Girls' Camp - The Longer Version

Sunday night I couldn't get to sleep.  No surprise there.  I finally fell asleep at 2 a.m.  My alarm went off at 5 a.m., since we had to be at our Stake Center at 6 a.m. to board the buses.  It would have been later, but there was a mix-up with scheduling the buses.  Daughter #1 and I packed our lunches and loaded the van.  We had to pick up our Young Women's president and her daughter on the way to the Stake Center.  My husband drove us there and dropped us all off.  Boy, was it early.

The buses finally came, we boarded and were off.  Our Young Women's president and I were the 2 adults on our bus.  Immediately the camp song singing began.  And didn't stop for the entire week.  I am camp-songed out.  We got to Heber Valley Camp at around 7:30 a.m.  After stepping off the bus, we were immediately swarmed by mosquitos.  That also would not stop for the rest of the week.  Bug spray was whipped out as soon as we got to our campsite.  Most of our other leaders were already there setting up camp.  We just had to grab our things and put them in our bunks.  By the time we were done with that, it was 8:30, but felt like lunch time.  It was going to be a long day.

The 5th and 6th year girls were called YCL's (Youth Camp Leaders) and were so awesome.  Their job was to take the lead in most group activities and help organize the girls.  They did a great job of it the whole week.  We were divided up into cabin groups, with 2-4 leaders per cabin and about 8-11 girls in each cabin.  Our cabin was the fullest with 4 leaders and 11 girls.  9 of the 10 leaders had a daughter at camp and they were kept together in cabins with the rest of the girls divided up the best way possible.

We had our ward orientation and then the stake orientation with the senior missionaries assigned to the campground.  We learned what to do about storms and bears and everything in between.  The storm info would be very important, as it would rain 3 of the 4 nights there.  We never saw a bear, but did see bear poop on our hike, right on the trail. 

Every morning and evening we had stake devotional at the amphitheater, or at the pavilion when it rained.  Monday night was Family Home Evening.  The parents of the girls and husbands of the leaders had written a "Once Upon a Time" story of the birth of the girls and meeting of the husbands and wives.  We had a short lesson and got to read those stories.  It was neat.  We each had a camp journal and each day were given a writing prompt to complete.  Those journals were used a lot for different activities.  The girls also made a time capsule to be opened before they attend the temple.  They would work on those throughout the week.  We had had hot chocolate and donuts in the rain for refreshments.

Also on Monday, 2 other leaders and I went to the ropes challenge course to be trained on how to teach the girls on the course the next day.  Tuesday afternoon we all went down to the ropes course.  There were 7 different low ropes challenges, each requiring different strengths and problem-solving skills.  My challenge was called Shark-Infested Water.  The point was to get everyone from the "sinking ship" to the safety of the tiny island by way of a rope hanging halfway in between without touching the ground.  It was about 10 feet between the rope and the ship and island on each side.  4 teams of girls went through.  It was very interesting to see how the different teams worked together.  Only 1 team got everyone across the first time.  It was Daughter #1's team.  It helped that the majority of the girls on that team were thin and shorter.  One team in particular had some heavy girls and never did complete the challenge.

There was also a high ropes course, which consisted of having to climb about 40 feet up a telephone pole using hand and feet grips, walking across a 40-foot wire to a platform and going down the zipline to get to the end.  The whole time you were strapped to a rope that went through a metal ring with men holding the end of the rope.  It was very safe.  And scary for some people.  I went up and didn't really struggle until the zipline.  My stomach didn't like it very much.

3 of our leaders are very scared of heights and were hesitant to do it.  They all did it, as well as all the girls.  Another of our leaders had a brain bleed (like a stroke) some years back and has almost no use of her left side.  She was very active before that happened and it was frustrating for her to not be able to do all that everyone did.  Two years ago, she was able to do the zipline by being hooked up at the end of it and being brought back to the beginning and let go, but had never done the first parts of the challenge.  She decided to try it with the help of the men on the end of the rope doing most of the work.  I have never seen someone so determined to do something.  Or struggle so hard to do it.  She got turned around at one point on the pole and one of the volunteers climbed up behind her and helped place her feet the rest of the challenge.  The girls were so great to cheer her on constantly and at one point sang "I am a Child of God" to her.  I cried the entire time.  It was seriously life-changing to watch.  It made me realize that I give up easily when things are even a little bit hard.  I let fear stop me from having many experiences.  I have never really had to work hard for anything.  Not like she did.  She was able to complete the whole challenge and later said that she had never felt Heavenly Father's love like she did at that time.  It was truly inspiring and something none of us will forget.  It was my favorite experience of Girls' Camp.

Tuesday night we had skits with the stake.  It rained hard, so we met in the pavilion to watch them.  The girls had had the whole day to work on the skits, and all the wards did a great job.  Our ward did the best, of course!  Even the stake presidency did a skit.  I've heard it is the most looked-forward to of all of them.  During the middle of the skits, a mother moose with baby in tow walked right in the middle of the campground.  Lucky for us, we were in the pavilion and not walking around the campground, or it might have been too exciting.

Wednesday was hike day.  We could choose the long hike, which was 6 1/2 miles, or the short hike, which was 2 1/2 miles.  Long story short, I ended up doing the short hike.  Both hikes were strenuous and challenged those who went.

I was starting to feel the fatigue setting in.  I had gotten 3 hours of sleep on Monday night and 1 hour on Tuesday.  That's only 7 hours in the previous 3 days.  Not enough, even for me.  Wednesday night I took a couple of Ibuprofen for aching legs and slept the entire night without waking up once.  I must have been exhausted, because that rarely happens even at home.  I also learned that I snort in my sleep.

Wednesday night was the faith walk.  It was a very spiritual experience.  It talked about our time in the premortal existance and how it will be when we return to our Heavenly Father.  We got to see ourselves the way He sees us.  I was a leader of group #3, but got to participate in everything.  It was very neat.

Thursday was lake day.  We hiked about 1 1/2 miles to the lake for canoeing and lunch and hiked back.  Definitely an easier hike than the day before, but still got us breathing hard.  Showers were after the lake and we made fabric-decorated flip flops and did manicures and hair.  It was the most downtime we'd had so far.  The bishopric and wives came up that evening for testimony meeting.  It was an emotional evening for everyone.  I started crying during devotional with the stake and didn't stop the whole evening.  It was neat.

Friday morning we packed up and loaded the trailer and trucks.  We cleaned the cabins and campground and had inspection by the senior missionaries.  After waiting for the buses for a while, we finally got on board the bus and went back to the stake center.  The girls sang camp songs that entire ride.  It was a long ride.  Getting home was so wonderful.  After a long shower, I crashed and took a lovely nap.  Our ward arranges for the YW leaders to have dinner brought to their families the night they get home from camp, so I didn't have to cook.  I don't think I could have if I wanted to.  I was bushed.  It was such a great week.  I still feel a bit tired from everything, but am so glad I was able to go.  It was a wonderful experience.