Jumble, Minnie, and I spent last week in the beautiful mountains of Heber Valley for Girls' Camp. We all had a great time, other than the nights for me--I couldn't sleep! (And it wasn't because girls were being rowdy all night.) So I am glad to be back to my own bed. I actually started the "no sleeping" thing before I even left. I had one of the worst nights of my life on Sunday night. I couldn't get to sleep until midnight and then woke up at 2:00 a.m. and never went back to sleep. I was feeling like an exhausted mess before I even met at the stake center to leave for camp. Niles gave me a blessing and I was able to participate in everything and have a great time in spite of no sleep, some tummy trouble, and my heart racing. Thankfully, my heart didn't start acting up until the last day--when all we had to do was pack and clean up. That was truly a blessing.
As far as camping goes, Heber Valley is called the Heber Hilton--it is really not roughing it at all. President Hinckley is the one who was behind the design and planning of Heber Valley Camp so I guess that is prophetic endorsement for the fact that there is no need for girls to "rough it!"
All of the girls in our ward were absolutely awesome--no fighting, no drama. That is Girls' Camp success without any other accomplishments. But better than that, we had some great experiences on top of the harmony. Our ward earned the stake award for the ward with the best over-all camping attitude for the week. Way to go Hillcrest 6th Ward YW! I already knew they were the best.
We did have a few hard things--our camp cook (my next-door neighbor and a professional caterer!) got sick with pneumonia and had to go home after one day. We were sad for her because she really wanted to stay and she was really, really sick for the rest of the week at home. Our Laurel advisor, Tondi King, took over a lot of the cooking after our cook had to leave, with help from the rest of us leaders--especially Megan Ashby, our Mia-Maid advisor.
Minnie also had some sad moments when her friends went home. There are only three 1st-year girls in our ward and Minnie is the only one that made it the whole week. Both of the other girls turned twelve just this month. One of them was just too homesick and went home after 2 days--she did fine during the days but the nights were another story. We were really hoping we could keep her there all week so that was disappointing. The other girl got sick the fourth day and had to go home that night (but she only missed the last few hours of activities so at least she
almost made it!)
Our stake theme this year was, "There's No Place Like Home"--home meaning our heavenly home. Characters from the Wizard of Oz were used as symbols of different things:
Oz: "Our Zion" and the temple (where we are trying to get to) on our way back home
Yellow Brick Road: the strait and narrow path, the iron rod
Dorothy: all of us--trying to get home
The three "friends" that help us along the path:
1. Scarecrow: Spiritual knowledge--a testimony
2. Tin Man: Love, service, charity
3. Cowardly Lion: moral courage, strength to keep the commandments
Wicked Witch of the West: Satan, temptations, sin
Red Ruby Slippers: The Atonement (because after all we can do, we can't get home without help)
It was great--our stake leaders are amazing. One of them even wrote an original song for our camp song this year. And it was a great song! They are a talented/dedicated/crazy group of women that make it so amazing but also so fun for the girls. One example of the kind of stuff they do is the "modesty shirts." Of course there are rules about clothing at camp. The shirt rule is nothing sleeveless and no tummies showing. To make it fun they have gone to D.I. and found some hideous shirts--they add new ones each year. They are all very modest but also very out-of-style! They present them all on the first day--have a little fashion show and describe each shirt as if it were extremely desirable and fashionable. Each ward gets to pick a few to take back to their camp to be given to a girl to wear in place of her own shirt, if she should happen to wear something inappropriate. Some of these modesty shirts are treasured favorite "gems" remembered by the girls from prior years. They make it so fun that it works--not one girl was found wearing anything inappropriate the entire week. The modesty shirts still got worn from time-to-time--just for the fun of it!
I have to say that our ward leaders are amazing, too--I'm so lucky that I get to work with such a tremendous group of women. We were sharing a pavilion with another ward and were feeling kinda sorry for them eating their cereal and spaghetti while we were having french toast and omelets and sweet and sour chicken, bar-b-q ribs, and chicken cordon bleu! They were also making hats out of wrapping paper, face painting, and painting nails for their crafts while we were making these really cool bracelets, necklaces, and "Be thou an Example" paper weights for our crafts. I can't take credit for any of that stuff--it was other talented ward leaders that planned it all, although I helped with everything as much as I could.
I took about 250 photos of camp but don't worry, I'll only post a (relative) few here! Most of the photos I took are of people that most of you don't know, anyway, so I'll post photos that include Jumble, Minnie or me. I am in charge of the camp DVD so I tried to take tons of photos for that reason. I really need to learn to do slide shows for this blog!
Mormonad created by our stake leaders for our camp.
Minnie showing one of the cool crafts our ward leaders planned for them. (This one was planned by Jo Ann Scott, our fearless YW President.)
