[su_heading]Camp Mom[/su_heading]

These past few days in Colorado have been magnificent. On crisp bluebird days like these I always feel like I should be sailing. Even Tucker comments on how the air and the music make him feel like sailing.

When I was little my parents would take my sister’s and I on summer adventures which included a few sailing trips.

My father loved to sail but a sailor he was not. For a while he had a little sailboat that he harbored in Nantucket. Whenever he would try to round up his girls to go out with him we would all cower behind each other. On the one hand, we knew that if we went with him we would be experiencing my father at his best, full of vigor and tremendously positive energy. On the other hand, we were fully aware of the mishaps that were likely to occur.

Regardless, I still crave being out on the ocean on days like these. This is not to say that I don’t fully enjoy being in Colorado biking and hiking and staying outside until the air turns chilly at 9:00pm.

This past week I treated myself to a week off and put the boys into Camp Oginali, the most economical camp in the valley. I dropped the boys off and was about to sprint to my road bike for another journey of freedom in the great outdoors when I looked back and saw Brevitt and Axel shoveling dirt into each other’s faces. I battled with the desire to flee but felt the parental pull. By the time I reached them they were at it full force in the oversized sandbox pummeling each other into oblivion.

As I approached, the parenting classes reeled quickly in my head. I contemplated what my best approach should be with a surrounding audience of teachers and children. “STOP THIS”, I shouted. Whoops, so much for preparation.

I left Brevitt with a warning, “If I don’t get a good report when I pick you up than no Spaceballs for you my friend”. He had been waiting for the movie to arrive by Netflix for days and considered this a serious consequence. I walked away with Axel sobbing and begging for me to take him away from his highly energetic brother.

The guilt wore off approximately two seconds before I got on my bike. My iPod, the sparkling river replete with abounding fly fishermen and the mountain goats were awaiting. What a sense of freedom I felt as I rode away.

I picked them up in the afternoon a mass of happy, dirty little boys and I was ready to dawn my cape and become super mom again.

In the evening I ran into my friend, Gretchen, who was as exhausted as I was. To get her alone time she had been waking up at the crack of dawn to go running. Gretchen told me that sometimes being Julie McCoy was not all that it was cracked up to be. We discussed how all the moms we knew had there own insular camps going on and that it was time to unite and combine efforts.

Summer is by far my favorite time of the year and I truly wish that we had more than three months of it here in Colorado. There is so much to do with the children and even though it takes us all about a month to adapt to the new position of camp counselor and get organized with itineraries, picnic lunches, coolers, friends and sports equipment, once we have it all figured out it can be a wonderful time to reconnect with the children and establish new rules.

Are you lonely or overwhelmed with your children this summer? I would love to hear your thoughts.