Girls' Camp

Best.  Time.  Ever.  I just got back from a week of Young Women's Camp and boy oh boy was it fun!  I've been around these girls since we moved into our ward when we got married 5 years ago, so we already love each other.  Since we already have such great relationships established, this whole week was just fun fun fun.  I had 15 girls with me and another leader.  They are all helpful angels who love to get along with each other all the time.  It was very well run and the schedule left lots of room for doing whatever we wanted while being provided with lots of opportunities to swim, do games, sports, challenge courses or of course crafts.  My favorite out of everything was sitting around the fire and talking.  Does that surprise anyone?  This picture was taken probably after midnight. 

 

I can't get enough of these girls. 

Usually our stake does girls camp in July, but they did it early this year for some reason.  Consequently, the week after solstice we enjoyed almost 100% hours of daylight.  Which meant lots of time for hanging out, not much time for sleeping.  Eek.

Maddie and Jamie brought their guitars, their amazing voices, and their incredible repertoires of personally written songs.  Those girls are talented.

These girls are sisters that moved to California last year.  The older one has come to camp a couple times before.  So they made the trip up again this year because they love camp so much. 



Pretty much the only responsibility I had to take care of for camp was the food.  I definitely purchased food for an army, remembering that at trek our kids ate a TON of food.  But it must have been the boys doing the eating or something.  We had a lot of leftovers this week, but strangely all the candy and chocolate and chips seemed to disappear. 

Every night we would have skits and singing in the amphitheater.  The older girls lead the songs for everyone.

Of course there is a lot of silliness.  This is one of the camp leaders being awesome. 

 

Maddie sure knows how to strike a pose.

 



These girls worked hard on their skit.  This is Jessica showing a couple of the younger girls the "awesome power of temptation" in her role as a shoulder devil.

Another leader showing off the rhinestone she hot glue gunned to her tooth.

While the girls stay up late every night (and get up early for the Polar Dip every morning), tradition demands that there is no curfew on the last night and they can stay up as late as they want.  We had the job of preparing breakfast for the whole camp (140 girls + leaders) the next morning.  I think I had had a total of 10 to12 hours of sleep that week at this point and I know for a fact those girls had less than me.  Here they are helping to prepare breakfast in the main lodge.   

Maddie, seeing that Abby was too tired to make herself breakfast, lovingly placed it by her head.  Abby slept on like a champ.  So sweet.

On the last day there was a Cardboard Boat Regatta Race.  Our girls have won every year previously.  This year we did not have a boat.  (Whoops.  I thought the cardboard was provided but we needed to bring our own.  Camp director fail.)  Here is one of the entrant's after shot.

While we waited for our rides to come we spelled our names with pretzels.

Then our rides came and we went home.  I made Jamie come with me to chat and to keep me awake.  Otherwise, we would have all been goners.  Again we had perfect weather.  I actually swam in the lake with them this year because it was so hot.  Usually I opt out because I'm not such a fan of hypothermia. 

All week I kept thinking that there was no where else in the world that I would rather be.  Isn't that a great feeling?  My heart was so happy.  Those girls teach me how to love better and that is quite a gift.

 

 Good times had by all.