We survived Girl's Camp 2012!

I say 'we' because the girls had to survive my scatter-brained shot at being organized after the last month, just as much as I had to survive the late nights and cray-cray girls!!

I was so blessed to go with the group of girls that I did.  This is my second year as ward camp director and both years I have been so proud to say that I am their leader, yet they are the ones who definitely are the example to me.  There is no possible way I could have survived, let alone succeeded at leading camp this year if it weren't for the tremendous young women and their leaders that helped me with every step of the way!  Way to go Sixth Ward Sexies!!  (That's our nickname / motto.  Yeah, we are proud!)

We were able to go to a cabin this year; it belongs to one of the leaders. The picture below is of most of the girls on the patio.  It's actually the roof of the garage, but we spent as much time there as possible just because of the beautiful view and the breeze.  But it's also where our troubles began...

Here's a picture of some of the girls in front of  'the cows.'  On our first evening, we went for a value walk, which was a nice leisurely stroll down the dirt road in front of the cabin and the paved road to the river.  Like I said, a nice leisurely stroll.  Before we started, one of the girls showed us how she can talk to cows.  It worked!!  When Kelsey mooed, all the cows stopped grazing and looked right at her.  So, all the other girls had to try it.  They weren't as successful as Kelsey, but it was entertaining to see 16 girls trying to have a conversation with cows.  We think this is what caused the cops to be called on us.  Yup.  You read that right.  At 9:30 that night we had 2 sheriff officers pull up while we were having a very reverent, spiritual devotional to tell us they had received multiple calls throughout the day and would we please try to keep it down.  Are you kidding me?  After much discussion, we decided it must have been when we were cow whisperers - or maybe I should say cow yellers.  But who knew you couldn't moo at cows in Oakley in the middle of the day?

So the first day was getting settled in, the value walk, some good food and fun, and a near arrest.  Great start!  I slept in our van off the side of the road, because I snore so loud I would either keep everyone awake with my snoring, or I wouldn't sleep for fear of keeping everyone awake.  Around 6 am I hear, "clip clop.  clip clop"  and then these 2 huge nostrils are sniffing the window next to me.  I sit up to see 2 riderless horses taking a little jaunt down the street.  This is a picture of one of the horses, but they were too close for me to get them both in.

  Hmmmm. Interesting start to the day. We then went boating at Rockport (thanks, George!! You are incredible!!!) which is when we got the cops called on us a second time!! No kidding! I guess I should call them the coast guard since it was at the lake. Someone said they were nervous about how many people were on the bow of the boat. If you have seen our boat, you know that there is a railing and that we can sit on the bow if we are straddling a bar from the railing. Well, the coast guard came out and asked Mike how many people he could legally have on the boat. His smart remark, "10 1/2." After the cop guffawed, he asked again, to which Mike finally answered correctly "10." When the cop said, "But you only have seats for 5..." Mike informed him of the law in Utah that allows people to sit up front if they are straddling the bar. Looking right at them he asked, "And are they all straddling a bar?" "Yes." "Does everyone have a life vest?" Again remember he is looking right at everyone... "Yes." "OK have a nice day!"

Wow. They really have nothing to do in that area except sic cops on innocent girls.

We ended the day with no injuries, very light sunburns and a group of exhausted women.

The next day we did our 5 mile hike.  It was on our schedule as a 5 miler, but of course since we were still tired from boating, we thought we would just take a little hike then come back and do crafts.  The little hike was longer than expected!  One of our priesthood leaders took a truck up to the top so our lunches were in coolers, so instead of hiking down the longer than expected hike, and so we could maybe be 3 for 3 in the cop calling arena, we put all 16 girls in the back of the pickup!!  No cops were called (darn) but it was good fun! 

We had a fantastic testimony meeting that we started on the patio, but ended up in the living room of the cabin because of a good strong rain.  And on our last day we held a birthday party for girl's camp.  It's been 100 years since the first organized church girl's camp and we wanted to acknowledge it.  We had the girls write down something they always wanted themselves to remember - or not forget since our theme was "Forget me not."  Then they tied the paper to a balloon and we let them go out on the patio while we sang "I am a Child of God." 

Girl's camp is a place to be silly and outright weird while at the same time being filled spiritually and increasing our testimonies.  We definitely were able to do all of the above!  Because I wasn't as organized as I maybe would have been if Cali hadn't gotten sick, I led by the spirit a lot more than usual.  One thing we did that was because of a prompting was have 'family counsels' and family prayers.  They were both awesome experiences, for me and the girls.  During the family counsels I gave them a topic and we all shared our thoughts on that topic;  something you need to tell one of your parents that you like about them or that makes you proud of them, something to someone in the room that you never want them to forget, and on the last day, with the balloon launch they had to vocalize something they loved from camp that they want to always remember and want everyone there to remember as well as write down what they wanted themselves to never forget about anything.  The girls really opened up and said some deep and kind things.  Plus I think it helped us grow even closer, which if you knew these girls you wouldn't have thought possible because they are already pretty tight.

And that's girl's camp.  Sixth Ward Sexies on three. 1, 2, 3!  Sixth Ward Sexies!!!