Just girls camping

The four younger girls and I went camping for 5 days and 4 nights.  Erin brought her friend Katherine with.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  We got to the campsite and the first words Erin signed to me "I don't like it"  I informed her she is stuck here for 5 days in which she didn't seem to overly happy with that answer.  We unload the van with amazing gutso and it was time to set up the tent.  Dave normally does the tent as I unpack, so this is the first for me.  I start reading the direction as Erin and Katherine decided they can set the tent up without reading directions.  I had to try to stop them many times, but we all managed to figure it out and get it together.  Once we got the tent up, my neice Cassie and Mom showed up.  We decided it was time to go swimming

Katie the princess

Monika the dog and Jenny was a mermaid (somehow missed her picture)

Katie with Grandma's hat

Monika all dressed up....we did pick on her for wearing this outfit for camping, but it didn't stop her from doing what she wanted to do.

Miss Jenny

Grandma can't leave the house without makeup.  She stayed overnight the first night  and the next morning Erin helped her with the makeup.  She put a little to much on, but still did a great job

Erin's friend Katherine.  Katherine had a blast with camping and was very helpful.  She enjoyed playing with the younger girls too.

Monika and Cassie hanging out and having some fun time

Grandma playing with Monika

Jenny on my shoulders

Monika doing her balancing act before jumping off

Monika and Katherine hanging out

Even Katherine (pictured) and Erin jumped off my shoulders

tuckered out Monika

digging for clay

Many hours of playing badminton

Saturday My brother and his family came and visit for the afternoon.  They had a lot of fun playing together

Steven and Jenny's sand castle that turned into a duplex and then into a temple

Monika sand castle

Katie's sandcastle

Trisha's sand castle

Monika watching Erin and Katherine play badminton.  Monika sits like this a lot.....from gymnastics

See the person in the blue shirt and white shorts, and then on the other side a person with a towel?  that is Katherine and Erin.
Katherine plays volleyball for school.  We had a soccer ball with us, Katherine asked Erin many times if she wanted to play volleyball, and Erin kept saying no, it hurts and so forth.  Saturday there was a large group of Hmong families and they played volleyball most of the afternoon and were very good at it.  Katherine kept her eyes on them for a while and said that she wanted to play, so I brought her over there and asked if she could play and they said sure.  She jumped right in.  About 5 minutes later all of sudden Erin said she wants to play, so she joined.  It was fun watching them and the guys (Erin and Katherine usually were the only girls playing, once in awhile another women from the Hmong family would join)  Erin didn't move to get the ball, but if the ball came towards her she would hit it, sometimes she was successful and other times she wasn't.  Her teammates always gave her encouragment.  The same went for Katherine.  They were a great bunch of guys.  I was surprised that Erin joined because of the men, but she did well.  After awhile, the Hmong family started playing with another large group of Indian family.  It was fun watching them and how people were so interacting with each other and so forth.....

My younger 3 girls are wondeful campers, they just loved roughing it out and weren't afraid of things, didn't care if they got dirty, became adventurous and brave.  Erin struggled with the bugs and dirt and heat, but she did well with it all and didn't complain much.  I kept reflecting back to when I used to camp.  My parents camped from the time I was born until around the time I was 13 when they decided to buy land and built their current home.  I have many wonderful memories of camping and am so glad that I can carry on the tradition with my girls.  I pray that Erin will learn to like it as she will have more chances this summer.

During the late night hours Erin and Katherine did a lot of talking and I got brought into the conversations many times.  We had a lot of deep conversations and some of it was hard to explain as I don't know all the signs for ASL and both girls (especially Erin) have some language barrier), but we got through it and so forth.  I got woken up a couple times during the night and had to bring Erin out to the bathroom and she was scared.  She said she was scared in the tent as she felt someone could harm her, I think that was the hardest part for her.

I was away from internet for almost a week, I think that is the longest for me in years.  I did miss it, but I also was savioring the time in the wilderness.  Sitting outside in a chair at night with the fire going and reading my book under the clear sky, watching my girls having a blast, talking with my mom, having deep talks with Erin and Katherine, swimming and more swimming.  Hanging out with my brother and his family.  Dave also stopped in along with his brother Pat and daughter Molly.  Being proud that I did a lot of things and kept everything in order without not having to rely on people (majority of the time, had a little hiccup a couple of times).  Now I just have to sort through everything and clean up everything for the next adventure.

We got home this afternoon long enough for us to unpack the van, Katherine, Erin and I to take showers and then we headed down to the deaf school that is a little over an hour away.  This school is the school that Katherine attends and Erin is there for 1 1/2 weeks for summer school.  She was very excited about it.  Once we were there, she was acting like nothing was wrong and she was fine, but I could tell she wasn't totally fine.  When I had a moement alone with her, I asked her if she was nervous and she said yes.  Luckily she is roommating with Katherine and another girl that she knows.  I did make attempt to hug Erin, but her body language told me not to.  She started to talk to other girls, so I am hoping she will be fine.  Please pray for her that this will be a good experience with her and that the men/boys won't affect her.