House of Estrogen

Guest Post: Elise on her Costa Rica Adventure, Part Two (Days 5-9)

I asked Elise (my 13 year old) to write a guest post and share the pictures she took on her exciting trip to Costa Rica. You can read Part One here.  -Ann

Day 5: Monteverde

Today we went to La Cruz Elementary School. It was very cool. There were only 9 kids which I thought was kind of strange, but it was kindergarten through fifth grade. They did a little dance for us which was kind of cool. For the last dance, they made us participate which was really, really fun. We donated things, so I took jump ropes and some school supplies. I forgot to bring my jump rope, so I didn't show them anything.

After the school visit, we went to plant some trees, and that was lots of fun. We named ours Felicia Leaf Le Weave III. The person who was in charge of everything liked our name so much that he recorded all of us saying it.

I didn't take any pictures at the school or tree planting, but my teachers posted some great pictures here. 

After that, we went to zip lining, and I was terrified, absolutely terrified. We did four or five by ourselves and another by ourselves that was kind of long. Then we did two or three with a partner. They were really, really long. One was a mile long. It was so, so cool. We got to see all of the mountains and the valleys, but we had to hike up there. I managed to take a video on one of the long ones that I did with a partner, but my camera battery died halfway through.

After that, the rest of the people went horseback riding, but I'm allergic to horses. I went back to the hotel and blocked out the rest of the world with my headphones and colored on graph paper.

Day 6: Pacific Coast

This morning, we packed up and went to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. On our way there, we went on a bridge that overlooked a bunch of crocodiles. We got to take some cool pictures of them. Our tour guide, Erik, said that the reason there were so many crocodiles was because they used to be able to feed the crocodiles, so they keep coming back to that spot expecting to be fed.

We went on a crocodile tour, and it was really cool. We got to see lots of different crocodiles. One was 16 feet long! They call it Osama Bin Laden because of his ability to hide. We saw so many different birds, and I got a really good picture of the macaws.

the boat we were on for the crocodile tour

an iguana

macaws!

We went on a nature walk and saw lots of butterflies. I was able to get some good pictures of the butterflies and the chrysalises.  On the walk, we were able to see snakes, frogs, spiders, and toads, but they were all behind glass.

cool flowers that attract pollinators

blue morpho butterfly

chrysalises

We went on a ariel tram tour through the rain forest. It was really cool because I was at the very front, so I got to see everything. Also, there was a zip line that was going right above us, so we were able to see all the people doing that. We saw a little waterfall through the trees.

view from the tram

Day 7: Manuel Antonio National Park, Campos

Today we had burnt pancakes, fruit, and sausage and potatoes that I really, really liked. I gave up eating rice and beans. We walked to the beach, and we saw some monkeys and sloths, and then we arrived at the beautiful ocean! It was so cool. The water was just right, wasn't too cold, wasn't too hot. It was so clear and blue and green. The monkeys tried to steal my food and some of my friends' food, but they didn't succeed. It was really, really hot out, and I kind of forgot to reapply sunscreen. When I got back to the hotel, I figured out was really, really burnt.

I didn't take my camera to the beach, but there are some beautiful pictures on my teachers' blog post here.

Day 8: Sarchi and San Jose

We started heading back to San Jose, but we stopped in a town called Sarchi. Sarchi is famous for its ox carts and hand painted stuff. We got to see where they make things with the water wheel and how powerful that is. We also got to see the process of how they make the paint. It was really, really, really cool.

world's largest ox cart

cathedral in Sarchi

The folklore night was really cool. We got to see a traditional dance with the big skirts. We also saw belly dancing which was really too much for me. Then we got to do dancing. The food was really good. We had rice and beans. Again. We had some kind of chicken and coconut sugar balls for dessert. They were really good!  I think it went on too long because we had to get up at 3 a.m. to go to the airport. We stayed until 9:30, and that was not OK with me.

view of San Jose from folklore night

Day 9: Travel day back home

We got up at 3:00 and had a bag breakfast of peanut butter and jelly. You can't bag rice and beans. Customs was really, really, really long. It was nice getting back to where we can read the signs. I now have a new appreciation for other cultures and people who come to America with little English. I had a lot of fun. It was such a great experience, and I am so glad I could go.

