't really know what to do. Most of the families would go to places they could hang out and talk together, we didn't feel like we fit in much. We ended up sitting on a bench on the deck by our room that night, and a guy from the room on the opposite end of our lodge invited us down to their side of the deck to hang out with his wife and some other friends. It turned out to be pretty fun. They brewed some fresh ground decaf coffee and handed out snacks. We talked for a couple hours and enjoyed some kid-free adult conversation. One of the couples was Randy's brother Mark and his wife Rachel. They are "the farm" that Randy and Kim visit often. They live in southern Iowa. The other couples we talked with were Mike and Julie and Glen and Joy. Dave exchanged information with Mike. He said his sister lives in Waterloo and if they ever came up to visit, they would call us. I think the highlight of the camp was seeing Violet blossom and open up to so many people. Its still weird for me to have a kid who can talk clearly, convey her thoughts and intentions, and handle herself for the most part. She listens pretty well. We still have to work on all the whining! I guess its all part of growing up! She loved running around with Katie, of course, but she became friends with almost all the kids in the class she went to. Julia is Katie's cousin (Mark and Rachel's daughter) and she is 5 - she played really well with her. People seemed to enjoy her silliness. Violet got to go swimming a few times. She clung to her fishy floatie and was all over the pool. Her favorite thing was jumping in the pool with her floatie on. I think she even got her eyes wet a couple times, which is a pretty big deal to her. Calvin took a long time to warm up to swimming. He fussed and cried for almost an hour before he was comfortable playing in the kiddie pool. I think his week was slightly frustrating. There was no where for him to go and play during the meetings, and the playground was totally not suited toward kids his age. He got scared on the slides (they were really rickety and steep) and plenty of dangers. Everyone ended up catching the same cold before the week was over. Stuffy noses, congested sinuses, runny noses, and a cough. All the kids were sniffling and coughing all over camp. On our way down we realized how close we drove past Albia, IA where my grandparents live. We called them as we were driving down and proposed a visit on Friday night on our way home. Grandma Rowena thought that was a great idea, so we stuck to the plan. I am so glad we visited them. Its always nice to see them. She let me do ALL my laundry from the week using her soap and machines, so I got to come home with completely clean packed clothes. Unpacking was easy! Nothing went to my laundry room. We got to see a little parade in the little town of Albia that honored the vets who fought in the war. My grandpa Loren wore his infantry hat and waved to use from his float. Next post I'll include a few pictures.