Girls Camp- Day 4

We had our "Value Walk" this morning. We had women dressed as various scripture/church history women who would them explain why they represented the value they were give . We had a loop around the lower part of our campground and we were spread far enough apart that you couldn't hear the other women as you were talking. 

The girls did this as wards and it was very reverent and such a neat experience. I was Ruth. It was great to see the girls come quietly up the hill toward where I was waiting. 

Many girls commented that they enjoyed the value walk the best.

At lunch we decided to prank the 5th years. They had made fun of our cheer (which was actually hilarious) and the camp nurse had some silly string that needed to be used. We called them all together for lunch and when the "amen" was said at the the day of the prayer...we let loose with the silly string. We got them good!!

In the afternoon, we had the bishops and the stake presidency come up and do game rotations. I was happy to see them because we didn't have to do anything. We could sit and watch the games!!

We them all went to our wards to each dinner with them. It was fun to talk to the girls and hear how they had liked camp.

After dinner we had a "Face-2-Face" with the stake presidency and their wives.  We had asked the girls to write questions and submit them to be answered by the stake presidency. Some questions were fun: "Please explain boys." While others were more serious: same sex attraction. But the girls loved hearing from them and got to know them better on a more personal level. It was exactly what we wanted!

Then we all went back to our wards for testimony meeting and dessert. My Ward was small in numbers so it didn't take long. I went back to our camp, got ready for bed, read and then waited for someone else to show up.  After a while my secretary and 2nd counselor showed up. We talked about how it had gone and were just about asleep when we heard someone walking outside our tent. We had, mistakenly, thought it would be a calm night because it was testimony meeting...wrong!!

Suddenly footsteps rushed our tent, the zipper flew open and we were sprayed by water and silly string. My secretary used me as a human shield and my counselor burrowed into her sleeping bag. I tried to get up and ended up with a leg cramp. I was laughing while yelling "leg cramp!" It was pretty hilarious. They got us good.

Girls Camp - Day 3

We woke up, once again, to a car alarm at 6 am from the lower campground. My only complaint was about how loud they were when we were trying to have prayers, etc. 

Anyway. We had "You rotations" in the morning and early afternoon. There were 5 rotations that taught about fabulous, beautiful, creative, strong and brave "you." 

I was the fabulous you rotation. I taught the meaning behind the value colors and made an analogy to hiking and the gear you need to hike. 

The creative you rotation was where we colored tshirts that said "BE YOU" on the front.

The beautiful you was a craft. I didn't get to do this one because I was too busy.

The brave you rotation taught the girls how to relate any random thing to a gospel principle so they could share the gospel easier with their friends. For example: what does a fridge have to do with the gospel?  I loved this rotation because the man teaching it came down at lunch to do a special presentation for those who were teaching other rotations so we wouldn't miss out.

The strong you rotation was my counselor teaching the girls a song she wrote. I didn't get to do that one either  but heard it was amazing.

We them had our spiritual night presentation. A Tongan woman spoke to us about what it is to be truly beautiful and then we watched the old "Johnny Lingo." It was hilarious to hear the reactions from the girls because many hadn't seen it before. When the movie ended, we had a visit from Mohana (a girl pretending to be her) and learned more about our real value in God's eyes. It was cool.

The 5th years decided to take the girls on a snipe hunt. I was not happy about this because I knew them well enough by that point to know it could get out of hand. It ended up either being 1) really scary or 2) pretty lame. We had 6 girls in tears and one Ward ready to shoot us. The other stake in the lower campground came up to snipe hunt in our campground and were really loud. It amused a lot of confusion and fear. We were up late trying to calm people down. Not the most fun I have had!

We tried to make smores when it finally calmed down but realized we didn't have any hotdog sticks. So we are the  chocolate. ;)

Then it was time for bed.

Girls Camp - Day 2

The day started early when the other stake using the lower campground started a car alarm at 6 am!!! It was a cold night but we all survived. Breakfast was served and we got camp ready for the wards to arrive. We put out balloons, pounded signs into the ground and got ready. 

The camp directors came up with an idea to have each ward search for rocks painted in their values. The 5th years had painted the rocks and they had scriptures on them. The wards had to find the rock, look up the scripture, solve the clue and then put a phrase together. It was supposed to be a fun game for them to do when they were bored. So we spent a long time hiding rocks and marking their positions on a map. If the girls got stuck, they could come to the stake for help but it would come at a cost...i.e. shoulder messages, running errands, cleaning, etc. We walked all over the campground that morning!

At about 9:45 the wards started coming in. We waited by the front gate with the 5th years to greet them.

The road down to camp.

The entrance to the upper camp.

The monument.

