A Half-Assed Attempt at Reunion

Hey gang.

You guys remember last year when my mom took the girls up to the Community of Christ Campgrounds in Sanford for Reunion?  She had them for, like, four or five days, and they got to camp out in Mom's pop-up camper and run around the grounds, just like my brothers and I did every summer for the duration of my childhood.

Abby's about as bad as her mom when it comes to selfies. . .

Well, this year, Mom once again extended the offer to host the girls up at Reunion, and once again Kris and I were totally supportive.  The girls get a week of camping out and running around the quasi-outdoors with kids their own age, in a positive enriching environment that's loaded with kid-friendly activities and three healthy meals a day.  Kris and I get a week off of parenting.  Everybody wins.

(Each kid brought their own cameras again this year.)

Alas, this year didn't go as smoothly as last year.  Abby only made it two days before she started asking Mom if she could go home.  Alayna had made a couple friends, and Abby - although their were plenty of kids there her own age - only wanted to hang out with her sister and the older crowd.  When she was ignored and ultimately rebuked in these efforts, she unleashed her Hough temper and Hulked out on all those around her. 

The bickering sister thing, while old news to Kris and I, is relatively new to my mom, who raised three boys.  It takes some definite getting used to, I guess, 'cause I don't think Mom could've packed up Abby's things fast enough.  I ended up picking Abby up late in the morning of Day 3, and picked up Alayna the following evening.

Good times.

Anyway, here's a quick look at this year's briefer-than-usual Reunion. . .
 

Can you tell Dad is excited to ship his kids off to camp for a week?

The kid looks possessed.

Their friend from last year - I forget her name - was a frequent visitor to the camper.  They hung out with her most of the time.

They took a lot of poorly-framed pictures like this, too.  Seriously - how hard is it to take four steps to the left to photograph the tent without the f***ing tree blocking your view?

Grandma, working on church stuff.  As usual.

Again, Photography 101.  If the kid wanted to photograph the shower house, they should have walked a little closer to the building.  Perhaps shot it from a 45 degree angle, I don't know.  I need to have a sit-down with my children, this sorta shit is unacceptable.

Seriously - what the hell is going on here?

This kid had a hand-me-down iPhone, and happens to be in Alayna's grade.  You can imagine how fervently the Cannonball pushed the phone thing when we picked her up.

Abby recorded a ten-minute Fingerling production on her camera.  It's the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

Hanging out in one of the quonset huts while Grandma sets up her class stuff.

Dueling cameras.

The girls created a skit with their friend - completely on their own, without prompting - and performed it at the Reunion Talent Show.  They wrote a script, practiced their lines, and then acted it out in front of the audience.  I'm pissed no one thought to record it, but I heard it was really good.

Decorating bird houses with Grandma during arts and crafts time.  

- Brian

Reunion. Sort of.

Hi folks.

We're only entering the second official week of Summer, and so far it's been pretty crazy around these parts.  School wrapping up, settling into a new house, dealing with graduating girls scouts and birthday parties, surviving floods, and teaching at Delta.

And that was only Week One.

Sanford Community of Christ Campgrounds

Week Two, all things considered, was hopefully going to be much, much quieter for the Houghs.  I was planning on teaching my second week-long class at Delta (this time Illustration and Storytelling), and since Kris works during the summer (unlike other, more fortunate individuals), we needed someone to watch the girls.  Last week, we didn't have to:  Kris took a few days off to unpack and continue moving into the new house, and Mom watched them on the days she worked.  For this week, in order to avoid paying out the ass for the girls to attend the Midland Community Center for daycare while we were at work, Mom offered to take them with her up to the Sanford Community of Christ Campgrounds.

I know you've heard me talk about this before, so I'll keep it brief:  I was practically raised on these campgrounds.  Every summer, since I was born, was spent on these hallowed grounds.  I attended summer camps there from elementary school to high school, and during college I returned to become a camp counselor and later an Assistant Director, leading my own youth camps.  In addition to camps, I would accompany my family to the large, community-based Reunions where families across the state would throw up RVs, campers, and tents and hang out together.

I personally haven't attended a Reunion since I was 16, but now that we're home for good, that might be something we end up doing in the near future.  For now, though, we welcomed the idea of introducing Sanford to the girls on a short-term basis:  Mom was going to keep them up there for about five days in her camper, which was pretty doable for our kids.

By the end of the week, the girls reported that they had a great time, and Mom assured us that they had behaved themselves (for the most part.)  While unpacking their things, we stumbled across their cameras, and found a treasure trove of pictures they had taken during their stay.

Check it out:

Usually, in years past, Mom would always set up her camper behind and to the right of this old shower house.  This was impossible this year, though, on account of the recent flooding, so Mom relocated nearer to the Dining Hall, in view of Sanford Lake - a lot like where Granny and Grandpa Hough used to park their airstream trailer.

Dropping off two kids and a bunch of crap to Grandma

Establishing headquarters

Setting off to check out the surroundings and introduce the girls to the campgrounds

The main shower house (I remember the hill being a lot taller, but whatever.)

Unsurprisingly, this old favorite would prove to be the girls' hang out spot of choice in the evenings.

Lakefront

The Dining Hall - FYI, it smells exactly as you remember it

The side of the Dining Hall, and the Bell

The Boy's Bathroom, on the 'camp' side of the campground.  I've scrubbed these sinks and floors (and toilets) more than I'd like to recall.

The Tabernacle.  You can still see leftover remnants of Sanford's flooding, some days later.

Some quonset huts (C is no more, but A and B still stand.)

(Growing up, the hot girls always stayed in Cabin B.)

The ol' swimmin' hole, where I spent many a summer in my youth slingin' mud back and forth with other kids (Alayna actually had her Blessing here, too, back in 2009.)

Walkin' the trail back from the swimming area, back up towards the quonset huts. . .

I'm pretty sure these are the same canoes that were here back in the '80s.  Not sure how safe that is.

Fun Hough Fact:  I broke up with my first girlfriend on this back porch.  She didn't take it well (but who could blame her, am I right?)

The Youth Building, sometimes referred to as 'Cabin E' during larger youth camps. The smaller room on the far side was my home away from home, though:  Cabin D.

The Point, the location of nightly campfires (and, coincidentally, Grandpa Hough's ashes.)

And now, for some of the girls' many pictures from the week, after Kris and I drove back to Midland.  Believe it or not, what follows are some of the better ones we found on their cameras - I'm going to have to work with them on their photography skills. . .

In Grandma's camper

The Tabernacle

Not happy

Clearly paying attention in a morning devotional

Local friends.  I guess mom's camper quickly became a hangout spot for roaming kids.

(I really hope that's not beer. . .)

I always thought selfies like this were a few years off. . . oh well.

. . . aaaaaaaand here's a giant stick in the shape of a wishbone.  'Cause why not.

- Brian