Camp Joseph 2013

 After a week of begging from Bruce and Phoebe, I agreed to take the kids camping. Our former church congregation was heading to Camp Joseph in Vermont, so we tagged along. Scott had to work, so it was just me and the kids - but thankfully we had lots of help in setting up and taking down camp and shepherding the kids around.

 On the first night, we cooked hot dogs and s'mores over Firefighter Brian's fire. The next morning, the kids wanted to go swimming, so we headed to the pond and did lots of swimming and boating. Thankfully, Firefighter Brian's family was there too and kept Phoebe safe in the water while I sat with Oliver at the shore.

 Bruce and his buddy were very proud...

 ...that they caught so many frogs.

 Oliver slept well the first night, but the second night was terrible. He woke up about every two hours, and then stayed awake and fussed [loudly] from 3-5 a.m. As you can see, I turned our tent into a nursery complete with pack-and-play, changing station, and feeding chair. Bruce and Phoebe slept in a separate tent and thus got some sleep.

 Oliver smiled for the first time on Saturday morning after his crazy sleepless night. The sun was streaming through the sheer tent walls and he looked at it and smiled. He later smiled at me, but the first smile (while awake anyway) went to the tent.

 On our way home from camping, we stopped at a Scottish Festival. I have Scottish ancestors and went to a few as a kid, but hadn't been to one for years. Naturally, I made my kids go. We saw traditional dances, bagpipe bands, clan booths (no Clan McKay though - boo), Scottish games like the caber-toss (throwing a log), and lots of kilted old people.

Bruce and Phoebe agreed that the coolest part of the day was watching the sheepdog competition.