This was such an amazing experience for Elise. Two teachers at her school organized this trip with EF Educational Tours. I'm thrilled that they took that initiative and were willing to travel with a bunch of middle school age kids. It sounds a bit daunting to me! EF did a wonderful job integrating education, fun, Costa Rican culture, physical activities, and sightseeing.  Despite growing a bit weary of rice and beans at every meal, Elise loved every minute of the trip. She has made memories to last a lifetime.

Guest Post: Elise on her Costa Rica Adventure, Part One (Days 1-4)

I asked Elise (my 13 year old) to write a guest post and share the pictures she took on her exciting trip to Costa Rica. Enjoy!  -Ann

Day 1: Travel to San Jose, Costa Rica

We got up really, really super early in the morning to get to the airport, and we got to Costa Rica around lunch time. Then we went to our hotel and got our rooms. We decided to take a walk through downtown San Jose to get to a lunch spot. It was really cool to see all the different stores and people and a different culture. Lots of the stores looked about the same. It was very, very smelly. There were people selling things on the street that were illegal, so it was very, very different from North Carolina. It was a good day!

not happy about the early morning flight

getting excited with Sarah and Paige at the airport

the hotel

downtown San Jose

crowded market

pigeons everywhere

Inside a cathedral

 

Day 2: Britt Coffee Plantation and Poas National Volcano Park

We got up at 6:00 in the morning to have breakfast at 7:00. Then we went to the Britt Coffee Plantation. We learned how they grow coffee, how long it takes to grow the coffee beans, and that they pick the beans by hand, so they only get the ripe ones. If you do it by machine, the machine gets all the beans, not just the ones that are ripe.

coffee plants

Gunner modeling the waist basket used to pick beans

Tara and Gunner tasting the coffee

Then we went to the volcano. It was kind of chilly, and we had to hike up to get there. We saw a salamander. When we got to the top, it was really cloudy, so all we could see was a white cloud. We didn't get a chance to see the crater, but the postcards of it looked really cool.  The sulfur smelled like rotten eggs. We stopped to see the La Paz waterfall. It was raining. Then we checked into our next hotel in La Fortuna.

view of the crater of the volcano

What we hoped to see

volcano selfie with Skylar

La Paz Waterfall

Day 3: La Fortuna

We went kayaking in Lake Arenal near the Arenal Volcano. Kayaking was really fun. I did it with my partner Dhivya, and we were so bad! We bumped into the instructor who was trying to help us go somewhere. When we got to the clearing, Dhivya didn't want to get out of the kayak, but I tipped us over, so we had to get out! Everyone was swimming around and talking, and it was a lot of fun! We held on to one of the people's kayaks who was still in, and he pulled us around. Then we got back on and had a long trek back. It was very tiring.

Then we went to the La Fortuna waterfall. It was so pretty! The hike was gorgeous but hard. When we got there, we got to take pictures by the rocks by the waterfall, and we got to swim. Swimming was lots of fun because we made it a challenge to see how far on the rocks we could get. We didn't get very far, but it was still fun to see how far we could get. It was a looonnnnggg hike back to the top which we did in the rain.

La Fortuna waterfall

After that, we went to Baldi Hot Springs. It was really cool to see how they set up their hot springs. They have bars in some of them. In one of them there was a giant slide that we weren't allowed to go on. Paige and I stuck together and tried to find one that was just the right temperature. We finally found one. Unfortunately, it was the one with the slide which was very crowded, so we left. We stayed there for two hours which for me was way too long because the sulfur was messing with me.

pretty views out the bus window

The dinner at the hotel was spaghetti, and that was probably my favorite dinner of the entire trip. The sauce had kind of a sweet tangy flavor.... and it was not rice and beans. I was getting really, really tired of rice and beans. We had rice and beans for breakfast that morning and lunch.

Day 4: Monteverde

Our hotel was Hotel Don Taco, and we checked in just in time for lunch. I really liked that hotel. We had a green bean omelet for lunch which was really good. I liked it. And we had rice and beans. The bathroom door wasn't really a door. It was an accordion door that was broken. That wasn't fun. After lunch, we went to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest for a nature walk. It was so pretty. We didn't see any animals which kind of made me mad.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest

 Read Part Two here.

Brave.

I heard from Elise this morning. Even with the camp zip line accident still very fresh in her mind, she got up the nerves to do this. 

