Cousin Camp!

Cousin Camp 2009!

For the second summer, we've held cousin camp at Cookie & Lovie's house in Tyler. Since Will doesn't have cousins on my side, my parents farm one out from R's side- Hayden (age 7.) Hayden comes to Tyler to attend Pine Cove Day Camp but we do cousin camp activities at night. This year, Will had his own theme days in the morning & got to do something fun every day!

At the Zoo

Waving to the elephants & giraffes

See that lion - he really kept his eyes on us which made me a little nervous

Feeding the parakeets- he did not catch on in his bare hands this time

Swimming with mommy, Mimi (my grandmother- Grammy), & Cookie

Spraying Cookie with the water hose

Giving Bubby some love

We also took Will to the Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum. This museum was established by the Brookshire's family - they live in Tyler & have a whole chain of grocery stores in East TX & Arkansas.

Growing up, the Brookshires matriarch, Mimi, lived across the street from us. Though she was probably in her 80's at that time, she still had a, umm, passion for animals - as long as they were dead. I remember how she absolutely hated squirrels, which are everywhere here. But shooting them would have been too harsh - so, instead, she would set traps for them in her beautiful yard, & take them inside to drown them in her bathtub. Needless to say, our cats avoided her yard.
She was quite the hunter &, together with her husband, provided almost all of the animals housed in the museum. It's kind of like a zoo except they are all dead. It's not a place for animal conservationists.

Will especially loved this rather graphic lion scene

I don't care much for hunting & normally things like that would make me cry - but look at the ribs on that lion, I think he must have been starving

That whole circle of life thing at work

This ostrich cracked us up. There was a sign saying that the baby ostriches (see the little one next to its mom & then the one poking his head out of the ostrich egg) died of "natural causes." Of course, if you look up you'll see the picture of Mimi & Mr. Brookshire posing by the eggs. I guess if you kill the mother & remove the eggs from their natural habitat, than the animals will die naturally.

This mother leopard & kitten also died of "natural causes." Hmm, is starvation in a trap a natural cause?

Will just loved all the animals.

One evening, for cousin camp, we took the boys to the mall for Build a Bear. They enjoyed playing on the riding toys.

(We didn't want to spend lots of money on those riding toys so we made them pretend.)
Hayden loved Build a Bear & really got into it. Will, on the other hand, was quite content to push around a pink stroller they had in the store.


We had to go to Dallas last Thursday for a prosthetics alignment for Will. After the appointment, we met up with a long time bestest friend, Jennifer- who is quite pregnant. Will enjoyed talking to baby (An)Drew & tried to high-five him in her belly.

Also while in Dallas, we got to see Will's great grandparents.

Will enjoyed driving his car up Great-Grandpa's face. He also tried to play "night night" with Great -Grandpa - he couldn't figure out why they were laying in bed.

Of course, after his appointment, he got to go upstairs to the admin floor at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children where he flirted with his girls. He just loves them! And we love their dedication to our kiddo (& all the attention & adoration they give him ;))

Will's alignment went great this time! We had to leave his new prosthetics at the hospital to be finished out & we will hopefully pick them up before we head to Washington, DC next week.

Will & Hayden at Cousin Camp



I love spending this week with Hayden & really getting to know him. I admire you moms of "big kids!" I felt like I was having to be so aware constantly - about what he watched on tv, what he read, what he listened to, etc! One day, after I had spent the entire day in Dallas at a hospital prosthetics appointment with Will, I picked up Hayden from camp exhausted. And, perhaps sensing my exhausted state, he decided to bring up some tough issues- like the permanence of salvation, getting rewards on earth vs rewards in heaven, & how to encourage others. Wow! what big topics for a 7 year old. We had a good discussion but I realized that I've got some serious prep work to do before my own kid is that age & bringing up those topics with me!

Will really adores his big cousin, Hayden. Hayden is so great with him - they make up games together which is so fun to watch. They laugh lots & generally play well together.

