Real Campers of New Jersey

Before the tears.

Last October the Shepards went out to New Jersey to hang with the Hoffmans at their summer camp's open house. It was just supposed to be an afternoon of free hot dogs and fun for the kids.

Well, the free hot dogs ended up costing us $3000 because we were so taken with the camp that we signed up Stella and Marni for three weeks.

None of this would have been possible if not for the fact that Jill and Brian foolishly graciously agreed to let the girls stay at their house during camp time.

Fast forward nine months to July...

Yesterday we packed up the kids and headed out to New Jersey to start their summer camp adventure. Tyler and Delia were giddy with excitement at the prospect of having their cousins stay with them for three weeks. Stella and Marni were nervously excited as well.

Nerves got the better of the girls as bed time approached, and it took quite a while to get Stella and Marni to sleep.

All was going swell the next morning and the kids were ready and waiting outside for their camp bus.

But then the bus showed up, and everything went to hell

Stella and Marni had massive meltdowns when it came time to get on the bus.  I actually had to pry terror-stricken Marni off of me as I tried to escape the bus. (Regular readers of this blog will remember a very similar incident with Marni.)

They were not the happiest of campers.

Lisa and I headed back to New York and an hour later we got a report from Jill that the bus driver said the girls calmed down within minutes, and all was okay.

I kept my fingers crossed for when they returned at 5.

Like clockwork I got a video Skype call in my office from four ecstatic children just back from camp. The first thing Marni yelled to me was "I loved camp!" Stella had the same general opinion.

So I breathed a sigh of relief.

Day 1, done.

Now we'll see how Jill and Brian do on day 2 without us.