We went to Camp For All with 34 other families of all shapes and sizes with the organization full of really amazing people called Be An Angel. After school on Friday we packed up and were there by 5:30. We registered and they gave Riley a darling stuffed horse that she now cherishes and Keagan a new blanket. Then we got settled into cabin 14 which was the part I was most nervous about. Good news was we shared the 15 person cabin with just one other family of two adult sisters and one of their sons. So we had plenty of room on our side of the cabin and we were able to push our three twin beds together to be close. After that was all set up we joined everyone in the dining hall for dinner, games, dancing and getting to know a whole bunch of new people. Then we headed out to the temporary fire pits for more dancing and yummy smore making in the cool February air. By the time we made the long walk back to our cabin we were tired and grinning ear to ear. We chatted, played and Keagan did her road trip tradition of a puppet show for Riley before bed. Then thankfully we all slept really great all night thanks to our cabin mates sound machine that blocked out my snoring and the coyotes howling outside!
Saturday morning we were up very early and ready for all the fun and adventure the day had waiting for us which was A LOT! After what Riley and I thought was a yummy breakfast and Keagan made herself more toast, we had energizers of course in true camp fashion. Then we were put in group 5 with 5 other families to rotate from station to station which all happened to be spread pretty far apart throughout the beautiful camp grounds. We started out in arts and crafts where we made bird houses, Keagan made a sun catcher, and Riley made a necklace and a handprint tree.
Our second station was the tower which meant rock climbing and zip lining. Keagan was nervous because she says she’s afraid of heights but it didn’t show one bit! She immediately wanted to get her harness and helmet on and then didn’t even hesitate in choosing the hardest route to the top of the tower. She scaled the massive vertical rock wall like she was a seasoned pro! And she relished in the help and attention from her 3 favorite staff members Natalie, Emily and Sam. Once she reached the top I was so stinkin proud of her and I have no doubt she was proud of herself. She said all the hard work was totally worth it because the zip line was SO much fun! She was pretty bummed she couldn’t go again but we cheered on a fellow group member who came out of his wheelchair to climb the wall with help from 4 staff members and that was so awesome! For Riley her big step was agreeing to put the harness and helmet on but there was no convincing her to even let her feet move slightly off the ground. But she sure was a good cheerleader squealing for her sister!
Next was a photography class that we all loved! Both girls were thrilled to each borrow a nice digital camera and be set free to capture whatever their little heats desired. We captured some good stuff and also got the chance to take family pics too. We downloaded all of their shots and each of us narrowed it down to our two most favorite to print. After another hike back to the dining hall where Keagan did 27 cartwheels on the way and Riley started asking to be held from all the walking, it was time for lunch. Riley and I enjoyed our pizza and salad and Keagan stole everyone’s chicken wings, begged for extras and devoured every last morsel!
After some fuel we were ready to get back at it and we went straight to what Keagan was looking forward to the most, archery! And we are talking legit archery y’all! They set us up with forearm gaurds, a little tutorial and let us get after it! It was really so much fun! Riley and I ran into our typical snafu where she really wants to do it on her own (don’t blame her) but needs my help to do it. Together as a team we figured it out and hit the target a couple of times. Keagan picked it up fast and hit the target quite a bit! Our friends the Cruz family were especially fun to cheer on and be cheered by at archery. Five year old Roberto was one of my favorite!
Then it was on to the nature station where we my some cute prayer dogs, petted a bearded dragon, cringed over a skin shedding python and loved on the cutest tortoise named Forest. This wasn’t my favorite spot all because of that dang snake! Uggg!
Then we had finally come to the one thing Miss Riley had been looking forward to the most- visiting the ranch and going horseback riding! She had been SO excited for weeks about riding a horsey but when we got off our hay ride that took us out to the Camp For All Ranch she burst into tears and said she didn’t want to ride a horse at all. I calmed her down while Keagan got ready for her turn and slowly the trained and seasoned camp staff got Riley excited and on a horse. Both girls absolutely LOVED riding and I was so proud of them both! Keagan rode Partner and Riley was on Fox. Each of them could barely contain their excitement and just beamed while riding! I’m thinking we may need to do that more!
