We went to family camp at Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire during the last week of August. We had so much fun being with friends and making new ones, trying out life at sleep away camp, and learning new skills. We had to leave a little early because of Hurricane Irene - which lead to other adventures in southern New Hampshire. But meanwhile we think we will be heading back to Family Camp next year, and Zachary would like to go to sleep away camp for 2 weeks there next summer ... we shall see.
The first morning Zachary and Daddy participated in the fishing tournament. By the time Mama and Zoe got there we missed the chance to take pictures of all the fish that Zachary and Daddy caught - but we got to see some of our friends catch fish, Daddy helped lots of people prepare their rods, and Mama put quite a few worms on hooks.
Zoe made this beautiful necklace during her "camp" time - she had really nice councelors and her friend Jacob and his cousin Ruby to hang out with in the 4 year olds group. All the kids had age appropriate groups in which they had "camp" time with counselors and typical camp activities. Both kids enjoyed this time very much, had good counselors (one of Zachary's counselors was from Westville and grew up in our shul), and made beautiful things in their arts and crafts time.
This is Zachary looking cute in the Chadar Ochel - Dining Hall.
Sporting our "Family Camp shirts" just before the all camp photo. Each year they provide t-shirts in a new color. A nice keepsake from our time there.
Zachary and Zoe loved sleeping in the top bunks of the bunk beds in our "bunk". Zoe had a little trouble getting out at first, but she (being the monkey that she is) figured it out. The kids actually slept well in the bunks beds (although most nights they got to stay up later than usual) and no one had any problems (ie no falls, lost lovies, or bed bugs :-).
One of the exciting events of family camp was the family rocket launching. We ordered our rocket well in advance of camp but somehow it got lost in the mail and sadly never arrived, but our dear friend Amy and her family saved the day for us and some other friends at camp too. She bought extra launching parts (that is a technical term) for their rocket and each kid got a chance to launch - a total of 8 launches in all. Daddy was a big helper in assembling and preparing for launch and Mama was the picture taker. We got lots of pictures of the launches - too many to share here but a few of our kids pre-launch and catching the rocket (with attached parachute) are below.
Camp wouldn't be the same without Tie-Dying and Mama sure was in her element. She helped tie lots of folks shirts up and the results were fantastic. Daddy's spiral was amazing. Zoe and Zachary both dyed their own shirts and Daddy dyed Mama's for her.
Mama and Zoe enjoyed sitting by the Agam (lake) while Zachary swam to the aqua trampoline. He had to wear a life jacket to go out there but he swam to and from, not to mention bouncing on and off the trampoline a bit. The Agam was a HUGE hit for the whole family. Mama and Daddy went on a boat ride while the kids had "camp" time and then (see below) Mama took Zoe for a ride too. Zachary swam a lot in the Agam (as did Zoe) and enjoyed jumping off the dock. Zoe also did some more fishing and watching some of the other kids catch sunfish.
The kids enjoyed a visit with JuJu the clown during some of their camp time - and each one got a balloon guy (see the pictures). These guys made the trip back to New Haven with us and are currently shrinking in the play room.
There were many other fun activities - a talent show which both kids performed in with our friends, Mama and Daddy learned some cooking techniques, adult wine and dessert tasting, a water slide and wet moon bounce for the kids, Israeli dancing, foam - a gazebo filled with bubbles (for the kids of course), shabbat puppet show, singing at the campfire while roasting marshmallows (yum) and much much more (and a lot more pictures). Hope you enjoyed this snippet of our time at camp.
Family picture just before shabbat - don't we look swanky. It was a lovely shabbat - we had a nice meal and the food and challot were delicious. We davened, rested, ate, relaxed some more, and enjoyed the Yavneh shabbat experience.
