Fun Times

Last weekend was a fun weekend at REECA Camp! The camp was held at YMCA's Snow Mountain Ranch - which I think we will be adding as a future family vacation trip possibility (outside of REECA Camp).

The weekend started off with the opening ceremony which consisted of a reading of the Russian children's fairy tail, "The Firebird" and a Russian and Ukrainian traditional welcoming of bread and salt was passed out.

The camp is basically run by the parents and each parent is assigned a task for camp. We were assigned lunch grill duty and right after the opening ceremony we went off to grill several hundred hot dogs and sausages. The kids met their new groups (by school grade) and camp counselors and had fun playing games and doing crafts. After a full day we met for swimming and then went to dinner.


That evening there was a roller skating party. Mike and Nicholas put on all the protective gear possible and went out on the floor. Nicholas had quite a few falls but he absolutely loved it. He was really getting the hang of it by the end of the night.

On Saturday Mike and I went to a Russian cooking class. Svetlana showed us a few dishes including borscht, a potato and sauerkraut salad, a fruit compote drink, and carrot salad. Svetlana was a hoot and had us laughing through the entire class. She reminded us of a lot of the people we met in Ukraine – so full of life.

In the afternoon, I went to a class to learn how to dye Pysanky eggs and Mike went to three classes: Russian Art, FAS, and Understanding Attachment. I know I should have gone to those classes as well – but I wanted to learn to make Pysanky eggs! :o) I really enjoyed making the egg - although I've realized just how shaky my hands are! Trying to put the wax on in a straight line must take years of practice. The artist who taught the class lives just down the road from us in Conifer so I hope I can ask him for advise if I try another egg.

Nicholas’ group played in the REECA village – little houses decorated as a Russian town and then had dancing – where he learned a Ukrainian dance and then martial arts class.

For lunch Mike and I cooked countless chicken thighs and legs….I’ve never seen so much chicken and I hope to never again. Thank goodness I’m past the first trimester of pregnancy as I don’t think I could have stomached seeing that much raw chicken a couple months ago…! :o)

That evening was the closing ceremony and it was great. They had a Romanian dance ensemble called Hora Romaneasca from Boulder and a singer from Ukraine. They put on quite the show! The dance troop and singer then brought up each group of kids and they showed us the dances they had learned in class earlier in the day.

Sunday was a short day – there were field events in the morning for the kids which included relay races and hula-hooping and of course you cannot have camp with out a good old-fashioned water balloon fight!

We really had a good time at camp. Mike and I were so worn out at the end of the day – I’m going to request that we not be on grill duty next year! :o) For those of you thinking of coming to camp next year – I would highly recommend it. The majority of the families we met had adopted from Russia. I heard there were only 4 families who had adopted from Ukraine. So our experiences were a bit different from the majority of the families since many had adopted their children as infants. But it was still a very neat experience to be among so many families who had also adopted and just knew what we were talking about when we shared parenting experiences.

I think if you are out of state it would be a once every few years type of a trip. But since we are so close we are hoping to make it a yearly event for our family. I think next year will be a very different experience as we’ll be chasing after an 8-month old! :o)