Every year our church has a camp that the young women get to go to for a few days, and this year I got to be our ward's camp director, so I got to come along.
At first, I was so sad to leave my kids, but once I talked to them and heard what a great time they were having with Grandma Curry and Daddy at the movies and Makutus Island and the mall and the pool and the candy store, I didn't feel so bad having fun myself, and oh what FUN I had!
This year the theme was Military Special Forces, so I made (actually Robert and Tim and Melissa made)camoflauge tu-tus for all of the girls to wear. The girls loved them!
Right when we got there we decorated our cabin (which got mistaken for the craft cabin a couple of times because it was so "fancy."
Then we found cool places to take pictures of each other, such as in the woods with balloons floating behind us. One of my other favorites is our jumping picture. We had to do a few takes to make sure we were all in the air.
Then we split off into groups and did all sorts of fun activities, one of them being the zipline! I was so excited because I have always wanted to do one!
That night we had a special ops mission so we got all decked out in camo.
The next day I got to go with all of the 1st years on their hike, but not before we made a little mischief. The 5th years had a 5 ft tall cardboard cutout of a Power Ranger as their cabin mascot, so me and a handful of 1st years kidnapped it and left a Power Ranger juice box and a ransom note in its place. Then we hid it in one of our bunks. It took them a few hours to find it. Mission accomplished.
The power ranger wasn't the only thing we kidnapped. Our girls wanted to kidnap one of their friends and bring her back to our cabin since she had just moved out of our ward a few months before. They missed her. I had to give in.
So, we got permission from one of her cabin moms, and our girls burst into her cabin at 2am (with marshmallow guns) and captured her and brought her back to our cabin for the night. They all fell asleep as soon as they got back, but at breakfast the next morning other girls were asking to be kidnapped the next night.
That night we had our USO show skits. For ours I made up a dance for the girls to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. They rocked it and looked so cute in their tu-tus and their hats that my mother-in-law made them. I was really proud of how great they did!
After the skits, they move all of the tables and have a giant dance party. Holy moly, it was a blast!! I think we danced for 2 straight hours, and I scored some "cool" points by doing the worm.
The next day there was an army obstacle course for all of the girls and leaders. We had t climb over a table, go through a tube, jump up and pop balloons with thumbtacks on a hat, crawl in the dirt under a tarp, climb over a rope-net wall thing and spit pickles onto a bullseye, and...I GOT 1ST PLACE!!!!
Little out of shape me, wearing flip-flops got first place. It must be because I love action movies, so I've got some tough moves in my back pocket. Anyway, I got a medal-pin, and I am still pretty excited about it!
After that we had ward day. It was a blast! Our Bishop came up and brought us all Nerf guns, and we played some very intense games of capture the flags. I had bloody shins after it was all over. Running through a thorn bush was probably not necessary. I'm embarrassed to say that I can be a little intense sometimes.
That night we also did singing in the trees, which is something I'd never done before, but it was a really wonderful experience.
The next morning we put on our matching sunglasses and packed up to go home.
I feel so blessed to have been able to go to camp with these girls. I think they are truely the sweetest, most kind, fun girls I have ever met!
The first day we got to camp we made a goal that if we ever saw anyone by themselves, we would make friends with them and include them, and those girls took it to heart! On one occassion another girl was walking by herself, and one of the girls ran over to her shouting,
"Hey, you don't have to be by yourself. You can come hang out at our cabin with us."
Turns out that girl was just on her way to the bathroom, but I was so impressed with how easily they became a friend to everybody.
We had a kindness battle with the cabin next door to us. We heart-attacked their cabin, so they gave us bags of chips in our bunks. Then we snuck into their cabin and put bags of fruit snacks on each of their pillows. Then they left cans of soda for each of us, so we brought them bracelets and buttons. It was so sweet to watch them scowering our cabin for things to give away.
Even at midnight on our last night there, they got the idea to hand out glow bracelets to everyone. So we went around from cabin to cabin, handing out glow sticks and tell them we'd miss them.
One of the quotes from camp was, "If you want to give light to others, you have to glow yourself" and these girls really, truely just brightened whatever room they were in. I am so glad I got to go to camp! Testimonies were strengthened, friendships were made and so much fun was had!
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