Week at Camp

It's finally here. The end of the summer. Sniff.

Every year the last couple weeks in August are bittersweet at our house, and were even before the arrival of Lucy. The weather here is generally beautiful and finally summery, but we are getting ready to go back to school (work). Eric is always more excited than I am; I dread my return to teaching, though once I get going it's usually okay.

To enjoy our last full week off we went to camp for four days, the longest stretch we've ever spent there at a go. With camp only an hour and a half away, it's not hard to just go for the day, but we made a mini-vacation out of it this time, which was nice. It made the three hours of cleaning you have to do to leave camp ready for the next person really seem worthwhile.

While there, I made the trip in to Millinocket to visit Aunt Harriett and Uncle Allister and stopped to buy Lucy some sand toys. She was less than thrilled with the rocky beach. One of her new things is to walk around the house and pick bits of debris off the carpet and hand it to me. I think she likes an unblemished surface on which to play, effectively making the beach frustration central. There was no way she was going to be able to get all those rocks up to prepare her play surface. Maybe next year.

Here are Lucy and I on the dock. Last time we went to camp I tried to get her to go in the water and she was terrified. Screamed and clutched, and even hated to go to the beach or out on the dock because it was close to the water. I thought this was the closest she was going to come to a swim, but I was wrong.

Eric took her in his arms and started to dip her feet and legs, which she didn't seem to mind at all.

So we stripped her down and sent her in. Perhaps she just doesn't like her bathing suit? Or maybe it was because the water this time was much warmer than her last swim? Who knows. Lucy and Daddy swam together for quite some time. She never seemed to love it, but didn't openly hate it, so we consider the adventure a success.

Here Eric is showing off his well-formed stroke.

Sara, Jacob, and Matt came up for the day on Tuesday and spent much of their time with us in the water.

Matt and Jacob found the snorkels and did some underwater exploring. They (gasp) saw a sunfish! It didn't, however, bite anyone's toes.

The boys went across the lake in the kayaks as well, and found a beautiful beach on an island straight out from our shore. Eric thought it had the good makings of a campsite for a night out.

Before the York-Gallons left, Jacob took some time to play with Lucy and show her how her toys worked.

Jacob is awfully good to her and she loves him right back. This was their best cousin hug.

We had a fabulous time at camp this year, wonderful weather, warm water, and good company. We couldn't have asked for a better week to be there, and lamented our return to civilization, a perpetually messy house, and the looming deadlines that come with a return to BHS and Husson.

Oh well. If summer lasted forever, it wouldn't be half as sweet, right?