It's OVER! Girls camp is over!

I am home and I think have recovered from a week in the wilderness. It was certainly a long time for me to be outside my comfort zone. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person unless I can go home and have a long shower immediately after a long hot day. So I tried to embrace my surroundings and enjoy not caring what I look like for 6 days. It actually was great. I am so glad I was asked to go. It was an experience that I'm so glad I was a part of. There was so much to mention that I think I'll just make a list and let you look at the slide show if you so desire.

-For the first two days it was 110+ degrees. I really didn't think the girls would make it. Our clothes just continued to stick to out bodies.
-We had different ethnic foods at every single meal. Some had an American twist to them to appeal to all the little picky eaters. The food really was amazing. The people in charge really knew what they were doing. Everyone giggled when I'd take pictures of my food at every meal.
-Some of the meals included: churros, chow mein, fried plantains, chimichurris (Dominican burgers) with homemade sauerkraut, Milanesa (breaded and fried stake from Argentina) Ethiopian chicken with injara bread to be eaten with fingers only, and many other food adventures.
-Being a leader is much better than being a young woman at camp. I could drive to Wal-Mart or McDonald's whenever I wanted. I only did this twice when there were others that wanted to go as well.
-I think I started really having fun when we went swimming at the beach that was a couple miles away. I thought we'd never escape the heat. I was giddy in the water. The girls thought I was a little crazy, but I think they enjoyed it.
-It rained and poured as we were cooking dinner over a fire on the third day. We all managed to hold tarps over the fire before it went out and ate very well.
-I showered three times in the 6 days of camp in the most disgusting showers.
-The bathroom was quite a distance from the camp and for some reason I always had to use it in the middle of the night when I had to walk all alone.
-I was so excited for KC to come on Thursday. My girls were excited to meet him . They all laughed and told me to keep it PG when I ran and jumped into his arms when he arrived.
-The skits were actually really fun to watch. The youth leaders topped them all by imitating a few of the leaders. They borrowed my cowboy hat and sunglasses I was wearing. I was laughing pretty hard.
-I never sang along to one camp song. I despise them.
-There is a Spanish branch in our stake so a lot of the girls were Spanish speakers. We had many girls from Africa as well. It was a diverse group.
-The second to last morning, we all woke up at 5am to attend a sunrise service. The YCLs, a few leaders and a couple men, including KC bore their testimonies in their home, or learned languages. There were over 14 languages spoken and a wonderful experience for everyone.
-I was in charge of the YCL challenges which I think went over very well. They really enjoyed the competition.
-I carried a bag around with me the whole time full of necessities that I might not want to walk all the way back to the tent to get. It was the magic bag. Any time anyone needed anything, I seemed to be able to pull it right out.
-I faithfully wore sunscreen and bug repellent. I got minimal burns, and only about 6 small bites. It was a miracle. Some girls had countless bites on their leg. It looked miserable. I sprayed so much that my watch and toenail polish actually started corroding and melting. I think my skin was reacting to the repellant by itching. Ironic, wouldn't you say.
-One of the meals was cooked in a pit in the woods dug by a few cook girls. We cooked whole chickens, and vegetables. Some of them weren't done when we took them out so we had to turn on the gas skillets and cook them in pieces. There were still rave reviews.
-I learned a lot about people's dedication to their callings and service. It was amazing what all the leaders, especially the director and the one in charge of the food did for the girls. What amazing women. And hardly a complaint.
-I learned that young women complain and whine about the dumbest things. It especially bothered me when I knew someone had worked very hard on what they were griping about. I hope I was never like that.
-I became really good at bossing the girls around and having them actually listen to me. It was great.
-Every night, the camp director and food director (long time friends) put on a News at Night program to tell of the events of the day. Their names used to be Seymour Butts, and I.P. Freely. One leader had a problem with that so they were Harry Back , and Harry Pitts this year.
-One day when we were waiting for someone to come for pictures we got bored of standing there and started singing randomly. It turned into a competition between the a few leaders and a few girls. We had a sing off for probably 30 minutes. I even broke out my Darrin's Dance Grooves. It was a great stress buster.
-We had so many left over marsh mellows from the YCL chubby bunny challenge, I thought we
should play "I am a chubby Bishop" when they all came up. It was a hit.
-I slept in my own little tent the whole time except when KC got there. It was a very good decision on my part to have my own space.
-I had no trouble falling asleep in my camping chair on a few occasions.
-When we finally got home I had a wonderfully long shower, checked emails and fell asleep for 14 hours. It started out as a nap and I didn't get out of bed until the next morning. I was very refreshed.


So that's it in a nutshell. Pretty random and probably boring to everyone, but that's how it was and I'm glad I was a part of it. I really bonded with my fourth year girls that I was over, and the girls in my ward I didn't know that well in the beginning. We have such a great group of young women and I really grew to love them.