Camp & Missing Her!

This was Aliyah and her sisters on her bunk on Sunday when we dropped her off at camp. This was her first time at camp AND her first time being away from us with anyone aside from relatives. We were away from them on our 10 year anniversary trip, but it was shorter than this and she stayed at my grandma's. Anyway, in a way it was a long week. Work was absolutely crazy as it has been, but add heat to the mix and it makes it a ZOO! Josh and I thought about her all of the time, and Kiki did too. There were tears! I awoke in the middle of the night missing her. Kiki cried several times. Now, that we picked up Aliyah apparently she cried yesterday evening at camp. Her counsellor was great and luckily it was almost snack time and she was okay. It sure was weird to go an entire week without talking to her or anything. I wrote her letters each day. Of course, there are the mama worries such as: will she change her clothes, wash her hair, etc... When Kiki and I went to pick her up, we saw her. Gasp! She was clean! They do all kinds of fun things at camp. I asked her if she wants to go back and she said that she wants to go next summer, but not any more times this summer...only because she missed her family. Anyway, they have a creek walk and a mud fight. I asked Aliyah about it because there weren't any muddy clothes. She didn't do the mud or the creek wading. She didn't want to get dirty. They did slip & slides, swimming, archery, bb gun shooting, zip lines, tether ball, tops, marbles, pool, four square, Quadrat(?--unfamiliar to me), capture the flag, find the counsellor, snack time, free time, Bible time etc... It brings back lots of memories of myself going to camp although I didn't go when I was as young as Aliyah. I'm on the 3rd load of laundry and have heard most of the menu. I don't know how much she ate, but she survived. She said she only took seconds on spaghetti (that's her fave). We're so glad she had fun and she went. She worked hard to earn the money to go and earned every dollar!!! Tonight she told me she loved me and she had missed me. I told her I had missed her too and she said that she missed me more. I lost it and sobbed. I told her how much I appreciate her sweetness. It was all missing at our house this week. I missed the older sister that she is to Kiki and Noe. Kiki missed having her big sis too. She picked dinner and she picked a local place where she could eat spaghetti. WOW--she was hungry! She ate the whole thing plus part of a sandwich plus garlic bread!! I'm so glad she went and had the wonderful experience, but WOW I'm so glad to have her home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just love, love, love my family!! P.s. Here is Aliyah when she got home...