Anchored in Christ: Girls Camp 2014

One of the things I was most looking forward to with my new calling as the Young Women's President was being able to go to girls camp. When I served in the Young Women's program years ago I wasn't able to go to camp because I was pregnant with Braden and couldn't take time off from work. This time, with the help of Kam and my Mom, I was able to go.

We have a small, unique group of young women whom I absolutely adore and learn from each time we're together. All but 2 of our young women were able to come. Our group included 11 girls, 3 young women leaders, Bishop and one of his counselors. Our camp was held at a campground near Big Bear, CA. The girls went to Big Bear last year with the stake and had so much fun that we decided to go back. We were not at the same camp as last year which I think disappointed Bishop, but ended up being a great tool to bring the girls even closer together.

Before heading out we decorated the cars with window markers.

 

My crazy car full of girls.

After arriving at the campground we unloaded and set up camp and then got right down to buisiness working on a special lantern craft for the girls.

We then ate dinner and afterwards sang songs 

and made s'mores around the campfire.

The next morning we went on a hike.

 

After the hike we had lunch and then got ready to head into town. As we were leaving Sister Starley somehow got her truck stuck. Thankfully Brother Purser is super handy and with many suggestions from all we were able to get her out of her predicament. Would you believe that NO damage was done to the truck?!

 

After a stop at 7-11 we headed to Magic Mountain

to take a ride on the Alpine Slide.

 

In the evening, the girls got really excited about chopping

and splitting wood. It turned into quite the activity.

Later the girls took out newest Beehive on a snipe hunt.

On our last full day at camp we began the day by learning how to tie knots and then had a dance off. One of the the girls promised to show us some of her Latin dance moves and to get everyone involved we created a dance by having everyone add a dance move.

 

We then headed back down to town to Swimmers Beach.

After the girls tired of swimming we all got together for a game of volleyball. We didn't play by the rules nor did we keep score but we had a lot of fun attempting trick shots and just encouraging each other.

 Any free time the girls had was spent playing spoons. The girls were crazy adding new "challenges" to the game. At times I thought for sure someone was going to get hurt but instead there was just more laughter and more fun.

That evening Bishop prepared a devotional to share with the girls and we shared our testimonies. We got to bed that night really late. Happily for me I slept really well that night despite how noisy the girls were. I even slept through them toilet papering the leaders cars and Bishop having to stop the mischievous girls.

We had a lot of fun at camp and I learned so much about each of the girls. In many ways I envy these girls. They have so much to face in this world yet the strength of their spirits is beyond anything I was at their same age. Also, the unity found within this group is so unique. Not one girl was left out and the girls did everything together. I loved hearing them laugh and share with each other. Watching them was probably the highlight of the entire camp, that and the dance off. It was epic!