Camp Smith Part 2: Day One

After such a beautiful weekend we were thrilled to have yet another sunny day dawn! Everyone got up early, including the two cousins from Kansas, and helped to get the animals taken care of quickly. At 7:15 AM, we packed the van and headed for the Boston Science Museum. The kids stopped asking how much longer after we made them calculate rate times time equals distance problems every time they asked! School in the summer! Shocking!

At the museum we hit the Science in the Park exhibit first, before any of the school groups showed up. It was then on to the engineering exhibit where the girls designed and built trophies for balls. Rachel and Sam were a team and they managed to build a large trophy that supported a tennis ball, a baseball, and a basketball! Hannah and Claudia's trophy also supported the baseball, but was shorter than Rachel's. Abby and Samantha built a sturdy structure that supported all the balls: tennis, baseball, basketball, soccer ball, and the bowling ball!! We checked 4 hours later and while Rachel's trophy height had been surpassed for the smaller balls, Abby's trophy was still the tallest to support the bowling ball! Nathalie and Elizabeth were unable to support any balls with their structure, but they had fun trying it!

Next we met up with my brother Tom, his wife and their girls. Very soon after, my cousin Peggy (sorry, but you will always be Peggy in my mind...) and her son and daughter joined us and we went to check out the Black Hole and Crittercam exhibits. By 2PM we were back on the road for home since Sam had to work at Tractor Supply and we had to take care of the animals before going to the Teen Challenge.

Teen Challenge was a blast. Nathalie's friend Jenny is staying here all week so she can attend also. The teens play some rough and rowdy games before eating large quantities of food, playing a trivia game, and hearing an evangelist speak. The pterodactyl-skeeters were out in full force, making us a very slap-happy group!