Category Archives: Summer Camp

Logan is Back from Falls Creek

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A few minutes after midnight the church buses pulled up at the parking lot bringing the kids home from Falls Creek summer camp.

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Big hustle and bustle as the kids unloaded out of the bus and searched for the family and luggage.

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There he is! All safe and sound with a big smile on his face. He had a good time. Got to know some other kids and was very happy with his experience.

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Of course I checked his camera. It looked like he was having a really really good time.

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And a serious time. Do you detect a note of homesickness here? No, I don’t either. That is okay.

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He has lots of other pics. If he ever gets out of bed I will see if he would like to write a guest post about his time at Falls Creek. Heather is making pancakes right now. If that doesn’t get him out of bed, nothing will.

Wednesday – Musing with the Oktomat

Logan has been gone to camp at Falls Creek since Monday. It seems like a long time. We are missing our gentle giant of a son.

Heather got a text from the Youth Director indicating that Logan is having a great time and the YD is really enjoying Logan’s quick sense of humor. Of course that made us feel good. We know better but we had visions of Logan being all alone and miserable in this huge camp of over seven thousand kids including well over a hundred from the group he went with to the camp.

And the sense of humor thing. We know that the Logan we see is different from the Logan his friends see. We get glimpses of the other Logan from time to time and of course we like both sides of him. 

Anyways we are looking forward to the whatever Logan steps off the bus at midnight Friday here in Tulsa. We miss the guy.

He took his camera. I hope he is taking some photographs. Maybe I can post a few this weekend. 

The Kid is Going to Falls Creek

Son is going off to Summer Camp on Saturday morning. He is going to Falls Creek, a Baptist Summer Camp in the Arbuckle Mountains of south central Oklahoma.


Anybody up for a walk? Ginger always is. Look at that tail action.

This is a major step up for him. He has been to camp three times but they have all been special needs camps with all sorts of trained help and supports built in. Falls Creek is just a regular summer camp so he is going to have to step up a little bit. We think he is up to it.


(Our little pomeranian is uncontrollable at the start of a walk.)

At the other camps we or Heather have been there to help him get set up with his bunk and get unpacked, bed made, and gear stashed away. This time he is riding a bus from the church parking lot and will have to get himself set up.


(Ginger is old hat at this walking thing. She keeps looking back at me. She likes to be the lead dog.)

He is not usually nervous about stuff but he is nervous about this. So that makes us nervous. Which makes him even more nervous. He is going to be fine though. He will be with a friend of his and people who know him and who will watch over him.


(We are kind of all spread out. The family doesn’t wait while I take pictures of this that and whatever.)

I imagine that he’ll have a great time. At least I hope he does. He will be back in town at midnight Friday so he’ll be tired.

Meanwhile, we took the dogs on a walk tonight. They live for two things, eating and walking with lots of barking. After years of walking them, they still go crazy. We are failures at teaching them to walk or to quit barking.


(Home of our dogs favorite friend. Be patient, he pops his head up toward the end of the video.)

You can hear our three mutts coming for blocks so all the dogs are fully up and barking by the time we show up.

It is so embarrassing. At least it used to be

Home from Camp

We drove down to Texas and fetched SuperPizzaBoy from Camp.

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His counselors all said that he had a good time, behaved himself, and made lots of friends.

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SPB said his fellow campers in his cabin were wild and unruly. Imagine that, high school kids acting up. Never heard of that myself. You?

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This was the look he rocked most of the week. He was in Texas after all. When I lived in Houston years ago my next door neighbor wore cowboy boots with his shorts all the time.

Picking up from summercamp

Sweetie, being the great “boys mom” that she is waited until SPB was in the car before she kissed him.

I think that he had a great time but was sure glad to get home. 

We’ve been traveling a lot this summer. To Texas for a convention, to Alabama for our beach vacation, Idaho for a family reunion, and then camp. I’m ready to stay around home a few days.

Summer Camp Smile

Why is SuperPizzaBoy smiling?

Son passed #swimtest #happy boy at camp left him smiling!

He passed his swimming test this year at his summer camp!! Woohoo! He didn’t pass it last year and had to wear a life vest while in the water the whole week. No life vest this year.

We left a happy young man at camp this year!

Perfect Pairings – Off to Camp

Sunday morning we loaded the kid up. We had a very detailed list and Sweetie got everything packed and checked it twice.
#charis #hIlls

We drove way down into north Texas (right into north edge of the Barnett Shale Gas Field, for you other Gas Guys and Gals out there.)  Here is a sight just a few miles from the camp.

#fracking #barnett #shale #texas
They are fracturing a well! Sweetie asked me if it was dangerous. I told her only if something went wrong. Uhh, I had to add that nobody off the site was in any danger. 


Sorry, back to the matter at hand. SPB is attending Charis Hills Camp. It is a Christian based camp for kids with learning differences. We went down and toured it last week, we think it is a great place and SPB is going to have some major fun.

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SuperPizzaBoy got a top bunk. We really do hope he doesn’t fall out! (I’m not trying to be funny)
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Saying goodbye to Mom and Dad. He couldn’t wait for us to leave. And… he was told that he would have to wear a life jacket during swimming, and … well you know there are some other ands.
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But… the verse below is his cabin’s verse this week. I can’t read it either, here is a translation:


Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.


James 1:2-3

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I think that this is God’s way of saying “Man Up!”


We would appreciate you keeping SPB in your thoughts and prayers this week.

Perfect Pairings

Skywatch Friday – Sunset, Texas

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Nope, its not a sunset, it was before 10 am. But it is Sunset, Texas where SuperPizzaBoy will be spending a week at summer camp next week. Don’t tell SPB but Sweetie and I will be having our own summer camp in his absence!


I know this picture is a mess. The horizon is all whopperjawed (yes that is a word in Oklahoma, but I wouldn’t use it in Scrabble or WWF) and the and the poles are all akimbo but I love the blue sky and the ranch wicket gate, and the big ole trees. (If you have a ranch in Texas, even if it is just an acre, you have to have a wicket gate, or you are just a poser.)


SPB went to a  short session summer camp, Camp Grey Squirrel,  in Oklahoma last year and just loved it. This year it is a whole week. When I was a young Yogi, way back when the earth’s crust was still cooling off, I went to a bunch of summer camps in the mountains of northern and central Utah, northern Arizona, and New Mexico. I loved them. We’re hoping SPB will have a good experience also, despite the total and complete week long ban on anything electronic.


When was the last time you went to Summer Camp? Was it Fun?!

Skywatch Friday