Travel Tuesday

Let's start with Butch and Mindy. They went to Guatemala last week. The actual traveling part is going to be what makes us decide it's no longer worth it to take trips. They left on Tuesday--Butch's birthday. We picked Mindy up at 4:15 a.m. for their early flight. 

That's when their fun began. As you can see, they started out happy. They were to fly to Miami and then on to Guatemala. That didn't happen. They were re-routed to Texas. They were supposed to get to Guatemala around noon. Butch had their plans for the day which included a good restaurant and geo-caches. 

As it ended up, they lost that day and didn't arrive until Wednesday around 2 a.m. Considering Tuesday was Butch's birthday, it wasn't a fun way to spend it. After little sleep, they started their tour. 

They had a good first day and the rest of the week--for the most part. They were to come home on Father's Day. When a trip is over, all you want to do is to get home. Well, their trip back was just as bad as going. Their flight was delayed, delayed, delayed--causing them to miss their connection. To top it off, Mindy started getting sick. There's nothing worse than being sick away from home! They finally made it on Monday around 1 a.m.!! 

In the meantime, while they were on their trip, Camp Aunt Barb was underway here. 

The amount of stuff they bring is always unbelievable!

The schedule is posted on the refrigerator. I added jobs this year.

One of the boys seems to have something needing repair every year. Nathan made these stuffed ???--I'm not quite sure what they are. I think it's great that kids are learning to sew in school. It seems to be a lost art. 

One day we went to the Adventure Park.

It's a place to climb and zipline. It wasn't terribly hot, so that was good. 

They have some pretty extensive gear to wear. After about an hour and forty five minutes, they were done. The straps and harnesses were rubbing and hurting in places on their tender skin. We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant where a robot delivers your chips and salsa. That was fun and something new.

This is what the rec room looked like after the first day. I should have taken a picture after the last day!

This is hilarious! The kids pooled their money to buy an extra set of balls. They wanted to be able for all four of them to  play at the same time. I guess they didn't know about playing on teams!

Of course, there are many, many games--mostly poker--"Pass the Trash" (their favorite--we adults are kinda' tired of it), "Fan Tan", and "7 Card No Peek." Since Butch wasn't here, we weren't able to play "Bingo with Uncle Butch"--an annual favorite!

Josie whipped out the "tiny" cards she had won several years ago. The kids get a kick out of playing with them. We adults, not so much--they are too hard to play with! But we manage to do it for a game or two.

Josie was the big winner for the week. Actually, she dumped out all of her poker money, so this isn't just winnings. We play lots of games and the kids eat candy while we play. It's all in good fun!

They came for an extra day this year. We had a great time--lots of pool games. They had a "bake-off" and decorated cookies. The food went pretty well this year--it's impossible to please everybody at the same time! I've made notes for next year. We just about have this down. 

I don't know how many more years we'll be doing it, but as long as they want to come, Camp Aunt Barb will go on!