We did, indeed, listen to Mercy Watson (Sean requested it often) and Tale of Despereaux (at Trevor's request). It was a great tool for keeping the boys quieter during the evenings, when we would come back and have a small snack before brushing teeth and heading to bed. Keeping them quiet was actually quite a challenge this year. We were in a larger cabin, Goldfinch, which had a room for them (with two sets of bunk beds) and a room for me and a front sitting room with a small table, couch and chair. I attempted to keep them in the front room or bathroom as opposed to the bedroom areas because the walls were paper-thin and these were the only two rooms which didn't border another unit. The first night, I was kept awake for a bit by our neighbors who talked into the night and then awoken at 3 a.m. by their coughing baby (I could have sworn that baby had croup - I know the sound of croup, thanks to Sean). However, they really weren't a problem after the first night, when they must have realized how easily sound carries in this particular adjoining set of cabins. Instead, WE were the problem.
Wednesday morning, as I was coming out of the bathroom after my shower, I heard the Dad yell loudly, "Thanks for waking up my children!" When I asked the boys what they had been doing while I was in the shower, they explained that they had been tossing Trevor's water bottle around. It must have hit their wall and woken their two quiet girls (I believe parents with girls will never understand the boisterous nature of boys). I felt horrible. This was the one morning where families were allowed to sleep in and we had woken them at 7:30.
Actually, our internal clocks (set to Indianapolis' Eastern time zone) were greatly appreciated. It made getting the boys up to bed after the evening program fairly easy, since by the time they went to bed each night it was 10:30 Eastern time. Plus, we never missed breakfast once. They tended to wake at 7:15 each morning (Central time) and breakfast is one of the best meals at camp (waffles, omelets, french toast sticks, bacon and eggs, etc).
We tried to stay out of the cabin during the afternoon free-time (I assumed that the neighbors' 2 and 4 year old girls would be napping during that time). The very first day, we drove into town and purchased ice for our cooler and worms for our fishing. We headed down to the pier and found our good friend, Todd, already there fishing. On Trevor's first cast, he brought in a 19 inch large-mouth bass. Todd exclaimed, "Hey, that's the fish I've been fishing for all day!" Todd helped him get it off the hook and then snapped a photo on his cell phone. Sadly, when he tried to send me the photo it didn't go through. Man, I wish I had a photo of that fish. It was enormous. We know that it was 19 inches because there is always a "Biggest fish" competition (Trevor won first place with that fish) and we were able to measure his shirt (in the photo, the fish went from the neck of his shirt to the bottom). Both boys caught loads of blue gill and a couple other medium sized fish. Sean was eager to catch something similar to his brother, so every time he'd bring up another blue gill, he'd exclaim, "Not another stupid blue gill! I want to catch a bass!" Since camp, Trevor has spent every spare moment of computer time looking at videos of people catching large fish. Plus, he's been working on a book of drawings of small, medium and large fish.
We only went to the zip line once this time around. Last year, it seemed like we spent many free-times there. This year, they just felt more like fishing than zipping. They also were eager to spend their free time with two little friends they had made at camp, Bramwell and Jonas (two brothers who were 5 and 6). Every day, I had to try to put them off because they wanted to go knock on Bram and Jonas' door to hang out. The boys have a baby brother, who was, no doubt, napping.
The little free library which my friend, Cheryl, put together was fabulous. We brought about 15 books to contribute. Since we were one of the first customers, we were able to get a tote bag and 5 books to take with us. I thought I found some interesting books, including one for the boys.
Trevor seemed really excited about his class this year (the theme was pirates) and even found some Christian music he likes ... a group called "Go Fish." Ha! Sean, on the other hand, was not very enthused about his classes. Every day he repeated over and over again, "Come pick me up as soon as you can. Be the first person there for pick-up!" He would ask how long I would be gone. Frankly, I'm glad he had to go through this separation because it will have been good for him to get used to before school starts this coming Monday.
All in all, we had a wonderfully relaxing time. By Friday, the boys were starting to ask when we could go home. Trevor's class was holding a water balloon fight on Saturday night, so it was easy to hold them off from wanting to go home early. The water balloon fight was to celebrate the amount of money the kids raised for tin roofs in Papau New Guinea - over $800! Trevor was thrilled that the boys won, raising just a few dollars more than the girls.
Here are a few pictures I gleaned from others' Facebook albums (since my camera was broken by Trevor a few weeks prior to camp):
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