Welding Camp

Our local community college offers summer learning opportunities to high school aged students in our area. We've never pursued these before, but when we saw there were some neat, hands-on, practical skills they could explore, we decided to sign them up! And what's fun for three (G$ isn't quite high school aged yet) is fun for friends, too! Together our kids, our pastor's oldest son, and our NGF's oldest son composed 50% of the class. And originally we were expecting our NGF's same-aged uncle (and my nephew's doppelganger) to also be in the class, but he's already pretty much an expert welder and, also, he had driver's ed. The class bounced around all over the summer, as covid changed policies, procedures, and campus availability. Initially, we hoped to dip their toes into welding, and if it went well expand to construction, robotics, and more! However, class got bumped to the end of the summer list, so welding alone it is :)

The first day, our pastor dropped off his son at 8 a.m. Whoa is that early for a carload of teenagers! We'd spent the previous morning at the zoo with our NGFs (and lunch at a local restaurant with epically weird commercials), but the kids hadn't seen Curly C for weeks! I got to talk to my NGF after dropping off the Crew plus one. Her son R planned to spend a night or two with us, which saved her big time on driving back and forth. The other six kids were not thrilled to be in the mega-van at 8:30 in the morning. Thankfully, all the parents are okay with Caelan's driving skills, so she's did all the driving to and fro ever since.

From the reports I've received so far . . . the class is fun, the professor is nice, the welding tools are heavy, the VR simulator was cool, the vending machines are empty, and cafeteria lunch from a box is terrible. Ha, welcome to college! Also, our crowd gets along so well that the teacher thinks they are all siblings. R has decidedly darker features than the other four, so the kids weren't sure how he fit in. I pointed out that he could have been adopted. I told R, "I would adopt you." And he said, graciously, "Thank you!" Ha! That was hilarious. And when he later offered to help Graysen fold laundry so they could watch a movie before Buck got home, I'm pretty sure he earned an honorary family member certificate of some sort (we do hand those out on occasion :)

On day two, we thought it would be fun to have Curly C over for the afternoon so G$ could spend time with his buddy, too. I texted Caelan letting her know that I was contacting C's mom to see if this plan was okay. Caelan texted back, "Well, he brought his sleeping bag to class . . ." So apparently, Curly C thought R's plan of staying the night was such a good one, that he decided to join the fun! I laughed so hard. His mom texted back a forehead slap emoji. "These kids and their plans." Ha!

So, while they were welding away, Graysen spent some time at our neighbors' house playing LEGO with his buddy Isaiah. Today, they switched and Isaiah came to our house to shoot bb guns, play video games, and build more LEGO while the older kids were at camp. This freed me up to help a friend edit an article she's writing for a job interview, and to work on a magazine article my real estate lady asked me to write for an upcoming publication.

By late afternoon, Caelan and her carful were back, Isaiah was still here, and the house was filled to the brim! I posted a chore list on the window, and was very impressed that all seven pitched in to get the jobs done quickly.

I made dinner while they worked (and played video games), then Caelan made a yummy cookie (very similar to the skillet cookie at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney) for dessert. It's super hot and muggy, so the boys abandoned football, and instead went on a walk with the girls and Muri. Last night the plan was laser tag at dusk, and that's what time it is now, so we'll have to see what the plan is for the rest of the evening. The house is currently completely quiet and I am typing all the words. Ha!

Hair adjustments are near constant in this age group. I got 4 out of 6 in just two pictures!

I'll save this post until they come home with their finished project tomorrow :)

And we're back! Caelan answered a trig question that no one has answered correctly in the teacher's 15 years of asking . . . and her unfinished box had more leaks in it than almost any the instructor's could remember in 15 years of teaching kids to make metal boxes. You win some, you lose some, lol!

Gabby took a bunch of pictures during welding, which she said was really hard for her and for Caelan (the welding, not the picture taking) because the gear is designed for grown men, not petite teen girls. But, the boys pitched in and helped them--sounds like the camp built a lot of camaraderie and though neither girl would go into welding as her profession, are glad they learned more about it.

In good news, lunch was better today! Good enough, even, for a photo text from Caelan :)

Oh the selfies :) All the selfies! But at least I got some pictures from their experience. 

Caelan (Mother Hen) arranged all the welding class students, including Math Girl (Gabby), Fuzzy Wuzzy (their friend C), Bandana Boy (R), Sweatpants (Brennen, but only once), into neat rows with their boxes for a group picture :) The instructor made "our" five keep their masks on for their photo, protocols and all. I took my own photo of the kids when they got home, but they were soooooo tired that smiles were hard to maintain. Maybe it was because they sat up on the hill talking til 11:30 PM last night, and then another hour inside while Buck called out a countdown, "15 minutes until bed. 10 minutes til bed. You have five minutes to go to sleep in a bed."

Looking forward to next year to see what  other new skills they can explore!