Turn the music to pause at the bottom of the blog to hear the laughter of the Ole Game!

Last year, if you recall, it was the "Napkin Dance" that Hayden invented to make Will (& the rest of us) roll with laughter... this year, it's Ole!


Hayden refuses to eat any veggies. He loved this cake that my mom made in her Bible study cooking class she is teaching. It's a recipe from an inn in Breckenridge, CO & has 3 zucchini in it! He has no idea he ate so much of a green veggie!

Will loved it too & now asks for "chocolate cake" frequently. The other day, at lunch, Will had to have 4 timeouts & a spank for disobeying me at the table! Eventually, he made the right choice & obeyed & had a "happy face" & "happy heart" so was allowed to join us again at the table. I informed him that there would not be chocolate cake for dessert when we got back to our house in the Frontier- & he gave me the funniest mad scowl I've ever seen! It was hilarious! It was like he actually understood what I said & the little sweettooth did not like it!

On Wednesday, at Pine Cove, Hayden won the coveted "chrome cone" award for having a servant's heart. Apparently, undercover spies at camp observed him serving other campers & being respectful of others & so he was awarded the cone in front of everyone.

He told me he was wiped out due to working so hard for 3 days to serve others.

Cracked me up!

I am so proud of you, Hayden - sappy Aunt Katie cried lots of happy, proud tears that day!

One morning, we took Will to the historic train depot & train museum in Tyler. He loves "choo choos!" He often runs around saying "Chugga chugga choo choo!" It was especially exciting because as we left, a real train drove right by us! You can barely see the conductor in the blue engine (just like Thomas!) waving at us!

Checking out the model trains in his conductor's hat

Lovie, Will, & Mimi at the depot

One morning, we took Will to the Discovery Museum where he got to do all kinds of cool things- including pretending to be a vet

and a doctor

Apparently, this trusting little girl is not afraid of strangers

and playing construction man

and sitting on dinosaur fossils

& experiencing an earthquake

(hey Claire- remember that earthquake in Guatemala the summer of 99? This did not exactly feel like that - maybe because we knew it was coming since Will pushed a button & also, I wasn't just getting out of the shower!)

And he LOVED the ball room where he got to do all kinds of motion experiments with balls

& pretended we were in space

Growing up, every Tuesday was "family night." Since there were 4 of us, each of us got to be the designated special person once a month for fam night. As that person, you could tell my momwhat meal you preferred her to prepare, you got to eat on the "you are special" plate, & you got to choose the game or activity. We played lots of games in our house- sometimes we played board games (I remember one particularly long season of the most boring game ever played of Monopoly - it took so long to complete that we played it over a series of family nights.) We played a lot of murder in the dark - in our dark, old house (as we got older & wouldn't be afraid.) We played a lot of pool games in the swimming pool. And we played a lot of hide & seek.

I guess my mom misses game nights so we had a game night for cousin camp with a card game (after Will was down) & a fam game of Hide & Seek. Will talked too much so he was the designated "seeker's helper." It was a blast!

I found Hayden underneath the rocking chair in the nursery

And my mom was in the shower of the guest bathroom
Look at that smile - she's in heaven having kids around to play family games with again!

One of my favorite parts of Cousin Camp was bedtime! I loved getting to read stories in bed with the kiddos. Will & Hayden & I would gather after bathtime on the bed to all read a story for Will (often read by cousin Hayden) & then Will would go to bed & Hayden & I would read a few chapters in his book. As much as I love reading short stories to Will, it was kind of fun to read a book with a real, ongoing plot that has chapters!

Sadly, it's one of my favorite childhood books (Wayside School series) & we didn't finish it. :(

I've also been able to attend my mom's Bible Study -"Holy Homemakers." It's a cooking class & a Bible study & is lots of fun - I've gotten some yummy new recipes I look forward to trying out soon (& also the Bible study has been good too.)

(And I'm not a total dork- my mom asked me to take some pictures for her flyers for the next class.)