You go girl! Mamma is proud (but glad your feet are back on the ground).  Now she is off for a crocodile tour today. No rest for the weary!

A Tale of Two Camps

Growing up in Texas was hot.... like really hot... as in I owned a T-shirt that stated, "I survived the 1980 Texas heat wave."  That was the year we had 42 consecutive days with a high temperature over 100 and reached an all-time high of 113. I went to Girl Scout camp for a couple of summers on Lake Texoma (the lake breeze being the only thing that made those platform tents tolerable) until my mom declared it was simply too hot to go to camp in Texas. The next year, she started sending me to Camp Illahee in the mountains of North Carolina for five weeks each summer. That was back when unaccompanied minors on summer flights were the norm.  It was pre-9/11 and before the advent of helicopter parenting, so kids flew alone to visit grandma, stay with cousins, or go to camp. I would hop on a flight in Dallas with 8-10 other kids heading to camp in North Carolina. We would fly to Charlotte where we would change planes for the short flight to Asheville. Looking back, I feel so sorry for the flight attendants (or I'm sure they were called stewardesses back then) on that flight from Charlotte to Asheville. Campers from all over the country converged in Charlotte, and then we all took that same flight to Asheville. Can you imagine being the flight attendant on a flight that was 90% unaccompanied minors? As you watched the baggage being loaded onto the plane, it was footlocker after footlocker after sleeping bag after duffel bag. They must have hated those flights.

I loved my summers at Illahee. I made friends who I still keep in touch with to this day. Don't I look like someone straight out of Hayley Mills' cabin in the movie The Parent Trap in my Sunday white uniform?

We wore whites on Sundays and blues on Saturdays and for trips out of camp. This photo was taken at the Biltmore.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from camp - the hike up to Mount LeConte Lodge, rafting the Nantahala, organizing Surprise Day as a CIT, fried chicken and Biltmore ice cream for lunch on Sundays, the dances at the boys' camp, Camp Deerwoode, taking woodworking, weaving, riflery, synchronized swimming, diving, lifesaving, rappelling, and canoeing. When Addie asks me to sing to her at bedtime, she gets campfire songs from Illahee.

I always knew that if I ever had a girl, she would spend her summers at Illahee. Then... I grew up. I had not one but THREE girls, and discovered that the 3-4 week long sessions at Illahee are prohibitively expensive, especially times three. Also, sessions that long don't work out so well with a year-round school schedule. Neither our budget nor our schedule could make that dream happen, so off to Girl Scout camp they went. I'm not knocking Girl Scout camps. They are great for what they are - fun, affordable camps, with limited amenities and activities. My girls have enjoyed Girl Scout camp, but every year when we would drop them off or pick them up, I couldn't help but feel like they were missing out. It just isn't the same experience that you get at a bigger camp with a long history of traditions, (Illahee opened in 1921.) and campers who return to the same session year after year.

This year, we decided to try something different, Camp Cheerio, a YMCA camp. It has been around for 60 years, is priced about halfway between Girl Scout camp and Illahee, and seemed to offer the type of camp experience I had been wanting to find.

As we sat in the long line of cars to get into camp that first day with the windows open enjoying the cool mountain air, I think I was just as excited as Elise and Nina.

It all just felt right. We hadn't even gotten out of the car yet, and I knew they were going to have a great week.

Even the slide going into the lake looked just like the one at Illahee.

As we drove into camp we were greeted everywhere by counselors waving and yelling, "Welcome to Cheerio!" We got the girls checked into their cabins. (How cool are the bright colored footlockers these days? I don't think there was any option other than black when I was a camper.)

Pop culture decorating the cabin doors still seems to be going strong.. Ms. Pacman from the 80's to Taylor Swift now.

We dropped off their medicine, bought the requisite camp sweatshirts, hugged them good-bye, and left knowing they were going to have an amazing time creating camp memories to last a lifetime.

Every smiling picture we saw from camp during the week confirmed that they were having a ball.

The perfectly posed cabin photo even reminded me of the unit pictures we always took at Illahee.

