In your brief moments of free time, or maybe even in moments of chaos with kids running every which way, do you ever stop and wistfully think of your younger, care free days? I love my one year old but sometimes all I can think about everything I got to do alone before he was born.
What if I told you that just an hour and a half away from Dallas lays an oasis of summer family camp where you can embrace your inner child and lay by the pool (kid free), eat dinner (kid free), ride horses (kid free) and engage in a myriad of family events as well?
Pine Cove Christian Camps in Tyler, Texas operates three summer family camps (two in Tyler, one in Columbus) where your entire family can go to camp for a week. In my opinion, Pine Cove is the only vacation that young families can take where everyone is rested and happy at the end of the week! My family went last summer and it was an amazing experience!
Let me whet your appetite.
On Sunday when you arrive, counselors greet you, unload your car and then clean out all the trash from your car. You had me right there!
Pine Cove will serve your family breakfast, lunch and dinner (no clean up for you, mom!) and a counselor will sit at your table with your kids to help cut food, refill drinks and keep them laughing until the meal is over. I seriously got to sit and eat every meal for a week without holding a fussy baby!
At 9:45 each morning, children’s programming will begin and you will drop your kids off with their counselors for the rest of the morning and early afternoon.
Parents, they haven’t forgotten about you! Every week, Pine Cove brings in amazing speakers who will lead you and your spouse through marriage and parenting issues. My husband and I still use some of the marriage pointers that we heard at camp last summer!
They also have amazing activities like rock climbing, zip lines, horse back riding, water skiing, wake boarding, archery, bb guns, arts & crafts and so much more! My husband and I both embraced our inner child and spent most afternoons reliving our childhood camp days!
Let me stop for a minute and talk about the counselors. These aren’t just some college kids looking for a summer job. They are college students who are passionate about sharing Christ with your kids, setting a Godly example and just loving on your kids for the week. Pine Cove spends weeks traveling the country to recruit and interview their staff. They go through thousands of applications and pick the best of the best to be on their summer staff. Over and over again, all I hear are parents raving about their child’s counselor.
Every night is a different theme night where your entire family dresses up for dinner and then does a family activity afterwards; this summer partake in Buffalo Bill’s Family Reunion, Not Yer Average Jester Knight, Space Cowboys and more!
Tuesday and Thursday nights are reserved for just the adults – that’s right your child’s counselor will feed your child dinner, play games with them and wear them out until bed time! All while you and your honey get a nice quiet dinner with other adults. Last summer, they even handed my husband and I a picnic basket and we got to enjoy a picnic by the lake!
Enough of what I think about camp, let’s hear what other family campers have to say:
Now if you’re thinking, darn it I’ve already scheduled our family vacation this summer, then never fear because Pine Cove has over night youth camps just for your kids!
They have six youth camps where your child can experience camp for an entire week! Your child will be placed in a cabin with 6 or 7 other kids their same grade and led by one of Pine Cove’s amazing camp counselors. They will do activities, theme nights, Bible Studies and so much more!
Disclaimer: I went to Pine Cove Family and Youth Camps as a child. I can say that without a doubt, I am the wife, mother and friend I am today because of the Godly example that Pine Cove staff gave me every summer at camp. When I went to college, I applied to be a counselor as fast as I could! I spent three amazing summer cleaning kitchens, life guarding, leading activities, serving meals and showing the love of Christ to kids and families.
Now I know you must all be thinking – as much fun as this sounds, there is no way I can afford this. I’m not ashamed to admit that my husband I cannot afford the full price of Family Camp either. We just bought our first house, went to a single income and welcomed our son in to our family last year. Pine Cove graciously gave us a scholarship so we could attend last summer. If you are interested in attending Family Camp or sending your child to youth camp, please check out the scholarships that Pine Cove offers.
Pine Cove will have a representative on hand at Mom’s Night Out this Thursday night to answer any questions you may have about camp. Also be on the look out that evening for an amazing Pine Cove giveaway! But whether you’ll be there or not, Pine Cove has offered all of our Dallas Moms Blog readers an exclusive discount for this summer!
If you sign up for the BLUFFS family camp (Tyler) week 8 or CRIER CREEK family camp (Columbus, TX) week 1,
you can save $200 if you mention the code DFWMOM upon registration
OR
You can save $25 per camper if you register for overnight youth camp when you use the coupon code: DFWMOM
**Pine Cove Christian Camps is a sponsor of our DFW Mom’s Night Out with Artizone this coming Thursday night. While they are a sponsor, all opinions are proudly mine.
