One Last Check-In

Oh my goodness, I need to find a way to stop time!  It's moving way too quickly for me, and I feel at times as if I'm losing my footing.

Today, the last Kennedy kid checked into Interlochen.  Yep, this was it.  Little Baby Glo is beginning her ninth (and final) year as an Interlochen camper.

I have had so many thoughts today about those past nine years with the Babe.  Here are just a few:

• The first year Glo came to Interlochen, she didn't want to do anything with violin.  Instead, she filled her day with art classes.  Ceramics and painting are the ones I actually remember.  They were held in the old Junior Arts building (that has since been torn down).
• She loved Environmental Science with Coggin.  She would come home daily with new tidbits of information about the Michigan backwoods, along with mosquito bites covering half of her body.  One year I got really good about spraying her down before she went to class, and she came home with three huge mosquito bites in her HAIR!  #stupidbugs  
• She loved to feed the chipmunks off the back porch of the museum before Environmental Science class began.  She would get there several minutes early so that she could don "the glove".
• I will always associate Glo's time here with her trusty companion, Spirit Rider, her one-speed, red bike with brake pedals.  It doesn't matter how tall she's gotten, she hasn't outgrown that bike.  As soon as we hit Interlochen soil and take it off the bike rack, she hops on and begins riding all around the campus.  I can still see little Glo in one of her Hanna Andersen dresses (before she would don her uniform) in pigtails, smiling as she rode her bike.
• Glo's last year as a junior, she had the unique opportunity of sitting Concertmaster all three sessions.  She was such a great leader of the kids, and she learned that sitting closer to the front means you will have more friends :-). I will never forget her walking out on the stage to tune the orchestra.  Again in pigtails, and only ten years old, she would stride out onto the stage, walking briskly so as to reach the podium with the applause still going.  It was an incredibly proud moment for me.
• I'll never forget the summer that I broke my ankle (2010).  We had already finished our two weeks at Interlochen, but we were scheduled to come back for the final week to see Hannie in her final concerts.  I broke my ankle just days after arriving home, and two days before I was supposed to take Hannie for her three week Intermediate experience.  We ended up finding a random family from State College (whose daughter turned out to be a junior hornist with Mark) who was dropping their daughter off too, and Hannah rode with them.  I was determined to get back to Interlochen, so Glo and I took off on a grand adventure that involved my right leg propped up on the dashboard (and driving with my left leg), and needing to stop every hour so that I wouldn't get a blood clot.  Also, I couldn't drive on narcotics, so it was a painful day to say the least.  Glo sat in the back of the Element, and every time we needed to stop, she would get my scooter out of the back seat and bring it around to the driver's side door.  She was a champ.
• Glo loved the freedom of being a Day Camper, but she would hear about the social activities the other kids would have back in division.  So, she asked if she could be a boarding camper.  I agreed for her last summer as an Intermediate, thinking that once she hit High School, she wouldn't want to board that long.  Boy, was I wrong.  Unlike her siblings who enjoyed every last minute of being a day camper and who to this day probably regret every moment of boarding, she took to it like a fish to water. 
• One of my favorite videos of all time is when we picked up Mark from Cherry Capital Airport from serving his mission, and we took him over to Intermediate Girls Lakeside so Glo could see him.  When she saw us, she came barreling through the woods towards us, yelling, "Mark." She then threw herself into his arms and started crying.  It was the sweetest thing ever.

I was also reminded today of the different "drop offs" from years past.  The first year I dropped off Mark, we knew absolutely nothing about the camp.  There was nobody in his cabin, or anyone on division except a lone soul who was shooting baskets.  Or maybe there was just a basketball.  I can't remember.  I felt sick, leaving Mark there, not knowing what would happen to him.  (Interestingly enough, when given a survey about our experience at Interlochen that first year, I wrote up this heart-wrenching story and suggested that they have people to meet the incoming campers.  I have never seen a camper left alone since.)

Too, I never got to check in Johannah because she only boarded that one year that I broke my ankle...and she rode with Helen Fleischer...

Today though, was the third time I've checked in Little Glo.  She's had really lovely experiences as a boarding camper, making friends easily and really enjoying everything (even though it feels more like bondage to the rest of us).  I was probably a little bit too proud today as I told every person I could possibly tell that this is Glo's NINTH summer as a camper here.  There are very few kids who go from start to finish here, and several people reminded me how lucky she has indeed been.

So, knowing that Glo would have few opportunities over the next six weeks to escape camp life, I gave Glo any chance to do what she wanted to do on her last night of freedom.

Of all places (and this is so Glo), she wanted to go to Panera for dinner.  I mean really, of all the places in Traverse City filled with amazing food, she chose a chain soup and sandwich shop...and she got macaroni and cheese.  And she only ate half of it :-)

I insisted that we then go to Grand Traverse Pie Company for a slice of pie.  She insisted that she was too full for pie, but she ended up choosing one of their mini-pies to take home, and she chose her favorite, apple pie.









Then, it was off to Pirate's Cove for a fun game of miniature golf.  I assumed I would trounce her (seeing as I am the reigning Kennedy champion of miniature golf), but she held her own with a couple of holes-in one!

Anyone who knows John knows that
 this sign was MADE for him!

Our best pirate impression :-)

Then, we stopped by Grand Traverse Bay and just had to put our feet in the water.  It felt very cold at first, but it was delightful by the end.

And then it was buying a last-minute sleeping bag and a new toothbrush along with some local strawberries.

I'm happy to know that Glo will be using my room as her food storage facility, seeing as she doesn't like to eat out at all.  In fact, just tonight, she didn't like the Sweet and Sour Chicken being offered at the cafeteria, so she came over and made herself a Cup of Noodles.  #score

Everything here is hers (except the Slim Fast):  cookies, pie, Scooby snacks, Pop-Tarts, fresh fruit.  Yep, I know how to keep her coming home.  This, and The Bachelorette, and an empty (aka clean) bed! :-)

And with that, we kissed each other good night one last time, before she woke up in the morning and checked herself into camp.

One last time.  That's it for the Kennedy legacy here.  It's been a wonderful ride.