Camp days....

Mike is now at Big Stuf camp in Daytona Beach, Florida. I am in Georgia with my parents. The girls are loving being at Nana and Papa's. They are always so happy here. I haven't heard from Mike much since he is in charge of the 40+ people. He might be a little busy. However, we did talk today and he told me it was good that Anna and I did not make the trip. They ended up crowding the kids into the rooms so that atleast a couple people have to sleep in the living area on the sofa bed. I would not have had a room with just Anna and another adult. I am so glad that God knew He had other plans for me this week! I am really excited to hear about all that God is going to do in our students lives while at camp. I love camp. It really is a place that I always had so much fun. I think I have attended atleast 15 different camps in my lifetime. In junior high I went to church camp in North Carolina and Tennessee. I remind you we drove from Arkansas to these places on buses that would always have issues and definetly no air conditioning. I also went to so many different basketball camps. I would go with my friends and we would get to stay in the college dorms. I remember sweating all day and then staying up way to late at night. We would order pizza almost every night cause the camp food was so bad. In high school I continued to go to basketball camp with my team and I think I started going to running camp, but I can't remember. In college I began to work at camps and I loved every minute of it. Mike and I both worked at Kanakuk. He worked at K-Kountry for young children and I worked at Kids Across America which was Kanakuk's camp for inner city children. I also started being a counselor at my good friend Amy's running camp in Indiana. It was crazy we would run like 15 miles a day and then listen to speakers talk about running, nutrition, etc... and we thought this was fun. When Mike and I were engaged we were interns at a huge church in Memphis and we had to be counselors for all their camps that summer. We went on a missions camp to Alabama which was crazy. We went to Tennessee for a choir tour with their middle school students. It was a fun summer learning all about ministry from someone who was an incredible youth pastor. We got married and then Mike began youth ministry and the camps have never stopped. We've been to two different church camps in South Carolina and then I was pregnant the last two summers which eliminated me getting to go to camp. I can't wait for the days when Ellie and Anna are old enough to go to camp. There is nothing like the feeling of staying in a cabin with your friends and being isolated from the outside world for a week. It has always been a growing experience for me and my walk with Christ. I know this week I am supposed to be here with my girls. We are having lots of fun. Ellie is currently obsessed with pennies. We found this old piggy bank and she loves putting the pennies in the bank. Today, though she has figured out to put them in her pocket so she can hide them from us. Tonight, while I was out at the library looking for a book to read she stayed her with mom and dad. They said she kept pointing to a bib. Mom put it on her thinking that she wanted one cause Anna had one on today. She put the bib on her and Ellie began to say "ice cream". She knew she had to have her bib on to have an ice cream cone. She brings us so many laughs these days. Tomorrow, she is having an early birthday party here with my parents. She is going to have so much fun with her Dora cake and balloons. I hope I didn't bore you all with my camp stories. It is just that time of year when I miss it so much!