Summer Camp!

This weekend marked the first annual SUMMER CAMP for us and my old college housemates and their kids. We plan to do this every summer so our kids can grow up together. I don't think I ever would've expected when I first moved into Box of Rain, the silly house named after one of the lesser known Grateful Dead songs that my dad always called "Bucket of Rain", that this ragtag bunch of hippies would one day become my extended family. But now it is my hope that, when Sadie and Noah announce their engagement at Clara and Jack's wedding, we can show the above photo and everyone will go "Awwwww!"

The original idea of summer camp was conceived as a little more "camp" than our luxury three-bedroom guest house with hot-tub at Arch Cape, but we gave ourselves a break on this first year, with three kids under 1. Arch Cape was conveniently located about 10 minutes down 101 from Cannon Beach (convenient for us, since we were already there, and Nick and Libby, since they're currently living in Portland... less so for Carolyn and Raven who came all the way from DC), and our house was literally steps away from the beach. Melissa and Bill's house is pretty darn close to the beach, too, but this was close enough that Jack didn't even have time to ask to be carried before we were there.



Someday we envision week-long retreats but as young parents still early in our careers, that amount of vacation time is hard to come by. So we settled for a long weekend. And we packed as much beach, hot tub, oceanview balcony, wine and cheese, gourmet cooking, playdoh, and rolling around on the floor with each other's babies as we could into those two and a half days. The hot tub in particular was a favorite because it was only about 100 degrees, which made it a great activity for the kids, even in crummy weather. We did get one spectacularly beautiful day, during which we toured a local farm, took turns getting buried in the sand, ran squealing into the ocean, and ate outside lots. The rest of the time it was chilly and threatening to rain (and actually did start raining as soon as we finally got all the kids dudded up to go for a hike), so it was back to the hot tub.



I think a hot tub is now a mandatory part of summer camp. Either that or have it someplace warmer. One beautiful afternoon on the beach goes a long way, though, especially when you take about 300 photos. And here is my favorite one of all of them:



(What is he pointing at that could possibly be more interesting than what is going on directly above him?)

I wish it wasn't going to be so long until we we're all together again, but it nice to have next summer to look forward to, at least.