Camp Courageous Kids Family Retreat

Last year we were newbies at Camp Courageous Kid's Family Retreat. We didn't know that you dance to all the crazy line dancing songs after every meal in the cafeteria. We didn't know you could make as many projects as you wanted in the wood shop. Or that the gym stayed open all night so that you could always shoot hoops. We did know that this year and we took full advantage of the opportunity. The camp had a weekend just for families of children with Type 1 Diabetes during the first weekend of November. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive away in Scottsville, KY. We got there Friday night at 5pm, met our counselors, Claire and Bekah - both nursing students, unpacked in the same dorm as last year, and headed out to the gym to find out we were having a Family Game Show Weekend. What a blast!

A counselor Lee who we thought was a Kory look alike!

Playing games with one of the directors before the next activity

Mallory loved dancing after meals in the cafeteria


After learning our camp cheer for the weekend, we headed to the cafeteria for our first meal. That night we had a camp fire and since it was so cold we had it in at the big fire place in the cafeteria instead of the gym. My kids still sing all the songs they learned that night.

We were early risers on Saturday and met our counselors at the wood shop before breakfast.
We needed to get a jump start on all of our wood projects that we wanted to make that weekend!

After breakfast and a little dancing, we went back to the dorm to change in to our bathing suits and head to the indoor pool.

Of course we chose to do some more wood shop after swimming. The wood shop is next to the beauty shop so Mallory got her hair sprayed with pink stripes while there.

We also got in a game of bowling.

In the afternoon, we went to our family games how where we participated in a CCK version of Street Smarts. We, the Dolphins, left there with the lowest score! But, we did get some nice consolation prizes - Beanie Babies and Dr. Seuss stuffed Loraxes.

After the game show, it was our groups turn to go to the gym to meet the Western Kentucky University basketball players. They came and put on drills for the kids and taught them some great bball skills. It was cute to see a 6'5" player lift Mallory up to the basket so that she could score!

That night, it was Toy Story 3 in the gym for the kids and counselors while the parents could go to the bowling alley for bowling and games. All the lanes were taken by the time Zane and I got there, so we played air hockey, then headed to the gym to play HORSE. After I got whooped, we went to watch the end of Toy Story 3.

Sunday was just a half day with check out at 12:30pm. We spent our morning in the wood shop finishing up our precious projects and then bowled a little. It was time to leave after lunch. I was highly impressed with our counselors who were so kind to our kids - helping them with their projects, making bracelets with Mallory, swimming with us, and just being cool. When it was time to go and we pulled away, the kids asked if we were going next year. Gage even asked if he could come for the Diabetes Week in the summer. We are hooked.

Halloween

We didn't take too many opportunities to dress up this year for Halloween. Mallory dressed as a Cinderella Fairy for preschool. That just means she wore her Cinderella costume with a set of fairy wings which is what she seems to insist on wearing as of late. But, the boys only dressed up the night before Halloween when we went to the Kosair Children's Hospital Haunted Halls. Trevor was a Speed Limit sign. Since he decided he was getting a bit to old for costumes, he pointed at the Speed Limit sign at the end of our driveway one day and said if I would make something like this, he would wear it. Just a bit of foam core, vinyl letters and a big Sharpie pen and it was done. Boston was a vampire. If you know Boston than you know that he gets embarrassed easily. I put the make up on him and when he saw it he wanted to take it off. I managed to convince him that he looked great, but he still hid from anyone he knew. And, Gage was Ash from Pokemon. It was Trevor's costume a few years and he fit the recycled costume well. For that night Mallory was a monarch butterfly with beautiful orange hair. The event was simple and fun. We got just enough candy to keep us entertained and full for awhile. Then, we ate dinner at Chiles because kids ate free when dressed up in their costumes. On the real Halloween, we just stayed in and passed out candy because heaven knows we didn't need any more of the stuff. We realized that most people were sitting at the end of their driveway passing out candy and since we were in our house, many trick or treaters passed us up because they would have had to walk ALL THE WAY to our door. Amazing how easy it is to trick or treat now. You don't even have to go up to the doors. That left more Twix for us!!

It's Autumn Time