Monthly Archives: July 2020

It was rainy and cold when we woke up and the whole day was chilly! It was kind of a nice change to be in sweatpants and sweatshirts, but it was surprising how drastically different it was from the day before. The boys and Mary played in the dining hall for a while- they had a new stomp rocket to shoot, bikes to ride and I think they did some exploring as well. Meghan, Sean and I quietly worked on our computers, snuggled under blankets all morning.

After lunch, we decided to have a movie afternoon, so we set up a theater and the boys snuggled in with snacks. Not pictured- Meghan, Sean and I working in the dark.

When the movie ended, the boys played and ran around. I worked some more. There isn’t much to say about the day- I worked and the day that flew by.

After dinner and bath time, Xander was insistent that we have a jammie party. He tried yelling at everyone to change into pjs, but I don’t think anyone did. We had cake and they listened to music and danced while I took a long phone call. When I got back, they were busy discussing music and cake, so I think the party was a success.

Tomorrow Grandma Debbie is coming to camp for a visit! It should be another busy day!

We had volunteers at camp all morning and after lunch, so I did some more heavy lifting/hauling junk around. We have 25 buildings at camp but I still can’t believe how much random useless junk we’ve accumulated. I think my 38 year old self is getting too old for all of this backbreaking labor! The boys helped out for a few minutes.

The volunteer group finished their projects a little after lunch and so we all headed to the beach for swimming and paddle boarding. It’s taken us a few weeks but we finally hauled paddle boards over and I was so excited to finally paddle around. The boys LOVED jumping off the boards and we took a ton of go-pro videos that I will try to upload tomorrow.

After swimming, we headed into town for a dinner edition of pizza-picnic. The pizza truck isn’t usually open on Mondays, but they had a special pop up, so we went. This time, we all traded pizza, so I got to sample a few new kinds and they are all SO amazing. I don’t want to be dramatic, but I’m willing to say it’s some of the best pizza of all time.

Tomorrow-Thursday is GAME ON for fundraising work. We have 1 million things on our to do list, but we’re gearing up to save camp, so here we go! I recorded a video today that explained that we have 2 sources of revenue- donations and tuition. With the loss of programming, that wipes out an entire stream (roughly 3/4 or so actually) of our revenue. So we need to massively increase fundraising to a level I have no yet achieved in this short of time. It seems like a global pandemic is the ideal time to take on this challenge…

It was a busy weekend for everyone. Meghan, Sean and I were busy cleaning out closets and storage rooms, finding every piece of junk we could get rid of or sell. We found some old boating tubes and filled them with air, and a few of them were still good. You can’t tube on a pontoon, but you can slowly drag 2 toddlers. They loved it. The boys spent the whole weekend either in the boat, swimming or taking ATV rides. I spent time in the pole barn, which was a dirty, heavy, hard job of organizing and carrying things down the hill. On Sunday we had a massive garage sale and raised some money for CYC. Our big fundraiser starts this week, so it was a little head start.

We were supposed to get crazy weather on Friday night, but only ended up with a little rain and not much else, so that was a relief.

We celebrated our garage sale success with ice cream sundaes in cone bowls.

We have more volunteers tomorrow and MUCH work to do on our fundraiser. It should be a busy week ahead!

I took Axel for a walk and came back to a serious looking conference in process. Mary and the boys were BUSY today, so I guess this was the planning stage.

For a little while, Xander and Mary were out and about, and Augustus attended our fundraising planning session. He was NOT into it.

After a morning of hard work and lots of playtime for the boys, we all piled in my van, blasted some One Direction and headed to town. There is a woodfire pizza truck that I have been following on facebook for years. They are only in McGregor on Thursdays and I have never been able to leave during camp for pizza, until today! We had a pizza picnic (with full cans of soda for my children). And ya know what? WORTH THE WAIT! It was AMAZING pizza. I will go back every opportunity I get. My pizza had prosciutto, asparagus, mushrooms. It was SO good. Xander ate his entire pizza. We had to move our picnic under shelter because there was a random short rain shower, which lasted about 5 minutes (but no one wants wet pizza!), but it was still the best picnic I’ve been to recently!

