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The first week of July Amie, Graham, Royal and I went on our first ever family camp! It was at Camp Rimrock. Amie grew up attending camps like this one, but it was a first for the rest of us.

Amie and I at Camp Rimrock with our wooden name tag medallions around our necks.
Everyone got a name tag, but I mostly kept the boy's tags in my pocket.

We stayed in a rustic cabin. We’d heard that, because we had almost fifty families attending, we might have to share cabins. But we got the whole cabin to ourselves. Yes!

Amie, Graham and Royal seated on the steps outside our cabin.

Graham climbed the tallest mountain yet, all by himself. Royal rode on my shoulders the entire way. When it was time to go back down, however, Graham cried the whole way. He was upset about not getting to be the lead hiker and was feeling nervous about slipping and falling. But he made it - way to go Graham!

Graham standing in front of the rock memorial at the top of the main Camp Rimrock hike.
Graham victorious at the top of the mountain. It was a steep hike!

Graham was stoked about being at camp when we arrived, but the next day brought tears. Neither he nor Royal wanted to participate in any activity the entire morning, but a switch flipped in the late afternoon. Graham had a lot of broken expectations, especially about hiking, that took some time to learn and talk through. Still, they never did warm up to camp activities before noon, lol. Royal was the most tired I’ve ever seen him and mostly snuggled and napped. You’d think it was because he was really active, but he never really got a burst of energy the whole time.

One of my favorite memories is our skit. Graham and I gathered five items into a black garbage bag then swapped with the other campers. We had to invent a skit based on all the contents of our bag and the words “gaga ball.” Graham really got into the storytelling - it was a Jippy and Dumper story of course - and didn’t show an ounce of stage fright since he was so into the story.

The story goes like this: Jippy and Dumper learn there’s buried treasure, the mythical gaga ball, and go in search of it at the beach. We decide to investigate a lone tree when a shark selling ice cream jumps out from behind it. We get some ice cream, but a frisbee knocks my ice cream into the sand. Also a stone gets thrown into the air and knocks us all over. The shark tells us where to dig, then we find the ball. Graham touches it, but it pokes him, and we decide to bury it again.

Graham and Alex conducting a skit inside the camp lodge.

There were some crazy-awesome thunderstorms while we were at camp, with lots of rain. I suppose a few things were cancelled as a result, but we did still get to do one campfire.

Royal pointing at a huge mud puddle at the camp.

We had a fabulous time and will definitely be back next year.