Campgrown.

"She's here!!!  We can see her!!!  She's coming inside now."

They ran back and forth between the 3rd floor window and the chair I was sitting in.

Sugar was home.

Tink and Tiara hadn't planned on joining me to pick up their sister from her weekend at Camp Soaring Eagle with our local JDRF chapter.  They were actually planning to go to a birthday party with their daddy, followed by a church service while he served with the high school ministry's security team.

But then...I had a flat tire...

And, rather than make them sit on the side of the road in the heat, the three of us hopped in Mr. Rose's car...leaving HIM to take care of the flat in the heat.  (Sigh.  <insert googly eyes>  Love that man, and the way he takes such good care of us!)

So...there we were -- rushed after our little delay -- but just in time to meet the campers!

This is her THIRD camp experience in the past 10 months.  But this time something was distinctly different from last year.  This time...she just seemed so...so...grown up...

"Guess what.  I held a tarantula named Sweet Pea, and it was SO CUTE!!!"  (<---- End statement in squealing high pitched voice.)

"My horse's name was Reeba.  Did you know that mother horses can't kiss their babies on the mouth, so they kiss their withers?  The withers are like their shoulders."

"Mom, what station is this?  Can we put on Radio Disney?  Anyway, the horses were SO CUTE!"

"Everyone in my group had either celiac or an allergy.  One of the kids cried every time we sat down to eat.  He just loved his parents SO MUCH, and couldn't stand to be away from them.  I love you too, but I didn't miss you like that.  That's okay, right?  It's okay that I didn't want to come home.  I mean....

"OH MY GOSH!!!!! MOM!!!!!  This is the new Olivia Holt song!!!!  I can't believe it's on RIGHT.  NOW!!!!"

"But, yeah, this one kid -- Cade -- he caught a HUGE FISH!!!!  I didn't catch any fish.  They kept eating my worms, but never got stuck on the hook.  And I shot a yellow balloon at archery."

"I had my face painted kind of silly.  Like my eyes....WAIT!!! TURN THIS UP!!!!!  I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!"

{Random Elaine-like moving and shaking with lip syncing}

"Yeah, my eyes were, like, closed, but they looked open and we had sugar-free cotton candy, and I got low.  Like 50-something.  And the doctor wasn't there so they gave me 4 tablets and then he came back and gave me two more.  I LOVED THEIR TABS, Mom!!!  There were all coconut and strawberry.  The white ones are my FA  VOR  ITE!!!!"

"And I got low at midnight too.  Come to think of it..."

"ONE DIRECTION!!!!!  I love them, Mom!!!  I really want to go see them in Europe."

"Camp is so cool, because everyone is just like you.  Everyone had to take care of their diabetes, so diabetes wasn't a big deal.  But I've been high and low.  It's like this weekend put my numbers on the CRAZY TRAIN!!!  But I did get to have a dark chocolate milkshake, because I was 60 at midnight last night.  It was SOOOO good.  But everyone had to deal with their numbers too, so it wasn't that big of a deal."

"I didn't want to come home.  When we had the closing ceremony, I couldn't help it.  I started crying.  It was just so hard to say good-bye.  Not everyone cried, though.  The boys didn't cry.  But all the girls cried."

....................

And that's how it went.  The. entire. ride. home.  Her sisters and I sat quietly, oscillating between  the thrill of her stories, and turning up the radio to bust a move.

Her thoughts were random, wandering, and out of order...but they were excited, and happy, and full of energy at the same time.

A year ago, she was still so little.  Naive.  Nervous about being away from home.

Now she's a veteran, I guess.

Looks like she's gone from being Homegrown...to being Campgrown :)