camp gramp – Page 3 – My Truant Pen

Two Camp Gramp Days

Editor’s note: I’m a little behind. Here are two fun days of Camp Gramp updates!

Camp Gramp Post 2
I think I better quit naming them by days. By that measure, I am already a day behind!

Mummies and dinosaurs! Does it get much better than that? We went to the Pacific Science center. We were congratulating ourselves on the way in for not getting tickets in advance. We would have been late for the intended entrance! We were not congratulating ourselves when I waited in line over an hour for the tickets. Then we found out that we could have used the members only line since we had the Waterhouse membership. Humph! It actually worked out well since Don took the children to the Center House for lunch.

Mummies. We saw the movie, then went to the exhibit, which is probably the right way to do it. The movie was interesting. What is the symbol for so-so? There were good pictures, but a little too much dum-te-de-dum music. The suspense left me in good health. I did learn that there was a pre Tut discovery that the priests had been storing the pharaohs’ bodies in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings long before people thought. They found a tomb with about 40 mummies of royalty in the Valley of the Kings.

The exhibit was, I thought, a bit of a disappointment. I expected the gold coffin. One would think, that when there were 4 of them, we could get at least one. But no ….. However, there were some very interesting pieces. The children were surprised at how small the bed was, and the chairs. They must have been much smaller. At least Tut was.

The kids did a great job. They were interested in a very reasonable amount of the stuff. Baz has obviously studied — he knew about a lot of the things we saw. It was unbelievably crowded. They sell tickets by the 15 minute slots. I can’t imagine what it would be like if they didn’t do that. I would really like to see it some time when it is not so crowded.

Then we went to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the science center itself. Thane was in heaven. There was a really excellent claymation video about dinosaurs. I would love to get a copy! Thane watched it 3 times.

We left about 6 p.m. — middle of rush hour in Seattle. We were/are tired puppies, but happy. There were lots of comments on Camp Gramp. We were proud ot have our wonderful grandchildren! Thanks for sharing!

The disaster for the day. Baz has lost his DSI. He had it in his pocket at the movie. They told people to turn off devices and he took it out to turn it off. When we left the movie, he didn’t have it. We are still hoping but Lost and Found didn’t live up to its name. This is truly sad!

I had just finished this post and was ready to hit share when I heard the patting of little feet. They were hungry!

Intermezzo

I am the unloved grandparent. The Flynn children are up first. I provided the Lucky Charms this morning. Thane informed me that “Papapa always gives me lots of Lucky Charms because he loves me!” Now we know about me!

Camp Gramp – Tuesday night

I am a failure as a Grandmother! Woe is me!

Lunch today was made by Kay — lovely little tuna melts! She does a nice job. After lunch we actually took a nap, or anyway the Flynns took a nap. The W. children read and made up plays with stuffies.

Then I took the three younger ones to Pioneer Farms, an activity Kay has declared a tradition and of which she does not tire. They had a wonderful time. They ground coffee and wore skirts and aprons. They played with stereoscopics and tops and Kay and Thane washed all the clothes.

Then we headed for the barn. Here there was a great division. Kay and Thane liked the animals. They picked up ALL the chickens. Thane got quite good at it. They looked for eggs, milked a cow and rode the horse. The rabbit was declared so soft. Most of the giggling came from the pig sty where the new little pig loved to snort at their feed and tickle them. Jumping in the hay was like wonderful! Grey preferred the workshops. He nailed about 25 nails. His father has taught him how to do this. He used the draw knife, which he preferred to the saw. He also worked the forge and flattened one of the horse shoes.

Meanwhile Baz, who has been feeling a little under the weather — sore throat — stayed home with Papapa and made dinner. He made grilled chicken. He says when his father says he is grilling chicken, he puts it in the oven. Baz seems puzzled, but the chicken was wonderful. He wanted broccoli, but he forgot to tell me before I came home. It was very good.

The evening was perfect weather. there was playing outside in the bouncy house and on the swings. Now bath time is almost over and we are headed to bed.

So wherein the failure? I had a failure of camera. I got to enjoy the look of Kay’s straight back on the horse and Thane’s glee at tumbling down the hay. You don’t. Use your imagination.

Ah yes, the blood report. Grey came out of the of the doors at Pioneer Farms wrong. It closed on him and whacked both sides of his face. I don’t know how Thane managed the bit of blood on his knee but it was cured by medicine and a bandage. Also, Thane ran into the ice chest I was carrying. It was a Massachusetts accident — both fault.

It’s a Brand New Camp Gramp Day!

