Adventures from Girl's Camp...

So, I spent the last 5 days at Camp MIA Shalom with the Young Women from our ward. I currently work as a Mia Maid advisor in my ward and attending Girl's Camp is one of the many activities I get to participate in because of my calling. This was my first time attending Girl’s Camp - we don't do Girl's Camp in South America. So, I’m not much of a camper. I occasionally enjoy camping when we are camping at a resort with showers and a pool but my favorite type of camping is RV camping. So, I was not exactly looking forward to Girl’s Camp. It actually turned out to be a good experience but to be completely honest camp is still not very high on my list of preferred summer activities.

We were the first stake to attend camp this year, and although the weather has been nice in Provo (even though I was complaining about the lack of sunshine last week) the weather up in the Fairview Canyon area (I don't really know where this Camp MIA Shalom is to be completely honest with you guys but I was told that it was in that area) and at 9500 feet was not so warm. In fact, the first night it was there it snowed and it was so cold that the water was frozen so we didn't have running water the whole time we were up there. By Friday the weather was looking better and on Saturday (the day we left) there was a huge improvement in the weather - oh the irony! So, here are a few pictures of camp to help tell the stories. Hope you enjoy!

These are the cabins we stayed in. For you avid campers, I'm sure you think this is like staying at the Marriot but this was my idea of roughing it. They are just like wooden tents... there was nothing in them, no heat, no electricity, nothing. We did set up cots as you can see in the picture below but by the time we got all the cots in the room there was no space to walk which means I ended up with a number of bruises on my knees from running into cots. I did move to a different cabin on Thursday because a couple of other leaders arrived at camp and there was no room for them in the cabins that were already set up so they put us in a new cabin where I had a lot more space and got a lot less bruises.

It was so cold up there that we were constantly layered (it was not uncommon for me to wear 5 or 6 layers on clothes) to try to stay warm. In the picture below I'm sitting on the edge of the fire pit with Natalie (one of the Laurels) and Amy (she was one of my Mia Maids last year). Most people sit next to the fire pit but sitting right on the edge of the fire pit was much nicer and warmer :).
I did learn at camp that I actually do a dang good job at building camp fires... if I have some help. Sometimes we'd have to get a fire started 3 or 4 times in a row because the young women would get so excited about it that they would add too many logs and smother the fire. This fire that we are standing next to was actually the 3rd fire we started that evening. I also learned that I am quite the expert at roasting marshmallows... my marshmallows were famous!

Thursday was the day we went on hikes. I went on the first year hike, not because I'm a wimp (I actually thought the hike was pretty lame and would have enjoyed a little more of a challenge) but because I needed to go on the first year hike to get my first year camp certification. Which I will have you all know I did earn by the end of camp. :)

In the picture below I'm standing next to the first years who just barely entered Young Women's getting ready to leave on our hike. The girls in the picture are Rachel, Audrey, and Emily... and of course, I'm the shortest. Emily is a about 6 feet tall and just towers over me :).

The next picture is with Jaime, one of the other adult leaders who also went on the first year hike. She's hilarious and was a total blast!
Anyone for some lemonade? We were each handed a lemon and candy stick at the beginning of the hike.We were supposed to play with our lemon through out the hike, then at the end of it we stuck the candy stick inside the lemon and sucked the juice out of it... I guess that's one way to mix the lemon juice with the sugar to make lemonade.

We also had Ukelele lessons while at camp. We learned 4 chords which meant we could actually play about 10 different songs. Some of them sounded like a bit of stretch either because the Ukelele's were out of tune or because we weren't playing the chords correctly... my guess is that the Ukelele's were out of tune :).
We went down to the waterfront on Friday. We were supposed to go earlier in the week but it was way too cold and if anyone had fallen into the lake we would have had to life flight them out of camp to a hospital because of hypothermia... although really, the water was just as cold on Friday and we would still have ended up with hypothermia had we fallen into the lake but at least it wasn't as cold while we were on the canoes. So, I sat in a canoe with one of the Beehives and one of my Mia Maids... they each had a paddle but I didn't get one because there weren't enough... SCARY... but they actually did a fine job.

Those of us who went down to the waterfront decided that it would be fun to do some of the activities on the ropes course they had set up by the waterfront. It was probably one of my favorite things at Girl's Camp. The first thing we did was have everyone stand up on this pipe and we had to get everyone to the other end of the pipe without falling off the pipe... so several of the girls fell off but we kept going anyway ... I did make it across without falling though :).

They had a name for this other ropes course challenge but I can't remember what it was. But the general idea is that you have three tress in a triangle and a thick wire that goes around the trees and you have two people balance while walking across the wire from the narrow end to the wider end. When we went to Clear Creek as a cohort with Lane our first year of grad school this was one of the hardest challenges for me... if I remember correctly I was finally able to make it across with Lisa. This time getting across was really easy and I did it several times... clearly evidence of growth since starting grad school :).

On this next challenge the girls had to walk around stumps of different heights that were in a semicircle with their eyes closed while we guided them across the stumps. We were probably not allowed to touch them but it was either that or have them kill themselves as they got a little too anxious to step forward and completely missed the next log.
On this last challenge we had to get all the girls from one side of the "spider web" to the other without sending anyone through the same "hole in the web." We also weren't supposed to touch the web at all or we would have to start over but we gave up on that rule and just decided that it was good enough to get everyone across :).

And finally, the last day of camp... These were all the girls from the Stake (the ones who hadn't left earlier that day or the night before in cars) waiting for the buses that were an hour late! We were all so anxious to get out of there and get home where we could shower that having to wait longer than planned for the buses was really frustrating to everyone...


But anyway, we survived!!! We all still have a little bit of camp fire smoke smell in our hair despite the multiple showers and washings... it'll probably take about a week to get rid of the "smoked sausage smell." I'll also have to wash all of my clothes multiple times to get rid of the same smell... but at least the fire kept us warm. :)