I was feeling like I had finally found the perfect camp for my girls. Then Thursday came, a day that will sadly stick in the minds of many people for years to come. We got an email from the camp that evening that there had been a tragic zipline accident and a child had been taken to the hospital. By later that night, we saw on the news that the child had died. I can't even tell you all the feelings that were running through us that night... overwhelming grief for the family who lost a child, a heavy feeling in the pit of our stomachs that it could just as easily have been one of our girls, and worry for Elise and Nina - What had they seen? What did they know? Was this girl a friend or cabinmate? Did they need a hug from mom and dad? (We certainly needed one from them.)

When you send your child off to camp, you expect a few bumps and bruises, maybe a bee sting, sprained ankle or stitches. That comes with the territory of outdoor camp activity. I had to go to the hospital one year for stitches in my toe after a bizarre canoe accident at camp. You never in a million years though think that when you give your child a good-bye hug at their cabin that it is the last time you'll ever see them alive. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it.

On top of the fear, the grief, the anxiety, I had a much more trivial sad thought running through my head as well... "That camp seemed like everything I wanted for them, and now they will never want to go back."

We debated going straight to the camp the next morning to pick them up. We had visions of sobbing campers all over camp with parents rushing in to bring them all home. When I called the camp the next morning, that image couldn't have been further from the truth. I was told that if our children had witnessed the accident or had been a cabinmate of the child that we would have already been contacted directly. I was also told that camp was going on as usual with laughter, smiles, singing, and fun. Most of the campers didn't even know there had been an accident. Those that asked about it were told that she had been in an accident and had to leave camp but no more than that. Amazing. I had never been so grateful for the "no phones, no ipods, no electronics" camp rule. Despite the story being all over the news and social media, the camp was able to completely isolate the majority of the campers from knowing anything. Those young counselors are rock stars. The counselors had all been told Thursday night, but they put on a smiling face, and I suppose adrenaline kept them going.

Pick-up on Saturday was hard. All I could think about was that one family wasn't there picking up their daughter with the rest of us. I couldn't wait to see Elise and Nina, but I was on the verge to tears the whole morning. The camp program director and YMCA CEO greeted each car as we arrived at camp and answered any questions we had. We told them that we appreciated all their communication and felt like they had handled a horrible situation as well as they possibly could. We picked up the girls who were positively bursting with stories to tell us about all the things they had done at camp that week. Before we could even ask, they both declared that they were definitely going back next year.

Wow. Despite counselors and camp leadership likely in shock and grieving those last few days of camp, most of the campers were none the wiser. The week could have ended so differently for all those campers, but thanks to good decisions by the camp director and CEO, most of those campers had just as great a week as they have had any other year at Cheerio.

After about three hours of non-stop camp stories from Elise and Nina, Nina eventually told us that there had been a bad accident at the zip line. Sadly, two girls in Nina's cabin had witnessed the fall. Nina knew it was bad. She said one of the girls cried a lot and had counselors talking with her a lot (the camp had grief counselors there on site after the accident). Nina had definitely been affected by the accident and is still struggling with it to some degree, but the fact that it took three hours of non-stop talk before the subject came up tells me that the fun and adventures of camp overshadowed the sadness.

Later that evening, we told the girls the whole story, and we all shed some tears. Nina is still processing it all, but she is adamant that she wants to go to Cheerio again next year. She loved her time there.

I feel blessed, fortunate, and just plain lucky that our children came home from camp that week healthy and safe, but I feel like a little of my parent innocence has been lost. Those camp good-bye hugs will take on a whole new meaning in the future. Elise left for Costa Rica three days ago, and I think I hugged her and told her I loved her about 10 times between the parking lot and the airport. I'm pretty much holding my breath until their rainforest canopy zip line adventure is over. It is a little sooner than I'd like to have my child on a zip line again.

I'm thrilled that the girls had a great week at camp and that we have found a camp that reminds me more of my childhood camp memories. That was a hard week though, and my thoughts and prayers are still with the Burney family, the counselors who were working the zip line that day, the camp doctor and first responders, and the whole Camp Cheerio family.

 

"Making a decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."        

~ Elizabeth Stone

 

Snowshoe Exposed

J.C. spends several weekends of his summers up on Snowshoe Mountain, WV, downhill biking with a bunch of buddies. During the winter, he spends his weekends counting down the days until ski season is over and he can get back up to Snowshoe. For years, he has been saying, "We should go up there for a family vacation! I always see families up there having fun! The kids would love it!" No matter how many times he has said this, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the six hour drive. Call me a wimp. Call me spoiled. You won't hurt my feelings. I can own it. I just really hate being in the car. I have restless leg syndrome, and car rides are my own little personal version of torture.