Well, folks, it’s the blog series you’ve all been waiting for! Yessirree, it’s CAMP GRAMP time! For those of you who have not yet met ths marvel, let me explain. Every summer, my parents gather up all their grandchildren and abscond with them for a week of adventures, bonding and Lucky Charms. We lucky parents then scoot to do non-child-friendly things. This is, by my count, about the 6th Camp Gramp.

And we’re off! An afoot! So, with no further ado before I start OUR drive down to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, I give you… CAMP GRAMP!

Camp Gramp Day # 1

Fabric paint! How could I have thought that was a good idea! The bright orange Camp Gramp shirts look awesome, but Grey’s pants, Kay’s shirt, and my jeans bear the marks of a painting party. The orange shirts went to church this morning, even on the pastor! No one will mistake our obvious togetherness. They will be washed often this Camp Gramp.

After the Saturday afternoon Camp Gramp work, putting up the tents and making the teeshirts, we went to Seattle for our annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. We had a lovely picnic in Rogers park with the family, then went to the Bagley Wright theater. The moment the curtain went up and the overture started, Thane, who was on my lap at the time, was enthralled. But due to the still Eastern time, he was asleep within 20 minutes, and so was Grey. Only Kay stayed awake until the end of the play. Iolanthe is not my favorite, but it was a good production. We returned home about 12:30, tired puppies all.

Today we went to church together. Brenda substituted at the piano — many thanks. Her offertory was very nice! (Eds. note: my piano playing is not my top musical skill, but I didn’t bring my trumpet.)

After lunch (mac and cheese and tuna fish — with chips — does it get any better than that) I got some down time. It has been a little busy lately. I was reading when I heard Kay say — “Just use the spoon. I will get a bowl of sugar for myself.” I went out to find Kay teaching Thane to eat sugar from a bowl. This particular educational activity I have discouraged!

Thane is also learning to use the DS. He is very excited, but not very proficient. I am hoping to teach him not to touch the top screen in hopes of changes. He got Grey’s StarWars game and erased his profile yesterday. There were tears. Then today Baz reminded Grey that at the same age, Grey had erased Baz’s Scriblenauts profile.

OK, here are some pictures

Camp Gramp — Fini

Note: I’ve been publishing my mother’s updates regarding my children’s escapades at Camp Gramp in Washington State

This is the last morning of Camp Gramp. We were awakened by Grey with wondrous news, his first tooth is loose. During Camp Gramp Baz lost a tooth, which he has placed in an envelope to take home to the tooth fairy. (This is not a full service operation). And Grey has his first tooth loose. What events! I e-mailed the parent units of the excited one, and Mom called to hear the news all by herself. I hope she had the phone a long ways from the ear!

We have started to collect the sundry things. The disaster so far is DS stuff. There is a sack missing. — the one with Baz’s case and various games. I am very sorry. The laundry is almost finished. Then I can have Grey and Baz sort stuff (Editor’s note: This assumes Grey knows which clothes are his – an assumption I would challenge!). I have allowed Grey to wear Baz’s plaid pants twice now. Clearly I am not capable of sorting the clothes. Kay and Thane’s stuff is easier.

The boo-boo report: The water park was hard on the campers. Thane has small abasions on his bottom. I was hoping they would be gone so I wouldn’t have to report them, but they are still there. The bottom of Kay’s bathing suit took the brunt of the wear. I haven’t checked to see if anyone else has bottom damage. No complaints = I don’t ask for the older ones. Otherwise, I think we are all OK.

It has been a wonderful Camp Gramp. You girls should be very proud of your children. (All right, the sons-in-law can also share in the pride) They are polite, intelligent, and adventurous. It is a pleasure to get to know the children. The Mineral church was particularly enchanted with the children. They specifically thanked us for sharing.

Today they go to Kent for a day and a half. Matthew (my son, you have a mother who loves you) will be taking care of them this afternoon. Matthew (loved by all, but primarily by his wife, Heidi) will take care of them tomorrow. Don and I will be packing for the Maritimes and sleeping later than 6:30 a.m. Then tomorrow night we take the Flynn children on the flight back to Boston.

We will take one last picture when we get all packed which I will post to prove they are still alive.

Thank you for sharing!

Gramama

Camp Gramp — Saturday

These updates are sent by my mom, telling us about the latest hijinks the kids are up to. My folks and kids will all arrive back in New England on Wednesday morning.

Lively day. We were invited to a play date at Sue and Dave’s. Their granddaughter, Melissa, was there. She is 7. She had prepared well for our visit — tea cups and punch, cookies, mac and cheese which was nothing like the stuff that comes out of the box. I need that recipe! They have an outdoor room kind of thing with a fire place and a fire was not amiss today. I think the high temperature was under 70 today. We even roasted marshmellows! Fun.

