Girls Camp

It's time for Girls' Camp.  Get the van ready!

Last year I skipped going, but I did go this year and boy howdy, am I glad I did!  This year was by far, the best camp experience.  Mainly, because of the weather.  Camping in the middle of July in the midwest is a little crazy because it gets to hot and humid.  This year, however, it was a truly blessing to have camp coincide with a week of cool temperatures with no humidity.  Seriously, it was in 70s during the day and the evenings were cool in the 50s.  We even had one night drop into the 40s.  We actually wore sweatshirts and built fires.  Usually, no one wants to build a fire because it is so hot, this year, we built fires every night and if you have a fire you might as well make dutch oven cobbler.

Honestly, with no girls suffering from heat stroke or lethargic and grumpy because they were so hot, camp was downright pleasant and very low on drama.  It's just so much easier to love one another when you are physically comfortable!!

I also LOVED the camp theme for this year: "Come Unto Christ and Be BRAVE".  BRAVE was an anagram for B= believe, R= repent, A= act, V= valiant, E= endure.  Our stake leaders were fabulous and really helped to keep the Young Women mindful of the theme, unified and happy.  

This is the Stake YW president all dressed up to catch
and reward YW for being "BRAVE"

As for me personally, instead of working in the kitchen like I have before, this year I went camping with the girls.  I was with the 4th years.  Ashley is a 4th year so I got to spend the whole time with her, which was fun.  Her group of YW are so low key, that they were very easy to be with.  The 4th year is a special year at our camp.  The girls get to go canoeing and we also have a special ceremony called "yellow feather."

The 4th year campers and leaders

Ashley getting her hair braided for "Yellow Feather"

Anyways, camp was great.  Ashley got a little stomach bug on the last night and ended up sleeping in the lodge so she could be close to the bathroom but otherwise it was good times for all.

On the way home, we stopped at a dairy for some ice cream and to buy some delicious cheese.  And the YW just had to climb on the cow.

The tricky part of me going to camp is what to do with Paige while I am gone.  This year Dave had to work so I had to get a little creative with Paige.  She ended up going with her friend (our neighbor) to Vacation Bible School (VBS) at their Lutheran Church.  Her friend goes to Activity Days with Paige regularly so when they invited Paige to VBS we thought it would be nice for her to do something with them at their church.  Conveniently, VBS was during Girls' Camp, so that pretty much took care of Paige for most of the time I was gone.  I had a couple other awesome friends who agreed to a playdate here and there to cover the gaps while Dave was at work.  

It was great week, everyone was taken care of and I really feel like we were all blessed, which is no surprise---when you try to do good, the blessings always come.