Catching Up {Zoelle's First Camp Experience}

I can hardly believe that half our summer is over with! Every year I ask myself why summer has to go so fast? Our summer started off pretty cold and rainy (which was pretty identical to last summer). This summer though, it was so wet that we even had flooding in our yard! Thankfully, it has now all dried up and the sun has come out and we have enjoyed so many days outside. What ends up happening is that I spend all my time outside during the day that by the time I get inside and put the girls to bed, I'm exhausted and don't feel like blogging! Today however, I had a little time to catch up on our summer and I thought it only appropriate that I share a little about Zoelle's first camp experience.

I didn't start going to camp until I was in 5th grade. From the moment I went, I was in love. A lot of who I am, and my faith in God was formulated at bible camp. I made friendships that have lasted even into adulthood. I never missed a year and considered even working at camp if it wasn't for meeting Chris and deciding that I couldn't be away from him for a summer! ;)

Thus I always knew that we would send our children to the same camp that I went to growing up. Last year I remember seeing friends posting on Facebook about their children going to camp and I remember thinking, "I wonder if we should have sent Zoelle?". I also realized there was no way she would want to be away from us that long. However, sometime this winter I received a brochure in the mail all about camp, and when Zoelle saw it she declared that she wanted to be at camp this summer. I'll admit that I doubted she would actually do it, thus when early registration came around, I didn't sign her up. I waited and waited a bit longer. My other hesitation would be how they handled her diet. I'm not sure I've directly blogged about it, but we have had a few issues of Zoelle getting welts all over her face, or even having a hard time breathing after eating or being exposed to gluten.

She kept on insisting and after much discussion, I decided to contact camp to see if they could handle a gluten free diet. Sure enough, I received a reply right back and was put in contact with the camp cook. I was SO impressed with how thorough she was and reassuring that she would make sure Zoelle was taken care of. While Zoelle is very good about being cautious and asking questions on if something has gluten or not, it was so nice to not have to worry. Furthermore, she told me they would be sure not to make Zoelle feel different at camp by being very discreet with her gluten free food.

Chris and I talked about it, we asked Zoelle once more if she was sure she wanted to go, and when she said yes, we signed her up. Zoelle helped me pack her bag and sooner than I wanted, camp day came.

She was definitley nervous as we were headed to drop her off. However, once there, she seemed to relax. All the staff at camp treated her with kindness and were so enthusiastic with her about the next few days at camp. We got her all set up in her room, and then it was time to say goodbye. I thought Zoelle would have a hard time at this point, but instead, it was me who had the hard time! She barely said goodbye! Instead, she gave us each a quick  hug and we left (me with tears in my eyes). As we headed home, I kept asking Chris if we did the right thing by leaving her, and he assured me that she was fine.

She was gone two whole days and I felt lost without my little Z! The girls did too! They kept asking me over and over again when she was coming home. I was sure Zoelle was wondering when she got to come home too. Instead, on the day we went to pick her up, I could tell she didn't want to leave!

My girl was officially grown up!!


She had a fantastic time at camp learning about God, singing songs, having campfire, playing games, and meeting new people. I am SO happy that we let her go and she is already asking me if she can go back again next year! :)


Have your kids gone to camp? Did you have a harder time than they did?