I went to YW Camp all 6 years in my youth, but this year was my first time having the privilege as going as a leader. It was great! The General theme was: Stand Ye in Holy Places and Be Not Moved; the Stake theme was: BOOT camp (Building On Our Testimonies); and our Ward theme was: Girl on Fire. Here the girls are in the early morning ready to drive 4 hours to our lovely campsite! Two of my fourth years were already up there for their overnight hike/canoe trip and another of my girls was in summer school and came up late. One of my poor girls was extremely sick and had to stay home- boo! After the pleasant drive we got to work setting up our tents and getting unpacked and getting to know the ladies from the other wards.
The second day was filled with 4 different classes. One was canoe adventuring. I was so impressed with how fearless the girls were at trying new things. I went out in a kayak for a little while and felt entirely intimidated. The instructors asked for volunteers to capsize so they could demonstrate the rescue procedure. My girls- Megan and Ladawn accepted their challenge. Way to go girls!
Look what I found amongst the seaweed! Just a lovely little water lily.
Another class was on fire building. The first years were the fastest group to burn their teepee down- woo hoo!
That night we performed our skit "Girl on Fire".
These girls are on fire with their testimonies. I am truly impressed with each one of them!
Kestrel models the cute shirts we made a la Pinterest.
They turned out so cute and were so easy! You just need a black shirt, piece of cardboard, some stencils, and a spray bottle of bleach. Voila!
On the second day I went to classes with the second years. Go Emma! You shoot that arrow! This was also my first time using a real bow & arrow. "Nerf" doesn't count out in the wild, ha!
I found this little friend way up high in a tree. Can you see that Mr. Porcupine was waving at me?
For this class the girls turned into blue Smurfs, green Zombies, or plastic Barbies. Ha ha, gotta love facials in the woods!
I found these beauties on our edible plants hike. This is what the instructor said, "Only eat mushrooms that you get at the grocery store. Even professionals have made fatal mistakes with wild mushrooms." Sounds like good advice to me!
Friday was Ladawn's birthday. We celebrated with birthday cake- for breakfast!
Our last full day at camp was all about competition. Each ward had to prepare a meal with a limited, random assortment of ingredients. Kestrel, Anngela, and Emilee were hard at work on our main course, which we won- chicken fried rice, yum!
Our dessert was pretty tasty too. Ladawn, Emma, and Megan cooked cake batter like mini pancakes, then made sandwiches out of them with chocolate pudding filling.
We also had the prettiest table setting, thanks to Tasha and Gaelle (who also kept the fire just right for our potato skin appetizers).
It was so nice for me to visit with Catherine and all of the other leaders from our ward and stake!
After the cook off, we had lots of field games. Note: It's probably best NOT to let girls run blind-folded near woods. Yep, one of our poor Junior Staff ran straight into a tree and got a huge goose egg.
The highlight of the competition was canoe arm wrestling. I want a turn!
We are warriors! Go Ottawa Stake!
We had a fun award ceremony followed by a beautiful testimony meeting on the last night. The next morning as soon as we were up we took down camp and hit the road for home as fast as we could. I gave each of my girls some gumballs, since I had such a "ball" with them!
I got some goodies too- my boot camp shirt, some fun crafts (duct tape flower pen, bottle cap necklace, and fabric flower headband), and my award- Swedish berries for being so sweet even in some sour situations (yes, there was a major drama and unfortunately a girl from another ward had to go home). I forgot to mention that during free time each day the girls could make crafts, go swimming or canoeing, go hiking, or ride the zipline- and yes I did ride it! Next year, Noé is going to have such a wonderful time!!
