DOPPS CAMP

SO, here's the lowdown on Dopps Camp. First, a list:

My back
Activities
The STINKIN tunnels
Sleep
Bathroom Fun
Time without Grandpa

Camp was a lot of fun, though kind of crazy this year...I'll get to that in a moment. First of all, we get there...get unpacked...get our beds made...Devon's back spasms. Yeah...not so fun. It got better, though and the weekend was A-OK backwise after that.

We had lots of fun activities at camp this year. We did flower arranging, cake decorating, painting, and a mechanical bull (not me...I'm preggo, you know!). I did rather well at the cake decorating and it was kind of fun to confirm that I do gots skills! :)

So, they had this huge tunnel system at this camp for the kiddos. It was like Discovery Zone if you all remember that...basically a McDonald's playplace on steroids. Lots of fun....until I went down the slide...twice. All I can say is OUCH! The first time, I had Cassie on my lap. They had told me that they were kind of crazy slides, so I was determined to protect my girl. Little did I know that I would get battered the entire way down. I now have very vicious bruises on both knees and an awful bruise/abrasion on my right elbow. I only had the elbow issue...then I decided to try it again without Cassie. STUPID! Not only did I incur the knee bangs, but I hit my elbow in the EXACT SAME PLACE! STUPID! No more tunnels for me!!!

So...16 people in 1 room...not so much sleepin' going on. The babies had trouble going to sleep and then they kept getting woken up. The 2nd night, my nephew, Ethan, fell out of bed onto the concrete floor around 3:30 or something, which woke his sister up and caused most of us to wake up. Poor thing. I felt so sad for him! WHICH, leads me to my next point...bathroom fun...

Because of the fact that everyone was in that 1 big room with 20 bunk beds, once the babies went to sleep (between 8 and 9 and during nap times), the lights had to be out and we all had to be quiet. SO, we hung out in the bathroom. Did I mention that all of us PLUS another family of my cousins and uncle (and his g/f) were all sharing 1 bathroom with 4 toilets, sinks, and showers. That wasn't fun either. Anyway, we sat in the bathroom in chairs and ate apples, played cards, and talked...until that second night. That's when we were all totally grossed out. It was just me, my sister, and my 2 sis-in-laws. Laura got up to wash her hands or something and said, "EW! LOOK AT THIS BUG! It looks like a little crab!" Then, Mandy said, "SOMEONE'S GOT CRABS!" She was totally joking, but then we were all like, "AHHHHHHH!!!" So, we trapped it and looked it up on the internet (on our phones) and eventually killed it. We decided (well, Laura, Dani, and I decided...Mandy's still not convinced) that it WAS a pubic lice AKA crabs! It looked JUST like it and was disgusting!!! SO...that was our fun in the bathroom...we're all still feeling a little itchy! :)

Well, on to the serious part of my post. This was our first family holiday without my grandpa. We all thought of him often throughout the camp, but it wasn't until the end of our church service that we collectively remembered him. Remember I said that we did flower arranging? Well, they decided to make an arrangement to take to his graveside out of the leftover flowers. When they went to get the flowers, there just so happened to be 10 carnations and 1 white rose left...that was it. My dad is 3rd of 10 children (the carnations) and the white rose was obviously my grandma. So, my 2 aunts arranged this beautiful arrangement with the carnations all around the rose and then told us all about it and the plans to take it by his grave so that camp could come to him since he couldn't come to camp. Much more was said and remembered about him and it was really emotional. It was a good healing time, though, as it was the first time since his funeral that we were all banded together in this way. Our family truly is blessed beyond measure because of the faithfulness of our patriarch, Grandpa Bruce.

Well, that's Dopps Camp in a nutshell. I don't really know what else I can say about it if you've never had a hugemongous family. I wish that each of you could have the opportunity to feel that kind of special bond. Maybe we could adopt you into our family for 1 Dopps Camp and you could see...... :)

I've gotta get Miss Emberley down for her nap, so I'm outta here for now!