I made these ruby slippers for Minnie using some of Janna's old ballerina flats and red sparkly cloth. This photo was taken after girls' camp--they didn't look so ragged when she started out to camp with them. Many wards had the girls spray-paint sneakers red before camp.
These are the "nighty-nights" that were left for the girls on their pillows each night of camp. Megan Ashby, our Mia-Maid advisor, did a great job on these!!
Monday:
Amanda, Kari, and Minnie sitting on Amanda's bunk (which was across from mine) These are our three "1st year girls."
Sweet and sour chicken with chocolate-dipped fortune cookies was on the menu for the first night (an advantage of having a caterer do our cooking--and she volunteered for the job!) The girls and leaders were assigned to help with different meals. Jumble was one of the helpers this night.
Heber Valley Hilton--we have a huge pantry with a fridge, two 3-burner gas stoves, a sink with running hot and cold water, etc. Jumble was helping get something out of the pantry for dinner. Other perks of Heber Valley (that I didn't enjoy at Camp Mia Shalom as a youth): cabins with bunks (no mattresses--we still had to use sleeping bags and air mattresses), ELECTRIC lights, a water and crushed ice machine, tables and folding chairs, a big covered pavilion at each camp site with picnic tables, bathrooms at each camp site that included flushing toilets and showers with HOT water!!
Getting green salad to go with sweet and sour chicken.
At the first evening devotional--singing at the amphitheater. Jumble is way down at the end of the row. Each ward was assigned a color and were supposed to have a matching clothing item for everyone to identify us. Our ward got orange and our ward camp director made all the orange hats for us.
Minnie with Kari and Amanda--learning camp songs.
Minnie had a "red ruby slippers" necklace so she wore it to camp. The stake gets the green sweatshirts for everyone rather than having ward t-shirts--smart for Utah when it gets cold at night--and you just bring back the sweatshirt every year rather than having to buy something new each year.
After FHE (lesson by Julie Gilmour) that night, we played a few games. This is a silly game called "Maaaa." If you show your teeth, you're out! Another game that was a big hit was "Ninja Warrior!"
Tuesday:
Filling out "Tell Toto" slips at breakfast time. We had a basket shaped like a dog, and when girls saw someone doing something nice for someone, they were encouraged to write it down and put it in the basket. This was a big hit--Toto was overflowing every day--and we would read all the slips at night before family prayer. I think this was a brilliant idea (not mine--I think it was Jo Ann Scott's) that really helped us all to have a good attitude and focus on serving others while at camp.
Jumble at breakfast.
On our 3-hour hike to the lake! Emi and Jumble--the band kids took the lead because they are in such good shape!
Me--halfway through the hike. I'd accumulated a whole 6 hours of sleep between the previous two nights combined so that is why I have such beautiful puffy red eyes with dark circles under them!
The whole group at Timberlakes Overlook--on the way to one of the Timberlakes. Most of the first half of the hike was uphill so we were done with the hardest part of the hike at this point. (You can barely see part of the lake behind the heads of some of the girls on the right-hand side of the photo--one of them is Jumble if you can tell which one is her!)
Kari, Amanda, and Minnie at the lake--the reward after a long hike.
Me with Megan Ashby--she's the awesome Mia Maid advisor that I get to work with! (The leaders had to use paddle boats rather than canoes which was kind of a bummer.)
Kari and Minnie learning to knit baby booties--an on-going service project while at camp.
Recognize Dorothy? Yep, that's Minnie.
We had a big tub of gorp (trail mix) to munch on all week--we each got our own cup for it. Yum!
The girls did "commitment bricks." They all made a commitment to do something to help prepare them to enter the temple and wrote it on a brick. They lined the path to the amphitheater with the bricks. The girls brought them home at the end of the week.
Jumble and Minnie during the ward skit.
We also were treated to a performance of "Thriller" by our Stake Presidency and numerous hilarious skits and acts by the stake camp committee.
Jumble doing the "Peanut Butter Song" with Brooke and Emi. This is an EFY classic that is a big hit with the teens. I could not believe how excited they all were--the pure joy on their faces--while performing this totally senseless, silly song!
Wednesday:
We did a bunch of activities on Wednesday morning called "The Ropes Course." They are a bunch of problem-solving, team-building, cooperation exercises. The last one was a personal challenge--you climbed a monkey-type ladder up 25 feet, crossed a bridge, and then went down a zip line.
Here is Minnie climbing onto the bridge from the ladder.
And this is Minnie getting ready to go down the zip line. She is afraid of heights but conquered her fear and did the whole course!
I was teaching one of the other ropes course activities, so I gave someone else my camera to take photos of all the activities. I got to go on the ladder, bridge, and zip line after the girls were done with all of the activities, but by then my camera had been taken back to camp so I sadly have no photos of me to prove that I also conquered my fear of heights--but I do have witnesses!
Minnie after conquering the zip line!
