Adult dessert night ....

It looks like it was the last nice day of the week so we had the adult dessert night tonight instead of Thursday.  

Mom Tattoo

Hope he inks that soon ... I won't mind...

Family Camp 2019 (part A)

It was just a moment.  And I caught it.  Elliot (the 'touch me with only your eyes" child),  leaned into Chris while we all listened to Andy lead music at chapel this morning.  Honestly, I could listen to this guy for hours (and I have lol), but I told Elliot this morning "I met your dad and Andy at the same minute over 22 years ago" ... so today, this was a very cool minute and I was happy to catch it!

Isaac is a bit of a floater this week for family camp ...he is scheduled for some pots and some boat spotting, but then he floats and makes himself useful. Scott had a talk with these 3 younger LTP's who are staying with the Jr Summer Staff this week and has warned them they will have NO warnings, that they are to stay busy and look for ways to contribute to the running of camp.  If they don't stay busy, it is easy to get into trouble .... so Isaac has been asking various people if they need help.

He likes helping in the tuck store because he gets paid in tuck (eye roll) .... but he also helped with the front gardens with Raena in the morning and cut back all the lavender and geraniums and took all the clippings to the back 40 to dump.  And in the evening, he helped the lifeguards take care of the 7 and 8 year olds while their parents went to chapel ..... so it was a good first day.

He saw me sitting across the field, talking to my dad on the phone, so he wandered over to say hi.



That night, Elliot is very not interested in going with all the other 13 year olds for fun times while their parents are in chapel ... so I had him 'babysit' at Leanne's trailer to listen for Tommy in case he woke up. He will do this every night this week.

And we got Charlene back ... except this year she is our nurse!!  So, she was upgraded from being a camper ;-)  Except now, since Isaac is staff and not living with me, she is the one chasing him down to get the pills into him.  I wonder if he will ever remember them?

Isaac, while working on the front gardens, cut up a little scope bottle and made me a vase with some little flowers ....

This morning, Nikki and I met (grudgingly) at 7:30am.  She is one of my oldest friends too ... Andy snagged her, and Chris snagged me ... so we have had similar walks with these 2 original Qwanoes boys .... its gearing up to be a really fun week with old friends.  So, we ran 3km up to the research station .....

And then cooled off here .... jumping in, holding hands and screaming .... it was fun.

We have aged .... but its nice to be back together .... for even just these moments.  This woman has a family of 3 beautiful kids already but has also taken on foster care with Andy by storm ... so they are the picture of busy and we won't really see eachother much during the day this week, but we have made a pact to grudgingly exercise in the am this week.

Elliot goes to camp - Intermediate #2

It was a strange week without Elliot at home .... he just seems to float around, quietly.  He seemed happy enough at camp but didn't seem to latch on to any one friend or group.  Kids were happy when Elliot came around because he taught them origami and on the last night, entered the cabin with the left over candied popcorn his dad had made for the winning cabins for cabin cleanup -- so when Chris walked in with Elliot and he had a huge bowl of colored popcorn, he announced "Alright campers!  Congratulations!! You have ELLIOT in your cabin!!!"  All the campers jumped on him cheering and grabbing for popcorn ... and Elliot was like "I am just going to take a bowl and go to my bunk so you people can stop touching me, and put a shirt on you guys!  ew"  lol.

Here is his complicated origami from his time in chapel ....

Meanwhile, in the life of the eldest ... he and Rhoan had a nice time staying at our house while volunteering for pot washing and boat spotting ....

This guy was determined to SAVE all his tuck money that we put in for him so that he could buy a video game when the week was over.  Well, on this day, he really wanted an ice cream sandwich ... so he somehow wrangled Chris's assistant Ben into giving him one ... and i think he just asked?  So, kudos to him.

And meanwhile, back at the quiet ranch .....

Helping Chris with games ....





This is Ruby .... her mom and I are good friends and Ruby has something wrong that no Doctors can figure out .... so, she has a consistent feeding tube in so she doesn't starve to death ... but this girl is the picture of persistence and perseverance.  She refused to go home after the LTP program was over, so she agreed to a week of pot washing!!  Luckily I was in the right place at the right time and got put in charge of scheduling them for that week, so she only had one shift of pots a day instead of 3-4.  So, they helped with games and activities too .... but she also needed lots of naps but she has such energy and an infectious spirit, it was nice to have her around.

