Andy's 1st trip to Spina Bifida Camp

We took a day and did all the shopping for everything he needed. Then the laundry and packing, finally we were off to Scottish Rite for a 9:30am appointment on Sunday morning. They do last minute pre-camp health check-in's and go through all the med's while filling pill keepers for the week. We get through all the check in stuff, he does a craft and then get a small tune-up on his wheelchair. He has not been fitted to his chair in over 6 years. (Need to get a full tune-up and fitting done soon, just in case.) We all grab lunch and then they start to load up the buses. They have 3 large tour buses, 1 for larger kids in Wheelchairs, it has a lift and they can then transfer into a bus seat. Then for smaller wheelie kids that can be carried onto the buses and those who can walk (with or without assistive devices) ride the other 2 buses, there is 1 for girls and 1 for boys. Then they load all the wheelchairs in a large box truck.
The camp is 1 1/2 hours away, SW of Dallas. There were some issues with traffic in the Dallas area and then 1 of the buses was having mechanical problems. The buses all stayed together and made it down ok, they used a different bus for the return trip.


  Andy got to do all kinds of neat stuff all week at camp. They had a wildlife experience time, he got to hold a gerbil and pet a snake, he didn't like the snake much! They had a Wizard of Oz theme night with a yellow brick road and a Hollywood Dance Night with Red Carpet. That night a cabin mate offered Andy some cologne and told him to use 3-5 squirts, Andy puts on 9 sprays! The big fun event was a camp-wide water fight complete with a fire hose being used! We bought him a super soaker for this event, he liked using a small traffic cone and a bucket of water better! They do this event every year, they cover the wheelchairs in plastic bags, stretch wrap and duct-tape. All the staff are involved, Andy said the nurses were lined up on the med-hut porch with syringes filled with water. He went horseback riding, participated in archery, climbing wall, swimming, canoeing, cook-out, camp-out, pottery, and fishing.
Of Friday morning, Ryan and I went to pick him up. They had everything all set up and ready, signs for each cabin's belongings, shade tent for check-out and water for the heat! The fire trucks rolled in with helpers to unload the belongings and wheelchairs, also to help get kids off the buses. The box truck arrived first with the chairs, then the buses. They unloaded most everything first and then the kids. By the time Andy got off and to us, we had all his stuff and were able to put everything in the car before going through check-out.
 At check-out we got a DVD of camp photo's and video's. As we all watched it, Andy was telling us that he was going to try other things next year! So, he is already planning on going again, that means he had fun.