Our stake flag

We had no idea how competitive the wards would get with the rocks. What was supposed to be a boredom buster ended up being a big deal to the girls. We had accusations of rock tampering and our map mysteriously disappeared. We ended up spending a couple hours in the afternoon trying to help wards find their rocks but we couldn't remember where we hid them...that's what the map was for. But it all worked out in the end.

We had our devotional and then our camp kick off program. The committee focused on the ways that girls in our stake demonstrate their uniqueness, their bravery, their strength, their heart and their beauty. They asked primary kids in the Ward what each thing meant and I put together a video of their answers. It was hilarious.

We went to bed late that night and we laughed and laughed. When we were just calming down and falling asleep we heard someone walk up to the back of our tent. It was a light moon and the back of our tent was all lit up from outside. Suddenly we saw these "puppet people" walk behind our tent and throw something up in the air. It fell right back down and we heard a "dang!" We got the giggles when we realized someone was tying to toilet paper us. We saw the shadows try again to throw the toilet paper up. This time the roll landed right on the top of our tent. We died laughing!! I asked the shadows "Do you want me to get that for you?" The reply was "No, we're good." It was hilarious to watch the shadows toilet paper our tent. 

We finally fell asleep about an hour later after almost laughing ourselves sick. 

The TP job:

 Too funny!!

Girls camp - Day 1

In an effort of full disclosure...meaning I did something stupid that I will tell because I'm honest...I got lost driving to girls camp. REALLY lost. Like, 1 1/2 hours late, I went all the way to Duck Creek late.

We loaded the trailer and trucks and took off at about 10:30. I had been to the camp once before so we thought I would know the way...nope! The girls in my car kept saying they recognized the area and we were in the right path but we weren't sure. As my counselor and I were discussing whether or not we were lost, my car died!! The wasn't overheating, hadn't been acting weird and had plenty of gas. We had no idea what happened. THe girls pushed the car to the side of the road and then we waited for someone from our stake to drive by and save us. After 20 minutes no one had come so we said a prayer. The car started perfectly and we were off...still going the wrong direction. We should have taken a clue and turned around! We ended up at Duck Creek (15 miles too far).  

At this point we decided to pull out the map...genius! We turned around and headed back. We finally found the right turn off and made it to camp. My secretary was loading up to come and find us. She was so worried! The girls were good sports but they were happy to be out of the car.

The plus was that camp was already are up.

We unpacked and looked around. We had a cute camp!

The value path to the temple.

Going to the temple.

We had dinner, practiced our skit, then relaxing time. At 9:30 we had testimony meeting with the 5th and 6th girls and the stake. It was great. We finally lights out at 11:30 pm.

Purging

After Ethan left for youth conference yesterday I started purging his room. (It's nice when they aren't around because I can get rid of so much more junk than I can when they are watching.) 

I threw away 2 bags of garbage and 2 bags of stuff is going to DI. He is usually good about keeping things clean but his closet and under his bed were a nightmare!  He has to go through a few things when he gets home, but I finally got it cleaned.

Today was Courtney's turn and it took 3 hours, with her help. I threw out another 3 bags of garbage and we have 2 more bags for DI. But we got it done and everything has a home. 

Now the goal is to keep it that clean. That's always the goal but she is determined to try harder this time. 😉

Now it's time to shower and nap...

Birthday

The 16th was Leigh Ann's birthday. She invited us to Sakura for dinner to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day for the guys. Courtney was nervous because she doesn't like high flames so they tamed it down for us. But she realized that she really likes their food.

Chopstick walrus!!

Birthday girl

I had made a birthday cake, with Courtneys help, so they lit the candles for us. Courtney helped Leigh Ann blow out the candles.

The waitress saw me starting to cut the cake and asked if they could do it for me. I must have looked like I needed help. To be honest, cutting anything isn't my strength! They took it in the back, cut it, served it and then put it back in the box. 

It was a fun dinner. Happy birthday!!!

Narwhals

The kids are doing swim team again this year. They swim on the Narwhals team at Dixie State. They have enjoyed it.

Courtney is looking at the camera and Ethan is behind her looking at the ground.

Poor Nose

Courtney had a goggle malfunction which led to a run in with the side of the pool at swim team on Tuesday. When she did a flip turn her goggles came off so she put them on her arm and kept swimming. They were racing in a relay so she didn't have time to stop and fix her goggles. But she had a hard time seeing so she ended up going face first...or nose first...into the wall at the end of the lane. Poor girl!

She was not happy about it at all!!

Father's Day Hike

Since Ethan will be at youth conference the Saturday before Father's Day, we decided to do our annual hike early.  Bryan wanted to explore a trail by the Oak Grove Campground near Silver Reef so we went there.

