Michelle and Jen spent several days at Callaway bonding in the Arts & Crafts center. Creating a chevron zig zag on a seahorse door hanger takes a lot of math!
Jen went for the zig zag and polka dot theme on her flip flop door hanger.
The sisters and their finished door hangers.
The kids all did arts and crafts of different sorts as well, but I have no pictures to show you of that. They even made tie-dyed t-shirts (a highlight), though Molly almost didn’t. She was supposed to make hers Thursday afternoon outdoors, but it started raining and they had to cancel. Molly was quite upset that she wouldn’t get to make a shirt, which the counselors were shocked at since she’s always smiling. So, the counselors put their heads together and decided they could steal some time from circus skills and capture the flag to squeeze in tie-dying. Molly was thrilled.
We also played tennis at Callaway. Leah, Molly, and I were excited to get to play while we were there, though squeezing it in amongst all the activities was tough. The kids didn’t play tennis as part of their camp activities, but it was offered as an after camp activity. After a very active day of camp Monday, Molly said she was too tired to play tennis. Leah, however, wasn’t going to let a little fatigue get in the way of hitting the court. Amazingly, she was the only kid to show up, so she got a private lesson.
We missed tennis Tuesday due to a scavenger hunt (details to come), but headed back on Wednesday.
Yet again, Leah was all alone for her tennis lesson.
Molly wasn’t too tired to play tennis this time. She had a different time for her age group, and was the only one to show up as well. Private lessons all around.
I played tennis too, though I didn’t take pictures of myself playing. I had hoped to play every day, but ended up missing 2 days due to other activities. Since none of the other adults in my family played, I befriended a bunch of other tennis playing folks. Throughout the week, I’d hear “Hi, Chad” most places we went, as I ran into tennis playing friends.
Not only did we watch the circus, we got to try performing ourselves. Monday afternoon (after kayaking, tennis, arts & crafts, and lunch), Jen and I headed to the circus tent to learn some circus skills. First, we tried out the cloud swing.
Jen went first. Moments before this, she was sitting on the rope. Then she threw herself backward, catching herself with her feet while hanging upside down.
Next she tried a much harder trick - the heel hang. Hanging from your heels is tough, especially when you shoe starts to come off.
I did the Cloud Swing as well. I was worried my knee would cause me problems, but it was fine. My fear of heights was a bit more of a problem, but I got through it.
Here’s my heel hang, though I couldn’t hold it any longer than Jen.
Next, we headed over to the trapeze. I was still a little shaky from the height of the cloud swing, so I decided to skip the trapeze. Jen, however, was ready to try it. Here she is doing a flyaway.
On Thursday, we headed back over for some more circus skills, and Michelle and Jeremy joined us. This time, we were outside the tent for the flying trapeze. Since we aren’t actually trained in this, we don’t get to fly or grab onto other people as we swung, but we do get to swing and hold out our arms as if someone was going to grab us. Here’s Jen showing us how it’s done.
Michelle and Jeremy followed suit. I was going to sit this one out due to the height, but eventually decided to give it a try. I succeeded at climbing up and swinging, but failed miserably at the actual acrobatics. By the end I was happy to be back on solid ground.
The adults weren’t the only ones to try their hands at circus acrobatics. The kids all got to do them with their groups. Molly got to do circus stuff Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Sadly, I was never around to photograph her, but she did the same sort of stuff (and much more) that we adults did.
Leah and her cousins did circus skills that weren’t quite as extreme. Here’s Leah on the ladder swing moving way too fast for my camera to freeze her.
Leah got to do the cloud swing as well, though from a much lower altitude than the adults and big kids.
A unique aspect of Callaway is its circus. Yes that’s right; it’s a resort with its own circus. The FSU Flying High Circus is one of only two collegiate circuses in the U.S.A. And every summer, they bring the circus to Callaway Gardens.
But they’re not just circus performers. They also serve as the camp counselors for the kids age 7-17. So, Molly could spend the day with her counselors doing lots of fun activities, then go see those same counselors doing acrobatics in the circus after camp. It’s really cool!
We first saw the circus on Sunday afternoon after riding bikes. We missed the Monday circus, but caught it again Thursday and Friday. Here are a taste of some of the acts. Note that this is an acrobatic circus only - you won’t see any elephants, lions, or clowns.
Here’s one of the performers climbing a ladder balanced on the slack rope.
Here’s the double trapeze - two people, one trapeze, talent, strength, practice, and lots of trust. The guy here, Connor, was one of Molly’s counselors.
These two girls were especially impressive on the lyra.
Here are the women hand balancers. Molly’s counselor, China, is on the bottom.
China was also a part of the acrobatic jump rope. Here she is doing an aerial over the rope.
Hana, another of Molly’s counselors, was a fantastic acrobat up high in the air. Here she is on the Spanish web. She also did the very impressive single trapeze.
After Friday’s final performance, Molly got some pictures with her counselors (Leah and Emmie joined in on some). Here she is with Hana and China.
And with Connor (and his double trapeze partner who was not Molly’s counselor).
