Girls Camp

So Girls Camp has come and gone! July 8-11 was full of a lot of singing, dancing, laughing, eating, hiking, etc.

As much as I was was not thrilled to be called as the YW Camp Director, I have to admit- I had such a good time. The girls in our ward were so much fun and so helpful with whatever I asked of them. Everyone in the ward is now joking that if I'm still around next year that this will be a repeat calling.

Do I blend in with all the other girls in the picture below?? I got mistaken as one of the young women several times a day- I really needed a shirt that said somehting like: Camp Director or I'm the Leader - but the girls did give me the "young woman" award. For both being mistaken as a girl and for being 'one of the girls' It was fun.

Getting ready to leave

Day One: Once we got up to camp and set up we gave all the girls a pair of red scrubs and a headband to wear. The stake theme was Being Examples to the World and each ward picked a country to represent, our ward, obviously was Japan.

After getting settled and eating our lunch the "games" began. We did a mini- olympics games with all the other wards. There was a torch relay, sumo-wrestling, tug-a-war, horse shoes, parachute, and a bunch more games. We dominated the tug-a-war (literally dragged a girl in the dirt- kind of sad, but really funny at the same time)



Needless to say after the games & hiking we retreated to our camp to hang out: these hairy (big) caterpillars were everywhere. The girls named and played with them all the time- it was disgusting

Finally sitting down at the end of the first day.

One of the activities we did was make these cute little kimono paper dolls- each girl got to customize it for themselves

Day Two: Certification Day in Levels. The nice part about being camp director was that I got to roam wherever I wanted. So I hiked down to the icky pond with the 3rd levels and their YCL's- because let's be honest Mallory was one of the 3rd level YCL's and she was the most entertaining to hike with. That girl sang Disney songs non-stop. Once I was at the pond, I stayed there so I could watch and take pictures of all the girls (each level came down at one point) because they got to canoe. Here I am doning everyone's sweatshirts- hot, right?!

I kind of cheated because I knew that the 1st levels would be making these fun bracelets (benefit of working a member of the Stake YW Presidency) out of soda pop tabs, so I joined in with them for awhile.

Later that night the Stake did our own version of YW Idol and each ward got a tub with a mystery CD and costumes to perform to. We got NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye. It was a little drama trying to get everyone to help choreograph some steps for us. But we had a good time performing.

Yep, that me- the nerd that didn't remember to put my sunglasses on and have a stern/serious face. I'm a cheeseball.

Day Three: A lot of ward time where we made candy sushi, origami and learned how to write Kanji, mixed in with a little Fireside about Women of Worth, presented by the Stake (so good) and service project and at the end of the day we got to go on a zip line. And the night was spiritually filled with amazing talks and music provided by women in the stake.

All in all - it was a fun time! Its definately a totally different experience going a a leader and having to plan and be in charge and keep track of 10+ girls. But Friday night's devotional with the Stake and then our ward testimony meeting made everything totally worth it. It was an experience that will not soon be forgotten.