It was a perfect day. It had rained the night before so it wasn't dusty and the clouds kept the temperature down. It was great!

We parked at the trail head and got ready to hike.

We hiked toward Spirit Creek.

The views were beautiful.

We crossed a couple of small streams.

There were switch backs and a lot of ups but we trooped through and made it to the ridge that Bryan wanted to check out.

Ethan was happy when we made it!

Courtney wasn't happy going up but she did it!

Bryan wanted to keep going to the spring but the kids were done so he went on ahead. After 20 minutes the kids got nervous so we hiked down to find him. He met us about 10 minutes later and then we all turned around and went back to the car.

Can you see the trail? We were pretty wet hiking through this tall grass.

Courtney was much happier going back than she had hiking to the ridge.

Ethan was happy too.

On our way back we found a picnic table and campsite we had missed on the way up. Bryan and Courtney made plans to do a backpacking trip there while Ethan is at scout camp and I am at girls camp. She is pretty excited for her first backpacking trip.

I think it was a very successful and fun Father's Day hike. We went to Red Robin for dinner afterward. I'm sure we were smelly and I know we were dirty and dusty, but we didn't care.

Happy pre-Fathers Day Bryan!!! We love you.

4th year campout

The 4th year girls are supposed to go on a backpacking trip or an adventuring activity. The leaders voted for an adventuring activity so we took the girls on an overnighter to Veyo Pool and then took them to the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. I had been gone on vacation so it was kind of crazy to pull off

but we did it!

We met at the stake center, loaded up and drove to Veyo. After setting up camp...

most of the girls went swimming. One girl didn't want to swim so I taught her to catch crawdads and we spent an hour exploring our campsite and the area. It was beautiful!

The girls were still swimming so the other for as I went to join them. When they finished swimming they were hungry so we started a fire and put in their tinfoil dinners. There is an art to tinfoil dinners...precook the meat and slice vegetables thin. This didn't happen for these girls and it took forever to cook their food!! They caught crawdads while waiting and waiting and waiting.

When we finished dinner and got camp cleaned up, they got into pjs then we had smores and a devotional. I gave the history of the Massacre and we did a nature certification. It went really well. 

The girls went to bed, the tent fit 9 girls!

One girl doesn't camp so we waited for her mom to pick her up. While we were waiting I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. It was after 10 pm by this time and pretty dark. It was a huge raccoon.

He was looking for food. Since we had cleaned up, all he could find was marshmallow on the end of the roasting sticks. So he took them and drug them off!! He wasn't afraid of us and came back several times. He even climbed a tree and sat there watching is for quite a while.

The girls were squealing and...the priesthood leaders we took with us slept through the entire thing!!

When Roger finally left (that's what the girls named the raccoon) the girls mom came to get her and we went to bed. The yw stayed up talking, singing, going to the bathroom, etc until 3:30.

The next day after breakfast, we took down camp and then drove to the Massacre site. I hadn't been there before as it was so sad.

We drive home and the girls were picked up by their parents. It was a lot of fun ad I got to know the 4th year girls.

Fish eating time!

The fish the boys caught in Alaska came and we had to try some. It was really yummy!! 

Our new favorite place

We went to the new swimming part of the Ivins Reservoir. It was awesome! They built a beach area next to the reservoir, filled it with water, built bathrooms and voila, we have a beach in Ivins!

The kids and I went out there and spent a couple of hours. It was 104 degrees so the cold water felt great.

Here's the girl getting her beach fashion on...

Isn't it a beautiful sight?

Here is another view. There weren't too many people there but Bryan predicts it will get more and more popular. It's free and new, so I think he is right.

It cooled Courtney off so much that this is how she was dressed later when I drove them to swim team... Crazy Courtney!!

The kids are now very exhausted. Ethan had mountain bike team practice at 6:30 am, we swam from 1:15-3:30, and they had swim team from 5-6. I think they will sleep well tonight!!

Photos - whales, eagles and fish!

Here are some pictures from our vacation that weren't on my phone so I couldn't blog them.

Whale Watching:

Bryan had great timing on this one because it just
popped up when he snapped.

We saw a baby and it's mom.

Courtney's orca photo.

See the mist?  That's a whale.

Icy Strait Point:

Ethan took this photo of the eagle.

It was so green and I loved taking picture of the rain forest.

The path...

Goofy Ethan

Ketchican fishing trip:

Getting rain gear on

Our fisherman!

Cute boys

Grandpa Oman and Ethan

The line and reel they used

Ethan fishing

Ethan fishing some more

Their catch.  The three red ones on the left are Ethan's.

Proud fishermen!

The haul for the day!