Weather Weirdness

The weather this week has been crazy. Sunday started off sunny, then got some significcant rain. Monday was hot and sunny and the kids spent the afternoon swimming. Then yesterday we had a huge windstorm with massive whitecaps on the water. Today is overcast, but the sun is supposed to be out increasingly over the next few days. I could have used a little more rain... at least enough to lift the fire ban so that the entire camp isn't having their campfires on the beach in front of our cabin every night.
This week is going well. I'm really busy with a full load of troops to commission. Next week should be a little more chill. And Monica will be at daycamp with Kyle all week in Renton.
Now off to work a little more. Got Bon Jovi in the background... oooohhhh, we're halfway there!!!

Whidbey Whirlwind

We had a fun overnight at Whidbey last night. After playing on the beach and having dinner, we watched the Seafair torchlight parade on TV. Made me feel inspired to get out there and attend more community events as a family. Perhaps a good new year's resolution for 2009? Anyway, we had a great visit. Here are a few pictures:

Aunt Liz in the kyak

Great Nana C and Lolo

Comfy Cousins

Clean Cousins!

Oddities

Who's that listing staff assignments with Adam?

Camp directors in training

This one even I can't explain.

Loves

OK, I have to be gushy for one moment. Yesterday marked 11 years since Anton and I first started going out. Normally I don't think about it, but since we are here at camp (where it all started!) it crossed my mind.
Maybe we should have a smooch on the pier for old times sake.
(OK McNellis, you can stop puking now.)

A visit from the "BFF"

This past weekend, Monica's "BBF" (as we fondly call her) Eva, and her family came for a visit. The excitement was overwhelming, at least for those under the age of 6. Scott and Kristine also visited, although they were really just using us as a base camp to climb Mt. Townsend Sunday. Aside from visitors, Anton and I had duty crew (cooking, garbage run, and fire duty) which made for quite a busy weekend. Next Saturday we are headed to Whidbey for a little more R&R.

Sweet Victory!

Yesterday morning after the troops left we had a staff Hullabaloo race (this is the relay race that the troops do on Friday afternoons, so we had a staff version). The race is made up of running, canoeing, and swimming. The teams were made up by area, so it was office/camp management, beach crew, Scoutcraft crew, eco/craftlodge crew, and one final team made up of staff from the clmbing tower/medical staff/trading post crew. You might think that beach crew would have done well, or perhaps some of the teams with "younger" guys, but no, office/camp management RULES! The minute I heard that Ken and Mike (our camp director and assistant camp director) were our canoers, I knew we were going to kick butt. Others on our team doubted them, but I knew that when you've seen as many races as they have, they would know how to win (I've also seen Ken uproot a live tree with his bare hands, so I figured canoeing would be a piece of cake). Here's our victorious team photo. For a blow-by-blow, read the description on Mike's blog:
Go to www.campparsons.com, then click on ACD Blog.
Really, it was a blast.

End of Week 3

Well another week has come to an end and here it is Saturday morning where I'm up at 5:30, in the camp office by 6. I really shouldn't blog on Saturday mornings, it kind of taints my perception of the experience, especially since outside of the things I need to get done, no one rarely comes into the office needing anything until after 7.
Whoops, OK, a scoutmaster just came in with a question, so I guess my feeble presence is worth something.
Believe it or not (you may want to sit down to hear this) I have actually cut back on my mountain dew consumption this summer. By the spring I was up to 3 cans a day including one for breakfast and I finally decided that was a bit much, even for me. So now I am down to one can a day, usually in the afternoon. The only exception being Saturdays since I have to get up at such an ungodly hour and there's no way I'm drinking the sludge coffee in the SMG lounge. So yes, it is 6AM, and I am Doing the Dew, but I am generally moving in the right direction in this area. I've also been running a lot, which has been fun, although no matter how cool the weather gets it always seems to be 10 degrees hotter on Bee Mill Road. The other day I was baking so bad halfway through my run that I actually leaned over the barbed wire fence of the Yelvick's pasture to try to steal some of the spray off the sprinkler. Unfortunately I barely got any and the cows appeared to be laughing at me. But I was more worried that the ghost of Old Lady Yelvick was going to jump out of the shadows with a shotgun and blast me into the next county. The price one pays for exercise! On the hottest days I go the other way up the trail behind the dining hall and then down Pulali Point Road, which is mostly shaded.... or I just forget the running and jump in the water and then sit on my deck to stay cool.
It was a pretty lax week for me since I had 4 volunteer commissioners in camp, but this week coming up will be a little more intense. I had time Thursday to go on the "Mike McNellis Camp Parsons History Tour" (the real one, not the black tour) where I learned quite a lot I didn't know about camp's past and the history of the Puget Sound / Hood Canal region. If you ever wonder why I don't travel, that's one major reason: why spend time seeing a place I don't care about for a short time, when I can spend my whole life learning more about the region I love and call home? OK, I digress.
Several people have asked how Anton and I are getting our jobs done up here with such active kiddos, so here's a little sampling of our daily schedule:
8AM Anton goes to the dining hall for breakfast, I usually feed the kids breakfast in the cabin so we don't have to deal with 3(!) dining hall meals for Jack
9AM I come over the camp office while Anton is on kid-duty
10:30 or after the scoutmaster's meeting, we switch and Anton goes to work
12:30 lunch
Afternoon- depends a lot on the day, usually one of us does some work for a while, but it's also a good time to do family stuff like go for a swim or a hike
6PM dinner
Evening-- try to get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour, unless it's a campfire night. Then we either hang out at the cabin or one of us goes socializing.
We've been lucky to have some combination of our parents here off and on, which is great and means the kids are entertained while we go off and do whatever.
Well, off to do my work this morning and then to enjoy 24 hours of peace and quiet in camp (except for my own children, of course). Anton and I have duty crew this weekend but should still have time for some R&R.

