Summer Wrap-Up - 2010

The entire first half of our summer was spent playing baseball. Both Thomas and Joshua made the All-Star teams for their ages, and Steve coached Thomas' team.







Both the boys and Steve had a really good time with this. Both of their teams won trophies from at least one tournament, and learned a LOT about baseball. But it was really HOT watching all those games!

The next big thing that happened was Grammy and Papa MOVED to Flower Mound. Their car was delivered to our house before they arrived. It was such an exciting event that Charles set up his chair on the lawn to watch.




The boys also did a few of the local Flower Mound high school sports camps. Joshua and Charles both did the tennis camp while Thomas did football. And all three did a soccer camp. I was trying to keep them busy since this was my first summer since I'd had kids back at work...from HOME!



The two big boys went to camp in July (in another post) and we all went on a cruise to Alaska at the end of the month!! There are too many pictures to post here; I had to make an entire scrapbook from that trip. It was fabulous! There was ziplining and dogsleds and glaciers and sushi and formal night and high tea and hot tubs and swimming pools and FOOD! (just to name a few things)We took the trip with all the Wintons. What a fun time! Here are a few pictures.






The last thing before school was a quick trip to El Paso. I had to stay home and work, but Steve took the boys for some time with Grandma and Grandpa Kall. They Celebrated Charles' birthday with a Spongebob cake, went to Western Playland, and played a lot of cards!

The Pines 2010

Joshua and Thomas went to camp again this year at the Pines in Big Sandy. It wasn't so traumatic for me this time around since we all knew what to expect. The boys had a fabulous time meeting friends, hanging with counselors and getting closer to God. And NOBODY got sick this year. Yea!! However, Thomas was really beat when I picked him up on Saturday morning. It took him about a week to recoup and rest up.

Joshua was in Branch this year which is the middle school group of kids. That means he got to do a lot more activities and had to sleep in one of the rustic cabins with no A/C. Yikes! Turns out, that really wasn't so bad.

His cabin was called St Peter.



Here he is on his bunk...



And with his buddies John Ramsey and Adam



He had a great week and turned out to be the king of Gaga. A dodgeball type game that was all the rage. He even beat his counselors and other teenagers around camp!!

Thomas was in the nice air conditioned lodges again this year with his buddy William and Williams cousin, Henry, who became a fast friend too.

Here is Thomas on his bunk right before we said goodbye:



And in the cabin with his counselors and friend William.



This camp does a great job recruiting awesome counselors who are college students that are not only tons of fun but amazing Catholic examples for these kids. Thomas's counselors prayed the rosary every night with the boys. And Joshua's counselors had talks with the boys about girlfriends and God and the Holy Spirit. Pretty cool!

We love this camp because in addition to being Catholic, the camp staff is awesome. And they are so modern too. They communicate "camp news" and upload tons of pictures each days so we get a good feel for what is going on. And even get to see our kids having fun. This year they added a mid-week video update which was awesome!
Here is an example of the camp news one day. You will have to click it to be able to read it.




On the last day, the camp has a morning service and the parents get to attend. This is fun for the kids because they finally learn their counselors real name. Thomas came running to me when he saw me. He was a little homesick at the end and happy to see me. I was was also really happy to see him!



Thomas and his counselors...one final pic and goodbye!



And Joshua saying goodbye to his counselors as well as his friends.



All in all it was a fabulous, fun week.