After company left Saturday morning, we decided to head to Victoria to spend the day with the Lampards, since we hadn't seen them much this summer yet with so many people being around! The movie Pets was out in theatres, so we went to see that. Another family movie day! (except no luke/care/girls this time because they were off on another sweet family holiday!)
Dancing with Auntie KK
Jon and I had free movie tickets, so our movie and snacks were all free! Yay! Best kind of movie. Except that we didn't really love the movie that much.. probably won't see it again. But fun to go to!
Sunday morning we were up and off to camp! Jon left early so that he was there super early, and we came later that morning. It felt SO GOOD to finally be up there full time!! I spent a while unpacking all our things and hanging up clothes, and organizing the trailer. For the rest of the summer now we will just be taking home dirty clothes and then re-packing them, so it will be easy! And I got us toothbrushes/contact solution/all that kind of stuff to stay up there, so we are all settled and hopefully won't have a lot to take back and forth each weekend!
She is getting so good on her bike - I have the BOB up at camp, because in the past two seasons I used it SO much, carting her around. It was crazy to me how big she is now, such a huge change! We didn't touch the stroller at all, and instead, she opted to ride her bike everywhere. Very cool! (also look at that adorable mini size Wildside shirt that Lisa ordered for her... so awesome!!!)
Ready for another fun summer at camp!!
The sight and sounds of kids at camp, laughing and chattering, and having fun in a safe place really fills my heart up. I love seeing this place full with teenagers who are unplugged for a week, bonding together! Camp is awesome.
So proud of Jon.
Monday is caving day, so the camp empties out as Jon and his staff take the campers out for a full day of exploring three different caves. Quinny and I spent the first part of the morning on the beach, playing and swimming. So so lovely. She is such a happy girl when she is just on the beach, quietly playing with her beach toys
Later in the morning we headed to Lake Cowichan to spend a few hours with this lovely lady who was on her day off! She spends her day off away from camp (as she should! Breaks are much needed!!) but Bradley doesn't have the same days off, so she is often alone. We decided that we would try to spend Mondays together, because its good quality time together, away from camp :) And Quinny LOVES her Aunite Lisa (Wee-Saw, as she calls her) and Lisa just pours love and attention onto her! And this amazing park that we were at is FILLED with fruit trees... plums, apples, and blackberries! So we spent a long time picking fruit and laughing together. Love her.
Michelle was our head cook for Wild 1! She's been talking about coming up for a few years, so it was awesome to finally snag her! Aimee came up with her, and they made a dynamite team! Having two hands in the kitchen made the work SO much easier, and they were great to have back there for the first week, when there was a few bumps to sort out. Michelle has the best attitude and is so upbeat, I love hanging out with her.
And Quinny loves hanging out with her Auntie Mimi, especially in the hammock! Jon hung my hammock for me just outside our trailer, with an amazing view of the lake, so Aims used it a lot during the week! It was so nice to see these two together again, bonding and spending lots of time together!
Murder Mystery time... Jon is HILARIOUS at this game, and Chris this year was super funny too! Jon just yells and scares them and won't answer their questions directly... it's pretty funny to watch. A perfect game for his silly personality. Here he is scaring the campers once they found him in a hammock... oh man, Alex's face (kid on the right) totally made me laugh. He actually screamed and was startled
Pretending to sleep when another group found him, so they just started swinging him so high until he started laughing and then answered their questions. I love watching him in these moments, the weight of camp gone for a moment, just enjoying being a fun leader.
And Chris found the rock in the middle of the pond, and made the campers come to him by walking through it! So funny and so gross! And he was dressed as a Mexican and has a weirdly good Mexican accent! Oh man, too funny.
Aaron was also super funny. All the leaders did so great with this game. It will be fun to have Aaron up for the whole summer this summer!!
The lovely cooks having a food prep meeting on the quad :)
Monday night after the game, Quinny and I drove to Victoria, because Jon and the whole group were leaving Tuesday morning for the overnight canoe trip, and I don't like to be at Wildside by myself! And it's always fun to Quinny to spend that time with her Nannie and Papa! I really wanted to go for a pedicure, my feet were looking pretty gross, so my amazing Mother In-Law said she would watch Quinny for a while so I could go do that. When I got to uptown, heading to where we usually go, I saw a sign outside another salon that said haircut and pedicure for $70! WHAT! So in I went, since I haven't had a haircut since CHRISTMAS TIME! It was a great salon and I would definitely go back!! I got a coffee, then got the pedicure and then a haircut. An hour and a half of quiet and pure bliss. After the craziness of my past few weeks, these moments were MUCH needed and very appreciated!! I regroup and recharge when I am on my own, so this was so good.
Haircut! Fresh and healthy once again. Yay
Back up at camp! Quinny and Aaron are such good buddies... he carries her around and she follows him... its funny though, because she will turn on him quickly and get mad at him quickly. Not sure why, but it makes me laugh (while also getting her trouble when need be!). Either way, he keeps coming back and she loves him!
I wish I had gotten pictures of Quinny with Cassia, our female cabin leader this week. She is AMA-ZING! I LOVED her!!! She was SO good with campers, easy to be around, and we bonded really well!! She was so good for the team. And her and Quinny latched onto each other and spent a lot of time together! It was so very cute. I think our family has made a friend in Cassia that will grow outside of camp.
I set up Hunger Games for the campers on Thursday night and it was a highlight as always! Jon and I have spent the past few years perfecting this game, and the campers just love it. We only do it with our senior high kids, so its easy to go all out, because its only a few weeks of the summer. "Acid Rain" is a part of the game, which is just water balloons, and I turned to take a picture of these two on the quad together, looking cute, not realizing until it was too late that they were aiming for me with their water balloon!
Taking aim! She hit me a second later. Funny that I got it on camera, not realizing what they were doing! What sneaks!
Perfect shot of our very favourite place. The love that our family has for this place and this view is so deep. I feel like we all come alive out there, despite how exhausting and tiring it is to be running camp!
I have really loved every stage of Quinny's life so far - it is just so fun to watch her grow. The stage she is at now, at almost 3 years old, is just SO MUCH fun! She loves camp and she gets in there and participates, and she is still little enough that the campers love her and think she is cute, and not annoying. I love seeing her little toddler sized body running around, trying to keep up with the big kids. Everyone is just so good to her. She is a special girl, and she has a pretty sweet gig in the summer!
She was running around playing, until one of the campers actually chased her, and totally freaked her out, and she just quietly came over to me and wanted to sit out. Chris saw that, and he came and grabbed her and ran around with her. It made my heart so happy to see him do that! I'm really glad that we have Chris out here this summer!
Running with Marissa, one of the girl campers that paid Quinny lots of attention during the week! There were bumps, but overall it was a really good first week. The campers loved it, and went home happy and knowing a bit more about Jesus, which is the point. Now summer is really in full swing!!
