Camp ~ Day 1

I got up at 5:00 this morning to go get doughnuts from the best doughnut shop in town for all the girls. We met at a grocery store parking lot that is close to the freeway and were on the road by 5:45! What a fun group of gals.

We got to the State Park around 8:00, which was right on time. When we got there, we got some GREAT news … our ward wasn’t going to have to camp far out in the “primitive” camp sites. We were able to camp close to everyone else and we were right next to the bathrooms! WOOT WOOT!!!

While we were waiting for the car pulling the trailer w/ all the stuff to get there, the girls got busy working on their necklaces made out of brass barrel fishing snap swivels. They each got a charm w/ their name on it and can earn charms throughout camp.

Once the trailer got to our campsite, we unloaded it and started setting up tents. We ended up with 5 tents (4 for the girls and one for the leaders). I was really proud of the girls for getting in and helping set everything up so quickly.

We had breakfast (Orange juice, bagels, cream cheese, and yogurt) and then let the girls know their tent assignments. Since it was a nautical theme this year, we went w/ a Nemo theme for the tents.

Dory Dormitory
Michelle, Hayley, Ashley, Riley, Kailah, Hannah
Lily, Elizabeth, Molly

Squirt Squad
Addy, Cassidy, Brittany

Team Nemo
Ashlyn, Lauren, Megan, Sariah, Finley

Bruce Bunch
Jayna, McKenna, Kenzie, Emma, Tricia

Once everyone got their stuff set up in their tents, they all changed into their camp shirts and then I handed out our anchor headbands so we could tell our ward apart from the other wards. Such cute girls!!!

This was our schedule for the day.

It was nice to be near the lake, b/c there was a good breeze blowing and it was actually pleasant in the shade w/ the breeze. We had around 260 girls at camp this year!!!

After the great opening devotional we got to eat lunch INSIDE (which was the only air conditioned place). We had walking tacos, which were super good since we were all hungry from setting up camp.

After lunch we went back to camp (you can see our tents set up in the background) and had time together as a ward. We played a super fun game called “As the big wind blows.” Basically, one person stands in the middle and says, “the big wind blows for …” then they say something like people wearing sunglasses. Then anyone who is wearing sunglasses has to get up and run to a different seat. The person in the middle also tries to get an empty seat so someone else is in the middle the next time. The girls were having so much fun that SEVERAL of them tipped over in their chairs when they went to sit down. We were all laughing SO HARD and it was hilarious.

Sis. S set up a shaving cream slip and slide that a few of the girls participated in. They seemed to have a great time and were COVERED in shaving cream by the end of it.

Next on the agenda was a workshop where we talked about “Succeeding as the Skipper of our own homes.” It was good and everyone liked it b/c it was in the air conditioned building. After that it was craft time. We got to make a cute charm for our necklaces that had the theme on it.

After craft time it was our turn for archery. The archery place was about .75 miles away and we were NOT about to walk b/c it was 90 degrees and humid. So Sis. J and I gave the girls a ride over there. I drove really slow so I could stay in my air conditioned car (I had it going FULL BLAST).

The archery stuff was REALLY fun! We all pretended like we were Merida from Brave or Katniss from Hunger Games.

The girls did a great job and one of them even got a bulls eye!!!

After a few practice rounds we put balloons on the targets and had to try and shoot them.

After archery we shuttled the girls back to the main camp, and again I drove REALLY SLOW to enjoy the A/C as long as I could. We got to eat dinner out on the patio and we had a pasta bar w/ 2 types of sauce, salad, and bread.

Here’s our great girls before the Stake evening devotional. Even though it was a pain to lug our camp chairs from our campsite to the main meeting area, it was so nice to have camp chairs to sit in.

The sunset was so pretty!!! We played some more games once we got back to camp, and then went to our “Faith Walk.” However, the group before us got really lost b/c they took a wrong turn so we decided to skip it and just went and released biodegradable floating lanterns onto the lake.

We got back to camp and had everyone get in their tents for the night. This is the Stake YW President who came to say good night to her sweet girls that are in our ward. I’m so thankful for her and the other Stake leaders who put this all together. It’s SO.MUCH.WORK!!! I decided to rough it like the girls and slept on the ground instead of a cot. I grossly underestimated how thin my sleeping bag was and only got a few hours of sleep b/c I kept tossing and turning since the ground was so hard. It was a great first day!!!