Tuesday I had to fly to several Army bases on the east coast with my boss for some meetings to support the new contract we won with the Corps of Engineers. We took his teeny tiny plane, instead of a big, commercial, can't feel much of anything plane. It was my very first time in a plane like this. There were definitely pros and cons.

PROS: Very Convenient, FAST (time from parking car to being up in the air was 11 minutes), did I mention the convenience?
CONS: YOU FEEL EVERY LITTLE BUMP! Bad weather is scary. YOU FEEL EVERY LITTLE BUMP!

My boss flew us.  He has his pilot's license. We also had another pilot with us as well. Even though Shawn is able to fly, if we ran into weather beyond his experience, we had Doug to jump in and take over. We pay Doug a monthly salary, plus hourly fees, per diem and hotels.

Best part of the trip, hands down, was seeing the Historical District in Charleston, SC. It was absolutely gorgeous. Amazing old homes, buildings, etc. It was breathtaking. I would LOVE living there. I am sad that we had so many meetings planned and I was unable to see more of it.

Kaiden spent her very first week away at sleep-away camp last week.  She and her friend Britton spent the week at Triple R Ranch.  I dropped them both off on Sunday evening, got them all checked in, registered for all their "extras," put money in their Trading Post accounts, made up their bunks, ate dinner with them and then passed out hugs and kisses and left them for the week!

They were assigned to the "Rough Rider Girls" Bunk. They both picked top bunks that butted up to each other, so that they would be head to head! Plus, that would make is easier for them to share all the Teen Mags they brought and the 4,500 pounds of junk food that they both brought for the week.

They were kept busy all week long with tons of activities.  Kaiden HAD A BLAST! I do not think that there was one activity that she did not enjoy. The following were some of the things she got to do:

Horse Sense – Learn what is involved in grooming, saddling and staying safe around horses.
Horseback Riding – Every camper gets the opportunity to mount up and take a ride.
Critter Corral – Meet our small farm animals and learn why each one is important.
Archery – Campers master the bow and arrow with time at the archery range.
Nature study by the pond – Become more aware of our environment as you study living organisms.
Outdoor Living Skills – Learn to read a compass and enjoy a nature scavenger hunt.
Camping skills – Learn to build a campfire, prepare shelter and enjoy some roasted marshmallows.
Canoeing – Campers get on the river to explore and perfect their strokes.
Water Fun – Enjoy the Water Slide, swimming, diving boards and games at the pool.
Challenge Course – Cabins work together to overcome the challenge of our low ropes course.
Climbing Wall – Scale to the top of our 40 ft. high climbing tower and ring the bell.
Wally Ball – This fun indoor games is like volley ball in a racquetball court.
Knock Out – Enjoy learning this dodge ball game from Israel.
Flying Squirrel- Get harnessed in and take flight as your cabin mates help launch you into the air.
Technical Tree Climbing- Use ropes and rigging to safely ascend to the tree tops.
Golf Carting - spend some time driving around n a golf cart.

She loved everyone that was in her cabin. They had a lot of fun working together all week earning ducks to go towards the "Duck Wars" - this was by far Kaiden's FAVORITE part of camp. Earning ducks, then having a night where it was an all out duck war trying to steal ducks from the boy's side. Boys and girls were competing all week to earm the most ducks.  Everything they did earned them ducks. Make it to the top of the rock wall?  Earn a duck.  Canoe without hiccups? Earn a duck.  Memorize a bible verse?  Earn a duck.  The big Duck War night was basically like a HUGE game of "Capture the Flag" except, they were capturing Ducks.

One thing about camp, is you are supposed to get mail.  Apparently you are a nobody if you do not get any mail.  I am sure most of the kids at Triple R got post cards from mom and dad. Kaiden and Britton got letters from Ross Lynch and Zac Efron... their pre-teen crushes. Complete with embarrassing fart and throw up stories from each.  When I went to pick them up on Friday night, they both immediately told me "WE KNOW IT WAS YOU THAT SENT THOSE LETTERS!!!"  Still pretty funny.  Next year when they go to camp, I will come up with new people to send them letters from!

This was Kaiden in the car 10 minutes after picking her up and pulling out of the camp parking lot.  SHE.WAS.DONE! She had gone so hard all week that she just physically and mentally died as soon as she knew it was safe to do so. When we got home, she went straight to bed and slept over 12 hours. She woke up and looked at me and said she could not wait to do it again next year!

Ashton has been spending a lot of time on the fishing pier with his dad. He loves it. Hea wears his visor and glasses just like dad, sits patiently and catches a ton of fish. That is "bro time" with dad. He is absolutely turning into a mini-Todd.

Kaiden attended Virginia Wesleyan College Marlin Soccer Camp last week, and could not say enough good things about it... she LOVED IT. With temperatures at 100 degrees every single day, I could not believe how hard she worked and made it through it - I could have never been out there that long and worked that hard in the heat.

They spent their mornings doing drills and the afternoons breaking up into teams and competing. Kaiden's team was DC United. She played in goal all week and focused on goal related drills every morning.

After a week of drills and games, they held an awards ceremony for the kids. Kaiden won "Keeper of the Week" for the girls, winning a shirt. It was awesome and she just loved working with Coach Conner, who is the keeper for the Virginia Wesleyan Boy's soccer team.

Her team won overall in the games portion of camp, so they all won Virginia Wesleyan scarves.  The scarves are really nice and Kaiden loved it!  They also all received camp shirts and a Virginia Wesleyan soccer ball.

Each kid also received an evaluation from their coaches.  Kaiden received two, one for field and one for goal. Both were fantastic!

What a fantastic week it was for her. I certainly would reccomend this camp for anyone wanting to work on their soccer skills.

Kaiden will be going back next week for the second session of the camp. We are VERY forunate that Aunt Kelly coached at Virginia Wesleyan for a while, and is able to get Kaiden involved with the camp.

We had a fantastic 4th of July and subsequent 4th of July weekend, filled with neighbors, friends, family, cocktails, swimming, etc.  The adults all enjoyed themselves, while the kids pretty much left the adults alone!  Doesn't get much better than that.

Kaiden did a great job of teaching an entire group of kids at a BBQ how to play "Root Beer Pong" on a state of the art Beer Pong table, complete with ball washing cup station.

Ashton spent as much time as he could swimming.  He could have cared less about "Root Beer Pong" or eating or anything else.  Just wanted to swim.

It was a great holiday and weekend, that's for sure!