We returned to camp and Meghan, Sean and I worked on our fundraiser all afternoon. I didn’t see the boys for several hours! Time flew by and we made awesome progress on our Day of Giving plan.

Dinner, bath time, and early bedtime because I didn’t sleep well last night and I am EXHAUSTED.

It was a great day!

playing cards

hanging out

The weather today was PERFECTION. Sunny and warm, with a breeze. I wished I could have laid in a hammock all day long.

The boys and I started the day with a field trip into town. We got some donuts and cookies (for later) and then headed to the playground.

Xander found a friend and they ran around and played superheroes and it was wonderful.

When we got back to camp, we had lunch and rest time and then the boys and Mary were off on another adventure. They built towers for bugs, fought off some more bad guys, and ran around.

Meghan, Sean and I worked on our upcoming fundraiser and I am feeling excited about our upcoming Day of Giving. I think we’ve got some fun ideas in store.

Later, Meghan, Mary and the boys went swimming. I didn’t think it felt quite warm enough, so I was grateful that Mary and Meghan wanted to swim so I didn’t have to get in. Axel and I hung out on the beach while they all played.

When they finished swimming, we had dinner and then we spent a little time (not nearly enough for me!) in the hammocks. At some point this summer, I am going to spend an entire hour relaxing…

The boys are feeling a little homesick, which is new this year. I’m not sure if it is because Xander is getting older and is more aware of missing home, or if there’s just not enough activity without the campers and staff and nonstop programming. They love playing with Mary and swimming and golf cart rides, but when they get tired, they both say, ” I miss home”. Nate will be back Friday, so hopefully that will help. In so many ways, it’s wonderful to be here, but it’s hard too. And being so little, they don’t have a concept of time, so that makes it tough to understand. We’ve only been here 2 weeks, so it’s still an adjustment period, but we only have 2 more weeks until will be home, so hopefully we can enjoy the time we have.

This is how I eat every meal. He was not interested in the celery offering from Augustus.

It rained overnight, and when we woke up, it was chilly. My children both put tank tops on, but eventually ended up in sweatshirts. It was actually kind of nice to not be hot and sweaty for a day.

It was sort of a boring day today for the boys. They got to play with Mary most of the day, and that’s always wonderful. But there was a lot of downtime too and it was just kind of a lazy day.

Meghan, Sean and I worked on the camp store floor for a while, and then we had a brainstorm session about a fundraiser we are hoping to launch next week.

We also decided to make a music video, so we’ve been filming scenes around camp here and there today. We shot one at sunset this evening and got some good pictures of the boys as well. Stay tuned for the final video!

Today was a day of rest. We don’t have any volunteers here for a few days and so we did a little work and a little play and it was great.

After breakfast, the boys were off with Mary for some morning adventures. I never know what they’re doing, but they’re always very happy with her, so that’s the best thing for everyone! I ran into town to go to the store, and when I got back, Sean, Meghan and I went to the camp store to work on the floor for a while. Our volunteers pulled up the linoleum and we’re trying to get all the sticky goo off the hardwood floor. We made a little progress, but mostly ended up sticky and sweaty.

After that, Meghan suggested a beach party with snacks and One Direction music, and all of us agreed that was the best plan!

ready for the beach

We found a tiny toad on our way back from the beach.

When we finished swimming, we rested a while. The boys did some water color painting while I prepared dinner. After dinner, the boys had bubble guns and ran around.

just hanging out after dinner

It was a good balance of work and play today and both boys (and me) were very tired by the end of the day!

This was our first weekend with volunteers (after the first week with volunteers). I was a little nervous that I would be exhausted and need a break, but we had THE BEST group this weekend and they could have stayed forever. I am pretty tired, but we have a few days before our next group arrives, and we got so much done this weekend, that it’s worth the tiredness.

Nate was here and he and the boys had some quality time while I worked. They took approximately 57 ATV rides. Every time I saw them, they were cruising around.

Meghan and I found a power washer in the pole barn. I didn’t think it worked, but we decided to hook it up and try it. Never, in the history of this camp, have we ever found something and just turned it on and had it work. This was a first. But it worked GREAT! My trailer has a hose, so it was the ideal place to attempt hooking it up, and it just so happened that the trailer has been looking pretty dirty lately.

