Smart Mouth

Surprisingly, considering her initial reluctance, Carsten was pretty positive and excited all day today. I think it helped her to know she was just going to camp for a few days and not a full week.

We went out for a big breakfast this morning, to celebrate my neighbor’s birthday, and we didn’t get home until around noon. Then all three of us pretty much passed out into a food coma. I set my alarm for 1:30, but Carsten woke me up at 1:27 and told me it was time to go!

Camp Tanadoona is about as traditional as you can get for a summer camp. I felt like I was stepping into a memory, it looked so similar to the camp I went to as a child.

We checked in and were told she was in the Milky Way cabin and her counselors were named Flo and Dolly. The only time she looked like she was about to bolt for the car was when they made her sit down so they could check her for head lice. I said, Hey! At least they’re checking!

We walked to camp store and deposited money and then found her cabin.

All the cabins sit back in the woods, under a huge canopy of trees. The bunks are wooden, the walls are screen with the roll down canvas tarps for when it rains. Everything smells old, but in a wonderful kind of way.

I made her pose for a picture outside first. She whispered to me, I’m afraid all my roommates are going to be weird. I said, oh, they WILL be weird. YOU’RE AT CAMP! That’s just how camp goes.

A couple of her roommates wandered in while we unpacked. There were two adorable 6 year old girls that picked the bunk next to Carsten, that made her day! She loves little kids.

A fuzzy red-headed girl stared at us from her top bunk perch the entire time. I said hello, but she just kept staring. God I love camp!

Then we heard some bad news. The bathroom is a LONG walk away and you have to go everywhere in groups of three. So, if you have to pee at 3am you have to wake 2 people up. Gulp.

Then we took a little walk around camp. There’s little fire rings tucked into woods here and there and little cabins around every corner. There’s a dining hall, that again, looks like it stepped out of my memories.

We stopped at the tiny three holer, three shower ladies bathroom. This presented a great opportunity to discuss how she can use this week to challenge her anxieties about smells and spider webs and going a few days without pocket hand sanitizer. Again, she was surprisingly positive.

We didn’t walk down to the lake, even though I wanted to, because honestly? She seemed pretty eager to get rid of us!

We dropped her back at the cabin with Flo. The schedule for the rest of the day was a swim test at 4, then dinner, then games and a campfire.

Fingers crossed she has a blast! I just realized she’s never gone anywhere that I wasn’t still able to talk to her everyday. I’m pretty sure I’m having a harder time with that fact than she is!

Drop off #2, Cody at college, is only 13 days away. I’m just telling you right now, it won’t go as smoothly as today did!