From her birth, I can remember getting excited about all of the fun children's activities to come.  As she got older and older, I started looking into things to do around town more and more.  For most things, you had to be 2 and I remember thinking, geez, that's so far away. And then I blinked. And she was 2. Then it was you have to be 3 and potty trained. And blinked again and she's doing it all on her own.  And then blinked a couple more times and now we're just weeks away from 4.  That's the bittersweet part of all of these stages: the new adventures for them but with that, part of the little version of them slips away.  It's so hard to keep up with the time flying past us and from this I am learning:  1. Take too many pictures because you can never have enough. 2. Live it all up because each day only happens once.

As a child, we didn't do much of the summer camp thing.  All of our family was so far away that we spent our summers in a family reunion type setting, typically headed back to Canada for the summers, which we loved and now miss dearly!  We (my sister, a cousin, and myself) tried the whole camp thing out one year and it didn't quite go as everyone hoped...needless to say, I can't recall ever going to another!  Summer camps are big these days and it seems to be especially true in the South.  So we hopped on the camp wagon and sent Reese off to her first few camps this year...  

We did a half week of Frozen dance camp, a full week of VBS, and a week of Tate's Camp for Bug Week. Each were so fun for Reese, but my fave...the bring-your-mom-to-camp kind...Tate's Family Campout! SO. MUCH. FUN.  She was so excited to show me the ropes (no pun intended) and couldn't hardly wait to have me do everything with her!  From the unheard of cool weather in July to the fabulous camp counselors to the incredible activities, we couldn't have had a better time!

(There are videos of the zipline and hillside slide included below, but you must be patient as they take a few minutes to load.)

We had to stop by the playground on our way to our first stop...

The zipline! She was so brave and so excited!

Next up, the unexpected thrill of a life time...the Hillside Slide!

I was planning on capturing some fun action photos and the next thing I know, I'm being pushed off the side of the steep hill headed straight for the hay stacks!  I'm so glad I put my big girl underwear on and did it because had Creed been there, I probably wouldn't have and I would have definitely missed out!

Slightly scary, but super fun!  We even did it again!

Next up, we headed to the pool where Reese hung with the boys jumping off the diving board and practicing diving down to the bottom of the pool for the rings! She is definitely our cautious, careful, often scared child so it is beyond exciting to see her so brave and confident!  These moments make me smile a mile wide.

 We lucked out with a cool night not only under a clear sky full of stars, but the SuperMoon too!

With the newness of sleeping in a tent at camp, the chirping of the crickets, and the rising sun around 6:00AM, we did not do much sleeping but we sure had fun on our first camp experience!

We are already counting down the days until next year!