#campparent

For the next two weeks I am one of you, camp parents!

My kids have been going to Camp Ernst for nine summers. This is my 13th summer as a camp director. My husband and I both worked as camp counselors in our teens. We love camp! Our LIFE is literally: CAMP. And now, for the next two weeks, our boys (twins, age 14) are away at camp. Not just any camp, but YMCA Camp Surf, part of the YMCA of San Diego.

WHOA!      

I could not believe the excitement and also apprehension I felt as my husband put them on the plane for California on Friday. They spent the weekend with my brother's family in California and then he dropped them off to camp today. We are on pins and needles waiting to hear about it, and I can't believe we have to wait two weeks to get the full report from them!

Now, I am the mom hitting "refresh" on the "camp photos" page over and over again. I am the mom who already sent emails to the boys via the camp message tool, even though they only just checked in a few hours ago. I was the mom telling them to "Be polite, make friends, have fun, be yourself." Just a minute ago, I was the mom who wondered if I should have reminded them one more time to wear sunscreen and drink a lot of water. OH NO!!! I DON'T THINK THEY PACKED WATER BOTTLES! SHOULD I CALL THE CAMP DIRECTOR??! (That is a true, panicked thought I just had)

To be honest, this is a little scary. I feel so disconnected.

But when I take a step back, what I feel most is PROUD. I am so proud that my boys are confident enough to fly alone across the country and go to a new camp where they know no one. (AND SURF!) I am so proud of them because I know they will make friends and be kind. They will probably get sunburned and dehydrated a bit too, but I think they will learn from those mistakes and be better people in the end.

…so I am thinking about all those camp parents out there who are wondering how their kids are doing at Camp Ernst. We have more than 450 kids at Camp Ernst right now so there are a lot of you, but I am going to try extra hard this week to tweet a lot for you. We will be posting hundreds of pictures each night…for you. But mostly, we are going to be focusing on your kids and helping them grow in spirit, mind, body, and friendship this week. So please sit back and let us do our job here at camp.

…and I’ll try to do the same for the folks at YMCA Camp Surf!

Ernstlove,

eli