Girls Camp

Girls camp, Girls camp, Girls camp! It was crazy to be a leader and I tried to act mature but that was hard! The theme for Girls camp was "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and it was all about the girls realizing they are the authors of their story and they are the ones that decide what to do with their lives and how their story will play out. Shandi was our Camp Director and she did such a great job. We chose Peter Pan as our theme and we had a different theme every day. The first day we were Indians and had headbands that we made. We left early Wed morning and made it up there about 11am and started setting up camp. It rained off and on that whole day. That night we had a tree singing thing where all the wards met in this meadow and each ward stood by a tree and sang a song with our flashlights on the tree. Our girls sang I Know My Redemer Lives but it was a different arrangement from the way the hymn is sung. We also had a CD with the music so that helped but our song was the best one and you could really feel the spirit while we sang it. When we got back to camp we had some hot chocolate and then it was off to bed for the girls. We went around and gave them tuck in treats and sang them a little song. The girls seemed to enjoy that. It started to rain again after everyone had gotten into their tents. It was a cold night but I slept pretty good.

All the girls before we headed out! Clean and smelling good!!

Shel and Darin helping to set the tents up

Josh also came up to help us set up camp and stay the night.

Our fearless priesthood leaders. They got to stay in the Lost Boys tent

Our sweet Indian headbands. I was Chief Big Squeeze because I like to give hugs or maybe the fact that I work doing mammograms came into play.

Day 2-Thursday-Pirate Day-Arrghh!!

This was the day of the big hike for the 1st-3rd years. We only had 1 first year and she was just baptized a few months ago so this whole girls camp thing was totally new to her. The hike was pretty uphill and they had a point where the first years could turn around but our 1st year decided to hike up the whole way. The nice part was that we hiked up a dirt road so there was plenty of room to walk by each other. I didn't think she was going to make it but she did awesome. Shelly and I also spent alot of time motivating other girls that looked liked they were going to turn around and go back. It was a great hike and I am glad we all made it to the top. We spent some time making hemp braclets and practicing for our skit that night. We sang a song titled "If I Where Not at Girls Camp". It had a lot of cute actions and we changed it to match the theme we had going. Thanks so Scott from work for hooking me up with this skit. There were some really creative skits and also some really long/lame ones. I think we came in the middle and I am already thinking of a great one for next year. Thursday night was better then Wednesday and wasn't quite so cold.

All of us at the top of the hike!!

Jen and I (I was the Hottie in our skit)

Day 3-Friday-Mermaid/Pixie Day

On Friday morning Shelly and I went for a run with Elizabeth and Amber. The elevation was hard for me but I made it. I just went slower then the other girls but I ran the whole way. When we got back it was time for breakfast and then on to the stake activity. They had a bunch of stations set up. There was a tug of war, bb gun shooting, archery, red rover, log roll and the pipe game, where you had to get all your girls up this big black tube that was set at a 45 degree angle and you had to go from the bottom up and create a human ladder. Shel and I weren't there for the first attempt and the girls weren't able to do it in the 20min time limit so they wanted to try again. We couldn't let them walk away without trying again so we did it. I did a walk/crawl up the slide. There was no way I wanted to crawl up these little girls to get to the top. I was the girl at the top that hung from peoples legs and the ladder got to hold onto my feet and they helped to pull girls up. I'm just glad I wasn't Shelly and Shandi and had to be at the bottom with everyone stepping on me. We made it in the 20 min and they girls all felt great about themselves. Then we got back to camp.

When we got back we had about 20 min before we were supposed to go to the Pavillion for lunch. Everyone was already there and they weren't standing in line but sitting at the tables and they were SO quiet. They must have been there for a little while cause one of the leaders came to tell us that another leader, Christy Forsyth, had just passed away. We were in total shock. I guess she had gone down to a friends cabin with another leader and her husband to take a shower and never came out of the bathroom and they had to breakdown the door. They think she had an anerysum while she was putting her make-up on. She was only 42 and had a son coming home from his mission in 6 weeks, a daughter just graduate and another daughter,14,who was up there at camp with her. Our wards were recently switched around and alot of the girls in our ward had had Christy for their YW leader. The Stake leaders decided to pack up and end girls camp. We decide to pack up as well. I think a few wards stayed but most came home. We finished Girls Camp on Sunday with our testimony meeting and gave out the camp awards. It's just such a unreal thing to have happen. My prayers go out to the family and to those girls. I can't imagine losing my mom at their age.

So it was a crazy few days and despite the tragedy we had a great time and I think the girls really came together and got closer to each other and that's all you can hope for at girls camp.