This one time at summer camp

It took a little while but we convinced Alison to come home with us from Flat Rock River YMCA Camp.

That's not really true. We did have to show Ginny Reed the Alpine Tower and the girls did have a few last hugs, email and phone number exchanges and top-bunk gatherings to do, but we were all ready to get back home. 

"I really need some time alone to chill in my house. And TV! I haven't seen a screen all week!," she said. "And Ramen. And I missed you guys."

She had a great time, as always, and made better by the presence of BFF Jenna Tokash. They slept -- and I use that verb very lightly -- head to head in a top row bunk. They made friends with Reagan and Kennedy -- ha! -- and were paired up with new horses. They canoed and river stomped and swam and played volleyball and had an awesome spa day that included some special mud packs. They're claiming the camp has access to deposits of mud with a special ingredient -- the largest such stock in the country... 

"Feel my face. My skin is super smooth and the pimples on my nose are gone!"

Magic mud indeed. I asked if they'd squirreled any away in their baggage, but they followed camp rules and left it in the bogs from whence it came. Amy and I both want to go back and camp there ourselves, so if we ever get that chance, we'll be sure to sample the magic mud.

There wre only two occasions when Ali had to eat bread sandwiches because she didn't like the food. She happens to love bread sandwiches so no harm there. No day this year of salad for all three meals.  She even tried chicken pot pie and found that if she discarded the biscuit topper, the filling really was made of stuff she liked. 

We got home, garbage-bagged her bedding to ward off bed bugs and tossed it in the garage where it will sit for a week just in case. As I fixed her Ramen, she got reaquainted with her iPod and unpacked the rest of her stuff.

Before she disappeared, I advised her that laundry and a thank you note obligation were outstanding on her to-do list. She didn't protest, but she's had her door closed ever since.  At one point Jeff said he was leaving to run errands and she did pop her head out to express dismay.

"You've been in room with the door closed. You won't even know I'm gone," he pointed out.

"But I like to hear your voice in the house," she said.

I know that feeling....