Gramma’s Grandparent camp pics!
Category Archives: Grandparent Camp
And we’re off to the UP!
It’s time to pick up the kids from grandparent camp!
First, my traveling face. LOL
We had to drop Olive off at the sitter’s (we’ll take her next year once she’s more potty trained). She loves car rides!
Stopping for lunch at a gas station! They opened the side of the RV and we had a quick non-fast-food lunch!
The last 15 miles looks like this.
We’ve arrived!
And Lin had bought Thimbleberry margaritas so that happened first thing!
Grandparent Camp 2022
All photos and captions are from Gramma Jean!
Grandparent Camp moves to the UP!
Kid retrieval!
Lunch and kid exchange, goodbye hugs, and proving that Owen is officially taller than Grannie now!
We’re down to the final hours.
Or picking up the kids from two weeks of grandparent camp. Which happens today. In a few hours.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my children dearly. But I absolutely do not miss them while they’re gone for these two weeks. Aside from the fact I know they’re having a great time with their grandparents and making awesome memories…our house is soooo quiet and there’s no whining or arguing or drama or asking for snacks and I don’t have to do any parenting, which we all know is mentally exhausting.
FYI Tom says he misses them the whole time. I say it’s because he wasn’t the only one home with them for their entire lives (minus this past Covid timeline).
The pontoon experience!
Owen got to drive for the first time!
Katie got a chance, too!
The family house on Eagle Harbor
Linda’s Aunt Carol’s house right across from Eagle Harbor. The kids have been there more than we have!
The little house for changing and showering.
Eagle Harbor Light House
I’d enjoy this mini overnight getaway a little more if…
- We weren’t picking up our kids from Grandparent Camp tomorrow.
- This was an ocean view on a cruise ship. These windows are awesome but the view is…meh.
What’s the story? We were meeting my dad and Linda in Wausau to make the exchange…and Tom decided he would rather drive up the night before and stay overnight instead of having to get up and on the road super early. I was fine with that.
Last time at Mark’s!
Last time the kids went swimming at Mark’s!
Owen swimming under the dock.
Last time in Mark’s hot tub.
Katie almost fits in Grannie’s shoes.
I know someone else who loved shoes…
Hiking with Papa and Grannie
From Linda:
North point outer shore on the Big Lake (Lake Superior). The day before Owen and Grannie kayaked from south shore, around middle point, through the channel between outer point and the island. On to two more islands and between those on the Big Lake. A little fish was jumping out of the water around the bow of Owen’s kayak. Also saw two loons. Great ride. Owen is stronger than Grannie.
Katie’s Room: Done
We pulled out two bags of garbage (sooooo much paper and candy wrappers and broken crayons), did about four loads of laundry, and removed two garbage bags of outgrown clothes. I cleaned the carpet TWICE (but alas it will never be clean because Katie loves to play with makeup and dye and markers and God knows what else and it has permanent stains).
She got a new ceiling fan, curtains, and princess netting, plus we finally hung her initials. Tom will eventually build a window seat with bookshelves IF she can keep it picked up. If not, the new rule is “If you don’t keep it picked up, I will remove the things so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Katie built a creative fort in the bed.
The ongoing Monopoly game!
Grannie said they played forever—and Owen eventually had hotels on everything but he just kept giving Katie money so she could keep playing!
Esrey Park
Outer Point in the background where Owen had kayaked.
The kids are on a boat!
From Grannie: Heading out on pontoon boat. Going to LacLaBelle. Through lake out to Lake Superior. Bringing sandwiches + for supper
Failure and Fun
Linda let us know it wasn’t all fun and games…
I asked what they were watching. First answer- nothing. Did not accept that. Another ask. Mumble. Another ask. Not a teacher for nothing.
We were watching something Bob. No clue to me. O said mom and dad don’t like it. So maybe you shouldn’t be watching it. Yah. Give me the remote. He hands it nicely. K is totally quiet, unless I ask her specific questions. Me, you lost the privilege of watching tv downstairs.
It was bedtime. K goes to her room. O asks to talk with me. Said it wasn’t really Bob (?) they were watching. Something worse…? Norman, maybe. I thanked him for being honest. Tried the why questions. Did tell him he was the big brother. Both in tears. O really meant sorry. K not so much. I have hidden both remotes for the rest of the week. Told them we would not continue to discuss it.
Fun: Nanc, Tim, Anna, Liz, and my cousin Colleen, her husband Randy, and her brother Randy came over for muffins, coffee, juice. Liz played darts with OK. They also visited. One of my cousins talked about people from Chicago being fibbers? O didn’t like it and left. They have had lunch. Waiting for ham to come out of oven. O prepped it. I made good potatoes. Mark and Julie coming for supper. Once ham out O and I going kayaking. Then to the beach. Hazy today.
Katie’s art project turned into a gift!
Grannie said that Katie decided this was going to be a gift for one of her friends!
Kati
Katie, Owen & Papa on the raft!
Owen got to go out to the raft with Tom last year (he is a strong enough swimmer to go on his own, but Tom went since it was a new experience). So we assured everyone he would be okay to by himself this year, but Katie wanted to go this year, too, so Papa had to join!
Work and fun in the kitchen.
