We had Stake Girls Camp on June 12-16. The Stake leaders and YCL girls went up on Tuesday, June 12th with the wards following on Wednesday, June 13th. It was nice to get out of the heat and into the mountains but it was a lot of work.
On Monday, June 11th, we asked all 40 YCL girls to meet us at the Center Street Church so we would load their stuff. We didn't have a trailer this year but our high councilman was able to get us a 15 passenger van which he took all the seats out of. The girls brought their bag, sleeping bag, cot (if they were using one), sleeping pad, pillow, and camp chair to the Church. Our high councilman is a master at playing tetrus. He got everyone's stuff in the van! It was a tight fit, but he did it!
On Tuesday morning we all met at the Stake Center to figure out how to get all the girls up the mountain. It's quite the task to get 40 girls and 20 leaders to girls camp.
I had to take a before picture because we weren't showering or anything until Saturday.
Camp Little Thunder is awesome. We have flush toilets, water spigots at each campsite, graded and graveled tent sites, and covered picnic areas. This year they even had poles above the amphitheater where we could string tarps so we had shade. That's what we spent 3 hours doing. It ended up only lasting a day because it was so windy up there during the day that the tarps created too much noise. We had to take them down We weren't using the amphitheater that much anyway.
With 40 YCl girls, we had a lot of help unloading and setting up the Stake camp.
Tuesday night we had a testimony meeting with the Stake leaders and YCLs. That is the meeting I love because we get to hear from the girls and we don't get to when it's Friday testimony meeting because those are done within their wards. So this is our chance and I love it.
Now, I wasn't prepared for how cold it was at night at camp. I had my mummy bag and figured that would be plenty (along with my coat). But I froze!! One leader had a thermometer and said it was 28 degrees when she woke up. It quickly heated up but it started out really cold.
We had the best cooks who fed us really well. And the girls, although there were 40 of them and there is always drama, did a great job of helping out and being cheerful.
The wards started arriving at 9:30 Wednesday morning and it was fun to greet them. Courtney didn't want too much to do with me so I did everything I could to embarrass her. haha!
The basics of what happened at camp were: rotations, rotations, more rotations, Friday bishop rotations, Friday spiritual night, camp clean up, leave Saturday. The rotations taught about how to be nice to others (break the mean girl cycle), games, art projects, feather headband creation, dutch oven cooking, geocaching, and first aid. The bishops always come up Friday afternoon to play games and teach the girls. Those are great because the girls get to hang out with their wards and see their bishops.
Thursday night we had a movie night that was The Greatest Showman. The girls loved it and sang along. There were only 10 out of all 200 that hadn't seen it before so they all knew the words. And they would yell at the screen and swoon. It was hilarious to watch it with them.
Our Friday spiritual night speaker was Sylvia Allan who taught the girls about scripture study. She was a great speaker and so gracious to drive from Springville to Cedar Mountain to speak to the girls. They loved it.
I had a lot of fun and every time I checked on Courtney, she was having fun too. Clean up and check out on Saturday went so quickly and really well. The missionary couple over the camp was laid back and easy to work with. Last year it took us 3 hours to check out because they kept wiping the backs of the toilet with white gloves and making us clean them again. This time the couple didn't even check the bathrooms. They trusted us because the girls had been so good at keeping them clean all week. It was great.
Now we have to think about next summer and youth conference!
