Home again, home again jiggity jig

The boys came home from camp Saturday afternoon. Kevin drove down to Maryland at the butt crack of dawn to get the bikes, and then drove back home. The boys came home on our church bus.

Jeremy came to me first. I threw my arms around him and as I kissed his head I smelled him. It wasn't a bad smell, really, just earthy. He appeared to be all in one piece, and relatively free of injury. He was excited to tell me everything about camp, and show me all of the knives that he bought at the trading post. He came home with 5 knives. I sent away him to camp a boy scout and he came home a mercenary.

John came off of the bus wearing his Metal Mulisha hat with a Burger King crown over it. I said, "You went away a peasant and came home a king?" The hilarity here never ends.

We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the boys' stories of camp. The spiders, the pranks, the fun and laughs, the work and the learning. John told us that on Wednesday night Jeremy had a terrible headache. Jeremy's bunk mate was off for the night completing his wilderness survival merit badge. This badge entails spending the entire night out in the wild. On your own. You also have to set up your own shelter and sleep in it. I have no desire, ever, to complete this badge. So Jeremy was going to be alone for the night, and because he had such a bad headache John did not want him to be alone. He had Jeremy bunk with another boy whose bunk mate was also completing the wilderness survival requirements. (This tent was right next to John's.) I was very touched as John told me this story. My boys usually get along very well, and they truly enjoy each others company, but they are boys in the truest sense of the word and moms of all boys know what I mean. So when I hear things like this, I am so proud that they consider each others feelings and look out for each other. Even if they do sometimes tell one another that they wish they would take a long walk off a short pier.

I asked then what they wanted to do for dinner and John said, "I don't care as long as we are all together." Then my heart melted from his expression of sentiment and I died on the spot. We ended up going to Jose Tejas where we gorged ourselves on chips and burritos. I went to sleep last night content with knowing that my boys were tucked up in their beds under our roof. Good stuff.