Besides the drive, I just couldn't get past picturing Snowshoe solely as a place where grungy, muddy bikers...

ride their ridiculously expensive downhill bikes...

at breakneck speeds down the mountain. (I use the term "breakneck" very deliberately. Two of his biking buddies are out of commission this season - one for a broken collarbone, the other from a broken humerus last summer. On his trip up there last month, one of his friends came back with broken ribs.)

J.C. would tell me, "No! It isn't just for bikers! There are all kinds of things to do up there! There is a pool..."

"and a lake..."

"and the kids can bounce on the bungie thing!"

He would say, "The weather is gorgeous, and we can ride the chairlift! The girls will love it!"

Somehow, none of his arguments could convince me to take the trip. I don't fault him. He really did his best to accurately describe the place. I think I just had so many images ingrained in my head of the world of Snowshoe that is downhill biking. A lot of his biking buddies are my coworkers, so I have heard about Snowshoe from all of them for years as well. After years of seeing photos and videos of the rocks, mud, ramps, jumps, and biking gear,  "family vacation destination" was never what I pictured. Plus, there was still that six hour drive.

He finally convinced me to go though, and I'll go ahead and admit it now... I was wrong. There. I said it. J.C. now has it in writing. Snowshoe is absolutely a wonderful place for a family vacation. Don't let the scary jumps that my husband flies off on his bike make you think otherwise. (Yes, he really rides off that thing.)

We all had a blast. When we first arrived, as if eager to welcome us, deer were hanging out in the backyard of the condo.

As J.C. had promised, there were plenty of non-downhill-biking activities to keep us occupied. The older two went zip lining through the village, and...

a huge smile was plastered on Addie's face any time she was bouncing on the bungie thing.

The lake was loads of fun for swimming,

sliding,

paddle boarding,

and paddle boating.

Everybody tried out the slack line.

Mostly, we just enjoyed the cool mountain air,...

hung out in the village,...

rode the lifts,...

and took in the views.

In the evenings, we could relax in the hot tub with a view of the mountains,

make s'mores,

and enjoy the sunsets.

So... while Snowshoe is very much a Mecca for scrappy downhill bikers, it is also an absolutely lovely destination for families!

I even managed to survive the six hour drive there and back and would do it again.

A Little Summer Vacay, Part 2, Atlanta

After leaving Great Wolf Lodge (Summer Vacay Part 1), we headed down to Atlanta, Georgia, to partake in the touristy scene. Nina had been bouncing around elated when we first told her we were going to Atlanta.  We weren't really sure why she was so excited or what she had heard about Atlanta, but we were glad she was so thrilled. After a day or so, we finally realized that she thought we were going to Atlantis in the Bahamas rather than Atlanta in Georgia. Ummm, big difference. We had to reel back her expectations a bit before the trip. I'm glad we figured it out before we got there though. That could have been a huge disappointment.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites in downtown. It was a cute little place... sort of retro modern, and it was walking distance to most of the downtown attractions.

Our first stop was Centennial Olympic Park which was so nice. I had walked through some of it during previous visits to Atlanta, but never really stopped to smell the roses. It is really a fabulous urban park.

Next we headed off to the World Of Coca-Cola. This was the big suprise hit of the trip. J.C. and I had both been there a few years ago and enjoyed it. We weren't entirely sure if the kids would like it or not though. None of them are Coke drinkers, but we decided to take a chance on it anyway. It turned out to be their favorite part of the whole trip! At the end of the trip when we asked each one what was their favorite place to visit in Atlanta, they all said the World of Coke!

The World of Coke seemed to provide lots of photobombing opportunities.

We all had fun there, even Nina who was scared of the polar bear.

Our next destination was the Georgia Aquarium which is spectacular. I really shouldn't even share pictures because my photography skills inside an aquarium are apparently atrocious. Just trust me that this is a great place to visit. Don't judge it by my photos!

We finished off the day (and, um,... every day) at Johnny Rockets.

We spent the next day at Zoo Atlanta where seeing the pandas was our number one priority.

