Girls Camp

As many of you know I was asked to be the camp director for our ward here in Virginia. I was extremely nervous about going because I'm not a camper. For our girls camp, growing up in Idaho, we enjoyed cabins, refridgerators and a swimming pool. When I learned that I would be spending 5 nights sleeping in a tent and cooking with limited supplies....well naturally I was nervous. But I survived and I learned a ton! First of all I learned that I CAN do it and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. There were definitely a lot of ups and downs. Some of the downs were wind storms, rain storms, 5 of my 6 girls injured or sick throughout the week and what would camp be if there wasn't any drama? Some of the ups were listening to my girls read scriptures together, playing, laughing and singing in the rain, playing the cup game, hiking, singing the silly camp songs and the best was to listen to their heartfelt testimonies. It was truly an amazing week. Here are a few pics for you to enjoy.

This is a picture of the handouts I made for the young women. The buckets have jolly ranchers in them and I told a story about being a bucket filler (saying positive things to others) and not a bucket dipper (saying negative things to others). There's pretzels (story about prayer), gum (stick close to Heavenly Father by "chewsing" the right.) a pen with index cards (Draw near unto the Lord) and glow sticks (quote about testimonies) and not pictured gummy bears and a reminder to "bear" your testimony often. Here's the 6 young women that came to camp from our ward.
Left to Right:Neicha, Brenna, Tzigane, Brienne, Brooke and Manaia

The girls: some with funny faces....I must not have heard to do a funny face so I'm smiling ear to ear. :)

Sherando Lake. Some girls would swim out to the Island and jump off the rocks.

Aw, relaxation. I obviously posed for this picture. I loved this camp chair and thought if I showed Nels how much I enjoyed it, he might buy me one. Hint, hint. :) I love having my feet up!

Our service project was to pick up garbage around the lake.

Manaia, Brooke, Brienne and me.

Part of the Lower Sherando Lake.

Pudding on faces...this is mild.

A pudding war broke out and many people looked like this:

Luckily, I was holding my camera and pled for mercy. :)

We built this tower so the stake president could give his talk from it. (Like King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon) The white tent is where we all met together. Isn't the scenery beautiful? I love all the trees!

Nels survived without me. He ate things that I don't like all week. So he ate hot wings and talapia. We were super happy to be back together again. That's all for now.