Girl's Camp 2010

This year I was a fourth year youth camp leader (YCL) and so I went on the 4th year adventure activity. I had a blast, especially with another young women from my ward. The first day we drove up to Shenandoah National Park and set up camp. Anna and I shared a tent and choose a sweet spot to set up. We had our tent in the shade, a hammock right next to it, and a clothes line by the tent. Plus camp chairs and buckets to sit upon and relax. Following setting up camp we went on a 4 mile hike (no pictures, sadly). It was a gorgeous view of the mountains and the waterfalls, however. The hike began relatively easy, but by the end all of us were pretty tired from climbing over rocks uphill. That delicious looking Ramen noodles you see in the above photo collage was cooked by me using some pretty awesome soda can camp stoves. Anna and I quickly fell asleep that night.


The second day (Tuesday) was pretty great as well. Anna and I woke up at 6 and took a shower. It cost $1 for five minutes, so we were speedy! After showering we went back to camp and relaxed in the hammock for a while before cooking breakfast. Using my handy dandy stove, I whipped up two chocolate chip pancakes! YUM. Plus somebody else had left over sausage, so I hopped right on that opportunity and ate that too. Good start to the day! Next we completed another hike in the mountains. We hiked to Rapidan Cabin, which President Hoover and his wife, Lu Henry, built as a retreat and a place to spend the summers. Apparently, Lu Henry believed in the calmness and peace of the outdoors, and spent a lot of time hosting people in the log cabins. It was pretty fun to see all that. After the hike, we went back to camp and relaxed for a couple of hours. We endured a pretty short thunderstorm as we sat in our cars. I roasted a hot dog for dinner and ate some beans with it. Yum, kind of. Then Anna and I ate Smoreos with Sister Mair, Megan, and Aimee. For those of you that are unaware, a smoreo is a roasted marshmallow in between an Oreo cookie. It was pretty good. Last thing: Anna and I went to brush our teeth, and in the way back to our tent Anna saw something. I didn't see anything. We continued to our tent. When we arrived in a couple of steps, we shined our flashlight and saw a skunk. That's right folks a SKUNK. Right in front of OUR tent. Crap. It finally went away and nobody got sprayed. We slept like babies that night.


For some reason, the only pictures I took on Wednesday were while we were tubing. Wednesday we ended the adventure activity with a tubing trip down the Rappahannock River. We had a really good time. However, while we were tubing a lot of us got sunburn on the top of our legs. Sexy, I must say. Talk about one hot tan, especially since we had on shorts! Anyways, tubing is not the only thing we did, despite what the collage shows. We drove in to Prince William Forest and met up with the other girls at camp. We had a spaghetti dinner and then went to a big field for some activity. The girls learned about putting on the whole armor of God in order to protect ourselves from the temptations in this world and to remain worthy and safe as we obey God's commandments. It was a really good activity, and the leaders did awesome. Also, all the bishops came up and spent some time with each ward.


Thursday was so. much. fun. I helped in the kitchen almost all day, because we really didn't do much as a YCL. We had cereal for breakfast, and after that we had a YCL meeting. Then we did certification with our levels for 2 hours. 4th years finished early, so I headed back to the kitchen. Things got crazy. We made lunch and created a skit. After lunch I went to the craft cabin and made some bracelets and a cute little frame. It was fun. Then I headed back to the kitchen for dinner and we went nuts. We did our hair so very lovely. We used water bottles to make our hair so tall! That night mom left camp, and so I took her place in the kitchen. I slept in the kitchen cabin instead of my YCL cabin. Sister Caldwell, Sister Wolf, Kristen, and I had a party with cake and pie. Yum. Since mom wasn't there, we placed a mop in her spot. By the end of the day, I was tired.


Friday was much like Thursday. Meetings in the morning, certification, free time, kitchen help, etc. In the morning I got up early with the kitchen crew and we cooked pancakes and bacon and eggs. Yummy breakfast. Later in the day all of us in the kitchen decided to go canoeing. It was a lot of fun. Kristen and I raced the old ladies. Turns out the old ladies are fast. P.S. the paper plate with bugs on it is a list of all the bugs that came into the kitchen. We would kill them with a fly swatter and pinned them up as a warning for others! Friday night we had the evening program, which was very spiritual and great for all the girls. The theme for this year is Joshua 1:9:

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good
courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for
the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

The music program was based around that scripture. Lots of songs and narration all written by Jenny Phillips. It was wonderful. It set the mood for the testimony meeting that followed around the campfire. The night ended very spiritually, very wonderfully. P.S. I love the theme for this year.

The last day we mostly just cleaned up and left camp. However, we did have breakfast there, which consisted of everything we had left over from the previous days. Also a large bucket of candy was put out for breakfast. As a tradition, after girls camp the Wolfs and Kemmeys always go to Wendy's and get some food and a frosty. Yum. On the way home, I slept as mom drove in 2 hours of traffic.