Babies and Rainbows

Last weekend, Adaline and I went to Apex to help put on a baby shower for Anna, one of my college roommates. The shower was held at Emily's, another college roommate, home. Emily had most everything done by the time I got there on Friday night, but we still had fun making cake pops and some other food items. Adaline and Emily's daughter, Kay, had fun playing together over the weekend too, and they both are looking forward to playing with baby Laurel very soon!

This past week was also Adaline and my last week at camp. Shane will still be there this week, for the last session for kids, and next week, for senior adult camp. We will have a few visits throughout the week though. We did have a double rainbow at camp that arched all the way around and created a nice ending to the summer. In our CIT class we had "double rainbow" theme day to commemorate the occasion.


In other news...Nugget still think he is the baby.

Hurt, Pain and Jello

Hurt, Pain, and Agony...
The name really says it all. The Camp Cheerio Cycling Club (Shane, Pete Roethling, and Jim Hussey) made their world debut in this 66 mile mountain ride. The first picture was taken at about 6:30 am as we got ready to leave Cheerio for the ride start. The route itself takes you from the bottom of the mountain, to the top, and back to the bottom again with a lot of Blue Ridge Parkway, a little Virginia, and three 18 percent grade climbs in between. We were still feeling good for the next two pictures at rest stop two on the Parkway. The last picture is me riding into rest stop three as the heat and sun were baking the pavement on what had to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far. We pulled it together for the last leg of the ride and finished in style after a six mile descent back to the bottom. We had great support and there was even a Cheerio bus full of cheering campers at the top of the longest climb. Seeing Cheri and Adaline at the rest stops definitely made the ride and the rest stops even better! We are already talking about next year and getting a little faster.

Shane, Pete, and Jim / at rest stop 1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Family photo on the parkway / some chalk support on the hard climbs

still riding...

HPA was on Saturday, but that wasn't the end of a busy camp weekend. The weekend was the middle of a 2 week co-ed session at Cheerio, so Sunday meant CIT church, Cheerio Olympics, and the big dance...luau style. Not much time to recover and rest, but maybe some of that can happen this coming weekend...yeah right.

Adaline at church / Cheri, Jim, and Helen (CIT directors) at the dance

and now some fun baby pictures....

Adaline enjoying black beans and green jello... How about that makeshift rag bib? It is just too far to walk back to our room to get one. These are taken on two separate nights...the jello while Shane and I had a night out....sneaky friends! I think she enjoyed feeling it more than eating it; although eating it was good too.

A Few Small Steps for Man...

It has been a great and busy couple of weeks at camp. Coed Camp is off to a great start and we are now halfway through the first week of a two week session. My dad came to visit over the weekend, between sessions, and we really had a great time getting to see him. Adaline is growing and changing so much these days.


Adaline has been walking (with assistance) a ton lately and we have been hopeful that she would take her first steps on her own soon.


We only had to wait until yesterday! She is so trusting that until now if she let go of you, she just kept her feet planted and waited for you to catch her. I think she finally has grasped the idea of moving her feet as she begins to fall forward and Houston, we have walking.


In non-Adaline news, a few of us here at Cheerio have been preparing for a bike ride on this coming Saturday called the Hurt, Pain, and Agony Ride. It seemed so far away when we first started talking about it, and I hope we are ready. We even had custom Camp Cheerio Cycling jerseys made for the ride. Jim Hussey, Dr. Peter Roethling, and I will be starting at the bottom of the mountain for a 66 mile ride benefiting the American Cancer Society. I will be sure to let everyone know how it went in our next post.

Happy Birthday America

July is off to a great start! We celebrated the 4th up here at Cheerio with a yummy cookout, complete with the traditional flag cake, parade of campers, and the fireworks. Adaline had to go to bed after the parade, so she and I missed some of the events, but I still was able to catch the firework show from outside our place at camp, while Shane was shooting them into the air. Adaline enjoyed all the festivities and the visitors, especially Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jennifer.


