3 Girls and a Guy

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH-Girls Camp 2010

Be Strong and Of Good Courage

Olympic Theme-Baseball

This is the fourth year I have been a camp director. It hasn't gotten any easier. In July, I spent at least 100 hours on camp and that's not counting some preparation the months before or the hours spent at camp. In all it's probably 1000 hours for camp. Haha. No wonder why I am exhausted and have been for two weeks since. Here is our before picture. We had 10 leaders and 12 girls. Craziness. I thought I would love having 10 leaders, but it caused drama. They would go off for hours talking and visiting while I worked my butt off. It was hard.

Cute Alex got to go with me this year. I was so excited to show her everything I was doing and to see her excitement for camp. This girl doesn't get overly excited. She's like her dad in that way. At camp, I barely knew she was there. She had such a great time with the other girls at camp, she didn't need me. I felt sad at times. I'm glad she is independent. I guess it's better than being too attached. She gave an awesome testimony at testimony meeting about saying her prayers every night or she can't go to sleep. She hugged me big after and that made me feel better. She's getting older!!! It was fun to see her mingle and include new people at camp. She slept with Emily Smith, Colette Condie (nonmember), and Sidney Ford(nonmember). She is such a beautiful young lady and I loved the way she treated others at camp.




Here are a few of the older girls I love dearly. Marijka is on the far left and she was my babysitter before Alex was of age. They are all good girls and fun to hang with. Marijka, McKel, Me, Gracie and Karra.

We loved sitting by the camp fire every night. We played lots of games by the camp fire like the question game, Big Booty and more. Lots of laughing too. We shared our testimonies by the fire. What a great group of young women. Everyone got up. We had spiritual discussions and lessons by the camp fire. I love girls camp. The spirit is so strong there.

One night our priesthood leader, Jason Brown, and his daughter brought some eating contests. The girls all had a ball. One of them we had to drink a whole bottle of sour spray and not make a face. The next one we had to eat five soda crackers the fastest. The last one we had to eat a whole box of fireballs the fastest. I did the sour spray and soda cracker game. It was fun. Lots of the girls got tears in their eyes and many took this very serious. Thanks for entertaining us Jason and not bringing frogs to eat like you do at scouts.

At camp, we played more games at the tables like Apples to Apples and the cup game. We made a few crafts like bottle cap necklaces, camp bracelets, secret sister cards and love notes. Thanks to Terri, my assistant, for bringing up all the scrapbooking materials. The girls became experts at scrapbooking cards. Every day I would ask someone to make me a card so I could write in it. Many times that card would go back to the person that made it. It was so funny. I was sneaky. The second day we were there, it rained off and on the whole day. The hike was cancelled. We stayed at camp and played games and did crafts. It was so fun to stay with just our ward that day.

Now to talk about food. Terri and I made the menu and I bought all of the food and packed it. Wow. The food was tasty though. We had lots of drinks, carmel brownies, frosted brownies, snacks, dutch oven cobblers, dutch oven chicken, La Frontera smothered breakfast burritos (my fav), Costco muffins, lots of fresh fruit, salads, meatballs and rice, and a lot more. One of our neighbors from another ward would come down at dinner time to eat with us because her ward's food was gross.

Our skit was the best and our shirts were too. I'm not braggin, I'm speaking the truth. Colette Condie (nonmember)made up our skit. It was about a girly baseball team that just wanted to finish their game and go to the mall and get manicures and pedicures. They were so girly and funny. We had the most jokes and the most laughs from the audience. We barely tied in our theme and DIVINE NATURE value. I guess we were more focused on entertaining than the theme. I stressed about the skit the whole week before and it ended up great. So much for stressing. Alex was the coach and had to learn how to act manly. She got tough and did great.

Our tshirts were not your ordinary tshirt. We had to have the best and the cutest. Terri found a baseball tshirt and then we put our ward number on back and a big diamond in the rough on the front with edgie writing. They turned out so cute and we got lots of compliments.

One night Jason took the 1st years and the rest of the girls on a Snipe Hunt. My poor Alex. She thought they were real. She told me they caught 20 of them and it was really scary. I asked her if she saw them and she said she stayed behind and didn't get too close. I laughed so hard. When she found out the truth, she was so embarrassed. She was mad that her friends would con her and make her look dumb. We all laughed. Everyone has to believe in snipes the first year. They wear toothpaste on their face when snipe hunting. I don't know why. We made smores one night with big marshmellows and the girls got really messy. Natalie Cook had to wear a beanie a few times. She is too skinny and got way cold. I only wore a hoodie and was fine. Someone also put some liners on Jason's truck before he left as a goodbye present. He was grossed out whenever we talked about girl stuff.

There was a pretty good zip line at the JR property. I have been going to the JR property since I was a beehive. Back then there were only outhouses with a hole in the ground. Some years we had to bring in our own wood and water. Now it is much better. The girls and many of the negative leaders do not think so, but now there are flush toilets, sinks, water readily available and our bishopric brought up a shower that makes hot water. What more can you ask for. I hear at Heber Valley they have cabins and cooks. I guess that would be ideal, but I love JR and it's away from the world and I have a lot of good memories there. The zipline was way fun. We only wish we had more time to go down it again.

Alex, Karra blindfolded, me and Terri my assistant. I love Terri. We get each other on so many levels. She was one of my counselors in the primary. She helps me be better. She works and so I have to pick up a lot of the slack, but I know this and she still helps out a ton. Camp was great with her. This was our second year together at camp. I hope the last. Hehehe

Notice my tent with a canopy and tarps over it. Renn forgot my rain fly to my tent when packing. Leave it to the women to rig up a contraption. We are real campers. It rained a few times camping and we didn't get wet. Alex's tent had to take down her leaky tent and put up a new one, but the rest of us were fine. Packing up is such an ordeal. We had one priesthood leader to help all of us women. Alex did not like this part of camping. She said it's a lot of work coming home. I would have to agree. We unloaded at our house. When the mom's came to pick up their girls, Mindy Brown, noticed a tick in Irelynds neck. We got to watch as Mark McDougal took it out with a needle and alcohol. That was a cool end to our camp experience. Also Emily Smith found one when she went home that day. It's not JR property without a few ticks.

Camp could not have been such a success without great girls, prayers, and great family at home that put up with me and my anxiety for the last month.

My mom would come and check on the kids everyday. Adri was in school and that helped out a lot. Renn would come home and go swimming every night with the kids at the Cooks. I knew everything would be okay at home while I was gone and that was a big relief. Thanks so much to Renn who puts up with a lot from me in my moments of despair and need. He really pulls me through and helps when I need it the most. I love him for that. My mom does the same. My kids loved spending time with her and Papa. Also Abby did a great job babysitting Kaden quite a bit too. Renn took the kids to a pizza buffet and outdoor movie at the park while I was gone. They don't need me!!!

I was so happy to be home. There was a lot of drama up at camp and I needed to see my hubby and kids. Many times at camp I just wanted to talk to Renn. I'm realized how much I need him and that he is my best friend forever. I think maybe I needed camp more than anyone else. I felt the spirit so much and I loved being with the girls.