I had such a good time being Girls Camp Director last year that I really wanted a chance to do it again. This time I wanted to see the process through the entire time and with it being Ward camp, something I have never done, I wanted to take the challenge on. Luckily Laura Johnson, our Young Women President, was fine with me doing it again and I got to be Director again.
We had a lot more YCL's this year, 9 in total. We met early I the new year to start planning our Girls Camp. I had the girls come with a list of ideas for a theme and they came up with a lot of really fun ones. After compiling all of them and giving the girls time to think about it I had them each name their first choice. The majority of the votes went to an Olympic theme and that was what we decided the theme of this years camp was..Olympics. We put the YCL's in pairs and one trio and had them pick a country to represent. Rylee, Leah and Allie were France, Claire and Alivia were China, Taylee and Kinsey were Mexico and Addie and Ella were Australia. We spent a lot of time planning and getting decorations ready and finally the day arrived to announce our theme to the rest of the Young Women.
The girls made flags and once everyone was gathered I had each Country come in with their flag while I played their Countries National Anthem. Alivia and Kinsey were not able to be there that night but the rest of the girls were and they did a good job hyping the rest of the group up for Girls Camp.
The week before camp I got the YCL's together to bleach tie dye our camp T-Shirts. We did not want to spend a big part of our budget on getting t-shirts printed plus those shirts are never worn again after camp. We thought that this would be a cheaper and cuter option. The YCL's were down with it and liked the idea so that's what we did.
The morning of Girls Camp we met at the church and had a breakfast and devotional with all of the campers. After that we left to go play at the Gutter. The gutter is a water area that you can go with a boogie board or float and it kind of shoots you out. It is impossible to describe but is a lot of fun for the girls. After a while of being there Laura and I left with the YCL's to get to camp and set everything up. The other campers came about an hour after we did and once they came we announced what groups everyone was in and left them to get situated. The area we were staying at was in Cascade and we had 3 Yurts for the girls to sleep in. The yurts had queen size beds and bunk beds but we still had to bring in cots for some of them. Most of the Leaders chose to sleep in their cars, Laura, Jessica Pace and I slept in my tent and we had a tent for our three Seniors who came with us, Avynlea, Addie Bjorn and Kaitlyn Lindley.
Some of the campers inn Rylee's group wanted to go exploring so she took them on a little hike. While out and about they came across some stinging nettle and some of the girls including Rylee got a small rash from the plant. They learned their lesson and opted out of exploring in the woods again.
Rylee, Piper, Jane, Addie and Hazel
Every day we gave the girls about 30 minutes of gospel study time. I loved finding Sophie Hansen with her non-member friend every day during that time teaching her about the Book of Mormon and helping her learn how to pray. Sophie has always been such a good missionary and I love the example she is for everyone else.
One of th traditions of girls camp is to do some service in there area we camp. We talked with the rangers about doing service and they came up with us pulling weeds. They said on the day they would come and show us where to pull weeds. They never showed up and finally I split the girls up into their four groups and pull weeds around the yurt balcony, along the ramp and around the water spigot. It did not take long at all, they did a great job and it looked a lot better when we were done.
On one of the days we did our Olympic Games. We did not want to make it a competition where we had winners and losers we just kept it fun. The girls "competed" in 9 square and corn hole then they did puzzle building. After that was done Kirstie Christianson and Katie Givens taught them drill team moves and had them execute them. As they shouted out the commands any girl who messed up had to sit down until we were left with a girl. The girls were so good at this that it took a long time to get to one left standing and in fact we had 2 girls left in the end a couple of times. That was really fun for everyone, fun for the leaders to watch and fun for the girls to do something different.
Before the Olympic Games we had the girls walk in as their countries, I played their national anthems and they carried their torches and flags, we also took group pictures in front of the Olympic Rings.
France
Makayla, Rylee, Leah, Piper, Leah and Hazel
Addie, Jane and Alanna
Mexico
Melody, Tayci, Kate, Kinsey and Eliza
Kinsey, Natalie and Claire
China
Alexa, Avery, Addie, Casha, Lola and Claire
Alivia and Sophie
Australia
Makenna, Saylor, Ella, Addi, Klaire and Ragan
Nora and Brynn
Leah is alergic to mosquito bites and of course got bit by the mosquitos up at camp. There were a lot of mosquitos and I think everyone got bit. Leah's ankle swelled up because of an allergic reaction and unfortunately she had to deal with a pretty nasty cankle for the rest of camp. It gave us all a good laugh and we affectionately teased her about it for the rest of camp.
For one of the nights we did skit in a bag with all of the campers. Each group got a bag of items put together by one of the other groups and stye had to use all of those items and come up with a skit. They had time to work on it and we had a good time watching what they came up with. I got a picture of Rylee performing in her skit, she was really fun to watch.
The YCL's really wanted to take the campers on a snipe hunt. Lots of the girls had never been and it was really fun to watch them all participate. Lots of the girls were really into it and really believed in the snipes. The YCL's were hidden amongst the trees and I walked with the girls out trying to find them. They were pretty far out and it was taking a while so I finally said ok I think the snipes are going to be coming over now, I had to say it a couple of times before they finally listened and came rushing in. I felt bad for the girls who really believed and I hoped they weren't too disappointed. Avynlea did a good job of talking to the girls afterwards, letting them know they were now in on the big secret and keep it quiet so as not to ruin it for the new girls in upcoming years.
I took a picture of the hunters and "snipes" and then we called it a night.
Every morning we have our YCL leaders give a small devotional to the girls. They talk about a real female LDS olympian ad teach us how we can learn from them and how living the Gospel has helped them in their sport. I got a picture of Rylee, Allie and Leah when they did their devotional.
The last day of camp was lake day. We had the Givens and the Neilsons come up with their boats and the girls got to water-ski, and tube. They had so much fun and it was so refreshing to be at the lake. The Givens have a cabin up there and we were able to utilize it and have a place to dock and sit and relax with chairs and shade. I didn't do any of the tubing but I did take a dive in the lake with Avynlea. I also goto n the paddle board and had some fun doing that.
I spent most of my time at the cabin but when my girls were taking their turn on the boat I went with them so I could watch, video and take pictures.
Saylor, Rylee, Piper, Avynela and Brynn rode the hot dog around and loved it.
I also got photos of Allie, Addie, Leah and Avynlea on the tube.
The last night we got a group picture and then we had testimony meeting. It was a greta camp and I had a lot of fun being with the girls again as their camp director.
back row: Mikelle, Erika, Katie, Claire, Saylor, Leah, Rylee, Allie, Brynn, Addie, Addi, Kinsey, Tayci, Kaitlyn, Lola, Ragan, Klaire, Layne, Emily, and Linda
middle row: Elizabeth, Jessica, Eliza, Avery, Kate, Avynlea, Makayla, Ella, Casha, Hazel, Sophie, Alivia, Laura, Jessica and Michelle
bottom row: Natalie, Alanna, Jane, Kinsey, Piper, Nora, Adele, Makenna, Claire, Alexa and Addie