August 14, 2012

Hi Sandi:

                My name is Linda and I work with your son Brent at the Hillman Group, and he has been talking about your Camp Grandma for so long that I finally had an opportunity to have my grandchildren over for a Camp Grandma’s.  When I first heard about your Camp, I knew that was for me but my grandchildren were still too young.    This year the 3 oldest (the rule was you had to be 5 yrs or older) spent the camp with me.   Being my first year, I decided just to do 4 days and 3 nights.

                I have attached some copies of pictures, they are not too clear, but give you the idea. 

The grandchildren are:   The Tallest is Cohen, 6 yrs old.  The other two are brothers.  Donovan, 6yrs and Maksim, the shortest is, 5 yrs.  

Some of the pictures:

My husband (grandpa) found some Camp Grandma tee shirts and got us all one.   People knew we were all together and always commented on them.

We had the camp rules simple and to the point and only had to refer to them a few times.    

We did the Duck tour on the car/boat, we visited the Aquarium.  

We had foot long hotdogs for lunch, I think that was the first time they had those, and they all ate the whole hotdog, and we stopped at a candy store where they were only allowed to pick 10 pieces of candy for their bags.

We played putt-putt golf, and had ice cream, and then we did a night walk in the park and had our glow in the dark bracelets and light hats.

We also played games, went swimming and made pizzas and jello and had a snack of different surprises every evening.

We decorated sun visors, fly swatters, painted bird house-wind chimes,

At bedtime, they all fell fast asleep except for the first night, they were so excited.

On Sunday lunchtime, the last day, the grandkids all fixed lunch for their parents, and showed off their journals.  (I had copied pictures for them to color of the different things I knew we would be doing and they colored them and pasted them in a book.  On Sunday morning early, I developed some of the pictures for them to add to their book.  I also created a journal out of all the pictures I took. 

After they all left on Sunday, both my husband and I thought we could have done this for longer, so next year it will be a full week.  What an experience!

                I want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to have Camp Grandma with my grandchildren. Your stories are now my memories of my own grandchildren and the fun time we had.   The tradition, the love, the most gratifying times, the cousin connection, words could not explain until you experience this.  Even the parents couldn’t wait until Sunday lunch to see the things we did.  The stories still are talked about, and the other grandparents are almost jealous of the good times we had.  

Brent is great to work with, a hard worker and fun to be around.  Now we can talk about ‘camp’ all year.     I am blessed to have him drop into my life and talk about your camp grandma so I could experience this in my life.   He tells how your older grandchildren still make a point to stop in to your camp every year.

Thank you for giving me the knowledge of how much fun Camp Grandma is.   What a great thing to pass on from generation to generation.

Enjoy the Day!