Camp Ozark, Little Man and a Blow Out!

After months of hype and planning and preparation Little Man's trip to Camp Ozark in Arkansas finally arrived this weekend! This trip has been a year in the making. Last summer, after several of his friends came back from Camp Ozark, his father started planting the seeds, "Doesn't that sound like a great place?" and "Wouldn't you like to go to Camp next year?" To which Little Man would reply, "Ummm, maybe someday." He wasn't too keen on the idea of leaving us for 2 weeks.

And everyone we talked to said "Oh, you HAVE to send him for 2 weeks! If you send him for one week, just about the time he gets over his homesickness and starts to have fun... it's time to leave!". After months of pleading and prompting, he reluctantly agreed to go. Then, about a month ago, he started to get excited about the trip. And by the time it rolled around this weekend - he was pumped and super-excited to go. Father was right. (I love it when that happens!)

There were literally 12-14 boys from his school/from his grade going to this same Camp session. There's practically no way he can be homesick because he will be bumping into a familiar face at every turn.
On Friday, we hit the road and headed to Mt. Ida, Arkansas. We met up with 3 other families at the deluxe accommodations of the Royal Oak Inn. We pulled up to the scene you see below: a big parking lot party.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

We drove into the Mt. Ida town square and had dinner at a fabulous Tex-Mex place called El Diamante. Special-o-the-night: 3 crunchy Tacos, Rice and Beans $5.99. You cannot beat that! After dinner, we walked across the street to the Square to see an outdoor concert by the Front Porch Band. They were a bunch of grandpa's crooning out Johnny Cash and Motown tunes. We had a fabulous time and the kids got to cartwheel and somersault all across the lawn and play tag. It was great fun until the first kid cried and within 5 minutes 2 more were crying, "So and so hit me." and then it was "No, I tagged you, you are out!" That was the clue to call it a night.


Sunday was a new day and the kids were chomping at the bit to get to Camp. After a hearty breakfast at the Songbird Cafe, we headed over to the Camp grounds to check in.

So, here's how it went down - we pulled in the parking lot across from Camp about 10:45 am. They pointed you down a windy, dirt road and when you come to the car ahead of you - you put it in park and got out. We were car #18. We found out later that there are over 825 campers in this session. One of the largest sessions they've ever had. Yowza!
We then walked through the forest to the check-in area where they took the kids temperatures, checked them for head lice ( I wondered what they did if they actually found lice? Do you have to go home? I didn't ask) and gave us our cabin assignments.

Then we hung out around our cars until 1:00 pm when they opened the gates and the cars started rolling in... BIG FUN. You can see what happens next in the videos below:

More Camp Ozark Photos:

Little Man, Elliot and Colby - Cabin 37

Little Man takes the plunge onto The Blob!

You can see the kid's feet to the left and he lands and tries to bounce the other two kids off! Little Man is on the far right. They look like they are playing leap frog.

Little Man got his pick of bunks by a window - did I mention there is NO air-conditioning (just a really large ceiling fan in the cabin)! He is all settled in for a fabulous 2-week stay!

Oh, and on the four hour trip home, we had a major blow-out on the highway. Lost the tread on one tire and had to drive the last half of the trip home on the spare. Thankfully, one of our friends was trailing behind us on the road and pulled over to help Randy change the tire. I am just no good at those things... That's mens work, sugah!