Girls Camp...Final thoughts.

 The best day at GIRLS CAMP?

Bishop's day!

When certification is over for the girls including a service project

 and first-aid instruction...

 the girls get to look forward to

Bishop's arrival and the much anticipated

games and celebration

that follow!

While we wait...

I snapped some shots

of our sweet girls.

Katie and Melissa

 Jillian and Kaylin

 Jessica and Jacque

 L to R: Sydney, Izzy, McKenna, Chelsea, Devin, Aubree

 Maija, April, Topanga, Baylie, Ashely, Kierstie, Baylee, Lindsey, Julie

Mariah, Rachel, McKenna, Megan, me

Sister Power:

 Mckenna and Megan

 Rachel and Katie

 Ashley and Jessica

 Briley and Izzy

 Always in the mood for more games!

Katie really came out of her quiet shell and SHINED!

Let the Bishop games begin!

 Ummm...yea this is harder than it looks!

Team work guys...

team work!

 Water fight with a obstacle race twist!

 I love this picture...

it's my two girls going straight for the 

BISHOP!

A Bishop can't come up for game day and NOT get wet!

Rope Bridge!

 I'm totally bummed I didn't get more pictures of our

10 ft. wall challenge!

We had to get 22 girls, 8 women leaders, 3 bishopric members

over the wall in 7 minutes!

I loved this challenge most of all.

I loved how everyone worked together and watching the strong

women lift each girl, women and men up and over the wall!

And I love that Skye who was left...

 had to take a running leap of faith that those women would grab him and lift him over...

just as the horn went off!

He did it...

we did it...

and loud cheers rang out making me

 love all these people even more!

We finished the night with a great lesson from our 

BISHOP

and a testimony from each of our wonderful young women  and leaders!

Then to finish the celebration:

ONE BIG GROUP HUG...

DILLY BARS...

and a DANCE PARTY!

I was 15 the last time I went to GIRLS CAMP...

so a long time ago.

After the memories we made over these few days it makes me wish I hadn't waited so long to go back!

And one thing is for sure...

there was no place in the world I would have rather been than

at GIRLS CAMP

with the Cortina 3rd Ward girlies!

Girl Power!

Did I ever mention that I went to

GIRLS CAMP

with the best women?

During our first night at camp my tent buddy got really sick...

sick enough that I was up til 2 a.m.

removing her from camp so she could be safe

and get better.

She is one of my BESTIES...

and losing her made me feel alone.

I even called my sweet hubby begging him to come up and join me.

Once I got some much needed

SLEEP

I got my senses back...

and made the best of friends with these special ladies!

 Jacque was lucky enough to have her rock star hubby with her for the week.

Every time I thought I was too tired, too hot, too dirty...

I would look at Jacque.

She was like the energizer bunny.

Always full of energy, happy, completely engaged with the girls.  When Skye and Jacque

were playing the games with all of us...

the game was just more fun!

I already loved these two before we went to camp...

but I love them even more now!
Jacque...thanks for getting me out of bed every day and for helping me be a BETTER leader. You inspire me!

These two silly ladies are the BOMB!

(They also didn't want their picture taken!)

These two cuties wouldn't let me stay alone in the tent and had me move in with them.

They also told me they were more FUN than being alone...

I totally agree!

Katee is the kindest, most thoughtful person...

always thinking of others and making

sure that no one was ever alone and always made sure everyone was involved in all the 

activities!

She also has some serious dance moves!

Rebecca is the stabilizer, a hard worker and kept us on schedule.

Love these two cuties...
thanks for sharing your tent with me!

 Left to Right:
Lindsey, Chelsea, Jacque, Candice, Katee, me, Rebecca, Erin
We spent Friday with all these cuties...
for Bishop's Day.
By far the best day at camp.
I'll share more about that day...hopefully tomorrow.
(We are traveling right now so it depends on my Wi-fi!)
Lindsey and Chelsea
are sweet, lovable, kind and definitely the cutest ladies at camp!
Candice and Erin
helped all the girls enjoy camp with their super
creative, easy-going ways!
So to my church sistas'...
you girls sure know how to make a girl feel loved...
and NEVER alone!

Dust Bowl...Part 2

I'm catching up on sleep...

(sort of)

something about the lack of sleep...

the conditions...

and always having something to do and somewhere to be

has caused me to lack my usual

happy-go-lucky

ways.

In fact if I'm really being honest...

I don't feel like myself!

As much as I loved being with some amazing youth leaders

and some amazing young women,

it has taken a toll on my emotional and physical well-being.

So I'm hoping that as I continue this post with all the pictures...

it will help to cheer me up!

Nothing like a great set of pictures to remind you of the 

wonderful memories you created!

Day 2: Hike

I was lucky enough to be able to go on the hike with the

Third-year girls.

These are the girls my daughter Rachel's age.

They are a hoot and find joy in everything they do!

It was a good thing too...

it was a REALLY hard hike

and their enthusiasm and excitement for life kept me going! 

 Our THIRD YEAR group of girls!

 I think this picture is a perfect example of the amount of 

DIRT

we had being kicked up at us all day long.

For one day...we girlies had dirt mustaches to enjoy!

Our Third-Year group with leaders from just our WARD.

You can see our mustaches in this one!

Once we returned we took a much needed shower!

I couldn't wait to get the layers of dirt off of me and to remove my mustache once and for all!

We played a lot of games this night.

Our two favorites?

BIG BOOTY and BUNNY, BUNNY!

Our super hip and way cooler than me-camp director

helped us make really cute headbands...

which I ended up using the rest of camp to deal with my

wild and crazy hair.

I'm wearing it in this picture...

and I wore it in every picture until I went home!

 Lastly one of the things I was most looking forward to in going to camp was the opportunity I would have of going with my

two daughters.

And while I LOVED that I got to spend that time with them...

they were usually too busy with friends

to care if I was there or not.

But Megan is one of my GIRLS too.

She was our only Laurel to go to camp this year

(except for the last day)

and I gained a whole new appreciation for this amazing young lady.

She is my new inspiration.

I know if I look to her example and strength

I can get my groove back on...

and SHINE!

Postscript: Will post our final day tomorrow...which turned out to be my favorite day of all.

A Dust Bowl...

I just got home from

GIRLS CAMP!

I'm trying to figure out how to sum up my experience and I thought of three little words...

A DUST BOWL!

 

I'm from the beautiful, green, rivers and streams, lakes, grass area of Missouri.

So heading up to the North country of Arizona to camp for three days sounded like a great idea...

until I got there!

 

The wind blew dust from sun up to sun down.

Ummm...did I mention I was surrounded by DUST?

 I'm still trying to recover.

Seriously I haven't been this EXHAUSTED in forever!

 

So while I was HOT all day,

FREEZING cold all night,

wind blown,

dirty,

exhausted,

and pretty much pathetic looking...

 

I had the TIME of MY life.

I'll share it ALL over the next few days in pictures!

C3 Girls Camp Part 1:

 I dropped off Katie Wednesday morning to ride in the buses since I had to drive up later.

You can see her excitement with her 

FIRST-YEAR friends.

Still FRESH!

(No I didn't wear a skirt to camp...

just dropping off Katie that morning!) 

 Katee is the coolest chicka I know.

Seriously I love this girl and love working with her.

The girls are lucky to have her as their leader!

 OUR DAILY CAPERS!

(better known as CHORES!)

I really just wanted to get a picture of the background but my mom says she always likes to see a person in the picture too!

This picture is for you mom!

I have so many more pictures to share...

so many great memories to tell,

but I need some sleep.

 

Until then...goodnight!