Kanakuk 2025

The end of summer means its Kanakuk time.  This was the last year we had all four kids at Kanakuk as Kampers.  This year was the same as last year, we had Briley and Baylor at K-7 and Finley and Atticus at K-Kountry.  We left Saturday morning and met up with the Farwell, Sedlak’s and Bobzien crews outside Big Cedar.  The kids were all so excited to see each other and to have the Bobzien’s there this year.  We snapped some pictures, grabbed some snacks and off to K-7 we went.  We chose to go in and watch them call their names and meet their counselors, whom they loved.  I think this was the first year that everyone loved all of their counselors.  Baylor was in Tee-Pee 9 with Owen and Colton, and Briley was in Tee-Pee 14-Real Deal, with Bella and her friend Ella.  

 

Next we were off to K-Kountry to drop off Finley, Atticus, Annie and Charlotte.  On my way out of K-7, the Suburban started overheating.  I was able to nurse it to a parking lot and turn it off.  Luckily Sara was in front of me, so we were able to quickly transfer the kids trunks to her car, and head on to K-Kountry while I called a tow truck.  The tow truck was able to tow it to a repair shop but it would be the following week before they could get to it, so Sara drove me to get a rental car after we dropped off the kids.  Finley was in Barn 11 with Charlotte and some of her friends, while Atticus was in Barn 8.  They were all primed for a great week.

 

It was a quite week at home for me.  I used the downtime to clean out the garage, basement, storage room, kids closets and to repaint all the white trim in the house, something I try to do when the kids are gone because its oil based paint.  On Thursday, I headed back down to Branson, where Amanda and Todd picked me up at the rental car place and took me to the repair shop.  Good news is that the repair was relatively cheap, the bad news was the Kirksville Motors made the same repair in December with the wrong part and charged me 4x as much….never going there again.

 

After getting my car, I went to Big Cedar to check in and hang out a bit.  I went down to the pool just in time for them to close it for lighting and as I walked up, Sara and Ryan were on the porch in the room next to me…we were neighbors.  We talked and then made out way down to the pools when they opened up.  We had dinner reservations at 8 that night up at Top of the Rock, so we got up there a little early to watch the sunset, which is always amazing.  As always it was great eating dinner with the family and catching up.

 

I was up early the next morning and off to K-7 to pick up Briley and Baylor.  It is always so exciting to see them.  Briley is usually a little more excited than our reserved Baylor, but he is still excited in his own way.  Baylor got the heart award and Briley got the total release award, both fitting to their personalities.  Next we were off to K-Kountry to pick up Finley and Atticus, who are always really excited to see us, and in the case of Atticus, always a little emotional.  Finley got the total release award for the camp and for her cabin, while Atticus got the friendship award.

 

After that we went back to Big Cedar, dropped off our laundry, grabbed some lunch, checked into our new room, and hung out by the pool.  We ordered some fancy drinks, played some putt putt, some pickle ball, some paddle boats, a little of this and a little of that all weekend long,  just soaking up some time as a family before the craziness of fall started and Briley headed off to college.