It’s 2014, and that means camp is only months away! I celebrated the new year out in Arizona where my parents live, and I enjoyed all the amazing weather and outdoor activities. One of the highlights of my trip was getting to visit the awesome family above!
This is Dylan, and he’ll be a Lower Junior Boy at Canadensis this summer. He’s currently in 1st grade, and has SO much energy…his bed time is later than mine! I brought them the Canteen on the Fly shirts, and he did an awesome job designing and coloring his in. Dylan loves having sleepovers with his friends, and he can’t get enough soccer! He even has a remote control soccer ball, so he can play indoors. He’s up for any sport and really likes basketball and baseball too. He’s excited for all of the food at camp, including noodles in the dining hall – but he’s most excited for the candy at the canteen! I told him all about the special days like carnival and super hero day and he’s excited! He won’t be sleeping late on special days though – he gets up early!
We ate M&M cookies, and played this super fun game called “Boom Boom Balloon”. It was so much fun – you roll a dice, and then have to push a certain amount of sticks into a balloon without popping it – so silly!
It was wonderful catching up with his big sister Jaden, who will be an Upper Inter Girl at camp, and this will be her second summer. Things are very academically challenging in 5th grade at the Phoenix Country Day School, but when we hung out she had just gotten back from a vacation in NY (where she saw some camp friends!) and a cruise to the Caribbean. Thoughts of school work were far from her mind, but she showed me a video for the school and it looks like they have an amazing art program and beautiful campus. Jaden was one of the stars of our Seussical the Musical production, and since camp ended she was in a production of Law & Order: Fairytale Unit. She has so many great memories from the summer, and can’t wait to be back!
In the midst of all the fun we were have in Phoenix, Dave and I took a trip down to Tucson, Arizona – we went hiking and visited the Biosphere 2. Along the way we also stopped at an ostrich farm that had a ton of different animals to feed and interact with.
Of course, they had a lot of ostriches – I learned a ton about them, and I was most impressed with how strong their eggs are. You can stand on one without it breaking!
I gravitated towards the deer in the petting zoo – the ones that live at Canadensis during the summer always run away, but these guys were all excited to have a snack with me.
My favorites on the ranch were definitely the goats! I know this photo looks quite strange, but I’m a HUGE animal lover, and I promise that the goats were really happy and able to go wherever they wanted…they just stick their heads in these holes to try and get a treat from you! Now, I can’t believe I’m posting this next photo…but you are encouraged to feed the goats by putting a pellet in your mouth and leaning in…it’s called a goat kiss!
Another trip highlight was playing bingo with my parents! I blog about my love of bingo pretty frequently, but it was so fun to take my mom for her first experience. She is a dedicated, life long mah jongg player (she let me play with her group of friends for the first time ever this trip!) and although we didn’t end up winning at bingo, we still had a lot of fun and some heart pounding moments when we were one number away! I don’t think she’s as hooked as me, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back on my future trips!
One last thing I have to share…at the New Years block party we attended, they had motorized stuffed animals you could rent and take on a spin. They are just amazing! Happy New Year everyone, can’t wait to see you at camp later this year 🙂
