Camp Meeting Summary

I didn't post last week because we were at Northern New England Camp Meeting in Freeport, Maine. Steve has been going to camp meeting there since he was little and a lot of his family go for the whole week. Some of his cousins come from all over the country, so it is a mini family reunion. Several of my cousins go to camp meeting as well, so it is a great time to see both sides of the family. I am not going to do a day by day summary, because it is too hard to remember what happened each day. I will just kind of do a summary and hit the high points!

We went up on Sabbath morning and came home the following Saturday night, so we were there just over a week. The first few days were very hot, with Monday and Tuesday being around 90 degrees. Then it turned cool and rainy, so we didn't have any mild weather, which was a little too bad, but it could have been worse.

One of the highlights of camp meeting was going to the Cradle Roll Sabbath School class with Caleb every day. There are classes for all ages of kids, and Cradle Roll is for kids 0-3 years old. Since they are so young, there is only one meeting a day from 11:00 to 12:15, although some of the other age groups have multiple meetings a day. It was a lot of fun because Tyson, Westin, Acadia, and Brady were also in the Cradle Roll class, so we got to spend time with them every day as well as Alison, Camille, and Corey. The theme of the week was the ocean and the theme song was "The Big Blue Ocean". We also sang many other songs every day and Caleb really enjoyed them. They all came with props, which Caleb thoroughly enjoyed putting in his mouth. His favorite props were the bells, the sponges, and the turtle. Here are many pictures from Cradle Roll so you can see all the fun we had!

Acadia

Tyson

Sand pail

Caleb and Westin both loved the bells!

Brady and the fish he caught!

Grammy was up for a few days and popped in to say hi!

Teacher Janel who did such a great job!

A crowded boat ride!

Tyson and Teacher Janel doing the crab walk

 

Brady is ready for the sun!

Ty loved to "help" Teacher Janel

A group shot! I think our family was about half the class on some days

Caleb taking a boat ride by himself - Acadia nice enough to push him!

Bode came to visit one day!

Mia came to Cradle Roll to help Alison with Westin

Not a very flattering shot, but pretty funny!

 

Another funny sunglasses picture!

Sponge and bells together - his favorites!

 

So, we have a pop-up camper that we slept in, which was so much better than a tent, which is what we did until last year. There is not enough room in the pop-up for a pack and play, so we had to figure something else out for Caleb to sleep in. Steve, of course, is very good at figuring things out, so he had a plan. He put some foam blocks on the bed on the opposite side of the camper from us and put a sheet over them, so it made a little nest for Caleb, so he couldn't roll out. Then he hung a blanket over the bar on the top of the camper like a tent, so it would be darker for him to sleep. It worked really well, actually! On the nights that it was really hot, we had a fan pointed right at Caleb too, and every morning when I got him up, I sat him up in the entrance to his "tent" and he just smiled and enjoyed the fan's breeze. Here are a couple of shots.

 

Love this picture!

 

 

Caleb did pretty good sleeping, considering the circumstances. He had been waking up pretty early at home the last week or so, so he did continue that, but slept all night without too many interruptions, so I couldn't complain. The part that was a little off was going back to sleep. Usually after I feed him, he goes back to sleep for at least an hour. At camp meeting, some days he didn't go back to sleep at all and some days he only went back to sleep for 30 or 45 minutes. That just meant he had to take a nap earlier than usual, but naps were pretty tricky as well. It was really hot in the camper most days and really bright and really noisy, so some days I just had to get him to fall asleep on the boppy on my lap. Other times we took a drive somewhere and he slept in the car. So, most of the time, they were very short naps (30 minutes), but there were 2 times that I think he slept an hour and 20 minutes, so that was great! Here is one example of our nap - right in front of the fan because it was sooo hot!

 

 





One of the exciting things we did was put Caleb in the pool for the first time. I bought an inflatable pool for $5 at the Christmas Tree Shop because I knew it was going to be hot. Caleb seemed to really enjoy it! We also had Tyson and Westin go in it with him a couple of times and they loved it too! Here are a few pictures!

Caleb had quite an audience for his first venture into the pool!

 

Love that you can see the splashing!

 

Steve had several cousins at camp meeting with their kids, and they all had a lot of fun playing together as well as with Caleb. Here are a few pictures that shows that.

 

 

I think it was just bright out - not that he's unhappy

Caleb and Caleb

 

 



Here are also a few pictures with some of my cousins! We spent a lot of time with Tyson and Westin and unfortunately, not as much time with the other cousins, but at least we got to see them in Cradle Roll!

 

Happy boys!

This picture highlights the size difference

 

Some of the other fun things we did were go to a couple of different Goodwill stores with Aunt Toni, Alison, Tyson, and Westin. On Monday, when it was so hot, we went to the one in Portland. And then on Friday, we went to one in Windham. We ended up going to Friendly's for lunch before going to the Goodwill and I don't know what took so long, but it was super slow service and we ended up being there almost 2 hours, which was ridiculous! Caleb and Westin both sat in a high chair there for the first time, which was kinda cool. Here they are!

 



Mr. Cool lounging in the high chair

 

At the end of our Friendly's visit, Tyson got a balloon and was playing with it and it popped and the expression on his face was so pitiful and yet so funny at the same time. He literally dropped his shoulders and slumped over before bursting into tears. Luckily, the waitress got him a new one immediately, but we were all kind of laughing at Ty's reaction, even though it was sad. There were also a couple of other incidents while we were there - Westin pulled a bowl of applesauce off the table onto Alison's lap and Caleb spit up on the floor! I think they were probably happy to see us leave!

 

We also had a fun afternoon/evening out with Steve's cousins. Every year they have a "Cousins' Night" where the kids stay home with the grandparents (exceptions are made for babies, so Caleb got to come). We got a little bit of a late start, so we just went to Portland Head Light (lighthouse) and walked around a little bit and then went out to eat at Uno's. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures.

 



I can't think of anything else specific to write about, so I will just close with several more pictures that I took at camp meeting. I will write about the rest of what has been going on next time. My grandparents and my dad's cousins are here for a visit right now, so we will be busy with them and I will post again next week!

 

I wish I had a better picture of this - Steve made a tripod out of wood so Caleb could use his Johnny jump-up because he loves it so much!

Hanging out with Uncle Corey!

Love this picture!

Pulling things off the rack at the ABC

Early morning family picture after getting Caleb up

Hanging out in the pop-up doing really well sitting up!

Sleepy boy!

Happy boy!

Looks so big sitting next to Daddy!

Unfortunately, Steve's mom had to work Tuesday-Friday, so we only got to see her for a few days, which was sad.

Great picture of Steve and Caroline as we were leaving!