They would often crash in our house at night ....

Turns out Rhoan was just as messy as Isaac ... and also can only hear or do one thing at a time ... I hadn't worked that hard on housekeeping for a few weeks, and I was not happy about the turn of events ....

Isaac gave Rhoan and I some carving lessons ....



Scott took Rhoan and Isaac out fishing on Tuesday .... this is Rhoans first fish....he promised that if he caught a fish, he would kiss it!!

Hard at work ..... such a good attitude while doing it ...

Isaac took Rhoan out in the row boat ... where they had their first fight, or disagreement.  Rhoan came back complaining about Isaac and how he is dumb and did dumb things out there ... well that was the end of my patience with Rhoan.  I know he was probably right but nobody voices those types of comments except me, and I keep them to myself -- so the rest of the week I didn't feel as welcoming having Rhoan in our house.....

So he moved out Saturday to a tent with next weeks Family Camp jr Summer Staff .... but he also took Isaac with him (boo) ... Perhaps they just got sick of eachother.  Rhoan started blaming isaac for everything that he was being asked to do, which got old ... so it is kind of nice that they are over at the camp for this upcoming week!

After camp was over, we took them all to see SpiderMan Homecoming .... I am not a huge marvel fan, but i loved it ... so many of the scenes were filmed in London at the bridge and the museum where the Crown Jewels are kept ... so it was fun to see "we have been there!  and there!!!" ... kindof a kick .... loved London .... so it was a good day, but with family campers arriving that night, Chris didn't get a break and it looks like everyone else was pretty wiped from the week too.....

As an update, Chris is now pretty sick and living on tylenol dayquil and ice caps during the day to get through .... now that family camp is here, he will have more down time, so he will be able to sleep and nap more .... 

Aisha and Finn ....

I finally got to meet little Finnigan!!!  Aisha and Dean's new pup, rescued from Texas..... and he is the sweetest little thing.  They were down the road at Lake View park and asked me to come visit .... so I spent the evening with them on the beach .... 

Finn loves me too, and now I am auntie and god-mom .... so it was a successful evening...Love my time with her (and Dean too, he is fun), but Aisha and I dream together and that is my favorite.

Laura came to visit for some dock time

Laura had texted earlier in the week asking if I wanted to get together, which my answer is always 'yes, what did you have in mind?'  Her response was not satisfactory "Well, it's bring a friend to the monkey bar (her crossfit-type gym), or maybe we can climb Mt Tzouhalem after your work one day?"  lol -- nope - not on hot days like this week!.... so later that week, I asked if she wanted to come hang with me on the dock on this fine sunny day, and they headed over. 

Oscar was gone within 5 minutes. Apparently he joined the campers for beach party and was swimming at the beach. And Ava didn’t leave the dock so we couldn’t really chat about stuff without her wanting more details about what we were talking about. lol Nice to see them all and love the sun.

Vanessa and Lisa taking a break from the office.

Yanin and dad!

She texted me when he pulled up :-). Made me so happy.  

So handsome in his glasses

Week 3 of camp 2019

Botanical Beach .....

The 2 boys in yellow (Rhoan and Owen) have become 2 of Isaacs good friends ... its been fun to watch them do this program together .... Rhoan is staying with us for the next week or two ... so we are losing Elliot to camp next week (so we are losing a boy and gaining a boy)....





Here is Isaac running the talent station for one of Chris's games ... word spreads quickly that Isaac has become known as a guy who slips kids hundred of bills ..... so the kids patiently wait their turn to get in front of him to impress him.

And speaking of fun guys .... here is my guy ... grass skirt waving in the wind as he tosses game money into the air to the kids below ....



Rhoan and Isaac ....

Getting snacks for the kids fireside in our yard ....



Always ready for shenanigans ....

As is this guy .... Elliot has been on staff this week, doing pots, and manning the canoe beach and Zunga .... there have been 5 of them who have been floating around .  The last 2 nights, Kale and Oliver have slept over and they've had alot of fun.  Doesn't Elliot look so little in the picture?