All Back Together Again!
This morning after an OK night’s sleep, got up early and walked around the camp. There is some beautiful scenery that I was able to get some pictures of. After waiting for all the girls to get up, I helped get Sarah and Brittany packed up and we left camp and came home. I ended up sleeping in the car (thank heaven I had a pillow). It was VERY humid and I didn’t want to clean up a wet tent later and when I went to the cabin I could have slept in and opened the door, I heard the scurrying of little creatures (mice and maybe a small snake or two)! 🙂 I have done that plenty of times at Scout Camp and elected not to do it this time, so the car was my only option which wasn’t too bad.
On the way home, we stopped by McDonald’s and had some breakfast. The girls were pretty excited to eat there and we had a great talk on the way home about what they liked and didn’t like about camp, the experiences they had, and how much closer they have become to their friends. It’s good to have them back home. We missed them!
After cleaning up the tent, airing out the sleeping bags, and unpacking all their stuff, everyone cleaned themselves up and we went and had a family picture sitting. We were worried about the boys (as usual), but they actually did very well. The pictures turned out great! We will be sending Carmen home with a 5×7 of all of us, and then a 5×7 of just the kids.
Having these pictures done will give us a great opportunity to remember our time with Carmen as part of our family this month!
We hurried home from our picture sitting and prepared for a BBQ with the Missionaries from our church (Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días) and with our friends, the Thompsons. We had a great time grilling bratwursts and hot dogs, and having all kinds of great things along with that! For dessert, we had something new that we hadn’t tried before. Julie Thompson had us cut wedges out of bananas, and put chocolate chips and marshmallows inside of what was remaining. These were then wrapped up and put in the oven for 7-8 minutes. They were very tasty along side a large scoop of ice cream! 🙂 We were very crazy, laughed a lot, and were entertained. I wonder if Carmen now thinks that our family and our friends are insane! 🙂
After the party, Sarah, Carmen and I went to a wedding reception for our friends the Spears. The reception was beautiful and had an Asian flair. The bride, Dream (yes that is her real name), is from China and they looked great together!
From there, I dropped Sarah and Carmen off at the Oscarson’s for a birthday party. The Oscarson family has two students from Spain as well (Maria and Luis). It’s Luis’ birthday today and they wanted to celebrate. They made tortilla de patatas, had cake and ice cream, hung out and had a great time. When I picked them up at 11:00pm, they were still going strong, singing and laughing. Tired, but strong! 🙂 It’s now almost midnight, so I’m off to bed. Early day tomorrow!
