August 4 – “Cousins’ Camp: Day One”

Once in Waco we plugged in to the hectic life of a family with an almost-teenager, a rambunctious ten-year-old, and two preschoolers.  Zak had a youth group event at a local park.  AnnaGrace and Luke had an ice cream social at a local yogurt shop.  Oh, and Josh had a meeting at the church about their construction project.  We dropped Zak off.  Sort of.  We stayed and played at the park playground for a little while.  But soon we headed for the ice cream.  The ice cream being served indoors … in a wonderfully air conditioned building.  There were quite a few folks from their church present.  I even met a CHSA Wolverine fellow alum.  That’s the homeschool basketball team I used to coach.  Actually she was on the girls’ team, and she didn’t start playing until the year after I left. 

We finally got on the road to home.  We actually left pretty early – around 9 a.m. – but Caleb was chomping at the bit to get going before breakfast.  Christi had us covered, though.  Pancakes.  Nice travel food.  The trip home went quickly.  One stop.  Buc-ees for gas and lunch.  Zak and Caleb were amazed at how quickly a trip could actually take with no “little people.” 

And once we arrived in Galveston, it wasn’t long before Cousins’ Camp exploded into reality.  Cailyn arrived first.  Then the LaMarque cousins completed the array.  At least eight or twelve or maybe fifteen in total (Luke and AnnaGrace stayed back in Waco so their Mommy wouldn’t get too lonely).

Pizza for supper.  Always a win.  One of the highlights of the evening was the games segment led by DadDad.  Not all of them worked successfully, but fortunately DadDad was well-versed in the old youth pastor axiom, “Kill it before it dies.”  One that was kind of fun (at least fun enough to make the cut for the FaceBook Cousins’ Camp ad campaign) was the HaHa Game.  They all took a spot on the floor with a head nestled into someone else’s tummy.  Then the laughter begins.  Assigned laughter.  First in line says “Ha.”  The one whose head is on that tummy adds a “Ha,” saying, “HaHa.”  Then the next adds a third - “HaHaHa” - and so on.  Pretty fun stuff.  Well, pretty fun-NY stuff anyway.

Finally everyone settled in for the traditional movie night selection.  Girls’ choice for this first one.  And their pick was some candy-cooking competition show on Netflix.  Cupcakes, candy and a big cake.  Yummy.  It was somewhere north of 10:30 before everyone finally started dropping off.  Cousins’ Camp, Day One … in the books. 

Psalms 89:11 says, “The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.”

Father, thank you for this lovable batch of littles.  Sure do love ‘em.  Amen.