Walk With Me Girl's Camp

Monday. We had a lazy day recovering from travel. The kids loved their bracelets, necklaces, and shells I collected from Secret Beach. Tuesday it was back to life. Evelyn and I had to get packed up for Girl’s Camp before 7 pm, our bins needed to be at the Overalls by then so the trailer could be packed and locked for an early departure Wednesday morning. The fridge was empty so it was off to our bougie Walmart for food and Girl’s Camp snacks. I tried to not attend Girl’s Camp several times, the leaders kept asking so I finally bent and went. Evelyn was happy about that. 

We met at the church at 6:30 am…I was the only leader besides the Stake YW Presidency who arrived on time. We waited an HOUR for the rest to show up. That was another hour my bed could’ve cradled me. My pants were a little cranky that morning. Kim changed the camp location to the Siscra campground last week because Sage Hen is still under construction. That turned out to be blessing, no joke. I had Evelyn, Finlee, and Aria in the back row, Ambree and Kiana in the next row of seats, and Ashley in the front seat. Ashley is new to our ward so I was grateful to get to know her a little bit. Turned out it was just a little bit because she slept 2 out of 2.5 hours! Darn it. We sang to Greatest Showman until we passed through the “deadman’s phone zone.” Kiana had us playing “Fortunately, Unfortunately” the rest of the drive up to Lake Donnelly. There was a lot of Cheeto men, Dorito guys, swords and bums, and sharks. Trust me it was strange. Once everyone else arrived our task was setting up 6 Scout tents and a large 10-man tent for 3 leaders. I shared a tent with Sarah Parker. Everyone had opinions about which fire pit was going to be used, which girls would sleep where, who was in each tent, etc. I let them haggle over it. In the end I think the girl’s were able to choose their mates and tents (Phew). Kim reserved the Rec Room for the duration. It had a full kitchen, two fridges, stove, and other cooking supplies stocked. That made Amanda’s job as camp chef much easier. The rec room was fully enclosed with tables, chairs, and games as well. We had a quick lunch then drove the mile down to the beach area. It was a lovely, lovely day to float around in the lake. Ashley disappeared with my paddle board for over an hour…we found her fast asleep floating along with the lake currents. That gave me a scare. Dinner was chicken kebabs, rice, and fruit. Delish! The YCLs prepared morning and evening devotionals for each day we were at camp. I stayed up until 1 am hoping to see the Northern Lights, the moon was too bright to see them clearly. While waiting Kim, Christine, Jenny, and I talked about all things girl for a couple hours. 

Thursday we got our camp shirts, which turned out so cute. The leaders took the girls on a hike, I stayed back to baby my feet. Amanda and Nate also left to get some paper plates. I worked on crocheted bracelets for fun and perusing the Amazon Sale offerings. Evelyn brought me back a gorgeous bouquet of wild flowers. As Josie would say, “smells like allergies!” We drove out to Boulder Creek after a quick lunch for lake time. Lake time is good for the soul. The rain started right after we retired to our tents, it rained practically non-stop until Saturday afternoon. Luckily, we had time to roast s’mores before the deluge. 

Friday we spent the day cooped up in the rec center working on crafts, playing games, shooting pool, listening to music, and other nefarious activities. Finlee started pouring Pixie Stix down Kiana’s throat, it quickly devolved into a pixie stix war with Finlee choking down 20 stix’s worth of powder. Hilarious. The rain stopped long enough for us to do a Faith Walk. I was asked to do station 3, having faith when things get hard. I created a path away from the main easy path that was rocky and more difficult. The path ended at a black sheet. The idea was sometimes we have to take one step at a time not knowing what is coming next, trusting the Savior to lead us along the more difficult paths. As the girls went from station to station they had to add heavy rocks to bags or packs each girl carried. The faith walk ended at the Rec Center where we sat around a painting of Christ on an easel. The girls went up one by one to place their burdens in front of the savior, kneeling as they did so. That was powerful, cheesy but effective! We ended with our testimony meeting and parent letters. The rain resumed as we danced our hearts out for an hour with glow sticks. Our tents were still roughly dry, thank goodness. Sarah woke up Saturday morning with her entire sleeping bag and PJs sopping wet, she had a lake underneath her side of the tent. As we packed up I discovered another lake under my side as well, I guess the extra camping mat under my mattress thing was waterproof. We packed up everything in the pouring rain, dry tents are hard to pack up….wet tents? Even harder. We rolled them up and plopped them in the trailer. Everyone smelled a bit on the musty side once we headed home. Our entertainment was 2 hours of Hamilton! I took home a tent to set up and dry out in our garage. Evelyn loved her secret sister, Ava. She got a packet of cute earrings and a llama named Lafayette. Evelyn and I were so pooped after our adventures we crashed out on the couch for the rest of the day. Zzzzzzzzzz.