After going through my Youth Conference pictures I realized I never wrote about Girls Camp this year. I don't know how I forgot because this year was by far one of my favorites (as a leader and a youth and I have gone to 10+ years of camp!) Here is our group of girls and leaders about to board the bus to make our trek up to Heber Valley Camp in Heber. This year it was Stake Girls Camp and we had the best ward and stake camp directors. The theme was "Seek His Light and Shine" from 1 Nephi 17:13. Each ward was supposed to pick a light source and we decided to be the Fireflies. We had so much fun with our theme. We used the Aztec definition of a firefly, "a spark of knowledge in a world of ignorance or darkness", to teach our girls.
We seriously had the best group of leaders and girls this year! Once we made it to camp it was time to settle into our AWESOME 5 star camping arrangements. We had these roomy cabins for our group to all sleep together and we even had electricity. Best way to camp at 30 weeks pregnant!
One of my favorite activities among many fun memories that we made at camp was our time we spent on the lake. This activity was meant for the girls to reflect on all the great things around us and all that the Savior has done for us. All the girls got in canoes while the leaders got in paddle boats, floated out onto the lake and then they had a 2 minute of silence to reflect, followed by everyone singing "I Feel My Savior's Love". What a sweet moment hearing all the girls voices sing so reverently. I couldn't help but think of the scripture (my favorite BTW) hanging right before you get your life jackets to go onto the lake "Let your hearts be comforted... Be still and know that I am god"
Another favorite memory of camp, that I miss, are looking down on these cuties rubbing my tummy to feel my little lady or watching them enjoy the swollen cankles that I was sporting all week. Being 30 weeks pregnant I had an easy excuse to miss camp, but man I wouldn't have chosen to be anywhere else during that week. The girls and leaders were so good to me too that it was almost easier to be at camp than at home!
There are way too many spiritual experiences to write down to remember, but aside from the real meaning of camp and teaching the girls and feeling the Spirit, there are many funny moments that happen at camp that we all will remember FOREVER. These are just a few captured on camera. The Olsen sisters cheeto contest, GLOWIA our camp mascot, The "MORPH" suit sighting, funny conversations during craft time, celebrating Nikki's birthday and the best with Amanda burning her fingers and the rest of the time being wrapped up and used as her primary fingers to do everything!
Usually my favorite night at camp is the night the Bishopric joins us, and yes it was pretty dang fun to have them there, but the night before when Amanda surprised us all with little glow worms was a special moment for all. She made a glow worm out of water bottles for all the girls and leaders, put a glow stick in them, got a letter from all parents and husbands and put them out in the Volleyball field so it looked like a field of fireflies flying around. We all went and found our little glow worms and spent the rest of the night in our bunks enjoying sweet words from home.
Bishopric night was definitely memorable though! The girls were at the challenge course right before the Bishopric got up there so we decided to make things easy and ask them to bring up pizza and salad for dinner. They were running a little late and the girls were starving so a last minute joke Amanda and Hollie played on the girls was telling them the Bishopric wasn't coming and that we were going to practice what we had just learned the night before... fasting! The girls faces were priceless! One of my favorite quotes from one of my YW girls right after we told them we were going to be fasting for the night was "Mom, this is bull crap!" So funny! Shortly the joke was over and we were eating and having a good time with our Bishopric and other leaders that we had missed all week. We spent the night celebrating Nikki's birthday, eating yummy (NON CAMP) food, sharing our testimonies, and laughing until it was time to for our guests to go home. I serve with some of the finest women EVER! Not only do we have some amazing Stake leaders we spent the week with but our memories as ward leaders together are my favorite. Love you ladies!
Here is our last picture before we left our week of camping at Heber Valley. If there is ever a place to do girls camp, this is the ideal place! What a great week we had. Glad I didn't pull the pregnancy card and miss such a memorable and amazing week with some of the best YW girls and leaders around.
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