Girls Camp

Well, we have a lot to catch up on what with our trip to Yellowstone and all, but while I wait for pictures from that trip I'll bore/entertain (your choice) you with my Girls Camp experience this last week. I was a 1st year level assistant leader. It was a lot of work and required immense amounts of patience at times, but I learned so much and had a blast! This was Tori's first year at Girls camp so it was fun to not only be at camp with her but be over her level. Unlucky for her she had 1/2 of her family joining her at Girls Camp. My mom was a last minute replacement for one of the YCL leaders and my Dad was one of the priesthood brothers for the week. It was actually a lot of fun. The first time my Dad went to Girls camp was my first year of girls camp so he thought it was neat to share that experience with both daughters. Well, I could blab on and on about my week, but I'll just highlight some moments through pictures and words.
(A nice family picture. Tori's shirt is doing something funky and if you can notice the antennas on mine and Tori's head we were the Humble Bumble Bees.)


POLAR DIP

The Polar dip is the "opportunity" girls have at 7 am to go dive into the freezing cold lake. This lake is absolutely beautiful and breath-taking...literally. The water is straight from a glacier. No one could ever convince me it is a sane thing to do, especially after the camp missionaries said by jumping in it you may induce hypothermia within 2 minutes. I know I don't have enough meat for that.
I only went out one morning to watch (the first morning) because some of our first years were going to do it. The poor things were the only ones out there (everyone else has learned their lesson over the years)...oh, and my Dad. I can't really decide if it was funny or sad, but when those faces came up out of the water and I saw the pure shock and horror on their faces I wanted to laugh, cry and yank them out all at once.


























Girls Camp Goes Green

The new thing at girls camp this year was to try and cut down on the amount of Garbage we produced so instead of paper products we all used mess kits and set up wash stations. The first basin had hot soapy water (after scraping your plate), the second had a bleach mix in and the last had hot water to rinse. The only problem was that if you were among the last to eat then you were the last to wash and hence got dirty water to wash in. But being the totally phobic of this situation I made sure all my girls got clean water to clean in (perhaps to the chagrin of some of the kitchen staff).

Canoing
What turned out to be among my favorite moments of the week was free time. A new rule this year was that every canoe had to have an "adult" leader (meaning no YCLs). Few leaders wanted to put themselves in a canoe with girls that may want to tip you in. As a result there were tons of girls wanting to go canoing and only 2 leaders willing to go out, so I dedicate the free time to being a canoe "adult". To my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like teaching the girls how to canoe and be able to enjoy the beauties and peace of the lake and help the girls recognize it too.
(nice hat huh?)






10 minutes at the SPA
Some of the stake leaders put together a little mini spa for the leaders which included parafin waking of hands and soaking feet while eating chocolate and drinking lemonade from champagne glasses. It was very delightful, but had to put your feet back into dirty socks (CAMP IS SOOOO DUSTY! NOTHING STAYS CLEAN! NOTHING!)














Ranch Dressing Dispensers
Need I say more...






THE AMAZING RACE
The theme at Girls camp this year was on Divine Nature and we centered it around the idea of The Amazing Race TV show. One night we had a giant amazing race where all the girls were mixed up into random groups and sent out from station to station to accomplish team building activities and other tasks as a group. What was truly amazing about this activity is somehow EVERY single girl was involved and smiling! I have never seen that before. Even some of the girls I was most worried about were totally into it and being befriended by other girls. It was so special to witness.

Sister Probst
I made a new friend at camp. Sister Beth Probst was the ward leader for our group and we had a blast together. She is really an amazing woman and I really enjoyed her company and our discussions together. It wasn't until the second to last day that I realized I had gone to EFY and a birthday party with her brother (Megan - you remember Jay Irish?) Well, that was a pretty amazing discovery and just added to our ability to relate.

Much more than I can or should write...
Just know that I had a wonderful, challengeing, exhausting, and FUN week at girls camp. I actually look forward to the next time I have the opportunity! It is such a special opportunity for the young women of the church to come together, feel the spirit, and enjoy God's beautiful earth! I'm thankful I had the opportunity to be apart of it.