Then we came home and Unca Matt was here. So we had a computer afternoon. He downloaded Castle of Dr. Brain for the boys. A little difficult yet, but fun. I did a really cool book with Thane. It is a dinosaur book. When you find a page with the correct logo, you hold it up to your web cam and it gives a 3-D graphic. I sense a coming trend. It is pretty simple, but could become more complex. One graphic is eggs. You press the space bar and the eggs hatch. Just thought I would say that Thane didn’t really understand it and prefered reading the book, but hey!

Kay started painting her peacock.

Then Unka Matt took me to Kent to pick up the Saturn. Ironically, we both forgot our phones, which was a mistake. Dad did a fabulous job taking care of the kids. He is a hero!

10 p.m. — I think I will go relieve him!

Camp Gramp Thursday and Friday — Great Wolf Lodge

Note: these are updates from my mom about Camp Gramp. I just serve as the editor and publisher!

Yes indeed, Great Wolf Lodge was a fun place to be! Great wet fun was had by all. There aren’t many pictures because cameras and water don’t make a good match, but we had a great time. Thane played in the tot area. He loved the slides and sitting on the banana. Kay was with him most of the time. Baz was an intrepid swimmer. He did all the slides in the park, including the biggest. He did that with Papapa. We were supposed to go together but just didn’t find the right time. Grey did a wonderful job. He really learned how to handle the waves in the wave pool. Poor kid, he was too short for the big slide, but the was plenty of excitment in the ones he did.

Unfortunately, the grandparents weren’t with it and failed to get magic wands with the game. It is like a scavenger hunt all over the hotel. Next time we will be smarter.

The minute I get the three younger ones to sleep, I am going to bed. It was great fun, but I am really tired!

Hey, who took my toddler and replaced him with this boy?

Camp Gramp Tuesday/Wednesday

Can you hear the exhaustion in my post. My oh my, we are all tired. Poor Thane, his tooth brushing was certain the sad way. He is one tired little boy.

Tuesday we went to Pioneer Farms. That is an amazing place. Baz got to use the blacksmith’s forge. Thane petted a pig and chased chickens. They all tried to milk the cow and got a ride on the horse. Doing the laundry was fun, and so was grinding coffee for their Aunt. Unfortunately, the trip to Sheila was cancelled. Good thing. We all took baths and played in the back yard. We all needed sleep.

Wednesday was a three adventure day.

First, Wilcox Farms, which is now an egg farm. They have 1,000,000 chickens on the place. As you can imagine — there were a lot of eggs. Unfortunately, the guide was not kid oriented and although he talked to the kids, he was really long winded. But the school house was cool, and so was the heavy equipment to climb on. Grey’s favorite part was lunch. I do wish that boy would eat breakfast.

Adventure two, Nisqually wildlife refuge. It is a beautiful place to walk. We watched a frog eat an insect and heard lots of birds. Baz read all the informational signs, but all three of the older kids could handle all the headings. They just didn’t have the interest that comes with a little age. While the wildlife refuge is a place that we all want to go, the primary purpose of this stop was to let Thane finish his nap before the final adventure of the day, Chuch E. Cheese. The pizza was better than the last time we were there. It is still a parent trap, but it does entertain the kids nicely. It was facinating to see the kids use their tokens.

Baz. He used his tokens very slowly. He took Thane around for some time. He is so patient with him. Then he chose challenging driving games and things like that to do. They all took longer. He didn’t get too many tickets, but he got good play value for his time.

Kay. She was extremely thoughtful about her use of tokens. She like rides with video on them. She came back to the table to check with us the most often. She was a little panicked that she was not with us all the time. Her pictures is very cute.

Grey. Grey used his tokens first by half the time. He would come dashing back with pickets and put them in his cup, then fly off to do more. Grey got a very creative collection of pictures in which he had different emotions, mad, scared, happy, etc.

Thane. We could give Thane no tokens and he would be happy. He puts tokens in the slots of the most colorful game, then runs away without playing it. He is perfectly happy with the demo screens on most of them. We almost made it out of CEC with him happy, but there was an epic meltdown at the prize redemption area.

Great days!

Camp Gramp Monday

I have now written this post three times. If you sneeze when posting, it goes away. Anyway, it should be good by now.

After the weekend, which was Camp everyone and truly spendid, I have lost track of the days. But Monday was truly Camp Gramp. We went to Big Creek in the afternoon. It is a beautiful camp ground, uncrowded and on a lovely creek. The kids played there for 90 minutes or so, even though it was a bit cold. Thane made an effort to return all the rocks on the shore to the river. His aim is not perfect and poor Sebastian got clunked on the head — no blood. Grey built a fabulous dam system with canals, etc. Sebastian made it all the way across the creek. Then the boys built a fire (Ok, all the boys except Thane) and we roasted hot dogs. Good thing they are pre-cooked.

