Purple Power & Five Fantastic Years

Let me begin by saying that this post (similar to most of my posts, but much longer this time) will be a total travelogue. Brace yourself. Know that I have edited LOTS, so here are some of the highlights.

I just returned yesterday from Girls Camp. We go to Mia Shalom which is about 90 minutes southeast from our house. We left early Tuesday morning. John insisted on taking the day off and driving us up, pulling the trailer. I didn't object! He also helped us set up camp. Great guy!

Here is the first official camp photo. We're happy and clean. The happiness continued to the last day. The cleanliness only lasted a few hours. The stake camp theme was "Be Thou an Example." We had to choose a light source and a value (from the Personal Progress program). We chose the moon & stars as our light source. We chose integrity as our value as is evident by all the purple. We made our cool t-shirts a few weeks ago by spraying bleach over the die-cuts we had laid out on our shirts.

We had 7 young women and 5 leaders at camp. Everyone got along fantastically. Three days before camp a new girl moved into our ward and she wanted to come to camp which was great! Also, a non-member friend of one girl came with us. We had lots of missionary moments. This is me sharing a Book of Mormon with Heidi. She was a fabulous addition to our group. Her parents are from China. She was born in Hawaii and has only been in Utah a short time. She had lots of questions and listened carefully to everything. She also had many "firsts" at camp. She made her first s'more and loved it. She ate several every night. Our first night, around the campfire, someone mentioned that we would be getting up at the "butt crack of dawn" for the hike the next morning. She asked me what that meant. That was fun to explain.

One of our first activities was the Confidence Course. There are a variety of activities. This particular one is the called the spider web. Each girl has to go through to the other side without touching any strings. Also, no hole can be used more than once. So, the leaders lifted most of the young girls through the top holes and then went through the lower ones.

Each afternoon or evening we had group scripture study around the campfire. It was great to see the girls get excited about studying their scriptures. Hopefully it will be a habit they continue after camp. Each night we enjoyed s'mores or hot chocolate around the campfire. I was also introduced to roasting Starburst candies. They get kind of crusty on the outside with a warm melty inside. One was enough for me. I'll stick with s'mores anyday!

And here we are on the aforementioned hike. We began just before sunrise and hiked about 3 miles.

The picture shows last year's campground, but also it shows the beautiful area we were in. If you double click on the photo and look closely you'll see the lake where the girls canoed. The weather was perfect the entire time we were there. Warm sunny days, just right for all of our activities. Cool nights, perfect for campfires.
That same day we did some crafts and had a stake gathering. Our girls did a matching game.

The highlight of the 2nd night was a prank pulled by the girls on Mandy, my 2nd counselor. One of the girls had brought a remote controlled "fart" machine. They put the machine under her foam pad, gave me the remote, and watched from outside the window. (see picture at left) I waited until Mandy sat down and then pushed the button. She said, "Did you hear that creaking noise?" The other 2 leaders and I started laughing. She said "I'm so confused." When it was quiet I hit the button again. We gave her a hard time. She said, "I didn't do anything." We couldn't stop laughing and finally had to tell her. She was a great sport about it. Still makes me laugh!

Food was an important part of camp. We roasted hot dogs and made sandwiches. We had tin foil dinners and Hawaiian haystacks. Breakfasts included french toast and "omelettes in a bag." This was new to me. You just drop two eggs and your toppings in a Ziploc bag and boil it. My masterpiece included tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, & bacon bits.

Thursday we did a service project and cleared wood from an area. We stacked it on a trailer and it was brought back for fire wood. All of the girls were so willing to help. They got to use a saw to cut logs which they enjoyed, until they broke it. Please notice the purple gloves we were all wearing. Purple power was everywhere.

There is one bathroom at the camp with flushing toilets (thank goodness) and ice cold running water for showers. So as to not clog the shower drains, you have to wash your hair at the water spigot in your campsite. It was so cold I had a major headache, but it did feel good to have clean hair. I heated water in a pan and took a bucket shower. It felt good to be clean, if only for a little while.

That night was skit night. We were given several props by the stake leaders. The girls created Star Search/Integrity Idol to go along with our theme. It was fun to listen to them create the skit and they did a great job performing it. Very entertaining.

Friday was our final full day at camp. We had more time on the lake and at the Confidence Course. For this particular activity, the girls had to walk on the posts blind-folded.

That afternoon John came back up to cook us a dutch oven dinner. He made BBQ chicken, potatoes, baked beans, and a peach cobbler. It was DE-LISH! He didn't want any help. He's such a hard worker. Heidi was very curious about the dutch ovens. John was so cute giving her all the details.




In addition to cooking for us, the main reason that John came up to camp was to be with me on our 5-year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been five fantastic years! He is such a great husband and father. He is kind & caring and always willing to help. He makes me laugh. He's so patient with me. He's my very best friend and I love spending time with him. So, it was a little hard to be romantic at camp, but I'm so grateful he was willing to come up and be with me, plus cook us a delicious meal. The poor guy slept on the trailer floor – that's true love! Thanks John. I love you!

The bishop, his 2nd counselor, and their wives also came up for the last night. Here we are at the final flag ceremony where the girls received their certificates. From there we returned to our campsite for a testimony meeting.

Before we started, Danielle & Iriana (the oldest 2 girls) gave out "paper plate awards" that they had created. Here's mine:
Testimony meeting was wonderful. Even Heidi shared a short testimony about how much she had enjoyed Girls Camp and how grateful she was for the girls' acceptance of her. Of course we were all tearful by the end.

Yesterday morning we got up, packed up, and came home. A long, hot shower is a wonderful thing. So is air-conditioning. I also enjoy having a refrigerator. Much less dirt and almost no bugs is also quite nice. All that aside, I loved Girls Camp.