Off to Camp

With summer in full swing, Julia not only began session two of swim lessons today, but she also had her first day of what will be two weeks of camp.  The camp is being held at the elementary school very near our house (surprisingly, however, our side of the street actually falls into a different school district, so this will not be Julia's elementary school in September.)  Because it is so close by, especially since there is a woodland path that offers a shortcut to the school grounds, we decided to walk there today.  Julia set off, quite literally a happy camper, backpack over her shoulders, ready to start her camp day.  Can you guess who also insisted on wearing a backpack for the walk to camp?:

While the walk is a short one, there is one major caveat: the walk TO the school includes a massive downhill, meaning that in order to get back home, we must walk UP the giant hill.  As we trotted along towards school this afternoon, Julia took a moment to appreciate the enormity of the task awaiting her at the end of  camp.  "Mama," she informed me soberly, "I am NOT TOO FOND of having to walk up this hill on the way home!"  I concurred that the hill is something of a beast, but luckily, Julia's overactive imagination came to our rescue.  "Mama, did you know that sometimes when I'm walking up a big hill and I'm FIGHTING GRAVITY, I just MARCH AND MARCH because I'm pretending I'm a hiker climbing up a MOUNTAIN?" 

It's a good tactic.  I encouraged her to keep that in mind later in the day when she's marching up the hill, fighting gravity, on our way home.

After descending the big hill, we cut into the woodland path, where Madeleine (who has been known to sprint away from me towards the road without a second thought) was suddenly completely spooked out and needed to clutch my hand for dear life as we walked.  "Madeleine, honey, what are you scared of?"  I asked her, wondering if perhaps our recent viewing of "Brave" was giving her the heebie-jeebies about running into a bear.  "Um... THOSE ones," she told me, gesturing vaguely towards the woods.  "Those what?" I asked, looking around.  "Um... THOSE ones.  Those tall trees," she confirmed.  I mean, I can understand where she's coming from.  The view is pretty threatening:

(That is, if your idea of spooky woods is a lush, verdant, idyllic image like that above...)

At any rate, we got to the school unscathed, and although Madeleine sported her own backpack, she was completely cooperative with the concept that we were dropping Julia off and not actually staying ourselves.  That is, until we were en route home, at which point she began lamenting about how much she wanted Julia.  As we headed up the big hill, she paused to take a break not out of fatigue, but so that she could hang her head down and lament, "Mommy, I want Julia.  I'm just feeling berry SADDER." 

Sad though she was, Madeleine was a total trooper, walking the whole way home like a champ:

She was just BERRY SWEATING when we arrived home, but luckily she was able to sit and cool off by the air conditioner.  We shall see how Julia handles the walk later on this afternoon; she may need to take a break if she's berry sweating, but hopefully will NOT need a head-hanging-down break over feeling berry sadder.