Cousin Fun

We headed up to Iowa right after picking Alexis up from camp. We spent the day playing with cousins. Since Aunt Alisa and Uncle Scobie have such an awesome house right on the Mississippi, we spent the hot day out on the water. Surprisingly, Conner jumped right in to go  tubing. He instantly loved it. Gavin, our dare devil, was so skeptical I didn't think we would get him out there. Alexis wanted to go, but we weren't sure we wanted her in the muddy Mississippi. We all threw caution to the wind...they are kids after all and deserve to live life. Gavin got brave enough, and all three kids had a blast tubing with their cousins! By the end of the day, Gavin was a true river kid jumping in the Mississippi, kayaking, and having frogs crawl all over him (including hanging from his nose)! Such a great day!

Camp Sick

We thought Alexis would have been home sick and so excited to see us when we picked her up from camp, but turns out she was really camp sick. As soon as we picked her up and hugged her, she started to cry, lunged back for her counselor, and said, "I want to stay." She did not want to come home with us!! She cried for about 45 min and just kept saying she wanted to go back. Guess we are glad she had such a good week and looks like we have a high bar set for the rest of the summer!

Gymnastic Camp

While Alexis was at camp this week, the boys went to gymnastic camp. They love their gymnastics, and the counsellors there are awesome! They have had a great week!

Magic

The boys are in camp in the morning this week, so yesterday afternoon when I picked them up, we decided to head to the children's museum. Since it is normally packed, it isn't a place we like to take Alexis. So, we took the opportunity with her at camp, to go and explore. The boys had a blast climbing, exploring and playing. It was fun to concentrate on them for a little bit!

Rainbow Camp

Alexis woke up at 5:00am this morning and asked if it was time to go to camp. She was that excited to go. I had to crush her by letting her know that she wouldn't go until later in the afternoon.

Instead, we headed to a park to play and grill out. The boys just wanted to play baseball with dad. So, Alexis and I spent a lot of time on the monkey bars. They have become her favorite and she wants to do them nonstop. She had also gotten pretty good at them. Then, we all had a little grill out at the park, which the kids thought was pretty cool until they realized mom forgot the smores!

After that we headed home to do the last packing for the week before heading out to camp. The staff right away whisked away Conner and Gavin to get their face painted while we registered Alexis and logged all her meds with the nurses. Alexis met with her counselor for the week, whose name is Lexi. They ran off, leaving me all to my self...a really weird feeling. 

Brian went with Alexis to get her bed made on her bunk and get her settled. I caught up with them to see the pool and common areas. Everywhere we walked, we had people from last year greeting Alexis and excited that she was going to spend the night this year. She was so pumped for five slumber parties in a row! A little girl's dream! 

Then came time to say goodbye. To not see Alexis for a week we have had to do before. However, we have never been cut off. Not knowing if she is okay, happy, if she is getting her meds or her ear plugs are in. It is so hard to walk away from those things. It's great that this camp tries to give you a stress free week and gives your kid an amazing experience, but no matter how much you don't want to stress, you can't help it. Having a kid with heath issues, you never get to walk away. Even when someone forces you, that worry as a parent never leaves. Although it will be nice to not worry about no eating in the afternoon or getting her meds on time, it does not erase the worry about her in general. I guess that's really parenthood. However, the joy we know she is going to have this week overshadows our worry. The excitement and smile she had is priceless and what a great organization to give that to her! Hope she has a great time and mom and dad can survive the week.