All the Camps

This post will come somewhat out of order because these camps happened at various times over the summer. But I must document in my old-lady complainy way (coining a new term there) that I gave 100% of my PTO plus some to church camps this summer. This is the way it goes when you are the ward young women president and your husband is the stake young men president. 

Early in the summer came stake young women camp. (There are so many iterations of stake/ward/young men/young women that it gets a little comical.) Camp is always held at Aspen Lakes Camp in the beautiful hills above Heber, Utah. Yes, that's right, the very camp I helped clean and open and complain about. Luckily, I was not in charge of this camp in any way. I even have a ward camp director, so my only job is to be supportive. I did not attend all of this camp, but I helped shuttle a van-load of the girls' stuff up to camp, get the girls settled in their camp spot, and then return two days later to spend an evening and sleep over and help clean up and get the girls home in the morning. We have fantastic camp leaders who made the week really meaningful for the girls. I love how our ward is really quite tightly knit. There are only 5 girls in our ward, so it's really small, but they really seem to hold space for each other and really be a supportive little group.

The next camp I was significantly more involved in. Ward level, both young men and young women. It's called Ward Youth Conference. Most wards don't do this every single year, but ours does. We have some strong traditions in the ward that the kids really love - everyone shows up! This is a big deal. Everyone showing up is not a thing that happens very often. We almost always go to Bear Lake. Some years there is a boat, some years not, and all years someone gets badly sunburned. Last year it was Emma. Thankfully this year it was not. (I'm very sorry to Calvin whose turn it was to get sunburned, but he did not listen when I repeatedly told him to apply sunscreen.)

I have never been on the Bear Lake Youth Conference before - all three of my kids have gone multiple times and have been part of establishing the long-held traditions such as playing mafia, playing "dramatic go fish" and going to Zipps for dinner. This was my first time being witness to it all, though, and although it was quite exhausting, I was so happy to be there. Beautiful Bear Lake, happy kids, sweet devotionals, hilarious games, and yummy food. I think my favorite moment was when we were deciding how to divide up the young women into a couple of cars for the ride up and none of them wanted to be separated. We ended up unloading all the gear that had been put into my minivan and finding another spot for it all so all the girls could pile into my car together. Lots of singing happened. LOTS OF SINGING.

Here come a lot of photos which are totally out of order and I don't think I'm going to fix them.

One little alarming thing happened - Emma took a paddle board out onto the lake and I'm happy to say that she was wearing a life jacket, which she wasn't required to because she's older than 14. I was on the shore and everyone else was drifting in from an anchored floating trampoline thing that we had rented. I just kept watching Emma get farther and farther away, and the next thing I knew she was in the water next to the paddle board. Everyone else was gone but me and the bishop's wife Ellie. She and I looked at each other and just grabbed a kayak and headed out into the water to snag Emma, who was steadily floating out to sea because it was so windy. I know it wasn't a big deal - she had a life jacket on, she was calm, but I was totally freaked out thinking of her being powerless in the water. I'm grateful for Ellie who is way stronger than I am and helped me get to Emma in a hurry. Grateful she was nearby when I noticed Emma.

Anyway, it was a wonderful few days.

Later in the summer came...Stake Young Men Camp. (Cue the foreboding music.) Troy has been in charge of this camp for four years, and it's pretty stressful for him. In the spring when we started planning, I hadn't yet been asked to be the yw president. I thought it might be nice to take a load off of his shoulders and do the cooking for camp. He was relieved and grateful when I offered. Little did I know that I'd have plenty going on already with other camps over the summer, but I'm not at all sorry that I was there with Troy. It was really nice to be together, and the food was kind of fun. I kept it very simple, and did any of the real cooking at home before camp. I got some quiet time to myself and got to support Troy during a very busy week. 

And...I don't have a single photo from camp. That's funny. I thought I had a few but no. 

So there you go. Camps and camps and camps. And fun. And work. And missing a lot of work at the very same time. I have great memories of it all and also yay that summer is over!