Changing of the Camps!

Claire has successfully completed Camp Wishing Well Way and Pipere lives to tell about it - imagine that! It seems that Claire had an awesome time and she was such a good sport. While I do believe she was a little lonely, she pushed through and was kept busy with all the activities that were planned for her. I am pretty sure she swam more in those two weeks than she has in her entire life, ate more ice cream than you can imagine and dined with Pipere on a frequent basis - let's not mention how many times she celebrated her birthday. Pipere was ratted out once through when Claire reported back that he had a beer during lunch. And after Claire climbed back in the car with us, she proclaimed that she has a new favorite way to eat pasta, just like Nana - with butter and lots of salt. I enjoyed a good chuckle. Now that she is back I am sure Nana and Pipere are enjoying some quiet time and being able to sleep in the same bed because every night at Camp Wishing Well Way was a girls night and Claire and Nana slept together and kicked Pipere out to another room. What a precedent to set!

Claire moved directly from Camp Wishing Well Way and we met up with her at a counselor meet and greet at her new camp - Deerkill. She was super excited and thrilled to see one of her classmates there, while showing Nana, Pipere, Mom, Dad, Jenna, Andrea, and Matt where she would spend her summer. We got to see her group house along with all the playgrounds and animals that are on site. Then we headed out to a birthday party where Claire proceeded to take off the swimmies and jump in the pool, pop right up and start swimming to stairs. Not sure when exactly that happened, but she can swim! And I am sure this will only improve as she is now spending 40 minutes a day in swim lessons and another 40 minutes in free swim. She went off to camp this morning without any trouble. Dan said she woke up at 6:10 and asked if the bus had left yet. She gets picked up at 7:45 and returns no sooner than 5:15. She is going to be one tired little girl!

In the meantime, what we had been planning for at work finally happened. It looks like the Company offered the Union to continue negotiating and they chose not to, so they were locked out. What does that mean for me? Since I am management, I am now working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day until this gets settled. Not exactly sure how long that will be, but we will get through it. Dan has welcomed his role as Mr. Mom - at least on Day 1, we will see how that progresses.

Claire enjoying her visit to NJ on the weekend between Camp Wishing Well Way. She is so excited to have her own hat - a Cleveland Indians hat to boot!

Jenna sure enjoyed a little alone time with Mom & Dad

Claire anxiously waiting to get on the bus to Deerkill. She was so excited for her first day!