Girls Camp

I have only been to girl's camp once before in my life, and it wasn't when I was in young women's myself. The only time I ever went was when I was 5 months pregnant with Chase, when I was the stake young women's president. That was a little rough - full-on tent camping, sleeping on the ground, feeling pukey. There were good parts too but you know. I'd rather not do camp again like that when I'm preggers. What can I say, I'm a wimp.

This was going to be the first year that both of my daughters would be going to girls camp. I was excited for them, and also slightly nervous, especially for Emma, who is sometimes sad and emotional and sometimes hyper and optimistic. You never know how things will go! Then I found out that my dear friend Emily was asked to be in charge of all the food for the entire camp. I had kind of been looking forward to a few days of lots of alone time but then I suddenly felt a huge wave of compassion for my friend and also a desire to be not too far away from Emma while she was at her first camp. So, I offered my help to Emily, just to be her gopher. I tried to be helpful - just being someone she could bounce ideas off of and to be an extra pair of hands for her. She planned for amazing food and snacks, and did all of the shopping by herself which was a task so monumental it's hard to even imagine. 

I had a great time at camp. Since my days in the young women presidency things have changed a lot. Our stake now uses the same property every year, up in the hills above Heber, Utah. It is absolutely beautiful, cooler than the valley, next to a nice little lake, and best of all, has a big pavilion with a kitchen and bathrooms and a place for the leaders to sleep.

I won't give you a day-by-day rundown but I'll share some favorite moments. Like the moment a young woman learned to not get excited while helping out in the kitchen while holding a very sharp knife. Turns out getting poked in the shoulder with a sharp knife rather stings. You can see from this photo I sent my friend that I got an absolutely minuscule little poke, and I'm grateful, because I could have actually gotten really injured. Luckily it was just kind of funny and resulted in a bandaid and a sheepish young lady. 

One reason I was so looking forward to camp was because I'd get to be there with some of my dearest friends, and could just work hard behind the scenes and then take naps. Which I did. 

Here's the woman who really deserves the credit - Emily worked her tail off and was so organized and prepared. People were very grateful to both of us but man she was the one who really stressed and pulled it all together.

I did love getting to peek at my girls from time to time. I didn't spend much time with them, but got to touch base. They both seemed to have a great week - I felt like our ward group was quite unified and all friendly with each other. 

Ben and Lynnette are the stake camp directors and have been for about five years or so. They do an amazing job and really give so much to make the camp fun and run smoothly. And they're fun!

Girls camp is a happy happy beautiful place. I loved being there. I totally had it easy - I had time to sneak away to the valley and get myself a drink and even visit Chase as Aspen Grove for a few minutes to drop off some DVDs he was wanting to watch with friends. We got a little rain, we got warm sunny afternoons, we got amazing sunsets, and we got to enjoy this beautiful place with dear friends.