We're back from a fabulous trip to Camp Okizu. This was our third year attending family camp and it was the best one yet! What an amazing feeling to be there off treatment! Isabel was so sick the first year we went, the heavy steroids and chemotherapy treatments took a big toll on her both emotionally and physically. Last year was better as she was over a year into treatment and her hair was growing back but it was a rainy, cold weekend. This year was fantastic in every aspect. Isabel on cloud nine smiling, grinning, ecstatic to be 7 and fully immersed in camp.

We went canoeing under a big spraying fountain and got soaked. We fished. We went on the zip line, the kids went three times each. We played games, sang songs, did archery, swam, had a big campfire and made s'mores. Those are just the extras to the real part of the camp, being surrounded by tons of families who GET IT. I saw bald kids, kids with nose tubes. A young women with a prosthetic leg, a little girl with one arm. No one flinched. We may not have all been there exactly, but we've all been there. I saw this little girl with humongous cheeks, completely puffed out and blown up from the heavy steroid phase she was on. Isabel said, "remember when I looked like that?"

My goal is to make this camp a big part of Isabel and Gabriel's lives. I met some wonderful young adult and teen camp counselors who the kids just adored. It was lovely to see such strong, smart, funny people and realize they too had once fought cancer and won.

I had a really great, healing time there like always and walked away with memories that will help me grow and breathe for months to come. I cried like I do each year, crumpled with the gift of Isabel's survival.


Here are 90 photos of our amazing three day weekend at Camp Okizu:

http://flickr.com/gp/carlescrue/4wdKpK