Summer is in full swing and June was packed with lots of fun family adventures!
Avery (11 years, 10 months) - Avery had a big month with her first experience at sleepaway camp. She has been very hesitant to do this in the past but we decided it was finally time to give it a shot. She went to Winshape Camp at Young Harris for a week. She didn't know anyone her age going but was excited to make new friends and liked the idea of staying in a college dorm rather than a traditional camp. She was in the Bumbline club which worked our perfect for a GT fan. There were special nightly events and she spend her days focusing on faith and in skills like baking, crafts and water play. She had a great time and said she was too busy/tired to miss home much. She even signed up to go again next year and is debating trying their 2 week program. Otherwise, she fit in several Braves games, Six Flags/Whitewater fun with Piper and ran several Lemonade stands.
Parker (14 years, 7 months) - Parker had a big month with the end of his Travel Baseball career. He has decided he just wants to play rec baseball going forward as travel is more of a time commitment than he is interested in for high school. It is definitely the end of a era and we will miss the wonderful baseball families he has played with but are thankful for the experience and memories. Otherwise he stayed busy with lots of pool/tennis court evenings with his KV friends and a weekly trip to Six Flags. He also fit in some volunteering with mom through Young Men Service League.
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| Happy Father's Day from the ball field |
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| End of Season pool party |
Carter (16 years, 1 month) - Carter had a fun adventure spending 2 weeks taking a Tropical Ecology class in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands through school. They spent several days at Lovett's cloud forest property, Siempre Verde, which mom also had the opportunity to visit when she was in High School. While there, they did several hikes, explored the wide variety of wildlife and vegetation, visited a local school and local woman's co-op where Carter bought some local honey. Carter's highlight was hiking the Upper Arriba Trail which included a 10,500 elevation change making it quite the challenging hike that only a few students completed. They also spent time in Quito and the surrounding area visiting local markets, the equator, the botanical gardens, colonial Quito and Papallacata Hot Springs. Their final stop were the Galapagos Islands. They visited several of the islands starting in Santa Cruz where they worked with Giant Tortoises. They were then onto Isabela Island where they snorkeled at several locations seeing a wide variety of sea turtles, rays, sharks, sea stars, iguanas and hundreds of fish. They even saw an Octopus. They also visited a wetland estuary home to a local flamingo flock and a marine iguana nesting area. Their last stop was Tortuga Bay where they walked through a cactus forest and did more snorkeling with sea lions, boobies and penguins. There they spent the night at the Charles Darwin Research Station and heard from their scientists about the important work the foundation does. Carter said it was an amazing trip. He loved the food and said the snorkeling was incredible. He had a quick turn around leaving the day he got home for Penn State Wrestling Camp at West Georgia before resting up for a busy July schedule!
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| Stop at Cuicocha National Park |
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| Hiking River Trail at Siempre Verde |
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| Waterfall Hike at Siempre Verde |
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| At a local school |
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| Group with Siempre Verde host family |
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| Equator Monument |
Siblings - Last month's local wrestling event was such a hit, all the Holden boys decided to go again and bring along friends.
