H is for Hobe

The girls went to Camp Hobe this year for Savannah's third time, and Irelynd's first. Camp Hobe is an overnight camp for kids (and their siblings age 6+) who have, or have had, cancer. It takes place in Tooele canyon for 5 days, 4 nights. It is an amazing thing these people do. Most of it is run on donations and sponsorships. Most of the crew are volunteers, from hospitals and former patients. They do a lot of fun stuff. This year they had a holidays theme, with an Easter egg hunt, costumed trick-or-treating, New Year's Eve bash, Christmas morning presents, and other fun activities.

This will be Savannah's last year going, as she is 3 years past treatment, which is the cut-off, in order to accomodate all the kids who want to go. She opted out last year, as she got too home-sick the year before, but with Irelynd going this year, she decided to attend her last year with her sister.

We took them up on Monday morning, where we signed them in and released them to the care of one of the camp volunteers. I had mixed emotions leaving them there. I knew Savannah would be fine, but Irelynd looked too little to me to just leave for 5 days. I was proud of her the way she went with such confidence and didn't have any reservations about staying...ok, a part of me was a little sad that she left my side so willingly. Does that make one a good mother, or a bad one, if one's young child can so willingly part from the mother that birthed, suckled, and loved that child for so long? Beat's me, but she insisted she didn't miss us at all when I saw her again on Friday. That must mean that I'm a fantastic mother that can instill such confidence and security in her child in only 6 short years! Wow, I'm amazing!! Or something like that...

Making name tags at the check-in table.
One last picture for the road to remember them by...

Walking away with the counsellor. One last look back, and then they're gone.

Friday is skit day for the parents picking their kids up. Wow, that's a L O N G 30 minutes.

Ok, they look all in one piece. Whew! We all made it!

Irelynd showing off her camp book.

In Savannah's own words, "we went swimming and we did archery and we did really fun arts and crafts. Oh, and every year the boys change the arts and crafts cabin to 'farts and craps.' We had a Halloween party and we went trick-or-treating. And they turned the medical shack into a haunted house and we went through and saw all the scary stuff. My favorite part of camp was archery and swimming."

In Irelynd's words, "It was really fun. We slept in cabin 12. My buddy was Isabelle. My favorite part of camp was going swimming. We had a big New Year Eve party and it was really fun. We found presents outside our cabin for Christmas. I got a mom and a baby bunny. For the fourth of july we got our faces painted for dinner and they had a carnival. The food was good. Oh, except for the pizza."