Girls Camp 2013

Oh Boy!  What a week!  I hope your girls all had as much fun as the leaders did :)  Sister Skanchy, Sister Tyler and Sister Cook joined the girls on our girls' camp adventure at Camp Wildwood this year.  The YCL's (older girls 16 and up) were assigned to head up groups of younger girls in their activities for the week.  All the YCL's went up a day early (on Monday) to prepare the camp and get ready for their groups to arrive.  Also leaving early were the 4th year hikers (Allie Dean and Lindsay Ward).  The 4th year hike is a serious hike - I believe it was 10 miles total!  They hiked with their sleeping bag, food and belongings for the night in their big backpack - amazing accomplishment for those two girls. 

We all joined together on Tuesday as the rest of the girls in the ward arrived at the Camp.  The YCL's slept in their own cabin (all of them in one giant room) while the rest of us (leaders and girls) all shared a cabin down the road.  The camp has a pool, with a slide and a deep end, volleyball nets, soccer field, tether ball, swings and shuffleboard.   For our free time, the leaders of our ward were assigned "pool duty".  LUCKY! 

Tuesday was a day for getting to know the other girls in your group, and getting the layout of the campground, as well as eating some delicious food (that was a common theme for each day).  We realized our cabin was the farthest from the main area of the camp (and 8-9 minute walk).  We drove the girls up on occasion but mostly they just made the walk up and back over and over.  They were great sports.

The evening of Tuesday was the "ward mascot" night.   We presented our mascot, the "Del Norte Darling Dork" .   Don't worry, DORK stands for not only "Daughters of a Risen King" but also "Divine, Obedient, Reliable, Kind, and Spiritual."  The girls hammed it up and got a good laugh out of the rest of the stake.   The girls watched a video that the boys in the stake had made for them put to the song of "You're Beautiful just the way you are".  I am not exaggerating when I say the girls were going crazy!  They were laughing and screaming, then laughing some more.  After they calmed down, camp songs were sung, and Jennifer Sabin Sattley presented a nice devotional to the girls following the camp theme of "Homerun to Heaven".

On Wednesday we went on a short hike first thing in the morning.  It was .8 of a mile up hill, which I know felt like 5 miles to some of the girls, but they all did it!  We had a nice devotional at the top, where the girls were told about Graphine - the world's strongest substance, and were challenged to be "Mormon Strong." 

The rest of the day was a certification day where the girls learned about all sorts of outdoorsy things, like cooking in solar ovens, first aid, basic CPR, bedrolls etc.  The YCL's actually even taught some of these classes, as well as the afternoon devotionals each day with their groups.   The pool was very popular this day since we had some free time after the pool was open so the girls knew they would have time to "get ready" so they would look good for the evening :)   We sang camp songs for a long time this night, and the girls were rocking out!  Sister Monroe shared a devotional emphasizing making the temple a priority and getting there as often as possible.  Guess who won the cleanest cabin award (they called it the "Grand Slam").  That's right - our cabin!  So proud - it was all downhill from there, though :)

Thursday was adventure day.  The girls either started with a crafting morning or an activity morning and then switched for the afternoon.  Hopefully you've seen some of the crafts the girls brought home, they worked on some hair ties, some candle holders with the Young Women logo on it and some painted plaques with fun sayings on them.  For the Activities, they had a great variety to choose from: archery, rifle shooting, a giant bounce house, slacklining (thanks to Evan Hartzell in our ward!) , a "Unity" activity, and a Zip Line (the Zip Line broke part way through the afternoon so not all the girls had a chance to ride this one).  I know Christie was a sharp shooter on the rifle range and I think all of the girls tried the archery and raced through the bounce house.   I heard the slacklining was a pretty big hit, especially because there was a teenage boy on hand!  More free time for volleyball/swimming/reading/chatting this afternoon, followed by more camp songs and a devotional by President Clyde.  

Friday morning was a cleanup and get home sort of morning - it was a little rough for some of the girls to get up and get going after a late night, but once they (or WE) dragged their tired bodies out of bed, they got that cabin all neat and tidy!

Sister Cook will be updating more high quality pictures later but until then, there you go!

Can't wait until next year!

The Del Norte Darling DORKS

Aren't those the cutest blankets?  We totally needed them on some of those cool nights at the firesides, too!

Most awesome group of girls ever!

Sister Cook is just like one of the girls - she can't even imagine going to bed early!

We had a bit of a hike back from the main camping area, but walking it with friends made it so fun (or cramming into one of the leaders cars made it even funner!) :)

We used the DORKS theme for our skit and used the letters to stand for Divine,Obedient, Righteous,Kindness (at least I'm pretty sure that's what they stood for!) 

Our cute little cabin

We loved our little cabin at camp - the YCL's had to go back to their cabin at night, but we kept them in our cabin to goof around as long as we could.  Bishop even came by to tell sweet stories of his proposal to his wife and other fun memories that the girls loved!    Seriously, there were some crazy antics, and a lot of laughing (and snack eating!!)

cooling it off

During the day, it got a little toasty, so one great solution to that was the pool!  Sister Tyler even jumped in (after Katie let her borrow a swimsuit :)).  The slide was the highlight for sure (we have tons of pictures of that somewhere... ).  What a great way to cool off!

Look at that YCL group

Fun times at the bouncing station

One of the rotations on the "High Adventure" day sent the girls and their groups to the giant bouncy slide!  Some of the groups did races to see who could get up the back and then slide down the fastest, others just bounced and laughed a lot!

singing, crafts, and archery

The older girls in ward got to be YCL's, which means they lead groups of the younger girls in all their activities for the week.  They guided the groups through all their fun activities (crafts and high adventure anyone?!) , but they also led numerous devotionals every day.  They tried to get to know the girls in their groups, so they could help them find their value and build up their testimony and self-esteem.  Their loudest function, though, was definitely leading all the camp songs at the beginning of every night.  We would gather at the "baseball diamond" (since it was a "Homerun to Heaven" theme everything had a baseball name) so we would gather together and sing our camp songs under their {loud} example and then have our speaker for the night.

First Day of Camp Festivities

We made it to camp all safe and sound!  The older girls (YCL's) went up on Monday, so we met them up there (minus our two fourth year hikers who would join us later in the day).

We got our matching shirts and checked out the facilities ,with all the "Homerun to Heaven" themes around and the baseball diamond in the background.

these were the benches we sat on for the firesides and the campfire singing.  I won't lie (this is Sister Tyler), those things were not very comfortable after the first hour or so, but we still had some wonderful nights with great speakers.

Marianne and Madi were two of the leaders of the same group.  (I think that's the back of Christie's head, too).  They got to welcome the girls in their group up to the stage to be welcomed)

Sister Tyler and Chloe both got to get a rawhide necklace to keep all our charms on - good times!