We just returned from Family Camp. We’ve been going for several years, since it’s inception. I think it started when we were picking up kids from summer church camp, and someone commented that “wouldn’t be nice to have a camp for adults and kids together, why do kids get to have all the fun?”

   So one of the adults coordinated this through the church, getting us a site every year at one of the places where the kids go to camp. It has been a real success each year, especially with a core group of families that always attends. We have service each day, arts and crafts, meals together, swimming, soccer, the kids run around loose in the woods, bonfires, tents, cabins, and lots of singing/music.
   Once again, I am very grateful for the guitar that Grandpa Paul gave me many years ago. This year, I turned out to be the lead musician, leading all the singing for the services and for the guitar karaoke on Saturday night. Between the impromptu rehearsals right before service and the guitar karoake, I got pretty good at playing guitar by the time we left. I must have played a hundred times.
   Arianna adopted a roommate for the weekend, Tessa, whom you’ve seen before in this blog. They were bosom buddies, spending just about every waking minute together, and all of their sleeping moments. This is part of the appeal of family camp: we can really relax regarding our kids knowing they are safe and sound with someone else’s family or kids. Tessa’s parents knew she was with us all the time and did not worry one bit.
   As far as Adam and Aaron were concerned, we really didn’t seem much of them except for mealtimes and service. They banded together with other church friends and a couple of new kids, playing four square, soccer, lacrosse(the new kid brought sticks), hours of card games, like Magic and Munchkin, and Risk. They tried a game of capture the flag in the dark, but were distracted by real karaoke Sunday night.
   Real karaoke was something new this year. Usually, someone brings a set of books of pop songs and the guitarists take requests to lead sing alongs around the campfire, which we did Saturday night. But this year, we tried genuine karaoke. Someone brought a computer, speakers, microphones, a projector and we borrowed a screen from the campground. This was a whopping success, which we managed to pull off right in front of the campfire. Karoake is always fun to do if you get enough courage, and but even more fun to watch and listen to. Even the kids ganged up to do a couple songs, including head banging to “The Hokey Pokey” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Adam and Dad did the last song together, Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.”
   Right after we left, we realized that we forgot the camera, so sorry, there are no photos to share. We don’t usually take the camera anyway, but we thought of the blog about 10 miles too late…