All Aboard the Discipleship, time for Girls Camp!!

Let me tell you story about a wonderful week:

Once upon a time, we met at the church and loaded up the cars. The trailer had been packed the night before, so we were ready to go. A song, a prayer, a short thought from Pres. Savage and we were on our way..let’s go!

I had the fun car…

We got to camp and began to decorate, yes, decorate. It looked amazing! Our color was green, our value was Knowledge, our ship was Discipleship, there’s a lot of good stuff to work with there.

Elaine Bishop’s daughter drew the picture of Christ on our banner, so beautiful!! We each had matching sweats with our names or nicknames on them (thanks Lynette!!)

After we got our tents set up and camp ready, we headed down to our lake time… oh yeah, there was a lake!

We made adorable bracelets with anchors on them to go along with the theme, then jumped in the lake. It was so hot, so the lake felt amazing. Nevermind the leeches, if you didn’t stand on the sand for too long, you didn’t even have to worry about them! There were canoes, life jackets for everyone, a zip line, and even an inflatable trampoline in the middle of the lake, it was fabulous! And it kind of counted for our showers every day…

That night at the stake was dance party! They turned up the tunes and everyone got jiggy with it. It was a blast!!

 

Next day, bright and early, we headed down to the Stake area again to start the day right. The 4th year hikers were coming into camp today, so we were going to meet them.

Side note: Because our ward camp director Elaine is amazing, there was little for the leaders to do. It was all in the prep work, so we actually had time to relax. Seriously! I painted my nails green and they didn’t even get messed up before they dried. I chatted with the girls. We played games and had time to be together. It was magical.

    

While we waited in the 100 degree heat for the 4th years, we photographed our beauty…Bailey loves it when I take her picture.

 

  Nikki, our only 4th year, came through the victory tunnel and promptly gave her pack to the first year Beehives to carry. Tradition.

That afternoon, we had time to go to the lake, this time in age groups instead of ward groups. We had a great group of Mia Maids and I ended up in the middle of the lake on the trampoline talking to the girls and playing truth or dare. This was one of my highlights because we had our Mia Maids and Kaitlyn plus the other girls from the stake, and we just got to talk and visit and laugh. I love these girls!

Our big skit was tonight, so naturally we dressed up in green tulle and did a dance to “Happy”. Hilarious! 

Our fearless leaders and may I present,

The worst picture in the world. It’s so bad, I can’t not share it. Let’s call it a before picture and be done with it. Photo credit to Koko, thanks daughter. Mia Maids were in charge of dinner tonight…gourmet hot dog bar and s’mores. When we were asked to do meals, the girls said, “We go camping, but we never have hot dogs or s’mores!!” Done. And it was delicious!

We had a wonderful meeting where each member of the presidency and the Youth Camp Leaders shared some thoughts and a testimony. I love the spiritual part of camp so much! The next day was service and quiet time. Each girl got a little pack, pen, paper, etc. and took their scriptures to a quiet place near the lake to read and ponder and write their thoughts. It was so serene and beautiful. Near the end of our time, Bliss, who isn’t known for his inside voice began yelling at the fish he was trying to catch. He caught a few, and we got ready to get in the lake, apparently quiet time was over. He asked me to take a picture and send it to Joe…they serve in scouts together, he’s a very cool guy!

Before jumping in the lake, we did a service project. We decorated flip-flops to ship to another country, and wrote testimonies with our pictures to send with them.

Right after lake time, we went next door to shoot potato guns…now that was fun! They put some inflatable alligators on the hill as our targets. Whoever hit them, got to keep them.

Some tightrope action, some eyebrow tweezing and we’re ready to go.

Bailey had the coolest chair and the prettiest facial expressions….

We had wonderful firesides, literally, at the stake every day. Our girls got to participate all week: roll call, skits, reading scriptures, and more…it was fantastic!

Of course with all these girls, the boys bathroom was temporarily re-assigned.

There were fun pranks, an amazing snipe hunt for the first years (including the capture of a baby snipe that made noise!), great food, great company. The Bishopric came up our last night for a delicious dinner of Café Rio style dinner and testimony meeting. It was the real highlight. It was a joy to watch the older girls take the younger girls under their wings and accept them and make them feel like part of everything. There was cohesion, there was kindness, there were great examples.

The first night, we had an issue with the 1st years (including Emma), I could hear them from the tent I was sharing with Misty and Lynette down the hill. I went up to their tent and said, “Emma, a word?” That ended up being the line of the week, but I wanted to make sure the girls were calming down, it was very late. I took them all to the bathroom then figuratively tucked them in, told them I loved them, and I’d see them in the morning.

The next night was Misty’s turn because Cassidy came and got her. A little drama is good for the 1st years, and maybe even required. After that, they were great!

There were pranks like fake bugs and severed fingers in sandwiches. Koko got the finger in her pulled pork, she freaked!!

There was laughter and tears and hugs and relationships strengthened and renewed. There is something special about Girls Camp, there’s no denying it. I loved every minute of it!!

We got home, got our stuff and met Dad and the kids at Italian Village. Jake and kids were there, Liz was at Youth Conference. Mark and Sue were there who helped with the kids this week. Joe took the whole week off work and stayed with the kids, what a blessing! The kids had a blast and Daddy was superman at home. He got a lot of stuff done, they had a lot of fun, and it was a good situation all around. I’m grateful for my man!!

We were all sweaty and stinky and desperately needed a shower, but we met Joe for lunch and went home to a spotless house. Girls, marry a man that will do that for you!!