Camp Blackberry.

At the end of this story, you're gonna think that my wife and I are completely nuts or that we're pretty good grandparents.

The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry started last Saturday and ends today.   The name is a combination of our family name and the fact that we grow blackberries.   I'm writing this mid-week to make the newspaper's deadline so maybe by the time this is printed I will have jumped off a bridge somewhere but right now, I'm OK.

The idea is not an original one--we first learned of Bob and Sue Ramger's week-long camp for their grandkids years ago and have simply waited for the first opportunity to do the same thing. Pam Jarvis helped us turn it up a notch or two.

We've spent the week doing fun, educational things like visit the zoo, swim, go fishing, swim, paint, swim, do the Jr. Ranger program at Cades Cove, swim,  and make lots of crafty things that my Martha Stewart-esque wife came up with.

There have been non-competitive competitions and story time and swimming...did I mention swimming?  It seems you can stick a kid in a pool and they will stay until they become prunes or suffer hypothermia, whichever comes first.

And despite pool-side potties, I'm pretty sure our pool would test quite positive for urine.

We went camping (which was only a semi-catastrophe-- the two youngest ones refused to sleep) and cooked breakfast the next morning over an open fire. 

We got one of those "pusher" bikes that don't have pedals or brakes but which teach a kid to truly ride a two-wheeled vehicle.  The week's objective included getting the training wheels off of at least one bicycle.

We've painted every day, partly because the arts are important to becoming well rounded and creative and, well, it is just plain fun especially when it doesn't matter what kind of mess you make.

We picked apples from our "orchard" and talked about Johnny Appleseed.   We talked about where food came from and what it means to be good stewards of the land and why farmers are so important.

Along the way, we hope that they learned new worlds, experienced new foods, and maybe stepped out of their comfort zones, although I'm pretty sure that the 2 year-old and the 3 year-old considered getting outside their comfort zone the mental equivalent of jumping off a cliff.

Four grandkids, the oldest of which turned 6 this week and the youngest only two.   24/7 for 8 days.  By the end of the first full day, I was questioning my sanity.  By the end of the third, I knew the answer.  It was maybe the hardest thing I've ever done and easily the most intense single week of my life.

Meals, diapers, conflicts, baths, snacks, excursions, sleeping, waking, clothes changes, clothes washing, dish washing, food prep, snack prep, messes cleaned, conflicts dealt with.  Up at 6, bed at 11 and ne'er a quiet moment between.  There's a reason that only the young should have children.

But already, at mid-week, I can feel the bonds growing.  I know them better now than ever in their lives.  I understand them better too.  Today, I'm celebrating the end but also looking forward to doing it again next year.

So what's that got to do with sports ?   It is highly likely that these kids will be athletes.   An active lifestyle is part of their genetic makeup and that usually leads to one or more sports. 

And they will arrive in the sports arena believing in themselves with the self-confidence to push their limits and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will have family support in everything that they do.

POSTSCRIPT:   The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry officially ended about 6 PM yesterday when I played Taps on my bugle and we folded the camp banner.   But it really ended about 11 PM when the parents got home.  We had decided that they should wake up in their own home by their parents so we took them home and put them to bed in their own beds.

Let me say that it was everything that it should have been and probably nothing that you would have expected.   You would think that we would have been looking for fun times and entertainment.   Maybe that happened but I was too distracted by the moment to moment experience to notice.   What we got was something much more important.   We now understand our grandchildren much, much better.   Our love, already unconditional, became deeper and broader.  

If you're a FaceBook friend of mine, you can check out the photos for a glimpse of the week.