Summer Camp Bliss

Last year I touched upon summer camp and my deep love for the 10 summers that I spent there. This year, Gavin went back for his second summer. One of the best parts of camp, is the friends that you make. For me, I met my best friend for life there. While my sister, met her husband there!

Now, when we visit Toronto, Gavin has "camp friends" to have playdates with. It's heart busting. He's building his Canadian roots and I could not be more thankful for this.

This summer, like last, Gavin was signed up for 4 weeks with the option to stay for 7. He had to make a decision by July 21st, visitors day. Gavin decided to STAY for the whole summer. I cannot believe how my baby is growing up. When we visited camp we got to see Gavin WAKEBOARD, Paddle Board, he looked like he grew two feet, he was smiling larger than life and he was bursting with stories. 

Everyday I obsessively log onto the Camp website to see if they posted new photos. I sift through thousands of people in the photos to find my Gavin and when I do, my heart hurts from the joy I get seeing him in all his glory, ruling camp like the boss that he is.

Whether he's swimming in the lake, playing ball hockey or fishing, he's smiling and you can see that he's happy. When he gets home I know he'll share all the dirt on the good, the bad and the ugly and he will have learned so much from the 7 weeks that he was not at home most importantly, independence which can be a hard thing to teach.

I know that Gavin cherishes the stories I tell him about my days at camp. How I was on baseball staff and captain of the color war team that is the highest honor you can receive as a counselor (or CIT as we were called - counsellor in training). My name is on the plaque that will forever be on the wall at camp and I know Gavin will follow suit and soon his name will be up there too.

Gavin comes home next Friday and at this point, I'm counting the seconds. The Summer of Luke - part 2 will come to an end and we will squeeze our Gavin harder than ever. Then we'll savor the two weeks that we have before school starts and go on a few family adventures while we have this quality time together.

Until Next summer...