End of Summer

Sniff, sob. Another summer of Camp Zone is over. Kaylin loved it as always. Logan started out not loving being outside all day every day. For a few weeks he begged to stay home on Fridays when I was off work and sometimes whined about having to go. He ended up loving it. He even asked to go to Glen Oak Park this (Saturday) morning because he missed it. Sorry, no.

What I love about Camp Zone is that it is as close to the perfect childhood summer vacation I can provide my kids while still working fulltime. They are outside all day, every day. While they have plenty of organized activities, most of their time is spent swinging and playing in the sand and playing board and card games and running around. They are surrounded by other kids and get to swim, hike, fish, go to movies, go to playgrounds and go on a special field trip every week. They spend almost no time watching tv or playing video games and I have literally not heard the words "I'm bored" one time. Evenings and weekends are spent riding bikes, playing with neighbor kids and pets and playing catch in the yard. I will be sad to see school start. I hate homework and shortening days and cold temperatures!

Some of the things Logan learned this summer were how to dogpaddle, how to swing really well, how to make bridges and tunnels in the sand, how to play many card and board games, how to remove a fish from a hook, how to go across monkey bars, how to catch and throw a football and how to make a fort inside of a large bush. He also learned some undesirable words and phrases, but nothing he wouldn't have learned at school this year. Logan is terrified of thunderstorms and used to Freak Out and bawl. Through the power of Camp Zone peer pressure, he learned how to keep calm and hold it together through the worst storms. He loved his counsellors and could probably get me anywhere I need to go on the city bus system. Camp was a very good experience.

This week the kids will go to Riverplex Camp. It's a much larger camp with many more kids and more organization. They get to swim every day, but Kaylin doesn't like it nearly as much as Camp Zone. I think Logan will enjoy the sports aspect of the camp (which is what Kaylin doesn't like.) I'm on vacation from Friday through the following Saturday and we plan to go away for one last long weekend before school starts. As usual, we have no idea where we're going. The current choice is Wisconsin Dells. We were thinking about Chicago, but when we started adding up everything we wanted to do it was going to cost too much and cause too much stress. We also considered St. Louis, Indy, Cincinnatti, the Ozarks, Memphis and Omaha. I guess we'll refer to Summer 2009 as The Year of the Waterpark Resort. I think we'll try The Wilderness in Wisconsin Dells. Or maybe we'll head to Paducah, Kentucky...

Well, better go wash school uniforms and clean out my car. Five more days of work before vacation!