Girls Camp 2010

I attended girls camp this year as a 2nd years leader. The theme was The Amazing Race and it was one amazing week, let me tell you! It is actually kind of hard to blog about because finding words to describe it are difficult and don't do much justice. But I wanted to try my best before I forgot too much. I haven't laughed so hard or cried so much in a long time. I missed my husband and kids, but I knew they were in good hands and that they were being watched over.

The night before we left, I had Matt give me a priesthood blessing because to say I was nervous was a total understatement. I didn't know what to expect. The last time I was at camp was when I was a youth and our camp growing up was nothing like this. I was nervous about critters such as snakes. We sleep not in tents, but out on the ground on a tarp. There was a bear that had been in camp all summer long. He hadn't harmed anyone, but was looking for food. I was nervous about being a leader. You really try hard to make an impact on these girls for good and you really hope that what you spend the week trying to get through to them works. And of course, leaving home is always hard. I feel very out of control when I don't have my kids within a few minutes reach. I was lucky to have some amazing friends watch them during the day and they had their dad at night.

We arrived bright and early Monday morning at the church to hear that the mother of one of our main stake level leaders had passed away the night before. She would not be attending camp. This was sad news to all, but camp had to go on. The girls piled in the buses and the leaders in cars and we were off.

I rode up with my good friends, Mike and Cherie Von Savoye and Kristine Cortes. They had been at camp before so it was good to hear some input and advice. Our last town was Auburn and they had an In-N-Out. We stopped for a very early lunch (I was customer #2 for the day) and I thought, "double-double" here we go because shoot, you starve at camp. I mean, growing up whenever we were camping, food was a little slim. The other 3 laughed at me and said, "you don't starve at camp, you gain weight!!" I stuck with my single burger.

They weren't lying. The food is amazing. 3 huge meals a day, with dessert and a canteen snack every afternoon. These are not small meals. These are humongous buffets. It did more damage to me than a week in Utah. The girls sing for their food, really loud crazy camp songs and it is noisy. But so much fun. The spirit of camp is just incredible.

I was a little out of it the first day or so. I walked around with my other leaders with wide eyes, just taking it all in. There was so much to learn and camp was pretty big. Every morning the brethren at camp went around and sang to the different groups and handed out hot cocoa. We had flag ceremony each morning and evening. This was touching to me because it has been a while since I said the Pledge of Allegience and man, those words are so important to me and seem very forgotten by our country in general. Each year came up with their own lolly and diddy (cheers) as well as the stake staff and brethren. Evenings we had a fireside with fun entertainment and ended on a spiritual note by singing "Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God" around the fire holding hands. What a neat experience. I can only hope that I get to accompany my daughters here someday.

I conquered one of my fears and swam in a lake that had many many fish and also snakes. I never saw a snake, but I know they are in there. Each level had to certify in "swimming to the rock" and this pic below shows the rock (basically swimming across the small part of the lake). I did it, making sure Iwas flanked on all sides by leaders ;) but I also did the Polar Bear Swim on friday morning--getting in the water at 6am, not the funnest thing ever, but now I have some major bragging rights.
Here is our 2nd years and leaders. The big event for our girls as 2nd years is an overnight hike. We left Wednesday morning and hiked to Blue Lake. We had lunch, dropped our packs and hiked up to Zions Peak (amazing). Then we headed to camp across the other side of Blue Lake where we camped overnight--again no tents, just tarps and sleeping bags.

Here we are in camp before leaving for our hike.

Diedra is in my new ward and I am so glad that I got to be a leader with her. Not only did she and Stephanie (the other leader) have tons of knowledge, having been at camp several years now, but I was glad to make a friend in my new ward.

My girls are amazing. I just love them. When you spend a week with them and watch them conquer fears and build confidence, you can't help but truly see them just as our Father in Heaven sees them. They are beautiful. Some girls went to bed each night terrified of the bear, but stuck it out and made it till morning. Others had never gone to the bathroom outdoors but did and found it wasn't so bad. Some swam in a lake that was full of swimming creatures, and others simply came out of their shell socially. I came home and all I wanted to do was find them on Facebook because I want to always know what they are doing and up to. I sure love them.

