and he's off... (and his momma wore her sunglasses)

Samuel is officially off to camp and it seems we've hit a new milestone in more ways than one. While getting his stuff together last night, I asked him how he was feeling and he looked at me and said, "I'm good. I'm going to be okay."

"Oh, okay," I said. "But if you need to bring a stuffy or something, we could sneak it into the bottom of your sleeping bag and nobody would know the difference."

"Mom," he said sternly. "I am fine. I don't need to sleep with a stuffy."

(And then of course, I checked on him before I went to bed and he was sleeping with a huge bear in his arms, but I guess that's beside the point.)

This morning on the way to the bus, he was excited. And nervous. But mostly excited. And though he swore I'd have to drive him all the way to camp because we were going to miss the bus, we made it and he happily joined his three friends from school in the parking lot.

Not a lot of crying. At all.

I held it together while we gathered up his stuff and even managed not to let a cry escape as he climbed on the bus.

Notice how many of the moms are wearing dark glasses.

Notice their smiles... Comforting, no? Except for the parents yelling, "Woohoo! Resort spa here we come!" most of us looked like we were having a much harder time sending our small children on a bus to a camp hours away, not to be heard from for five days. Though, if I had just sent three children to camp and was going home to an empty house, would I be the excited parent in the parking lot? I might not admit that now. Hmmm...

Thank goodness for modern technology. Everyday the camp posts photos of the day's activities on their site.
I have a feeling I will know why their traffic gets a huge spike this week!