Jumble in her helmet and harness--ready to go!
Jumble climbing the ladder.
More climbing by Jumble.
Jumble crossing the bridge.
That small dot is Jumble at the end of the zip line.
Some of the other ropes course activities (Jumble is in most of these photos):
This one was called shark island. I got to try this one when we were trained on how to teach our activities. This involved 15 people swinging on the rope to reach an "island" that was about 2 feet by 2 feet--and you all had to stay on the island until everyone was across. Let's just say we got to know each other quite intimately.
Minnie showing off her french braids.
Minnie and Amanda enjoy lunch. After lunch we had some more relaxing activities:
Making "Be Thou an Example" paper weights while others went to "Power Hour" with our YW President. (Power Hour was a spiritual discussion and it lasted much longer than an hour.)
That evening we had a devotional with Sister Featherstone, who is on the YW General Board. It was an amazing meeting. One thing she said was that when she was told back in March that she was going to speak to the American Fork Hillcrest YW at girls' camp in Heber Valley in July, she had the immediate thought that she should buy some red shoes, put them on for us, and tell us, "There's no place like home." This was WITHOUT knowing anything about our camp theme!
That night we did Bible story puppet shows. The girls were divided into groups and made the puppets, then presented the shows. They were hilarious! Here is Jumble after finishing her puppet show performance.
This is our faithful YW President, Jo Ann Scott with our awesome ward camp director, Becky Sanderson, reading "Tell Toto" slips. (That's my bunk behind them--the top one on the right with the orange hat hanging on it. The cabins had a little area that was separated by a wall from the main room of the cabin for the leader bunks.)
Minnie after taking out her french braids.
Emi and Jumble after a long day. (Jumble DOES know how to smile!!)
Thursday:
In the morning we made bracelets. Each bracelet had a heart, a little bird house (symbol of home) and a little woman's shoe charm on it (for the ruby slipper) plus red buttons. Julie Gilmour, our YW second counselor came up with this idea with some help from Jill Pilkington, our YW secretary who found some of the charms. They are a cool reminder of our camp theme.
Me, Jumble (refusing to smile), and Minnie after finishing our bracelets. The dog tag necklace Jumble is wearing was another one of our craft activities from the day before. It is engraved with "Be Thou an Example of the Believers." (Another idea of Julie Gilmour's--she's one of the crafty ones.)
After making bracelets, we did an activity called "Faith Factor" (take off on Fear Factor) It involved two teams having scripture chases on scriptures about faith and then fun challenges after each scripture. Here is Minnie and Emi raising their hands to indicate that they have successfully peeled their grapes. Megan Ashby got the job to prepare all of this. (I think I got the easy assignments for camp--make sure the YCL's were prepared to teach their certification classes, teach part of the first aid clinic, teach part of the ropes course, and gather letters from all of the parents to give to the girls as part of our last evening program.) I guess I get to do the Camp DVD, too, so maybe I didn't get off so easy!
Amanda and Jumble raising their hands to show they have the scripture in the scripture chase during Faith Factor.
Minnie is dropping goldfish crackers into Haley's mouth during Faith Factor.
We discovered that Jumble has a hidden talent during Faith Factor: she is very good at picking gummy worms out of a pile of coins with her teeth!
We spent the afternoon with finishing crafts, knitting baby booties, and more Power Hour for the girls.
Ward leaders finish knitting their baby booties: Megan Ashby, me, Becky Sanderson, and Jill Pilkington.
Minnie decorated some jeans by using a stencil and bleach pen--an activity planned by Jill Pilkington.
That evening the bishopric came up to have dinner with us and to participate in our devotional and testimony meeting. It was a very powerful and moving evening. It was sweet for me to be able to hear both my girls bear their testimonies.
Last night--after a wonderful devotional and testimony meeting. Do they look tired?! Emi, Minnie, and Jumble.
We had a great time, but it was wonderful to get back home again. Niles did a fabulous job of taking care of himself, the boys, the dog, and the hampster. Everyone was still alive and well when we got back (which is more than I can say about my fish when I used to leave my brothers in charge of them when I went to Girls' Camp as a YW!)
A huge thanks also goes to my Mom and Dad and my sister-in-law Rachelle and my brother Tim who took care of the boys during the days while Niles was at work (Tim and Rachelle even took the boys overnight for one night--and thanks, Tim, for taking better care of my boys than you did my fish!)
There's No Place Like Home!
I was realizing that all photos taken of myself lately feature me sporting a baseball cap. After looking at these photos I'm thinking I should stick to the baseball cap. What do you think?
Here's one of the temple. So beautiful. And it was a gorgeous day!
He installed this ceiling fan in our bedroom so it is nice and cool for summer nights.
He pounds the ribar posts into the ground with a sledge hammer so we can put up flags on the holidays (one of my YW responsibilities.)