As I get older, I'm finding more and more that I am just not a big fan of animals in captivity. It isn't like I'm a major animal lover or animal rights activist. I eat meat. I wear leather. I don't have pets. It is just something I'm discovering about myself. The zoo made me sad more than anything. On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing the animals, but I hated seeing their habitats and small enclosures. I have the same problem with the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at Animal Kingdom. I just have a hard time enjoying it. Anyway, the zoo was fine. I just think maybe zoos aren't my thing any more.

Once again, the day ended with smiles and shakes at Johnny Rockets.



On our last day, we had reservations for lunch at the American Girl Bistro. We thought this would be a huge treat for Addie. She loves her American Girl doll, and the last time we had the chance to go to an American Girl store, she was two.



 When the older girls had been her age, they were positively giddy about going to the American Girl store.  It was like floating up to doll heaven for them. I'm not sure whether it is just the fact of  Addie being a jaded third child or whether we didn't hype it up as much as we did in the past, but she was just sort of "meh" about the whole thing. She had a good lunch, and she enjoyed seeing the store, but I don't know that it was any more special to her than if we had gone to PF Chang's in the mall and walked around Toys R Us. Sigh. Live and learn. We won't be shelling out the big bucks for an American Girl lunch again.

It was J.C.'s first time at an American Girl store, and you have to figure a Dad of three girls needs to experience that place at least once in his life, so at least now he can say he has been there, done that.

After the slightly disappointing American Girl visit, we headed to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History which was a bit of a dud.

Our last stop of the trip was a meal at the Atlanta hot spot, The Varsity. We figured we couldn't take the kids all the way to Atlanta without at least one greasy meal at The Varsity.

The next day, we packed up and headed for home. All-in-all, it was a fun trip. It wasn't the beach, but I survived. I'm sure it is healthy and educational for the girls to be exposed to non-beach destinations every now and then too!

Snowshoe, Picture A Day, Day 2

Happy 4th of July from Snowshoe Mountain!

Snowshoe, Picture A Day, Day 1

Since we are 9th and 10th great-granddaughters of Pocahontas, we couldn't resist taking a picture in front of the Pocahontas Supply Company sign!  Snowshoe Mountain is in Pocahontas County, WV.

A Little Summer Vacay - Part 1, Great Wolf Lodge

When we started summer vacation planning, I said, "Beach!"  J.C. turned up his nose. I said, "OK! Lake house!" His eye twitched. Then he said, "Let's do something different... not the beach, and not a lake house." Huh? What? My brain couldn't compute. No ocean? No lake? Possibly no pool? What sort of summer vacation is this? And why on earth would we consider it? In my mind, vacation involves a large body of water. Always. That's just how I roll. He won out though, and we made plans to spend a few days doing touristy stuff in Atlanta. At the last minute, I added on a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with some friends. It couldn't be a completely swimsuit-free vacation!

Our plan was to skip the last day of school in order to arrive at Great Wolf Lodge right at 1:00 when you can access the water park. As luck would have it, kindergarten graduation and a middle school awards ceremony interfered with those plans, so we got on the road as soon as we could after those events.  As always, Great Wolf Lodge was a lot of fun.

That's Nina face down in the background getting slammed.

 

The dads.

After 24 hours of waterlogged Great Wolf Lodge fun, we all felt about like this.

Then, it was time to head to Atlanta. Stay tuned for part two.

 

A Week at the Circus

To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.

    -P.T. Barnum

 

Our girls attended circus camp this week. Their smiles say it all.

 

 

I think their happy faces are saying, "If you ever get a chance to send your kid to circus camp (or for that matter, attend circus camp yourself), DO IT!"

 

 

And who can blame them? How cool is it to learn trapeze,...

 

aerial silks,...

 

 

hula hoop, juggling, acrobatics,

 

 

and plate spinning?

After the show on the last day of camp, J.C. said something like, "I think this is the one and only camp you guys have all attended together and ALL had a great time the whole week." There were no complaints of boredom, or too much outdoor time, or too much indoor time, or too many mosquitos, or too much soccer, or not enough swimming, or too many sisters (the most common complaint when they attend camps together). It was fun, exciting, and an adventure every day. Success!

I'm sure we have no shot at the entire summer going this smoothly, but at least we got off to a good start!