Greentop Weekend

This weekend we went camping with a bunch of other big homeschooling families from our co-op, and from the church that hosts the co-op. It was so much fun! We were all so tired (and dirty) yesterday when we got home! We went to a place called Camp Greentop , in Maryland not too far from us. It is part of Catoctin Mountain Park, but I thought the most interesting thing is that Greentop is practically across a small road from Camp David! We passed the turn-off for Camp David ("Do not enter. Not open to the public. Violaters will be fined . . . "), which is also surrounded by a big electric fence in case you are just innocently hiking along, LOL.

Actually, that is not the only interesting thing about the camp. It has a unique history as well. Here's some of what the website says:

Camp Greentop was built in 1937 as part of the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District. Although the original concept called for a camp almost identical to Camp Misty Mount, plans were modified to meet the needs of its first tenants, the Baltimore League for Crippled Children. Thus, Camp Greentop became one of the nation's first camps specifically constructed to meet the needs of the handicapped. The American Chestnut cabins, built by the Works Progess Administration, and the surrounding area look much as they did in 1937. The Baltimore League for Crippled Children, now known as the League for People with Disabilities, Inc., has returned to Camp Greentop for over 70 years, their tenure interrupted only by the military occupation of the camp during World War II.

Here is the dining area and conference room, which the kids used as a huge indoor playroom, especially on Saturday, when the weather was rainy off and on. Several kids had brought "rip sticks" and "wave boards", which are new-fangled skateboard-y things that the boys had a lot of fun learning to ride on. The dining room had a ton of huge tables, and a large commercial kitchen. In front of this complex, there is a big field and also a swimming pool and basketball court.
Here is our cabin, which had beds for 10. Since it was built for disabled people, there were no upper bunks, which is nice for little kids. When you walk into the cabin, you are in a entry room, and then there are 2 rooms with 4 beds each on either side, and a leader's room with 2 beds and a door straight ahead. We let Faith sleep in there, since we could close the door, but the walls did not go all the way up to the rafters, so it was still louder in there! She was so tired that she still napped and slept fairly well. Since the camp is for disabled kids in the summer, there are ramps up to all cabins, and paved walking paths connecting the buildings, which was nice for the stroller. It was so beautiful!
It poured down rain Friday night, but Saturday dawned foggy and cool and misty, but not with drenching rain. We all went on a 1.4 hike to Cunningham Falls. Bob carried Faith in the backpack, and the girls walked. We fell off the pace almost immediately, LOL, but they were real troopers and made it the whole way. People were so surprised when we showed up at the Falls after they had all been there for awhile! Obviously the boys were in the front group, so when we got there, they had climbed up on the rocks around the Falls and were having a great time. Craig McC was up there with them, so we didn't worry too much, LOL.

Here is a picture of Nathan, Luke, Jonathan, and Caleb . . . McC. Our Caleb had already headed back with another family. It's good to know that when we need a Caleb, there are others around to fill in!

Here are Christine and me. She is 35 weeks pregnant, so she was not enthusiastic about having her picture taken, but Bob appeased her by cutting us off at the tummy.

The only fly in the ointment this weekend was some mysterious stomach bug we seemed to have picked up last week. Thursday I noticed that Grace was having some diarrhea, which didn't make me wonder too much, other than making a note to bring the Desitin on the trip. When we got there Friday night and were eating dinner, she was not eating much, although she did drink a big cup of lemonade. I put a bite of lasagna in her mouth, but she never really swallowed it, so Bob picked her up and held out his hand for her to spit the bite into. She spit out the bite . . . and vomited all that lemonade out too, all over Bob's shirt! She didn't eat any more that night, but she didn't seem to have any more problems.

Saturday morning, Anna woke up at 7:00, coughed twice, and threw up in her bed. Ack! Fortunately, there were washing machines we could use, so her bunny, sleeping bag, and pillow got washed. She seemed to feel fine, so we even went on the hike. She ate fairly normally the rest of the day. Every so often she would complain that her stomach wasn't feeling well, but the feeling would pass. She did, however, throw up again at midnight Saturday night which necessitated a second use of the washers! I was glad we didn't have to take stinky things back home to deal with! Her bunny and pillow have never been so clean, LOL. She has been fine since then, however. Luke and Jonathan have had a bit of queasiness, but nothing else, and everyone seems to be fine now. Two other kids also threw up on Saturday. Both kids were also in our Tuesday co-op and Classical Conversations on Thursday, so we all probably picked up the bug from the same place. Oh well.

It was a lot of fun being there with all these big families. Since a lot of them are in TNT with us, I knew the moms, but Bob had never met the husbands. Also, a lot of these big families have 7-10 kids, but only the youngest ones are still in TNT. It was neat to see some of these theoretical "older kids" that I've heard about but never seen! So it was a great weekend, but I must say that being gone 2 weekends in a row was a bit ambitious, even for super-packing me. I am so glad we're staying here next weekend!