Girl's Camp 2012

Well...I DID IT!!!  And I survived:)  I still don't like to camp--no offense to those who do:)  But I sure had a ton of fun with the girls.  I was SOO lucky to have been their camp director this year.

Here are the beautiful girls right before loading up and heading out:

Funny story:  we had received directions to camp from a good friend.  I loved her directions because they were "woman" directions--like "turn left at Walmart"--instead of my husband's "man" directions like "head north."  Well, her directions included a funny little, "Don't pull over at the topless bar:)"  Well, we were making great time heading to camp when I get a phone call from one of the other vehicles telling me that there was a carsick girl.  Since I was in the lead I said I would pull over at the next possible place.  Well, that just happened to be the "Topless Cabaret."  WHO KNEW RIGHT?!?!  Well of course the leaders were all laughing--the girls had NO clue what the place was but we had 5 girls that all of the sudden needed to use the bathroom.  "NOOOOO!!!"  We were almost to Payson so they would just have to HOLD IT:)

Here are the cuties setting up camp:

Camp was full of fantastic classes and lots of fun things to do.

I seemed to have stayed mostly with the first-years.  I was glad to because I got to be with my beautiful Carlie.  Another camp leader--Marla--had a 2nd and 3rd year daughter so she mostly stayed with them.  So it all worked out wonderfully.

Here are the first years on their hike.  As this was their first time, they were asked to carry a paver which represented a "burden."  They carried this throughout the entire hike and then were asked to write their names on the front of the paver and any "burdens" on the back of the paver that they were going to leave behind.  Our stake has been doing this for a couple of years and they have a nice little pathway being built by the pavers.

Here are the 1st years on the ZIP LINE!!!

The first years also had to go through an "initiation" in which they were progressively taught a cute little dance by the YCLs.  Their "costumes" were also added on to daily.  Here is the final performance--our girls ended up front and center!

And here the first-years are with all of their initiation gear (notice the "bling" on their fingers?)

One of my most favorite things of camp was the 3rd year service project.  Amber and I were able to go with the girls over to a ranch to help out a non-member family with several projects.  It was HARD physical labor--filling in pot holes, washing windows, piling tree branches.  The girls had a great time.

This is cute little Hayley May making cookies:)  This amazing girl has had a rough year to say the least--both of her feet reconstructed.  So she was on cookie duty during the service project--and we sure did enjoy eating her cookies:)

The last night was ooh so much fun as our Bishopric came up to join the girls at camp.  I was amazed at their willingness to be such good sports.  All of the Bishoprics from our stake were asked to dress up and dance!  It was kind of fun to see our amazing spiritual leaders show a different side to them.  Needless to say, the girls LOVED IT!

Well, it was sure A TON of hard work but TOTALLY and COMPLETELY worth it in the end.  I would most definitely do it all again in a heartbeat:)  I wanted to post our skit one more time as I absolutely loved doing this project and it just sums up all of my feelings.  I LOVE THESE GIRLS!  They really do SHINE in my eyes:)