We took the Osborn Mountain trail until the grass got taller than Thane. Carolyn found a tree that had fallen explosing the roots. She declared that she was a dinosaur and those were her eggs.

Finally, Jiffy pop, which was spectacular, and s’mores. Take Thane, add marshmellow, then dirt — my oh my.

The only problem with the day was that I forgot the camera. The kids posed for me on an old tree stump — can you imagine the picture.

A good time was had by all. Today is farm day. Pioneer Farms – then Sheila’s house to visit our 1/4 cow and fish in her pond. I am excited!

-GMM

Editor’s note: I got some good pictures of the kids mid-creek, but you’ll have to wait until I get them off my camera!

Camp Gramp Day 3

Day 3 has a multi-update. Day 4 will not have an update since we’re all here together today, so mom is cooking for us instead of writing. -ED
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Camp Gramp Day 3 — I would like some produce for the weekend. Who would like to do a purchasing run?

2 large red tomatoes — for slicing on sandwiches
2 lbs of peaches (or 4 lbs if you think we need two pies)

It is Unca Matt day. He says tonight might be the star gazing night — tell Adam — he wanted to be sure Grey got star gazing. It doesn’t start until 9:30 or so, but I think it would be OK. (Ed. – We didn’t make it home until 11, as apparently going to Crater Lake does NOT add simply a paltry hour to the drive between Ashland and Mineral.)

Love, -gmm

Camp Gramp 3A — Today is going to be amusing! I just heard my son, you remember him, Mr. Candy, say to the children as they walked up the street from getting the mail. “Let me reiterate, candy does not equate to food!”

Camp Gramp 3B — 76.8 F does not seem like swimming weather to be, but it is Crazy Unca Matt day and they did have a good time. Thane should have been named Poseidon or something — that boy does love the water.

Day 3 – finals
Really nice day. Weather the likes of which we treasure and fun with the kids. Unca Matt has them ready to do a play about Jonah on Sunday. Carolyn is the champion of prop creation. She made very creative water from the blow hole of Jonah’s whale.

The older three are still up. We are going to do star gazing tonight. We decided that Thane should go to bed, but he must sense that something is up. He is still awake.

Now for 3 or 4 thousand words — in pictures!

Camp Gramp Day 2

Today was a stay at home and settle in day. We were supposed to make shirts, but there was the case of the disappearing transfers, so shirts tomorrow. We made visors, which were a hit — see the picture. Very interesting project. The walls are beginning to have pictures on them.

There was much playing of the DSs today. Grey and Baz were playing a game together. Thanksfully, they provide their own tech support, I certainly can’t. Thane put together 4 puzzles. He is amazing! He just picks up the pieces and puts them in. He has a little puzzle putting together song he likes to sing — in fact he likes to sing a lot.

Tomorrow, Unca Matt day!

Camp Gramp Day 1

Long time readers will squeal with delight to see that yes! It is Camp Gramp time! (OK, maybe just T, but she totally counts!) For newer readers, Camp Gramp is an annual tradition where my parents take all of their grandchildren for a week and they all have a fantastic time. Camp Gramp is noted for its tents (for sleeping), theme song (new), official breakfast cereal (Lucky Charms) and various and sundry delights. My mother usually sends updates to we parents – scattered as we are – sometimes to the ends of the globe during the festivities – so we see that our kids are having a great time, while we are too. I usually cheat and share my mom’s updates while I’m off gallavanting.

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Baz (8) and Kay (6) joined us today at noon at Bradley Lake Park for the official start of Camp Gramp 2011. They are a great age. Baz and Grey chased and played hide and seek. Kay assumed guardianship of Thane and explored all of the play equipment. After lunch we walked around the lake.

Then we headed home, spent some time in the bouncy house and back yard, ate dinner of meatballs (beloved) and potato salad (a failure) and corn (disappeared). We put up the tents and the first tragedy happened. The new tent we bought from Baz needs to be anchored — as in tent pegs. This does not work on the living room floor. I don’t know whose tent it is, but there was one in the garage. It is too large, but we will have to make do. They all loved their new PJs. Thane’s are too small. Kay’s are a triple win. Pink, gauzy, and unicorn. Can it be any better? Getting to sleep wasn’t easy tonight. Thane wanted loud music and to sing, others objected to this. There was much wiggling. But I think they are all down now.

Thane’s mom said she expected the scratch and dent report, so here it is. Thane has been particularly blessed — in the French sense. Yesterday he bumped into the desk in the bedroom — fortunately the expected black eye did not appear. Today there was a little adventure at the lake and it involved blackberries. His arms are scratched. But he didn’t complain.