Here are the girls at the top of Zions Peak. Down below is our waterfront in camp, if you look close you can see the buoys. Zions Peak was amazing, you could see 4 different lakes clearly, you could even see Interstate 80.

This is my camera zoomed in on I-80. On our way home Saturday morning, I actually had a clear view of Zions Peak as we were on this stretch of freeway. That is neat because we travel this going to and from Utah. Now I will get to see this beautiful area each time we travel and remember this time at camp.

Here are the 2nd year leaders. There are 3 women (myself, Diedra and Stephanie). As well as 3 men plus an honorary leader Bob Ireland, who accompanied us on our overnight hike. He wore lots of Cabelas labels and it made me miss my dad.

Our canteen on our overnight hike was watermelon, cut open by the brethren on a rock. Good stuff.

One of my favorite memories was us women leaders getting the meal ready while out on our overnighter. We have to certify by cooking outdoors, so Stephanie and Diedra made spaghetti ahead of time and froze the sauce and noodles in ziplock bags. We thought it would be brilliant just to boil water and stick the bag in, thus heating it up. Well, not so brilliant because the plastic melted in the pans and we almost had a major catastrophe. We saved dinner, though, but I have not laughed so hard in my life as I did then.

Dessert was banana boats (bananas sliced lengthwise with hersheys bar and marshmallows, then wrapped back up and heated in the fire). I didn't try one because some of the bananas rotted and we were short on supply, but they smelled good. Plus, I was plenty full off of spaghetti with a special plastic-infused sauce ;)

Blue Lake at dusk as we got ready for camping overnight. This was a pretty scary night for me. I pretty much crawled down my sleeping bag, cinched it up and didn't come out until morning. But I did hear something in the middle of the night, walking right behind me, ever so delicately. Not a bear, maybe a deer or something? I will never know. But I did almost wet my pants.

Another moment of laughing so hard I cried. Watching our brethren make a "bear bag." We have to hang all our food in the tree away from camp so that bears don't get it. Well, it was harder than it sounded I guess and here is what the dudes came up with:

I guess if the bear was only like 10 inches tall it would be fine:) But it held and our food was untouched in the morning.

Hiking home the following morning. We had some gals from the Cambodian branches as well as Spanish branch. I loved getting to know these ladies, such a dear place in my heart they have now.

The last stretch, here they are hiking back into camp, exhausted and weary, but singing their hearts out!

Other than our overnighter, this was where we slept. That is my sleeping bag in the middle--the blue one. Yes, I got the best deal, I was in the middle. The bear would have had to eat Diedra or Stephanie before me. I will tell you next time I go, I AM BRINGING A DANG COT!! Seriously, there were spiders everywhere, crawling all over our pillows and sleeping bags and packs. Don't even get me started on the ants, they were like an inch long and on steroids. I didn't see a single snake, but I know they are there because the pavilion is full of skins hanging as trophies from perevious stakes.

Heading home on SaturdayThese were our 3 big sisters. They were the best, THE BEST! I am not kidding. I miss them a lot.

Two of my girls had Justin Bieber shirts and all the girls loved him and sang his songs and the leaders just rolled their eyes. I snatched one of the shirts and put it on for this pic. Thanks, Brittney :)

Well, it was a good time and I sure hope I get to go back and serve again. Camp really is a special place. You come to know these leaders and girls so well and you just grow to love them like crazy. I had some withdrawals the first few days back, the real world can sometimes slap you in the face a little. But it gave me a good perspective on life, being a mother and helped me become more of the person I really want to be.

As a little post script, if you ware wondering, Mister Bear did show up the last 3 nights of camp. He wandered through scaring some of our stake staff and quilting ladies greatly. But as 2nd years, he never came through our area. OH WELL!