Had a great week at camp!

Monday, I overdid – the camp is on a hill and going UPhill really got me. After lunch was afternoon service (MIL did a missionary story with her ventriloquist dummy each afternoon) followed by camper activities and swimming (for which I joined the girls). Then dinner, then time to learn verses and such, followed by evening service, then canteen time, then skit time. I walked around a lot (including walking up the hill from the dining hall to the tabernacle – which was about half a mile, I think), and when I went back up to the tabernacle after canteen time, I almost didn’t make it. On the way up, Joey (Robby’s oldest sister’s husband) asked me if I was ok, and I said, “I don’t know.”

He started to chuckle, then did a double take and said, “Really? Are you ok?”

I said, “I think I’ll just go in and lay down in the back pew for a minute.”

I laid down in the back pew and cried, I hurt so bad. My upper back and shoulders were aching terribly, and my head hurt, and my leg was swelled up some again.

Renee (Robby’s sister) came back and asked if I was ok, immediately answering her own question “No, you’re not!” It was pretty rough there.

Sleep helped, though, and Tuesday I did less and felt better by the end of the day.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Nate stayed with the campers during the day and only slept in with me at night.

Tuesday after morning service (Joey did the morning services), we (Mom & Dad, Joey & Renee, and I) went and shopped a bit while the kids did their activities and things. They needed some stuff at Wal*Mart, then we went to P&S School Supply (in Chattanooga), and then ate at Pizza Hut in Trenton, GA, before going back to camp for the afternoon service.

After the service, I went back to the Lodge with the others and Renee & I helped MIL cut out some letters for Mother/Daughter Banquet next Saturday, then I took a short nap before I joined the girls for swimming, after which I went back to the Lodge for a shower and fresh clothes before dinner. Mom & Renee stopped by to pick me up so I would have a way to get around the lake to the lodge. On the way around, we saw a fishing rod & reel in the water near the spilloff (over which we drove) so we stopped and got it.

After dinner, I hung out with the girls until service time and walked up to the tabernacle with them (it wasn’t nearly as far from the girls’ cabin as it was from the dining hall).

I didn’t walk down for canteen time, because I didn’t want a repeat of the previous day’s problem! (Even though I hadn’t walked as much on Tuesday.)

We got up a little early on Wednesday to try fishing, but the lure on there wasn’t something in which the fish were interested. Later that day, Mom & Dad went into town, so they picked up some small fishhooks, and Nate went back to the Lodge with Mom & Renee while I was swimming (after he rode horses with the boys) and the three of them did some fishing. They caught a bunch of little fish and threw them back, and just as I got back, Nate caught a BIG one! I went upstairs and changed and came back down with my camera. He caught another one and it was a decent size (maybe six inches long from nose to end of tailfin) and it had swallowed the hook, so we kept it.

Brother Gene had said last year that if someone caught & cleaned a fish, he’d cook it… so Mom cleaned Nate’s fish and Bro. Gene cooked it, and Nate was SO excited!! He only ate a couple bites of it, and shared a bit with each sibling and cousin who wanted to try it, and there was still a bit left, so I finished it off. YUM :yum

The remainder of Wednesday evening was much like the remainder of Tuesday evening 🙂

Thursday morning, Nate decided he didn’t want to stay with the campers, he wanted to stay with me, so he stayed with me most of the day. After the morning service, they did a water balloon launch (they have a BIG slingshot with which they shoot them, and huge targets at which to shoot them, and also any campers who want to get out there and take their chances on getting hit/wet). Brother Gene told the boys that if they hit a girl, they’d get a free popsicle (and vice versa). Only one boy hit a girl, as far as I know, and that was Bobby (who hit Alyssa – another girl from our church – and the balloon left an awful welt! It got her in the face [lower jaw, way back]) and only one boy got hit, I think, and that was also Bobby :lol who got hit by his Aunt Renee, and it left a bruise on his arm.

The kids rode horses again Thursday, so the boys went swimming first. Nate didn’t want to swim, so he and I went back to the Lodge and took about an hour nap before girls’ swim time. He went with MIL & FIL to the horses when the boys went, and he got to ride a horse by himself (Wed he doubled with Bobby). Mom & Dad took him back to the Lodge until the girls were done swimming and they fished some more, then Supper and stuff after.

Friday morning during activity time, the boys went on a hike, so Nate went with them… so I went and did paddle boats with the girls 🙂 We left for home after lunch.

Every night at 9:00 was skit time… I think my kids were in every skit that was done (I had one in each cabin – only 3 this week because there were only 20 campers there… 9 of which came from our church; 8 of which were cousins… and two were the camp people’s children)

The 3 cabins were:
Mr. Robby’s cabin (older boys): Bobby (mine), JP (cousin), Andrew, Nathanael, Jordan, and Randy (cousin)

Mr. David’s cabin (younger boys): Jacob, Luke, Levi (camp people’s kid), Nate (mine), Timmy (mine), and Blake (cousin)

Miss Samantha’s cabin (girls): Rachel (mine), Lexie, Kayla (camp people’s kid), KK (cousin), Esther, Ashley, Alyssa (our church), Heather, and sometimes Lydia (5yo camp people’s dd)

Lexie & Nathanael are siblings; they are homeschooled; and their dad is a self-employed computer guy! Lexie was Rachel’s “bud” the last two years at camp, and they have an uncle who lives here in Scottsboro!

Oh, and also, each night the kids had an opportunity to sing specials in the evening service. Timmy sang by himself twice, Bobby sang by himself once, and Rachel sang with a group twice.