We just got back from church family camp in Campbellsville, Kentucky!!! People from all over our geographical area in our denomination (Reformed Presbyterian) gathered for five days of classes, worship, sports, eating, and visiting together. It certainly was a highlight of our summer!!!
The camp rented Campbellsville University and the building below is where all the adult sessions and worship services was held.
We had perfect weather!!!! (FYI, 2 summers ago we had the hottest on record, this past winter was our worst on record, and this summer is now the coolest on record!!!)
Many of the families with young children stayed in dorm-type condos like this -- each with a kitchenette and sitting room as well as bedrooms and bathrooms. The nicest part was that in the evenings the parents could congregate with all the baby monitors in the courtyard and the kids could all be asleep in their beds!!
Not very exotic accommodations, but they were quite decent college rooms. :)
I found it a very low-stress week -- there was no laundry, cleaning, food planning, cooking, or hounding of the children to do their chores. Wow! The kids were delighted with all the cafeteria food -- including ice-cream on demand.
Outside of the dorm rooms was a huge beach volleyball court with mounds of yellow sand (dyed yellow sand -- ugh!). This entertained all the children for hours and hours and gave the adults even more time to relax.
The afternoons were free unless you wanted to participate in the various sports activities. It was a good chance for me to rest or read!
All around campus were these beautiful bushes! I finally got a friend to identify them as "Crepe Myrtle". I would love to grow one -- but I've never seen them in Indiana and wonder if our climate is not so great for them.
Did I say cafeteria food?
A friend celebrated his birthday and there were lots of kids to help!
Talent night is always a favorite night for us!!! We had music from India, "synchronized swimming", hilarious skits, soak the pastor, and other lovely music performances.
Yes, the sandpit was pretty tempting!!!
The kids LOVE family camp. They love their friends, they love the classes, they love the freedom to run around and do things. These are the kinds of times that will inform their lives in the future and perhaps these will be the very same people that they continue on being friends with as adults.
I spotted these pygmy zinnias on the campus -- they were very short but with such beautiful, variegated flowers! Another flower I need to find!
Here is Laura's preschool class at the closing program. She LOVED her teachers and her class. :)
Another view of campus and our walk back to the condos.
Michael and Rachel left early to get back for the first day of school so the rest of us traveled home on our own. We did make a stop at Lincoln's Birthplace since I couldn't resist the sign that said we were only 1 mile from it!!!! We walked into the memorial pictured below to see the log cabin originally thought to be his. It has since been proved to be not "the" cabin but it gave us an idea and it is sitting on the very farm where Lincoln was born. Another piece of history....