Unfortunately when we were at the ranch it started to rain a little bit but I was prepared with ponchos so it didn’t stop the fun! The other cool stuff at the ranch was meeting more cool animals! Dali the Llama, a goose with an afro named Fro of course and the cutest miniature donkey named pebbles were my fave! But the goats, sheep, bunny, rooster, bull, pigs, and miniature horse were all great too! It was so cute that when we were meeting these animals Riley wanted to sit with our group leaders/volunteers Kelsey and her mom Lindsey who we really loved!
Another ride back into camp and it was to our last station of the day which was fishing and canoeing. The current spot for all of this is under construction so it was quite the tired hike to the other side of the lake! Riley tried drop fishing and then got brave and asked one of our favorite staff members Emily (such a great name) to take her in the canoe! Riley day comfy in a bean bag chair inside the canoe and was the cutest camper ever! Keagan did lots of cast fishing with the hilarious bait she didn’t mind doing herself of lil smokies but unfortunately she didn’t catch anything.
A hike back to the dining hall, a delicious dinner for Riley and I, more toast for Keagan and we had all had such a ridiculous amount of fun that we were exhausted! Oh and it probably had something to do with all that hiking too! By the end of the day Keagans FitBit showed over 16,000 steps! I felt like we were back at Disneyworld! Anyway, we were supppsed to stay for a karaoke and an ice cream party but we just couldn’t make it! We were back in our cabin by 7pm and in bed chatting and giggling by 7:30. Riley was out cold by 7:31 and Keagan and I watched the beginning of our cabin mates projected on the ceiling showing of the movie “The Good Dinosaur.” But neither one of us made it very long and we were both out by 8pm!
A good nights sleep did us some good but we were still moving slower Sunday morning. We were in the dining hall by 7:45 am though, had a great breakfast and chatted with lots of friends we had made over the weekend like the Cruz family, the amazing Be An Angel staff, the cute college girls Camp For All staff, my Facebook friend for years Rumisha, who I finally met in person, Owen, Gideon, their families and SO many more! After morning energizer fun we got to do a little souvenir shopping at the camp store and then we headed to pack up our cabin. We then checked off our last item of the girls camp to do’s by exploring at the accessible tree house. Afterwards, we all decided to skip the talent show and lunch with everyone and just head home a little early as it was just time. After a quick stop for lunch we had to make it an official Kikuchi Girl road trip by doing our traditional Buccees stop on the way home.
Now our weekend wasn’t perfect. Keagan obviously wasn’t a huge fan of the food, hence the toast, we had a few awkward interactions, and some tense moments with our cabin mate when he was having a hard time Saturday night. Plus you know, sharing a cabin and a bathroom with strangers. Remember totally outside my comfort zone? But it was all 100 percent worth it and the effort and work it took to get there because it was AMAZING! All three of us had never experienced anything like it, we all did a bunch of new things, had a ridiculous amount of fun and made some serious quality memories! Best part is we did it all TOGETHER! Every last bit of it!
Now our weekend wasn’t perfect. Keagan obviously wasn’t a huge fan of the food, hence the toast, we had a few awkward interactions, and some tense moments with our cabin mate when he was having a hard time Saturday night. Plus you know, sharing a cabin and a bathroom with strangers. Remember totally outside my comfort zone? But it was all 100 percent worth it and the effort and work it took to get there because it was AMAZING! All three of us had never experienced anything like it, we all did a bunch of new things, had a ridiculous amount of fun and made some serious quality memories! Best part is we did it all TOGETHER! Every last bit of it!
Someone in our group Saturday mentioned a quote that this camp reminded them of and it fit our experience this past weekend perfectly. “ It’s not about what you do FOR your children. It’s about what you do WITH your children.” So I am definitely thankful I was able to do Camp For All WITH my two favorite people in the whole entire world! We now have such great memories to last a lifetime. I was outside my comfort zone but I loved almost every step of it! And there were a lot of those steps! So now I’m not just tired from such a fun weekend but also from writing it all out on here! But now I get to look back anytime I want and be SO grateful we went to camp! And definitely that we went to camp together!
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