Girl's Camp '11

Last week I had the opportunity to go to girls camp.  It was a lot of fun!  I went up w/ the girls on the school bus (yes that's right school bus, I don't know why I was expecting a charter bus.  I guess b/c whenever I was in the youth and we traveled on buses, which was not often at all, it was a nice charter.  So I was let's just say, a little surprised ;) bright and early in the morning.  It was so much harder for me to leave my family this year, I was not expecting that at all!  I was so excited to go, but for some reason I felt so guilty and sad to leave, I might or might not have shed a few tears when Cameron dropped me off.  It didn't help that I didn't get to see the boys or talk to them the whole first day!!  I could not find anywhere w/ signal, until late that night, after the boys had gone to bed.  I found one single spot, that usually worked for me the rest of camp.  Oh, we got to go to Heber Valley LDS Girls Camp, so it was out in the middle of no where but beautiful!  (The service missionaries that ran the camp told us that it was dedicated as a temple w/o a roof and was sacred grounds.  It is run by the temple committee!  I found this blog that explains all about this amazing camp first hand.)  We did tons of fun activities, which you'll see below.  And I got to stay until late, late, late Thursday night (I didn't get home until 2 in the mornin!)  The girls got home around noon on Friday, so I practically stayed the whole time.

This was sitting outside our cabin door when we arrived.  Our ward girls were the Pirates of Traverse Mountain.  Our stake them was "Coming to your senses."

Our wonderful ward camp leader, Emily, made everything to go along w/ our theme!  She was amazing!  This was the other side of the flag.

To the left you can see what PIRATES stood for.  Isn't the banner adorable?!  I forgot to take pictures of the bunk beds and the outside of the cabin.

For our first night devotional we got to hear from Hilary Weeks and Kris Belcher.  They are 2 amazing women!!  Hilary Week sings the beautiful song, "He Hears Me" and the most beautiful rendition of "I am a Child of God" I've ever heard!  Kris was so funny and uplifting about her life and being blind and how to trust in the Lord.

Hilary has the most beautiful, calming voice!

The next day we hiked to a lake.  The girls got to canoe while the leaders paddle boated.  These were the 2 wonderful ladies that put our ward camp activities together, Carly and Emily.  Seriously amazing ladies, I was happy to get to know them better! 

All of us after being out on the water. 

 

We got to take part in the Challenge Course.  I got to be in charge of a specific course called "Shark Island."  It was a lot of fun, but after I finished I got to do the ropes course, which was tons of fun!

Climbing the pole was nothing compared to...

Walking across the tight rope!! AHH!! I know I was attached to ropes, but still, dang scary!

I had to hold on by these hanging ropes, one after another until I got across to the platform to...

the zip line!  I've done zip lines in the past and it was always a lot of fun, but I was encouraged to go down backwards this time!  It was so hard for me to just fall.  I think I stood up there for at least 5 minutes trying to fall, but couldn't let go! 

Finally I did!  I was so happy that I pushed my self to try something new, it was fun once the shock of falling had passed. 

2 of the YW leaders who came up Tuesday Night, Jamie and Chelsi. These women are amazing!  I'm glad we got to go together. This was during our stake craft activity.  We made beautiful temple blocks!

This was my block.  I decorated it to go along w/ my living room colors.  This was taken after I found it's new home, on my mantle, above the fireplace.

That night we got to roast marshmallows.  But, due to a horrible, cold, thunderstorm rolling in, we had to do it under a covered area, not over the camp fire as intended.

We had a lot of crafts we got to do as a ward.

Thursday we all decided to fix our hair and decorate ourselves alike.  These were all the leaders who attended L-R: Chelsi (the president), Me (Beehive Advisor), Jamie (1st Counselor), Kychelle (Showed up Wed. Night, Secretary), Emily and Carly.

All the girls! Top L-R (Neyely, Oakley, Bryley, Amber R., Alyssa, Amber C., Hanna, Danielle, Katelyn, Rachel, Kristin, Samantha, Brooklyn and Makayla.

Emily made every one of us these cute backpacks to carry everything around in at camp.  The last night the stake yw leaders encouraged us to donate them to the children in an orphanage in India.  I'm pretty sure every single girl and women from the stake gave up their bags.  It was sad to give away, but great to know that these children are going to be so excited. 

That night was also bishopric night, when all the bishops come to camp and we do activities as wards.  Before we split up into wards, they did a Bishops Challenge.  It was Minute to Win It Games, they were split up in 5 groups, each using one of the 5 senses.  Our Bishop (on the left) participated in the sense of smell challenge.  It was called something about Rudolph, and they had to put a ton of Vaseline on the tips of their noses and sling the red ball up to their noses.

Bishop Stroud won!!

Our Bishopric!  Bishop Stroud (he got a nose medal for winning), Brother Pat and Brother Tim.  They were each so excited to participate in games!  This was my favorite game, the animal game, one person was blind folded, spun around and pointed at someone and asked them to make an animal noise or impression of something/someone.  They then had to guess who that person was...this continued until they guessed right.  It was fun!

Later that night we had a wonderful testimony meeting by the campfire followed by a faith walk.  We were the last group out of 14 wards to go though.  We didn't get done until after midnight!  The theme of the faith walk was Lehi's dream, it was amazing.  After we got back, the leaders that had to leave (including myself) packed up and left.  Like I said before, I didn't get home until 2 AM and in bed until after 2:30.  I was so tired the next day, but it was so worth it!  I loved every minute of girls camp and am so grateful for having the opportunity to go.  Our Young Women are all so amazing.  They have such strong testimonies and treat each other w/ such love and respect.  I would totally do it all over again!

The next morning we said good-bye to Papa and Grandma.  Thanks so much for watching the boys!  They loved every minute of it and still ask for ya'll to come over.  Luckily, they won't be too far away, they moved to Park City for the Summer!  We've already gotten to see quite a bit of them :)