Girls camp came to a close on Saturday and turnover to Co-ed happened by that afternoon. We are into our first session this summer with boys and girls in camp together, and so far so good.

In other news, Adaline has begun sessions twice a week for help with speech development. Heather came today for her first visit with Adaline. Although it is only an hour at a time, we have high hopes, and Adaline really seems to like Heather. When we leave camp, we will be able to transfer the services to home, so we can continue whatever we start. We have not yet noticed a great change since the tubes, but maybe we will get some sounds soon.

Ear Tubes Successful

Play time continues at Camp Cheerio...

riding on the lion with Daddy...Several days ago, Adaline walked behind this lion, pushing it from our apartment on one end of camp, across two large playing fields to the camp office. I think she would have kept going if she could have.

Adaline is reaching for Nugget here. She tries to catch him whenever he is near, but is always too slow. One day I suppose....and Nugget hiding under the rug.

We drove to High Point on Wednesday night for Adaline's tube surgery on Thursday morning. It went faster than we expected, and she was only cranky for a short time after, while coming out of the anesthesia. She was back to doing all her normal activities by lunch time.

Adaline in her Surgery Center T-shirt and yellow socks / lunch at Nana and Pop's

We were back at camp that evening. Adaline walking with Bailey and Caroline and swinging on her swing outside our camp home.

On another note, we got a flip camera, so now we can take more video of Adaline, and other things. Here is the first one, as we test out the new camera. This is a new thing that Adaline has been enjoying lately...some kind of strange dive forward.

Cheerio Days

The other night, during our 3rd week of girls camp, we had a spectacular sunset...It was so beautiful that everyone had to stop and just watch the sky for awhile. Adaline was already in bed, so she missed it, but I was able to get outside our place for a few moments. Here are a few attempts to capture the beauty (the 1st one is by our camp photographer). It really is wonderful up here!

from outside the riding ring / at evening "store"

We have been having lots of fun and of course are staying busy during our time here at Cheerio this summer. We catch a few evening activities before Adaline gets to bed...

the family at campfire, enjoying the cabin skits


Nana came to visit today for our day off and we were all able to play a bit in the pool, a favorite activity that we don't often get to do all together. Adaline is still loving being in the water and trying to drink the pool.


Another favorite activity of Adaline's is climbing back and forth over our legs, or really anything that presents a challenge...


Over the past several weeks, I have been working on finding out if Adaline qualifies for help with her speech/language development due to her delay in vocal skills. Among the people we have seen, she has had an ENT appointment and is having surgery to put tubes in her ears next week. She often has fluid in her ears and with this fact, her history of infection, and her delay in speech development, she is a good candidate for this procedure. We are hopeful that this will allow for her to hear better and in turn will help move her forward in her development. Please keep our family in your thoughts on Thursday as we go through this "minor" procedure and recovery. Thanks and take care!

Summertime, and the living's easy...

view from the new (almost finished) Chapel at camp

I finished up at work earlier this week, and Adaline and I have joined Shane up at Camp Cheerio for the summer. We have gotten everything moved in and settled, including the cats, who are enjoying running around in the woods. We made a play space in our camp apartment for Adaline to crawl around in and to keep her contained. She is moving so much that it is hard to keep up!


The first week of campers ended today (short session) and I think we are ready for the full 300+ coming in on Saturday. With the small group of campers we had in this week, we were able to do some different things that I have missed out on in the past few summers. Adaline and I were able to join the rest of camp in a trip to Cheerio Adventures this year, and we had some good times. I tried a mountain board...on a small hill, and was also able to do the zip line. It is longer that ours here at traditional camp, and is on a beautiful high path through their woods.


Adaline has more fun playing with doors than anything else, so we have her covered on the excitement front, no matter where we go...


With the kids gone today, and a few days of rest before the next group, Shane and I were able to take Adaline to the pool for the first time this summer. She enjoyed splashing around in her new float. Perhaps we will go again tomorrow.