The King

On the way up to camp Jason said, "If I were one of those camp counselors I would be so ready to get rid of JR, I can only imagine how bad he's been strutting around up there." 

With it being his last year (and his hair looking this good in pictures) it's only natural to assume there was quite a bit of strutting going on. 

But little did we know, we were only at the tip of the iceberg.

We get there only to find out JR had been voted Carnival King by all the kids in camp the night before.  

The king and queen with all their princes and princesses

Needless to say, JR had a fantastic last year at camp.  He even got Order of the Olympia which I think means over the 5 years he was there he won/earned all the patches that you can get. 

And in his 2 weeks, he even managed to take 1 picture with his brother.

More Winnings

Thursday night was our last hurrah with Reed as an "only child".

We went to the Astros game and sat in different seats than we usually do.  Sean and Reed were excited.

They were really great seats, but I was having a panic attack for most of the game that a foul ball was going to hit me in the face. 

Reed and Sean are masters of getting themselves on the jumbotron in our usual seats, but at this game they mastered the art of catching stuff from the "cheerleaders"  (they aren't really cheerleaders, but I don't know what else to call them).

Reed caught a ball (not a real baseball, but a squishy one) and Sean caught a T-shirt!

They were very excited with their "winnings". 

We're Good at Games

Reed and I went to Dave and Busters the other day.

He was a winner at quite a few of the games. 

But nothing like the 1,000 tickets I won at Candy Crush on my first try.

Reed was super impressed with my gaming ability, and those 1,000 tickets meant he brought this guy home. 

Get Newked

Reed is an only child this week as he is home from the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch.  He said he loved, loved, loved tennis camp.  Everything was super fun and great, except for the food which he said was "too healthy". 

 He won the "Fearsome Forehand" award (he said his award was real and lots of the other kids just got "made up awards:).  

And most importantly he got runner-up in the camp tournament.  

He also was very excited to win a boomerang in the "Get Newked" competition where his team came in 2nd for hitting the most targets. 

We were super proud of his evaluation sheet which talked about his great forehand and mentioned twice how fast he is.  They even mentioned his "baseball speed"...which is nice to hear since the usual tennis comments are trying to "get the baseball out of him".

His coach said he was a "great athlete and a great kid as well" which is always a wonderful compliment! 

Camp Vegas

My friend, Wendy, casually asked me if we wanted to go to Vegas to celebrate a big birthday she was having.  It just so happened to be this past weekend when all the kids were at camp, so the answer was an easy, "Sure!" 

I flew up a little earlier than Jason since he had to work all day on Thursday, and he arranged for me to have a limo from the airport.  I've never had a limo all to myself!

We stayed at the Wynn (which I was very impressed with) and Friday morning we went to the spa...which was probably the nicest spa I've ever been to.  The massage was on par with others, but the spa itself was amazing.  The spa alone was worth the trip.

I only had one thing on my "must-do" Vegas list...Go eat at Wahlburgers.  If you're a female in my age range then not only were you a fan of Donnie Wahlburg as a New Kid on the Block, but even more so of his brother, Marky Mark...now just known as movie superstar, Mark Wahlburg.

They even have a reality TV show about the burger place, which Jason humors me by watching with me.  So after our spa appointment we braved the 110 degree heat (it's a dry heat) and walked over to Wahlburgers (it's in front of Bally's). We were actually very impressed with the burgers, and I got to "meet" Mark! 

Friday afternoon I went back to the spa and Jason hit the craps table.  That night we went to eat at Jardin inside the Wynn.

 After dinner we went to see the Wynn show, Le Reve.  It reminded me a lot of O, since it is all done in and around water.  We also thought this might be a career opportunity for Kyle since there was tons of diving, flips, and tricks.

We braved the "dry" 110 degree heat again on Saturday and walked around the strip.

Here we are cooling off in Caesar's Palace, and I might have also be looking for Real Housewife of the OC, Vicky, who according to Instagram, was also there. 

Saturday night we ate at Andrea's in the Encore.  It's an Asian fusion restaurant, and super yummy. 

 Then we went to see The Beatles's Love show.  Jason and I had seen it before, but it's so good, I was happy to see it again.  I loved it as much the 2nd time as I did the 1st.

Obviously, I really need to work on my peace sign.

We had a great time and got to do all the things we love to do in Vegas! 

Cool Pictures (Even though we were SO HOT)

They had a professional photographer at the diving meet and I was so glad I paid for him to take pictures since they turned out so great, and also, because I was so hot I'm not sure I could have even held on to a camera.

These are my favorites. 

No News

When it comes to camp, no news is always good news.

I can tell from the pictures and the generic daily news that is sent out that JR is on the Spartan Senate this year. 

 He got to do the rope burn to open camp, and from the pictures it looks like the Spartans rope burned before the Atheans, so I know they were excited about that.

Also, if you've ever felt sorry for Jason that JR doesn't look like his child, you can stop.  This carbon copy of Jason's could have any mother in the world.

No news from Reed and no pictures (they don't do that), but since his camp is more relaxed on parent contact, he could call me if he wanted to, so again, no news is good news!