I’m not sure there is a more satisfying job than power washing. I did end up soaked, head to toe, but it was awesome. Nate somehow managed to stay drier, and he was a power washing rockstar.

I didn’t even realize the deck was dirty…

Not only did Nate power wash like a pro, he cleaned the trailer, swept the porch, weed whipped my yard and jumped the camp van (which was dead). The trailer was like a brand new place!

Meghan and Augustus off to work

We didn’t just work all weekend. We went for an after dinner swim on the boat on Saturday and after swimming, made s’mores around a campfire.

Today was another fun day for the boys and daddy, and another good day of getting things done for me. More ATV rides for the boys, but I also put them to work for a while too. Xander was not a fan of carrying dirty, kinda heavy linoleum, but he hung in for a while.

 

Nate left after lunch and everyone took an afternoon swim break. Meghan was the fun one and played with the boys the whole time. I sat on the beach and relaxed for a few glorious moments, appreciating the break.

Without campers, the wilderness is taking back over camp. The weeds in the lake are sneaking into the swim beach. We sprayed about 10 giant bees nests this weekend (I got murder-horneted in the arm and my entire bicep is swollen still). I have seen about 10 snakes (typically I see one or 2 in a whole summer). The deer are everywhere and totally unafraid of people. And now I have a mouse in my trailer, who I am battling, because the trailer is NOT wilderness-friendly.

Our volunteers were super-stars this weekend. They went cabin to cabin and fixed every ripped screen, broken step, etc. It was a MASSIVE job and I can’t believe they finished it in 2 days. Others cleaned and painted our camp store, as well as ripped up the linoleum (and like every good HGTV show, we pulled up linoleum to find hardwood floors). They re-did the boards at the tomahawk wall. They sorted costumes and props, helped clean up random junk in closets and building corners. I hadn’t realized how much unnecessary junk had accumulated, but we are spring-cleaning to the extreme and it feels so amazing. I want to go home and do the same thing with all of our unnecessary junk!

I am tired and my arm is swollen and throbbing, but I am VERY happy with this weekend! Yay for amazing volunteers!!  

I bought him a nice bed. He loves this spot in the dirt.

We said goodbye to our first set of volunteers and hello to our second group. I am not sure what I did today, but I was busy every second and I’m not sure I sat down once.

The boys were busy with Mary all day. Nate arrived around 4pm. Meghan, Sean and I made a good list of projects and I think we have a game plan for the weekend.


After dinner, we jumped on the boat for an evening swim. Xander gets braver each time we go out. Tonight he was doing cow-a-bunga spins- literally spinning around in the air as he jumped. Augustus isn’t quite as daring, but he is pretty good at jumping off the pontoon too. Meghan and I got in a few jumps as well.

It was a little windy and Nate had to adjust the boat so we didn’t blow across the lake. The first time he did it, Meghan and I stayed in the water and grabbed on the rope on the back and got dragged behind. Xander wanted to do it too, so before we went in, we let him try. He wanted to be dragged all the way back to our beach, but we cut the ride after a minute or 2. I think he’s ready to try water skiing or tubing.

I am going to miss him saying, “I just want to snuggle” and choosing my lap as the place he most wants to hang out. But geez if I couldn’t use a little space at 6:15am.

5:50am. That is the time my 2 children woke up today. I do NOT know how to get them on a better schedule, but I am going to lose my mind if we don’t start sleeping a little later.

The boys spent the morning playing with Mary and then hanging out with all of us as I led a lifeguard re-cert class.

They watched them take the swim test and then tread water without hands. They hung out and had some ipad time while we reviewed CPR and took the written test. Augustus fell asleep right after I took this picture, so I carried him home and put him in bed. He slept for 2 hours, which hopefully doesn’t mess up bedtime. 

Later in the day, they ran around with Mary some more while I worked. It was a pretty uneventful day today. Xander was also tired and it’s been a busy, exhausting week.

After dinner, we took Axel for a walk and then played outside before bath time.

Listening to the music on the jeep and being”rockstars”