The Send Off...

Bright and early Saturday morning we, along with a couple hundred other parents/families, brought our kiddo (220 of them in all) to our church to send him off to summer camp for five days at Carolina Creek. Upon arriving we saw many people we were familiar with, and better yet, several friends of Alex's from church, not to mention his best pal Grant. His two leaders are fantastic, encouraging and reassuring. One in particular, you can tell, is going to be more of the cool dad that'll have a ton of crazy fun with a bunch of 9 year old boys. Checking in was super organized and smooth, and it was fun going down to the worship center to see all of the kids with their particular group (Alex's is called the blue pythons). All of the kids were really friendly with each other and really welcoming to any newcomers, which I really loved to see in the instance of Alex's friend, Grant. They had a camp rally before boarding their buses to get the kids all wired up and more excited than they already were - it was pretty cute. :) And then we parents went up to the parking lot to wait by the buses to give them a happy send off. This being our first experience with overnight summer camp, it was a lot of fun. I can't wait until Alex comes home to hear all about his adventure.

In the parking lot: packed and ready to go.

 Alex and Grant getting ready for their big adventure with some of the kids from their group, the blue pythons.

 The big send off! The kids leaving the building to board their buses!

 Ayson was so sweet - tugging on Alex one last time telling him, "Peace and love!"

And they're off!