A Few Favorites

Monica's 5 favorites at camp:
1. Buying ice cream at the trading post
2. swimming in the canal
3. taking walks
4. campfires
5. eating (she thinks the dining hall songs are a little loud, but she LOVES the food!)

Jack's 5 favorites at camp:
1. throwing rocks at Mystery Beach
2. PB&J lunch and mac n' cheese nights
3. swimming/sliding in the alligator pool
4. riding in the backpack
5. playing frisbee with the staff

A visit from the Carters

Woo-hoo! We had an awesome weekend here with the Carter family!

Week 2 random shots

Here are a few additional random shots from Week 2 of camp (if you haven't figured it out, the number means the 2nd week of scouts in camp, it's actually the 3rd week for us staff members). We are continuing to have an absolutely fabulous time at camp.

Jack is now finally old enough to play with the Polly Pockets... when Monica lets him.

This is Patches, Ken and Julie's baby goat.

Monica doing a "performing" for me in Met Jr.

Jack LOVES Keith, our range director.

Campfire with Nanie and Grandpa Gordon

Who loves smores?
A few panoramas

Lost tooth... literally

Well, Monica's tooth finally came out yesterday. it was a little anti-climactic... during lunchtime line-up I suddenly noticed that her tooth wasn't there anymore. It had been hanging by a thread for days, but I thought it was pretty funny that she didn't even notice when I it came out. When I told her about it, she immediately got excited and began searching the ground for it, though I had a hunch it had been engulfed by the expanse of camp.
As expected, it we couldn't find it, so Monica wrote the following note to the Tooth Fairy:
"Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth at Camp Parsons. Sorry I can't find it. See you soon. Love, Monica."
And the tooth fairy must be very compassionate because this morning a dollar bill was tucked under her pillow. She immediately declared that she was going to spend her dollar on Polly Pockets, and I had to gently remind her that it would take a few more teeth to afford that!

Ka-boom! Part Two: water fun

After the parade we always spend the day at Great Nana Josie's waterfront. It's fun to have a new crop of little kids there to enjoy the water.

Ka-boom! Part One: The Parade

Watching the first part of the parade go by

riding IN the parade!

Hot dogs and strawberry shortcake. YUM!

For those of you who don't know, the 4th of July for my side of the family is the biggest holiday of the year. We pretty much go all out, even more so than at Christmas. Not bad for a bunch of Canadians! The parade/picnic/party is a community event on Yarrow Point, where Great Nana Josie lives and we've been part of it since it started about 30 years ago. I too rode my bike in it at Monica's age!

Monica Moments

Both Monica and Jack are loving being at camp, but I think Monica is probably enjoying it the most. To avoid the "can we go to the trading post?" question every day, we are now giving her a dollar of allowance each week, which pretty much translates straight into ice cream money. Yesterday she used her first dollar to buy a popsicle, and was just as thrilled with the quarter she got back in change. She is hoping that her loose tooth will come out soon so that they tooth fairy will add to her piggy bank.

Another favorite activity of the week was going rowing with Dad. Jack and I hung out on the pier to watch... reminded me of my dad and I in the rowboats at Parsons when I was Monica's age. Anton is going to re-up his BSA lifegaurd cert so he can take her in a kayak next.