Camp Jewell Winter Family Camp

We decided to go back to Winter Family Camp at Camp Jewell this year. We had so much fun last year that we were able to recruit some more families to join us this year- and we got a second cabin. Last year there were so many boys that Jessica was a little left out so I told her she could bring a friend with her this year and she chose Addie, of course once Justin heard Addie was coming he insisted we invite Miles as well. Many of you know that two kids is often more than I can handle so why would I voluntarily bring double the number of kids? especially when Marc stays home. Well the truth is that both of those kids get along so well with my kids that it actually made my job so much easier. Do you know what else made my job easier? My friend Jen came with her two girls too so we would often divide the kids up into two groups and head out. The Deweys came too and stayed with us- we all had a great time.

The first morning Jen took the older girls cross country skiing (Kim has those pictures- ahem KIM!). I had Justin, Miles and Lauren. We decided to head up to target sports and stop at the secret playground on our way. This picture makes me laugh. To get to the secret playground you have to go up the Cabin 1 hill- this is a very steep hill and the main reason why I never reserve cabin 1 or 2 when we stay at Jewell. About 3/4 of the way up Lauren and Miles asked for a break. So this is their pathetic I am so tired face, Justin ran back down to show that he was not tired at all.

We played for a little bit on the playground which was very fun in the snow. At one point Miles was on one side of the set and saying, "somebody come here" over and over. I finally told him that the other kids were on the slide and not coming. Then he paused and said, "somebody with a camera come here" that made me laugh. He wanted me to take his picture, and so I did.

So we get to target sports and they are doing archery. Lauren starts to get a little whiney. She doesn't want to do archery. So we talk about compromises and we will do what she wants next.
Since we were the only ones at archery I suggested that Lauren just give it a shot. The kid was a natural- here she is next to all the shots she took without ANY help. Cracks me up.

Then we headed out to do some broomball and meet up with the girls when they returned from skiing. Rumor has it that Addie fell down no less than 12 times, possibly more. She had the best attitude just laughed and kept getting back up and even told me that Cross Country skiing was Awesome!
Tubing is always popular!

here is a video Jessica took while she went down on the tube:



The boys and I headed back up to do BB guns- showing off their mad skills:

In the afternoon we all headed to Arts and Crafts together. Mike and Joey humoring me.



Back to broomball. Kim showing off her I-guess-I-will-be-a-good-mother-and-buy-my-own-ski-helmet helmet. You can't see but there is a fabulous flower on the helmet that matches her coat.

The first night of Family Camp is always a campfire and you just can't stop our kids from performing. I think Miles and Justin's dance was seriously the funniest thing I have seen in a LONG time!





I don't think this picture worked- but this is a shot of all of our mittens and boots hanging out by the fire at night.

The next morning Miles decided he wanted to go Cross Country skiing. Jessica wanted to go too. I would have loved to go but I felt bad asking Jen to take all the rest of the kids especially since the chances they would all want to do the same things was next to nil. Kim mentioned that Mike was going to give it a shot. I am sure Mike thought he was going to have a nice kid free period but sadly I rained on his parade. I knew Jessica wouldn't be an issue and she would lead the pack- she loves Cross Country skiing- but I just wasn't sure how Miles would do. So Mike agreed to stick with Miles.

I really owe Mike one- because as you can see this meant that Mike was in the caboose. Miles did great and didn't want to quit but it was slow going. Not to mention the field was in horrible shape to ski on. Mike reports that they did not get very far on the lake when Miles said he was missing Justin and they turned around- thanks Mike!

Jen and I decided to switch things up that day so she took Justin and Miles for the morning and I took the 3 other girls. The girls and the Dewey boys decided to go ice fishing so Kim and I headed out to the lake with our poles and bait. A boy with our group in the other cabin had caught a fish the day before and they were convinced they would be able to as well.
Then the reality hit- ice fishing is boring. Especially when there is only one hole and all your lines get tangled up. Joey and Lauren decided that snow angels were more fun.

Once Jessica rejoined us we headed to Arts & Crafts to do candles. This is one of the few times I actually ran into Michelle besides meals. She LOVES candles and was quite the little helper- good job Michelle!


Then we headed to the Dining Hall for some Hot Cocoa! Love that it is available ALL THE TIME! They even had whip cream and sprinkles out- yummmm!
Want to know what Jen and the boys did? A lot of this- Justin and Miles loved just playing with the legos in the Dining Hall. I can't tell you how much fun these two had together! Jen admits to getting a little bored after she read every sign and poster in the dining hall.

That night was the Dutch Auction. Our group split into two teams of 6. Amusingly Justin and Miles were with the 4 parents and the other 6 kids were all together. They did great and didn't need much help from us. This is one of the first tasks. We had to use all of our boots and build the highest free standing tower- we won.

Then we had to submit one boot that thought smelled the worst. Here is Kim checking them all out. We submitted Justin's boot- which Mike claimed was just nasty. Mike was shocked when the staff smelled Justin's boot and said it wasn't bad at all- imagine just how bad the "winning" boot smelled?

This is one of the last challenges. You had to drink an entire carton of milk and then without using your hands fit the whole carton into your mouth- as you can see neither of our teams won.



Here are the two peas in a pod- every morning.
Needless to say we had a FABULOUS time! I was not as exhausted as I had been in the past. We will totally go back next year and maybe we can add some more cabins to our group!