“Hey kid,” Alice said as I sat beside her.

“Hi Aunt Alice. Aunt Dana.”

“Ready for your birthday?” Aunt Dana asked.

“I am. I love that my birthday is right after school gets out. You are both coming to my party aren’t you?”

“Kid, have we missed one yet? Of course we’re going to be there.” Aunt Alice was right. They had never missed one of mine or Lyss’ birthday, school play or anything that was important to us. Both Lyss and I knew we could always count on them.

“Are you excited about camp this year?” Aunt Alice asked turning her nose up because she had always hated camp and told me each and every year. I loved it though. I loved sleeping in the woods and being around friends that I only saw a few weeks out the year.

“Yes. This year I get to sleep in the cool cabin because I’ll be 12. Mary and Susan are going to be there again. They both sent me emails telling me. It’s going to be great. I can’t believe you didn’t like camp.”

“What’s to like sleeping with bugs? Not me. I like the Hilton. That’s my idea of camping.” Both Aunt Dana and I just rolled our eyes. She liked to camp too and we wanted to go on a family camping trip but no one else would agree to go.

“Em, how is this cabin different than the others,” she asked me.

“It’s right beside the lake and has a washer and dryer in it. We are the farthest from the counselors so we get to be loud and no one pops their heads in to make us go to sleep. They don’t treat us like babies.” She smiled at me. She had fond memories of camp too.

We sat around eating and joking until it was time to go home. Momma talked to Aunt Kit about the food for my party and Aunt Shane asked why I didn’t invite friends from school. I could have I guess but I liked these parties with just the family. My friends and I usually had slumber parties over the summer so I saw them a lot but my birthday was something that I liked to share with my family. It had always been like that.