Professional Pictures Olivia 8, Eliza 5

My sweet girls!  Sadly, I think this is the last time these girls will have photos with bows.  I have finally given up the good fight.  Bows have been given the thumbs down by the Ray girls.

Olivia goes to CAMP!

Most of the kids Olivia's age in our old neighborhood go to sleep away camp the summer after 2nd grade.  I try in many ways to keep my kids lives as "American" as I can and decided this would be fun for Olivia! Our friends, The Hayeses, visited several camps and decided Camp Lonehollow was the right fit for their daughter, Olivia's friend, Katherine.  When talking about what camp to go to Olivia decided she wanted to go to camp with Katherine.  So, Lonehollow it was!  All of the photos posted looked like she was having a BLAST!  Turns out, she was so homesick and would have done anything to leave.  I almost have PTSD looking through these pictures.  Knowing she was just miserable makes my heart break.  She said she had fun, but just missed us too much.  My sweet little girl.  Maybe we will try again in a couple of years...maybe another camp though!

 Katherine, Olivia and Rosemary

 I was so glad she got to sit next to Katherine on the bus

 I was a MESS at this point. Couldn't hold back the tears

 Parking lot of parents after the bus pulled away

The rest of these pictures I had to scour the website for each night

Getting off the bus

She picked her crew,  "Explorers" out of the tree stump.  That is Meg, the camp director

All of her "Explorer" gear we found at a local store

 Crafts!

 

Holiday Night 

 Cooking Class

 Super Hero Day

 Her cabin

 Swimming in the lake

These just break my heart!  They are all SOS, come save me!!!

 Her cabin

 Puppy Park

 Skit Night

 Holiday Night

 FINALLY we got to go pick her up.  I was dying!  At pick-up, they blow a horn and let all of the kids just run out of their cabins to go find their parents.  I saw her from afar and it was like slow motion, I couldn't get to her fast enough.  I absolutely burst into tears.  I was SO happy to get her in my arms! Eliza was so excited to get to her big sister!

 The closing ceremony

 Such a beautiful setting

 The campers!

 Cool dinning hall

 Showing sister all around camp.  Eliza told the counselors that she would be there next summer ;)

 Eliza made friends at the pool the night before at the hotel with these little sisters.  Their older sister was in Olivia's cabin!

 Very nice cabins

 Explaining things to Eliza 

 Olivia's cabin

 Pigs!

 She survived...barely

So glad ot have my girl back!

Talking to Daddy

Somehow she only came home with one cowboy boot and only one of mer monogrammed towels.  How these tow items got lost and subsequently never found is beyond me!