All the Camps

Last week Troy and I were on a walk and we bumped into some neighbors. While spending a lovely few minutes chatting and catching up with them, they asked us what traveling we had done this summer. We stopped and thought about it for a second. Yes....we've done stuff and gone places....but so far it's all been for church-related camps and events. There have been so many! Troy is currently serving in the calling of the Stake Young Men's president, and I'm his unofficial assistant.

The first big church youth event of the summer was near the end of June. The stake (which is a gathering of about 10 congregations, otherwise known as wards) made a weekend plan for all the youth in the area - kids from the ages of 11 - 18ish. It wasn't an over-nighter, which would complicate things enormously, but it was two jam-packed days. Day one started very early with a trip to the temple in Daybreak. This is the only event of the two days that Troy has photographic evidence of, since he was so busy the rest of the time. Romney wasn't able to go on the first morning since she was working, so it was extra special for Emma to have time with her dad there.

After that early start to the day, the group headed all the way up to East Canyon Reservoir, where they spent the entire day playing in and near the water. My job was to go food shopping and to deliver Romney when she was done with work. I didn't see them until quite late into the evening.

The next day was a hiking day up Millcreek Canyon before lunch and some activities downtown like seeing the church art museum. By the time they returned from that activity I had one seriously wiped out family.

The next big camp was Brighton Girls Camp for Emma and Cara. Like I mentioned, Romney, Emma and I drove to Fillmore to meet Peter and Cara, enjoy a meal together, and bring Cara home with us. The girls had to be up early the next morning so we could make it to the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in time to meet the bus that would take them to the top of the canyon. I knew Cara especially was quite nervous, but she really kept a stiff upper lip and I never saw a tear from her. She seemed to be calm and happy to be with Emma, and seeing so many other girls there seemed to relax and help them both.

Here they are on Monday morning, getting ready to meet the bus:

They couldn't have their phones with them at all at camp, so I sent Emma with a digital camera. She took a few pictures before the battery died. Oh well! Not a lot of evidence, but a few fun shots:

She found my name in the craft shack :) 

Here they are when I picked them up from the bus on Friday afternoon. They were dirty and stinky and happy as could be. They had a great week. I was especially proud of Cara who decided to go on the very early sunrise hike on the last day, even though Emma wasn't wanting to go. They sang all the good songs at the top of their lungs all the way home, where I promptly made them shower before taking them to get Ugurt.

At the very same time that Emma was at Brighton, Troy was on another stake young men's activity, this time for longer and needing much more planning. When he got asked to do this calling he got a lot of feedback that the wards wanted stake camping trips for the boys. Troy and Stake President Ben the Great put together a three-day, two-night backpacking trip for as many boys who could and would go. That turned out to be about 14 boys, mostly in the younger end of the age range, and pretty much all of whom had no idea what it meant to go backpacking vs. camping. It took some pretty heroic effort on the parts of the leaders to get them all ready with the gear they would need. Troy and I decided that this time we should just do all the food. Going backpacking for the first time is a big deal, and anything you can do to help it be a positive experience will have a big impact on the future desire to participate. 

I think it was a smashing success, although I wasn't there. I think a lot of boys had a hard time at first but by the end were really upbeat and cheering each other on, and it seems like they had a great time. I know Troy and the other four leaders really worked hard, and I'm proud of them, and grateful for their service to this group of young men. 

 

 

 

 

The very next week, with barely enough time to rest and get cleaned up, it was time for Stake Young Women's camp, up in the hills above Heber. Camp started on Tuesday and ran through Friday. Each ward is supposed to provide an adult leader to be the ward camp leader, and our ward just did not have anyone who could fill that role. So the YW leaders sort of patched together a schedule of various adults who could help out. I was the lucky person to be able to go up on the first day and spend all of Tuesday until about 9pm with the girls. It was pretty fun to be there, to see the girls together, to spend some time with the stake leaders whom I love dearly. It got pretty warm in the afternoon and hanging out and doing archery was not the funnest, although Romney got a bullseye that was pretty impressive. 

The bummer was that the lake had an algae bloom so no one could touch the water at all. They came up with a lot of creative ways to get wet and play water games with just the hoses so that was fun. By the time I picked up the girls on Friday afternoon they were beyond exhausted and even though that was almost a week ago I'm not sure that they have totally recovered yet. 

So yeah, we've been doing stuff, but only church-assigned stuff! And honestly, it seems like it's been fun although I've participated the very least. We are looking forward to some just-family time in the next few weeks before Chase starts his big adventure.