Final Day of Camp

First on our agenda was cooking with Papa - waffles for breakfast. 

We did our final Bible stories just before Caroline's family arrived for lunch.  We had fun shooting lots of Nerf arrows and the Super Soaker! 

Power shot!

Shooting at wind chimes makes them ring - who knew? 

 The kids tried out Caroline's raspberry trick on the fabric markers when they colored their little books to take home. 

 Here is future camper Anna for GGC 2016

Blowing bubbles for Anna 

Guess who did her own hair today? 

A final picture of GGC 2014 - what fun we all had!!

 

One last set of trees to climb on the way to Columbus to meet daddy to take Micah home:  

Nana and Papa had a wonderful time and are already excited and planning for GGC 2015 with Micah, Caroline, Abby, and Hannah! 

Children's Museum and other assorted fun

These two play together very well, reminiscent of our own kids' play times - with many of the very same toys! 

Early morning play while Nana made french toast (not as good as Micah's mommy's)

We traced our shadows early this morning - were they ever tall!  Later today at the splash park, we looked down and had very short stubby shadows in the late afternoon.  This all goes along with a story we will read tomorrow, The King Without a Shadow.  It all helps us to learn that God has no shadow and never changes as we, and our own shadows, do.  

Caroline's shadow in pink, Papa's in yellow

We headed to our favorite Indy place, the Children's Museum!  First stop, the slide.  Later when the kids raced, they decided they tied.  

The carousel music called, so off we went to the top, Papa and Nana trying to keep up with the speeding kids running up 4 sets of ramps. [At the end of our last ride of the day, the kids ran down and beat Nana and Papa on the elevator!]

Our first early morning carousel ride fit right in with our "Forever Rely on God" theme, as the animal featured was a frog!

 

Oh, do these kids love the interactive mechanical exhibits.  Micah is constantly turning wheels, levers, whatever will make the little balls continue to move.  Caroline carefully feeds balls to the simple machines, trying to figure out what they will do next.  It takes an awful lot of concentration.  

 We stopped at a little free "library" on Zionsville's Main Street - "leave a book, take a book".  Naturally Micah choose alligators and Caroline a story with a brightly colored cover.  

We finally had warm enough weather with no thunder to head for the Splash Park.  Nice that it includes a park as well.  

We took a trip to the airport to send up some sky lanterns.  We also got to see Papa's plane.  Our first lantern was wildly successful, going well past the interstate and (according to at least 2 pilots), about 1000 feet up.  We could see the red lantern until it was just a tiny speck in the air.  Second one not so great - too much wind, beginning to sprinkle, and it couldn't even get enough lift to clear the first big tree.  So, pink tissue in the tree. This is the only picture I got. 

We picked beans to go with our dinner.  Caroline taught us an unusual new way to eat raspberries. 

We had more fun eating popcorn than we did with movie watching, so we skipped to the end to watch the "good part".  We were all pretty tired so looking forward to good sleep tonight and wearing our t-shirts for our last day of camp tomorrow. 

Tuesday afternoon

The zoo train lets you see many of the wild animals - and a few who are not only tame, but extremely cute:

 We all enjoyed the tram ride high above the zoo. 

Good thing it was working well when we rode on it!

 
 We did see lots of interesting animals - warthogs, dozens of penguins swimming under the floor to get from one side of the "oceans" to the other, tortoises, iguanas, polar bears, seals....each one created very special by God.  

The kids rode the zoo carousel and were very much in need of a bath after all the dippin dots and Chick-Fil-A dinner.  
 

Caroline's coloring of God's very good world.  The animal at right is a bear and far left is a shark tank, just in case you needed an explanation.  The adults, of course, are Eve and Adam. 

 

Indianapolis Zoo day - a.m. portion

Rain was forecast, and it began chilly (especially at 7:15 a.m. when 2 little people came bounding downstairs), but turned out to be a lovely day for the zoo.  The butterfly pavilion was our first stop and was a big hit.  So was the new tram ride high above the zoo.  The excitement about the tram continued, as we later saw one of the cars stopped at the bottom at a 45 degree angle while they tried to get the people out.  We got our ride in just in time! [Pictures on that in part II.]

 

 

White River Gardens at Indianapolis Zoo

a Giant Owl butterfly

Guys up, girls down inside butterfly pavilion

Papa transfers butterfly to Micah

I got it!!

Caroline takes a turn

Papa figured out that if we got out of the dolphin show in time, we could just make it over to a special on cheetahs.  Since that is Micah's favorite animal, we made it happen.  And the dolphins were marvelous - we had great seats just above the splash zone, got to see them do all their tricks and enjoyed it immensely.  Following that, we got to see cheetahs up close and personal!  

On the way, we stopped to say hello to the walruses.  Caroline was interested in the skull and jaws as we left, but Micah was raring to go - "Follow me!  I've got the map!"

 

One of the 2 girl cheetahs; got their beefy treats and left us quickly.  

But we were so close! 

 

All is quiet upstairs; the flashlights were to be extinguished at 8:10.  Here are some shots of our afternoon/evening.  

Craft table - they were so surprised to find "M" and "C" notepads!  

The theme is F.R.O.G. - Forever Rely on God; so we have lots of frogs everywhere.  

 Guess what Nana and Micah did together?  Anyone recognize these? [Linda Meeks!]

 Caroline picked a fresh zucchini from the garden to go with our pizza and fruit for dinner.  Micah said he didn't care for it but scarfed down his share before he ate his pizza!  After dinner, we couldn't possibly have Sundaes because it was the wrong day, so Papa made Mondaes with them: 

Caroline's choice: vanilla, raspberry topping, 2 cherries, whipped cream

Micah, a man after his mom's heart: chocolate, dark chocolate syrup, whipped cream

A Great Start

Fed and packed up, ready to begin our adventure!

Thanks to Aunt Deb for transporting Micah and Caroline - she sneaked them in between her busy traveling schedule.  Thanks to Uncle Jack for bringing Caroline to Aunt Deb.  And to a future camper Hannah, for keeping her mom company! 

First rest stop - having a blast!

Great climbing tree at the rest stop - up in the tree, Micah spotted a large birds nest. 

 

With a little boost, Caroline was able to join the climbing fun too.

New wipe-off dry erase slates kept us busy in the car.  Micah wrote, "We are having fun.  I hope you are having fun too." 

Back at the campsite (aka the Gurley home), the campers found their t-shirts and tested to see if their beds were truly "jumping beds".  We picked a zucchini from the garden to eat with our pizza, and shot lots of Nerf arrows in the yard.  Papa was almost able to shoot an arrow from the porch into the garden. 

GGC - Gurley Grandparent Camp

Nana and Grandpapa are excited to welcome our very first campers next week to the first ever GGC - Gurley Grandparent Camp!  All grandchildren ages 4 and older may come, so this year we will have Micah and Caroline.  Here is the back of the premier GGC t-shirt:

Candid shot taken at Christmas by Leslie Hall

Here are the fronts of their shirts:

 

 

 

 

Caroline gets a butterfly & Micah his favorite - a cheetah!

Monday morning Nana will meet Deb halfway to get the eldest Gurley grandchildren and bring them back to Indiana for a host of fun activities.