3rd day of camp
Day three of camp started at 7:30am- much better than 5am. It was a sunny, beautiful morning. Kai woke up very sad and crying because his mom wasn’t there. I hugged him and loved on him until he was ok. I told him that he could cry until we went to KP duty then he had to start having fun on his last day of camp. One of the dads in our group and I hung out by the coffee machine and let the boys do their thing until breakfast was ready. After pancakes and sausage we started stations again-BB’s first. Graham was very discouraged because he only hit the paper once the day before. I told him he’d be MUCH better cause he knew what to do. I showed him how to hold the gun and how to aim and POW first shot hit the 10 spot on the target. WHOO HOO!!! At that point I looked around to do a quick count of all of our boys and came up short by ONE. Kai was missing. My heart raced as I began to inquire where he was. The guy leading the BB range put a call in on his walkie talkie and notified the camp that Kai was missing. The search for Kai began. Meanwhile- Graham kept shooting and almost hit a bulls-eye 5 times!! He was so proud. According to the camp if a child is missing for more than 5 minutes they shut down the camp and have an emergency fire drill to group all the boys together to find. him. A few of the other dads were concerned because they knew Kai would only come to me- so I was ready to start my own search for Kai. As I turned to begin my search Kai was walking over towards us with one of the camp advisors. He had been about 60 feet away from us the whole time making a wooden tool box. Apparently- when the groups split off to go to their stations Kai followed the wrong group. PHEW…. I did not want to be the one to tell Kai’s mom I’d lost him.
Then on to archery. Graham was a pro- and he almost hit the bulls-eye. He was so excited and proud of himself. It was SO good for his confidence. As Graham moved on to his other stations some of us parents went to pack up our camp. After my tent was empty several of the dads came over to help me pull the gigantic stakes out of the ground that held down my tent. (the ones that came with the tent were lost/broken/etc.. and I could only find huge ones to replace them). I knew I could do the job myself and even started to with much success. Apparently, I looked like I was in distress. The dads from the other pack not only took down my tent, but folded it and squeezed it into the little bag, then hauled all my stuff off to my neighbors car and packed it up. Guess it’s good to be the Queen. 
After lunch we had another game of human foosball. Graham and I were goalies and I told him how to block the ball. He did exactly what I told him and blocked it EVERY TIME. I was so proud of him. The other team was getting discouraged so i told Graham to let a few go by-. It was good fun and we laughed the entire time.
We then had a few hours of free time and several families came to the camp for the family BBQ. Kai’s parents showed up at that point and asked how Kai was doing. I told them nothing of the tears and loosing him- i don’t think they need to know that. Graham and I went straight to the BB range. Then to play in the water and a few other activities. We cut out of the BBQ early and found my neighbor-and decided to leave early to avoid parking lot traffic.
Got home and was greeted by Thomas and Mick- who were very happy to see us. We had an amazing time. I am so glad I got to be a part of Graham’s camping experience. There’s just something about going through that with your child- a different bond is formed. It’s indescribable. Thomas goes to his camp in a few weeks. Graham and I will go up and camp with him for a few nights. Out of 8 boys three are going without parents- Thomas is one of them. I considered going the whole week- but I don’t know how Graham would do and I kind of want to give Thomas a break from his little brother. I know it will be just as amazing.
I’m going to bed now
T