Jamestown (Virginia vacation post #3 of 4)

Jamestown was also only a couple miles from our resort.  We went here on Wednesday.  First, we started with a 2h guided tour.  It was sooo wonderful and informative!!!  I learned a lot!

The Susan Constant, one of the 3 ships in the Jamestown Expedition

Using shells to dig out ash.  A fire is burned on the tree then dug out to make it flat on the bottom.  Then, the same process to dig out the center for the inside of the canoe.

He would NOT want to have been a boy there at the time, since HE would have been carrying the water.

The church our government started in!  Well, this is the 3rd rebuild, but on the sides of the floor you can actually see the old first 2 foundations.  This was at the actual Jamestown historical site.  The previous pictures were at the Jamestown recreation settlement down the road from the actual site.

There are 2 ongoing digs at the actual historical site!

Overlooking the James River at the actual site.

That tower is NOT a recreation, it is STILL standing after nearly 400 years!!  The walls are 3ft thick.  It is attached on the other side to the church.

I'm sooo glad we took the time to get out to the actual Jamestown site!  The recreation settlement was wonderful, but the actual site was amazing!

Tuesday June 29th (2nd day of Family Camp) PART ONE

Coming in to the area where our cabin was:

The smaller buildings are where 'club' is held and the larger building is where 'Tab' is held.  Clubs are held once things get going in Tab.  Tabernacle is music worship and then a message from the speaker.  The kids stay in for the music then leave for club.  They do games, singing, scripture memory, lots of fun stuff.  Tab is held after breakfast and after dinner.

This is the 'lodge.'  It's where we eat.  The lake is behind it, and the swing set is to the left.  The lodge is on one end of the property, tab is in the middle, and the cabins where we were are in the way back.  It's about 1.2-1.4 mile round trip.  We walk it several times a day!  Other more hotel-like rooms (with bathrooms in them!) are closer to the lodge, but they cost a little more of course.  In PART TWO you can see what is to the left of those cars.  There is a little path down to a water fall area.  It's very pretty as you'll see...

The food line.  This was a breakfast.

Eating.

This is directly behind the lodge.  It's a boat dock.  You can take out the canoes, paddle boat or kayaks any time you want.  See the end of the water slide to the right?

Here's the top of the water slide.

Why is Christian getting on a life jacket??

And why are Christian and 14yo cousin going out in the canoe?

And why are they rowing out to the middle of the lake??

To have a water gun fight of course!

Hand painting on 8yo cousin.

It was face painting for 5yo cousin.

And, arm painting for Sophie.

A fire-breathing dragon.

Carpet ball joy!  It's a game where you have 4 balls you place wherever you want on your side.  Your opposition does the same.  Then, you take another ball and try to knock eachother's ball into the back gutter.  Sophie was addicted...

Sophie and Tom going out in the canoe

Rebecca's brother and his 2yo in the canoe

This is the "blob"

One person is at the top of the platform while one is on the edge of the blob.  The person jumping knocks the person on the blob into the air!!  We didn't do it this year, but Jake did it a LOT the year he came with us!!! (so yes, this is a stranger...)  It's usually a 2-tiered, but storms last week knocked off the 2nd tier.  They fixed it by Wednesday.

Wednesday June 30th (3rd day of Family Camp)

Swimming

Getting ready for W.H.A.T (Will, Heart, Attitude, Tenacity)

It's a team game that takes several teams and whittles them down to a winner.

This first game has Sophie, Cousin 8yo and both our family helpers on a team.

Christian, Tom, Cousin 14yo and Rebecca's brother were on another team.

Game #1, use blocks to toss as stepping stones to get to the other side.

Then, all team members must be on the stand as you sling-shot down 2 tiles with your team name on them.

Our family helper was shooting for the girls, but they got out on the first game.

Game #2 has all team members holding on to an object that is ropes tied together with 4 balls on it.  Each member must touch at least one ball as it's being tossed out to a stand in the water. 

Game #3 had you with bungee cords strung together to pick up buckets (no hands touch bucket! but feet to tip the bucket back up if it knocks over) and take them to the other side to form a pyramid.  The guys got out on this game.  There were 2 more games but I didn't bother taking pictures of those. LOL

W.H.A.T games are different each  year.

Swimming

Each family gets a 30min speedboat ride!!  It's sooo fun!!!  You can, if you want, have a tube out the back to ride on or even skis.  We all stayed in the boat this year.

Wednesday's event is DATE NIGHT!!!!!  The adults have a NICE dinner without kids.  They have the kids for 4 hours while we eat and do whatever.  This year we took a walk with bro and sil and played a game till it was time to get the kids.  It was so fun!!

While we were at dinner the youth were playing a FUNNY game.  They grouped into teams.  They had a list of funny pictures they had to take of their group.  We happened to be walking by when Christian and cousin's group were taking a picture in a port-a-potty!!!!!!

The younger kids took a hay ride.  This was the older boys' wagon.  We didn't see the girl wagon.