Thursday 7/13/2011

Today was a crazy busy day. I took Ellie, Jake, Kolton, and Kenton to swim lessons.  (Ellie just watched she doesn’t have the energy to do swim lessons at this point). Then I had to get some stuff at Sam’s club for our trip.  Boy was that a fun trip four kids under 7yrs old.  And then had to get Jake a hair cut (well all the boys got haircuts) and
then packing for our trip began.  I realized we travel with a complete pharmacy as I was packing.  Dave got home from work and we had to leave within thirty minutes to get
to Camp on time.  Family Brain Tumor Camp is at One Step Camp on Lake Geneva.  We arrived and I could not believe my eyes.  This campsite is one of the most incredible camp sites I have ever seen.  Now keep in mind this really isn’t
camping.  We are staying in a hotel like cabin.  I would compare it to a double tree.  We have incredible views our own bathroom, two queen beds, Dresser, Desk, Nightstand and its all with beautiful views of the lake and camp ground.  

So we started our camping experience by checking in. 
Then we headed to the dining hall (if you want to call it a dining hall) it’s amazing. The food was so good
and the hall looked more like a banquet facility. 
Have I mentioned how much I love this place?  We
sat down randomly with some people that live close to us. 
We really enjoyed talking, well as much as our kids would let us.  After Dinner we got assigned a counselor to our family.  They gave us a tour of the camp ground and then we all met back up for some bonding.  

They split up the kids from adults.  The kids went off to have fun and play games while we adults went to do
our own bonding. They started by splitting the wife’s and husbands up because they said the women tend to speak
for the men. Nooooo I can’t see that happening can you? Then they brought us back together to tell our stories. 
What an emotional couple of hours.  Many of the stories gave me chills.  Some of these kids have been battling
Brain Cancer for YEARS.  One of the couples told us there story and finished it by telling us they were just told
this past week they need to prepare themselves.  As much as this is healing it’s a shocking reality that this is my life and who knows if this is where Ellie will be in a couple of years from now.  It was our turn to speak and here is a shocker for you, Dave actually started to speak.  Yes my husband Dave.  I was shocked, so shocked that I announced how shocked I was.  It’s hard because I had to explain my daughter’s condition and to be completely honest I realized I don’t know much.  I can’t even say the correct terminology to explain it.  The reason being is because when Ellie was diagnosed I decided not to do any
  research on the subject for my own mental health. 
My Step-Dad volunteered to do all the research for me. 
I remember there was one day I just said hey I think I will look up the tumor.  I read one paragraph and broke down crying for days.  At that point I realized I will let the experts tell me what I need to know and I will just make sure Ellie lives as full of a life as possible.  Although it was emotional tonight it was very therapeutic for Dave and I.
I am so happy we were invited to this camp. The only thing that got me was when they announced of a flour war.  I asked if us parents can join in and all the parents and counslers looked at me like I
was nuts.  I guess maybe I am but
just want to have as much fun as possible.  They still didn’t answer the question so we will just assume that’s a No. ;) 
We got back to our rooms around 10:20 and the kids are struggling to sleep so I’m going to say goodnight so that they can have absolute quite.