Reports from Camp Nana-Pop!

While Carrie and I were working, Shane was having the time of his life. He swam daily, played with cousins, and Nana kept me informed (Thanks, Nana!).

"He hit the ball with his head!" Nana said.

Shane arrived to a welcome sign and the good times never stopped. He was having sleepovers with Cole...

...ice cream sandwhiches....

...and play dates galore. 

He never wants to come back from Nana and Pop's. 

You can't be a frail, wilting wimpo and offended by every correction you hear if you want to survive there, though! 

Exhibit A:

Which I find hilarious, by the way. Maybe the sense of humor is genetic.

I included the pictures here, so you can see that, yes, Cole did stick his tongue out by the last one.

I'm not saying Shane's better behaved than Kathleen's kids (you can come to your own conclusions!).

I am saying Shane's attention wanders. It looks like he forgot what Nana said and was moving on with life while Cole remembered (and wanted to rebel!).

But in general, even if Nana likes to spoil grandkids she won't hesitate to call them out and speak her mind.

Nor does anything embarrass her or worry her enough that she will forgo mentioning it.

For your reading enjoyment, I have included Nana's own words to describe what went on over the week. I got two emails in addition to all the texts.

Here's the first.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's Tuesday evening and we're at the pool and I just realized that I should send you a note saying how Shane is doing at Nana Pop Camp. We love having him here. He and Cole are getting along great. When they talked about various Pokemon shows and books, Pop said they sound like they are talking a foreign language. Cole and Shane love all the same things.

DIRECTOR'S LOG

     First day of camp - Saturday, August 15: 

      Eating yummy delicious food with you and Shane in the parking lot at the Chick-fil-a in Greensboro,  NC was so nice. Shane watched 2 movies on our van's rear entertainment system on the rainy drive to our house.

Kathleen and her 3 kids came over to greet Shane pretty quickly after we arrived. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the Welcome Shane sign that Pop, Cole, Evie, Tenley and I made for Shane. Note the effort and not the absence of any artistic genes in the family. 

Second Day of Camp, August 16:

      Kathleen invited Shane to go to their house on Sunday morning to play and do children's church there with them. Then they all came to our house for a delicious lunch of Hungry Howies pizzas, cheesy bread and cinnamon bread. That afternoon, Stu and Kathleen took their 3 kids and Shane to the pool in our neighborhood. Then Cole and Shane came back to our house to play. Cole spent the night at our house for their first sleepover together. 

Third Day of Camp: August 17:

    Monday morning, Kathleen took Evie and Tenley to school for their first day, so it was a good time for Cole to be at our house. Tenley will go to preschool from _____. Evie will go to the same Christian school for kindergarten for _________,  but she got out early (at ___)on Monday because of it being the first day. Kathleen picked up Cole about 12:15 on Monday, while Shane stayed with us. About 2 PM, Pop took Shane to their house to babysit the 4 kids so Kathleen could go to her eye doctor appointment.  Shane came home with Pop after Kathleen returned. I cooked beef tacos for dinner and Shane ate really well, which made me feel good. We took him swimming that night. Only Pop and Shane were in the pool. We went to Brewster's for ice cream for bedtime snack after leaving the pool.

Forth Day of Camp - August 18:

    Cole had to go to school this morning for a few hours of individual testing before school starts next week. Next week Cole will only go to school in person on Tuesday, because the rest of his school week will be done virtually for awhile. Cole and Tenley came to our house for McDonald's happy meals for lunch with Shane. Then Kathleen, Cole and Tenley left about 1:35. Shane enjoyed playing on the Nintendo Switch during my nap. I took Shane back to the Howlett's house to play about 5 PM. Pop and I picked Cole and Shane up about 7:30 to bring them to our neighborhood pool to swim. It's now 8:40 PM and getting pretty dark so we're going to take them back to our house for a sleepover.

Love,

Nana
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And so it's not a straight wall of text, I moved some pictures down to here.

Nana was real big on name tags and assigning things to us growing up, because otherwise no one ever fessed up to anything.

But most of the texts weren't like that. Nana's an encourager by nature.

And now, the second email:
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Director's Log, Thursday evening,  August 20:

We've been blessed with great weather at camp this week.  Shane has gone swimming 5 days in a row and is delighted every time. He seems to never tire from swimming. Kathleen took him swimming twice and he went 3 times with me and Pop. Only once in his 5 times of swimming did Cole not go and that was Monday evening. They both love it.

Pop and I had Cole,Tenley, and Shane this morning so that Kathleen could work. Then Kathleen picked them all up at about 1:45 so I could nap. Shane enjoyed jumping on the big trampoline, building with magnetic plastic pieces and doing electronics at their house. We picked Cole and Shane up from the Howlett's home about 7 PM this evening. Now we're watching them swim in the neighborhood pool, trying to get them worn out before bedtime.  They often talk in Pokemon (?) so they understand each other, but Pop and I don't understand them.

Megan called earlier today and said that B wanted to play Roblox with Shane, so we let Shane install it for free on my new Amazon Fire 8 tablet. I bought a second one, because Aunt Dot took over mine months ago to listen to tons of books online after the libraries closed. Shane likes the game Bee Simulater on Roblox alot. When Pop and I travel, we watch movies on Netflix on the tablet. I think the tablet only cost about $80. 

Cole and Shane love imaginative play. It's fun to listen to them. Now they are playing like the swimming pool water turns them into various things, such as chickens. I'm glad we are the only ones at the pool. They are so silly and so loud. Pop and I  think it's fun, but other adults might not. 

I cooked  sausage cut up into small slices and French Toast for lunch and Shane ate well. He eats a lot of fresh fruit. So far he's enjoyed fresh pineapple,  cantaloupe,  watermelon,  and bananas. Kathleen picked up pizza for their dinner.  

My new fancy ovens were installed last evening. I am enjoying learning how to use them. I've been cooking a lot more since the pandemic started. We pick up food-to-go about twice a week.

I hope you and Carrie are enjoying this week as much as we are.

Kathleen let Shane borrow a couple of books that Cole had from the library.  You can't go into the libraries here, but you can get online and order books for their drive-through pick up.

Love,

Nana
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Editor/Father's Note: I'm thrilled Shane got to have such a raucous good time in SC. I want to visit family more! I wish I could drag Carrie away with me and join in more, but a barn ties you to it. It's going to happen at some point. Thank you, Nana and Pop for taking such great care of my boy!