week 2, day 3

So it's already midway through our second week. I think this assignment is going to feel short b/c our last 2 have been 5 weekers. We're almost half way done.  I haven't been great about taking pictures. I don't use the stroller all the time which has been my "catch all" for cameras, water bottles, sunscreen, wipes and other such things the past few years. I feel a little freer. But I also don't take my camera as much.

So here are some pictures for you starting with our road trip.

This was most of the stuff we had to take. The bike didn't make it. I pack in laundry baskets for assignment b/c there's usually not a lot of places to store luggage plus you need the baskets for dirty laundry and doing laundry. My "packing in laundry baskets habit" finaly paid off.

Ben left 2 guitars and 6 boxes of moon pies for us to bring. Didn't really help the travel situation a whole lot.

Our trip was suppossed to be 9 hours of drive time. We stopped for lunch (45 minutes) and 4 other times (3 stops less than 5 minutes and 1 stop for 15). We would do stretches and run around the rest stop areas to get some energy out. When we hit Michigan, we hit 4th of July traffic going north. It took us 12 hours. The kids were amazing really for that long of a trip. I credit most of it to the dual dvd players I totally bought on a whim the night before we left. Worth EVERY PENNEY!

They both slept 45 minutes of the 12 hour trip. That's it.

There are two babies on our assignment. Sophie is LOVING being with them.

This is the biggest week of camp ever at Timber Wolf. They had the summer staff move out of their housing and into portable trailors they rented for the week. This is their lobby furniture b/c there's campers in their lobby too.

I got Sophie a scooter. She loves it. Ted is pretty good on his too and rides all over camp. Sophie is half scooter, half stroller depending on how fast I feel like getting somewhere.

Kylie is 5 1/2. She had Ted have hit it off. In this particular picture it's the middle of the day. They both came out in their pj's having packed the red buckets ready for some sort of trip.

They ended up "camping" in the office in the Bunkhouse.

Us watching the buses arrive on Day 1.

Getting a ride from daddy.

Taking a rest on the beach while watching campers swing on the screamer swing across the lake.

This creek runs through camp. We take toy boats and rubber duckies and follow them down the lake.

Sophie sunning herself. We are all TAN. I'm pretty sure I'm more tan than I've been since I was a kid. Ted's pretty brown. Sophie was admiring her tan earlier today. She's not quite as dark as the rest of us but her hair is getting the most beautiful highlights. People pay good money for that. Ted's hair is getting pretty blonde too.

Railyn and Raelyn - That's right. They have the same name, just spelled differently. Aren't they the cutest?

Sophie's dream come true.

Some other things of interest:

- Ben has probably lost about 10 pounds so far. This is his summer weight loss program. I expect at least another 5.

- We are still just seeing Ben in passing during the day and when he crawls into bed late at night. Sophie's having a little bit of a hard time not seeing him. When Ted was 3, that was his hardest year of not seeing Ben a lot.

- About 40% of the kids camping this week are urban. This is new for us and it's how this assignment was designed. It's going really well. Multi-ethnic is the name of the game for our team and the campers.

- This is a really different assignment for us as their are staff from 3 different divisions. It's amazing how different things can be from division to division. It's been a learning experience for everyone but it's going really well as we settle into Week 2.

- Ted & Sophie are really awesome. After a couple of rough assignments, this is so much fun! They're independent, can do big things, can entertain themselves, are napping and sleeping in a little bit. Sophie slept till 9 one morning and usually gets up around 8am. This is much improved from the past couple of years at 6:30 am. Ted still gets up early but we have stuff for him to do and he's great. They're sharing a room so well. I'm really, really proud of them. After a really, really rough month of June with Sophie, it's so nice to enjoy her.

- As soon as I wrote that there was no humidity here, it came something fierce. My hair hurts.

We're good her at Timber Wolf. I really do love this place!