From Grannie: Work and fun in the kitchen. Katie made Papa a pretty plate of raspberries and blueberries. Owen cut the whole watermelon. Then they both cut slices. With lots of laughs and silliness in between.They were safe with knives. I try to be a good Grannie!
Can I just say that if I had asked them to cut a watermelon, I would have gotten eye rolls and attitude all around. Grandparent Camp must be magic.
Grandparent Camp handoff!
One last adventure before the transfer!
Gabby’s Graduation!
Gramma and Grandpa were headed to Gabby’s graduation party on Moccasin Lake in the U.P. (near Munising) so it was a perfect time to make the transfer. They got to spend the day with their cousins and had a great time!
Owen’s first raft ride behind a Jet Ski!
Waiting patiently.
First time in a hotel with them. We were tired enough, we all slept!It’s almost time to make the transfer…heading to the U.P.
They stopped at the deer farm in the U.P. near Brevort.
She let Gramma do piggies!
Back to the lake again!
The kids had such a great time Gramma and Grandpa took them back again!
Dairy Queen smiles!
Unexpected Room Attacks
I really wasn’t planning on cleaning Katie’s room (even though I desperately wanted to throw every single thing away because she’s really ungrateful). But it happened. I just could not stand this disaster any more. (And moreso because she swears she’s cleaned it and it’s always still a pit.)
- Lots of stuff shoved in the closet. I pulled out about five bath towels.
- I have no idea why this stuff was even in her room! Christmas cupcake wrappers and toothpick flags?!
- All the clothes we pulled out from all the little hidey holes she shoved stuff into.
- Just a regular shot of her room.
- Yes, a partially eaten donut. Rock hard. There’s not supposed to be food in the bedrooms for this very reason.
- More random stuff shoved into a drawer.
- Two bags of candy for my work that she didn’t have permission to eat.
- And why put a bed sheet in the drawer in your room where it goes…when you can shove it in another completely random drawer?
- And everything that was stuffed in just three drawers of her dresser.
We both worked in there for hours. We did all the laundry (at least 4-5 loads—which she had assured us all her laundry was done), picked up all the toys and crap, tossed all the garbage, organized things, and created two boxes of crap for her to go through and sort. If she doesn’t want to, it’s going straight into the garbage. This is her LAST chance. If she can’t keep it remotely picked up, she’s losing things. I hope she’s having fun at grandparent camp because life is changing when she gets home. I told Tom if he ever wanted to be a drill sergeant, now is going to be the time.
And when we moved the nightstand…
Sidenote: I did run across these. Cue ugly cry.
But lest you think we’re just picking on Katie…Owen’s room is getting cleaned out, too. I didn’t move from my initial position (between his desk and the bed) for almost two hours—there was so much crap shoved and crammed in/on/around/behind/under his desk/bed/drawers I wanted to scream. I mean I was duly impressed…but I wanted to scream.
Swim shirt and bathing suit he couldn’t find for weeks? Under the bed. A pack of winter thermal shirts? Desk drawer. Missing laundry bags? Under his bed. All the school notebooks I’d asked him to find that he claimed were gone? Everywhere. Dirty clothes? Everywhere. Candy wrappers? Everywhere.
And of course Katie notes!
I took out two bags of garbage, a bag of recycling, and did four loads of dirty laundry (when he said it was all done) including about six bath towels and 83 socks. I picked up approximately 712 Lego pieces, 128 Pokémon cards, 300 random playing cards and other assorted game pieces, a shoebox of markers/pens/pencils, and about 13 spiral school notebooks that have 2% schoolwork and 98% drawings in them. I steam cleaned the carpet and half-heartedly dusted. Oh, and Tom put up a new ceiling fan!
Life will sure be different for him post-grandparent camp as well.
I realize most of this is par for the course for kids and kids their age but I just. couldn’t. any. longer. I don’t mind a little mess or being unorganized. But both rooms were flat out disgusting.
Stay tuned.
YAY OWEN!
So Owen is still sometimes afraid of…weather. He doesn’t like wind or storms. So Gramma and Grandpa had a funeral to go to (that the kids didn’t need to go to) so I said it was fine to let them stay home alone. But Owen was VERY concerned because it was supposed to be stormy.
7/24 – Owen is watching the weather like a hawk. They both are afraid of thunderstorms and lightening. He especially is watching Tuesday for the funeral and is afraid of being alone if it storms. It is predicted to storm of course. I won’t leave them here alone if it is going to storm. We’ll watch the weather closely and if it storms we’ll make sure he is safe and not leave him alone. We’ll figure it out. Best case scenario is that the weather changes by then and it won’t storm! I told him that too, it’ll probably change by Tuesday. He seemed relieved and took it all in. He told me about the incident at Mike’s when he couldn’t reach you and it started raining and he was scared.
7/27 – The weather forecast changed so we did not get a single drop of rain. Kids did well. Katie wasn’t hungry so I guess she didn’t eat. I got her to admit she has one candy. But before we went, Owen was a champ. He said he’d be okay with it even if it rained or stormed. He said I have to learn to deal with it (or similar words). I asked if his counselor taught him some coping mechanisms and he said yes, and it helps/helped. I texted him once we got to the luncheon and they were fine. I know he played on his phone but he promised to share and he did. They did go outside for a short while and they watched TV. So, I think it was a huge stepping stone for him. Yay Owen!