Last but not least, here’s Molly’s counselor Thomas. Sadly we did not get to see him on any acts thanks to his broken foot. He normally does the flying trapeze and the tight wire. At least he was healed enough that the doctors let him take off his boot to swim with the kids.
The counselors/acrobats were awesome, but they weren’t the only ones showing off their circus skills. More on that next time.
Bright and early Monday morning we brought the kids over for camp. Molly headed into the circus tent to join the 7-8 year olds, while the other three headed to the children’s center where the 3-6 year olds gathered. They’ve all got backpacks full of swimwear, sunscreen, and lunch to get them through the day.
After dropping the kids off at camp, all the adults headed over to the big lake to do some kayaking. Here are Jen and I out on the water.
We finished kayaking just in time for me to run over to the tennis courts (well, I rode my bike) and for Jen and Michelle to head to arts and crafts. More on those items in a future post.
After visiting the butterfly center, we headed out for a big family bike ride. It’s pretty hilly, but the kids did surprisingly well with the hills.
We then headed over to the circus tent to see the circus (more on that in a future post). After the circus, we were all feeling the heat. When you’re hot, it’s nice to cool off with a Hawaiian Ice treat (or a giant bag of popcorn if you’re Jen).
That evening, Callaway hosted a dinner for us, but there was more than just food. There was a hula hoop contest, which Molly excelled at. Lots of people joined in the fun, but she managed to make it into the top 10.
Then it was back to the villa to get some sleep. We all had to be well rested to start camp first thing the next morning.
Posted in Trip on August 3rd, 2015 by c-had – 2 Comments
Camp didn’t start till Monday, so we used Sunday to have some fun on our own around Callaway. First stop for these cousins was the Day Butterfly Center.
Uncle J and JJ watch as the butterflies dance around.
Emmie managed to coax this butterfly onto her finger. This is also a rare picture of me in the reflection.
Leah very much wanted a butterfly to land on her. She had worn a brightly colored skirt to attract them, but was having trouble getting one. I told her to try sitting on this bench and remain very still. She sat there for 15 minutes unmoving. The rest of our group was so hot they left for some air conditioning, but Leah would not budge. Eventually, she was lucky to have this one land on her hand and stay for a while. When it left, she was determined to get another one. However, after a few more minutes of dripping sweat, I told her it was time to go.
Outside the butterfly center was a perfect place for a family picture of everyone.
The little kids actually got to go back to the butterfly center with their group during camp later in the week. Leah of course wore bright colors again, and said she had a fun time. We love butterflies!
Posted in Trip on August 2nd, 2015 by c-had – 1 Comment
After Savannah and Hilton Head, it was time to head to family camp at Callaway Gardens (more on that in a future post). When we looked at the drive from Savannah to Callaway Gardens, we discovered that we could drive by Lane Southern Orchards. This is a peach farm Jen and I used to go to all the time when we were still living down south. So, we had to stop there for lunch. Note that the cup is full of delicious peach tea.
Leah’s enjoying her chip, oblivious to how scary her mom is next to her.
Of course, we had to get peach ice cream. It was delicious. All 3 females got it and loved it. I decided to go a different route and got butter pecan (did I mention that they farm pecans as well?). Yum.
After lunch, Jen shopped a bit in the farm’s shop while the girls and I toured the packing plant. We learned about how they harvest, wash, sort, and pack the peaches (they say that they are the only peach farm that hand packs every peach they ship out). Here the girls are looking down on the peach washing machine.
After a bit too long of a stop for lunch, we continued on our way to our destination of fun. Fortunately, it wasn’t too much further to Callaway Gardens.
While in Savannah, we took one afternoon to drive over to Hilton Head to see some of Jen’s cousins (including our flower girl all grown up). They’d moved there a couple of years ago, and this was the first time we managed to pay them a visit. We met them for lunch at a local seafood restaurant, then headed back to their house after the meal.
It was a hot day, so we were all glad to cool off in the pool.
Here we are with our lovely hosts. Maddie was ourflowergirl back when she was even younger than Molly is here. Ben was not in our wedding, though, as he was not born yet.
Last year, after driving 12 hours to Savannah and back for a one day stay, I came up with the idea of combining multiple southern visits into a single trip. That way we’d only have to make the long drive once for several trips. Amazingly, this plan was actually enacted. So, we made the drive down to Savannah to begin the fun.
We brought a bunch of pictures for Grandaddy, and Leah was happy to tell him about them.
“This is me graduating from preschool”
While in Savannah, we took advantage of the flat terrain to go for our first ever family bike ride. Most kids take their first long bike ride down a picturesque bluff on the river, right?
Half way through, we took a break for a drink and a picture. Note the dock far in the background between the girls - that’s Grandaddy’s dock.
The bluff is usually pretty empty, but today it was packed. Adam Sandler and David Spade were filming a movie there, so there was crew all over the place. Thankfully they didn’t mind us riding through their set as long as they weren’t filming at that moment.
We spent most of our visit relaxing and visiting. As always, rocking on the dock was delightful.
