Friday Fun--What a week of Girl's Camp Looks Like

A tad bit early. :D

I should do some Friday Follows, because I have a ton of amazing blog posts from WriteOnCon, but I'll organize them by topic for next week. Instead, I'm going to share some of the fun of girl's camp. All of my pictures were taken on the day the girls arrived, and then my camera quit!

So, join me on our journey to OZ.

Day 1: Arrive and prepare for the first influx of girls and leaders. A lot of up and down stairs! I wish I had taken a picture of the hill and kazillion steps we had to walk up to the Mess hall.

Day 2: The first group of girls arrive. These are the YCL's or Youth Camp Leaders and the Camp Director for each of the groups coming. We do some training, learn the new dance, send the girls off to have fun while we do more work. Oh, and we blobbed each other on this day.

Sorry, I don't have a picture of me. Wish I did, but here is another leader getting blobbed. That was our new phrase for the week. "Will you blob me?" "I got blobbed by Pres. C!" "You so blobbed her!"

Our wonderful Emerald City Poster. Isn't it great.

Day 3: All the other girls arrive. here I am manning the Level 2 desk. These were my girls from last year. I was so glad to be with the same ones this year. Everyone got a shirt with a rainbow on the front and the year. On the back was a swirling yellow brick road with our scripture them in it. Doctrine &Covenants 25:2 "…and if thou art faithful and walk in the paths of virtue before me, I will preserve thy life, and thou shalt receive an inheritance in Zion." Isn't that a beautiful promise?

We show the girls around, help them get settled, meet the camp owner for some rules, and then the craziness begins!

Another candid, don't remember what I was thinking here.

Oh, wait, here we are being crazy still waiting for everyone to show up. :) Dancing on the stage. It doesn't get any cheesier or better than this folks! That's me in the middle in the lighter Capris.

There was a little skit welcoming everyone to camp. I work with some totally awesome women! I was in charge of holding up the "Applause" and "Ward Chant" signs. (Ok, brief vocab lesson for my church--we call individual congregations wards. I don't know why, we just do. Anyway, we had seven or eight wards at camp. Each one has a cheer or chant for roll call.)

Then everyone danced! Isn't this an amazing outdoor gym? It was wonderful when it rained. We could still get together and party all in one place!

Later that night we had introductions. All the leaders had to dance our way onto the stage and then when our group was out, we struck a pose. For a social person, I'm surprisingly self conscious in times like this. This year, I said, "Who cares! Have fun!" and I had a great time looking as stupid as I could. :D

Day 4: Things really get rolling. My group is in charge of the flag raising and lowering everyday. We have some ups and downs. LOL, sorry couldn't resist. The flag pole was missing the thing you tie the rope to after you raise the flag. We had to have some quick lessons on knots in front of the whole camp. Breakfast, DEAR time (drop everything and read!) yep, awesome camp. Then it was time to work on certification stuff. Hiking safety, locating the north star, identifying clouds and poisonous plants. That sort of thing.

Next came electives. We had some amazing ones this year: riflery (sp?), archery, crafts, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rock climbing, canoeing, choir, some spiritual classes, mountain biking and hiking. I was in charge of the hike and we learned to identify lots of trees in our area. I enjoyed it, I hope they did too.

Finally, it's time for lunch! Then the band aid fair. I helped man an air popcorn machine and hand out cotton candy while the girls learned first aid skills. It was a blast!

Free time was next! This is when I left for the Urgent Care with my daughter, so we missed the rest of the night (dinner, evening program, Super Dessert Bar).

I crawled into bed at 12:30am.

Day 5: Start the same thing all over, minus one daughter. I stayed to help with the big certification challenge, which if a huge storm had not hit, would have been amazing. When the storm did hit, I packed up and headed home at about 3pm. Sad to leave, but glad to be going home to my family.


Day 6: Would have been the skits--always a huge hit and tons of fun. Here is a picture of my "ward" after their skit.

Gotta love Facebook. Thanks for the pic! Oh, I wish I had a picture of my in my crazy socks. I did wear them one day, but it was too hot after that.

This is also the day the girls have their testimony meeting. I'm really sorry I missed this part. It amazes me how strong our youth are today. They have values, the believe in things that make them strong. Things that help them make good choices in this crazy world. I am very privileged to spend so much time with these stalwart youth.

Day 7: Awards, pack up and head home. Sleep all afternoon, post pics on facebook and start planning for next year.