GIRLS WEEKEND

While the boys were at the Cubaree Campout this weekend, Cora and I had a date night (a fancy dinner and glass bottle root beer at Rusty's downtown), finished decorating the house for Halloween, and scouted out a potential trail route for our upcoming Girl Scout hike (there was a LOT of blowdown due to the tornadoes last April, so we're thinking this will not be a good route for our littlest Scouts, or some of the parents/grandparents). She slept up in daddy's spot in our bed and got to goof off on her Kindle until late at night. She was sooo happy to have me all to herself for 30 hours or so and it made me feel pretty special.

(She thought that tree stump looked like the Upside Down...)

(It's always reassuring to find the orange blazes when you haven't seen one in a while due to having to go around big tree falls and jump over small ravines)

TROOP 3315 ECO-ADVENTURERS!

After reviewing the Leave No Trace principles and hiking safety rules, Jay and I led the girls (and their families) on a 3-mile hike after school today. We chose a different route than Cora and I had scouted earlier in the month, since that section was such a mess from the tornadoes, but we ended up having just as many setbacks on the alternate route... ditch crossings, a bit of time where we lost the trail, and eventually ending up on the original route somehow... No matter though - everyone had fun, nobody got hurt, and we all got some exercise while working towards badges. This is a fabulous group of kids and their siblings/parents are really supportive and involved, which makes adventures like this even easier!

Those of us at the back of the pack saw this gorgeous little snake (Midland/De Kay's brownsnake, Storeria dekayi) after everyone else kicked up the leaves (it was tiny - barely bigger than a worm!):

Lots of up and down and around to get to the other side (the road):

Jay found a lucky horseshoe... in a tree...

We finally made it out to the road (and quickly walked that last mile to finish before dinner!)

WARNER TULLY JURASSIC ADVENTURE

The kids spent another week at Warner Tully YMCA Camp this summer! They chose the theme Jurassic Adventure and ended up having their camp week coincide with the arrival of Tropical Storm Barry to our local area...

After bringing James home in his swimsuit last year and learning that he only changed his clothes once the entire week, I sent him to camp with a laminated daily checklist in the hopes he'd be at least a little less gross this summer...

Before we knew it, we were down at camp for drop off day!

Getting their beds made and setting them up for another fun week in the woods!

(Cora wants me to note here that we somehow forgot to pack her blanket, so all she had was sheets, and was thus cold every night because her cot was under the AC vent. Sorry Baby Doll!)

Cora was beyond thrilled to have her best bud in her cabin, and in the bunk right above her:

Before we left, I stopped by the boy cabin to give James a goodbye hug and high-five (no kisses in front of the other boys, of course):

And then it was time to party! But I'll save that for a separate post... Here I'll just include the many photos that the camp staff posted to their Facebook page throughout the week to give parent a glimpse of what the campers were up to each day. See if you can spot James and Cora:

Cora sent us a postcard again this year, and again, James did not. Cora's must have left camp during Tropical Storm Barry, since it arrived still soggy and much worse for wear.

Cora had another friend in her cabin - Julia, our librarian's daughter, who dances with Cora at RiverPointe (they share a ballet and contemporary class). She's on the far left of this picture:

The kids told us that dinosaur day was super fun, but also a little scary... They had a dinosaur hunt, lots of dinosaur-themed games, and an "escape" type adventure where they encountered dinosaur victims in the nurse's office...

The last night of camp showed out with a beautiful sunset, and Cora and Cara got to sing in the camper talent show.

We did not beat the Hearns to pick up on Saturday morning and we almost lost Cora to their car because she didn't want to part from her best buddy and tried to be a stowaway (a common occurrence, actually). I'm glad they had such a great week together! I love their friendship (and the Hearn family!) and hope they stay friends for a very long time! (The following photos are from Sarah)

Here are pictures of the paper mache dinosaurs that the campers made over the week:

And here are the pictures that the kids took with the Go-Pro camera over the week:

(That's the copperhead Cora almost stepped on, but Cara spotted it in time, thankfully)

(Cora up on the zipline)

(James on the giant seesaw)

(Not sure why the camera says September 2017, since it was July 2019, but it's true that they only used the camera ONE day of the entire trip... They misplaced it and I had to collect it from the lost and found on Saturday when we picked them up... but hey, at least we didn't have to take James straight to the nurse's station for a festering wound and fever...)

It didn't rain ALL week while the kids were at camp, but it definitely rained a LOT. Between the tropical storm and other rain showers, Vicksburg got about 4 inches and the Port Gibson area (where camp is located) got over 5 inches.