Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp finally arrived, beginning July 4 and grew to over thirty people by the weekend.  Imagine that many people staying at our house and eating three meals a day here!  It was massive.  We began our event with well-scheduled activities each day, which worked great until the arrival of Gerald, Frances, their kids and 10 Taiwanese students on Friday.  There is something about 10 additional non-family kids that changes the dynamics.  Gone were the family stories and devotionals.  It was just too hard to pull off with so many extra kids.

But we enjoyed them just the same.  One thing I'm trying to teach myself is that things never turn out the way they play out in my mind and that can be OK.  Sometimes they are better, sometimes not.  But thoughts and reality are rarely a match.  So we went for the flow that displayed itself before us.  Some of what we placed in the yard were hits with the kids and some were not used at all.  Watching everyone interact was part of the treat.  At least most of the time.

Our biggest hits (at least from my observation):  the play structure, the wading pool, the outdoor movie, the basketball hoop, and foosball.  As I predicted, I spent most of my time making meals.  My children were off and on present.  Layne, I'm sad to say, got a bug from Reed that gave him a "sit and stare" condition that put him out of commission most of the time!  How I missed his helping hand.

As I have concluded at previous cousin camps, this experience is not about us bonding with the kids, it is about them bonding with each other.  And they did.  And I didn't, mostly.  One sweet exception to that was Ben and Jessica's three year old Abigail.  It was her first time at cousin camp and she stuck pretty close to me.  We had a sweet time together.

Everyone except my Gendreau kids were gone by July 11th.  Miles, Gemma and Peyton stayed on through the following weekend.  I can bond with three.  And I believe I did.  Each night I shared a story with them and told them I loved them.  We did various things during the day.  My goal for these three is to have them feel my love for them on a deep level and to plant in their hearts a strong faith in a loving God, who knows and loves them.  I think progress was made.

Their dad, Chris, picked them up on Sunday and, suddenly, everyone was gone and the family adventure was over.  By Monday Layne was fully over his bug and he had lovingly passed it on to me. At least it waited until I had time for it.  How thoughtful.

Ben and Jessica's patriotic kids, who arrived on July 4.  They are:
baby Jonathan, Alexis, Jacqueline, Zachary and William.  We celebrated
America and its greatness, sadly without fireworks.

Ben and Jessica's Abigail, my Cousin Camp buddy.

The grandchildren with shirts displaying the Galbraith Crest.

Mealtime with the family hoard.

Grandchildren, after a day of family bonding.

The guys table, when everyone was here.

Reed and Dorothy's Timmy, playing near the full swimming
pool.  He didn't want to get wet, but hung out close by.

Three of my guys:  Miles (Chris and Jes), Vincent (Reed and Dorothy),
and Seth (Gerald and Frances).  

Our war with electronic toys is perfectly displayed here
with Gema and Miles (Chris and Jes).  Next time they will be
forbidden (the toys, not the kids)!

Peyton's legs demonstrate why we ran out of bandaids!