Stake Beehive Camp ~ Day 2

I got up this morning at 6:30 and got ready for the day. We got to have some yummy breakfast burritos and fruit for breakfast.

Then at 8:30 we had a stake devotional and a flag raising ceremony.

The flags were put at half mast in honor of the Orlando shooting victims. After that, we started our hike at 9:00. It was already HOT & STICKY even though it was still early in the day.

To be honest, I had thought about hiding in the bathroom so I didn't have to go on the hike. I'm not a hiking in the heat type of person, but I knew that I needed to set a good example for my YW. Just a few minutes into our hike I saw this BEAUTIFUL flower, and of course I had to stop and get a picture.

The first part of the hike was really easy. We just walked through this big field that had a path mowed through it.

Then we started walking in the woods, which was great b/c it was shady. However, there was no breeze in the woods. I started towards the front of the pack, but then I ended up in the middle and then towards the end b/c I kept stopping to take pictures of the pretty flora & fauna.

I'm glad we stopped to get a picture together before the wretched part of our walk. Up to this point, the walk had been pretty easy going and nice, even though it was warm.

We got to the muddy part of the hike, and the leader at the front wasn't kidding when she called the leader at the back (where we were) and said it gets REALLY muddy. We tried to go around it, but even that was super muddy. At one point I was slipping and sliding all over b/c my shoes have no traction on the bottom. Then, the mud was so thick at one point that I almost lost my shoes in the mud. I'm thankful there were a few YW around for us to hold onto each other as we traversed the mud.

Once we made it through the muddy part, we were able to laugh about it. Poor Kaitlyn (in the red hat in the middle) fell and got some on her hands and knee. We said we invented a new summer sport called "Mud Skating."

The rest of the walk was OK, but we were all ready to be done w/ it and go back to the campsite. I really liked all the rough texture on this tree trunk. We made it to the paved road and thought we were done, but then we walked another mile on a path that went through the woods around the lake.

We were SO HAPPY to get back to camp and sit in front of the A/C in our cabin. Lunch wasn't until 12:00, so we had a while to just hang out together. We ended up playing truth or dare. I dared one of the Beehives to eat a powdered water flavor packet straight up w/ no water. A bunch of us did it, and the YW decided I should do the sour green apple one. It was so potent and tasted to awful and hurt so bad and made the back of my jaw hurt.

This picture of Reese looking like she's about to throw up is PERFECT! She ran and spit it out in a plastic bag that we were using for our trash. It was dumb of us to do, but after the fact it made for a really funny story & great memory.

We had lunch at 12:10, and it was walking tacos.

After lunch, we hurried and went down to the lake. The girls had fun swimming for an hour. One of the other wards brought a watermelon and they were playing fun games in the water w/ the watermelon b/c it floats.

We came back & went to a spiritual devotional at 2:10 and then at 2:50 we went to the craft rotation. The girls made a hanging bead decoration (you can see one hanging from the ceiling towards the middle of the picture).

After the craft, the girls wanted to go back to the lake again, so they got their suits on and we went back down. 2 of them didn't want to get wet again so they didn't bring their suits. But, they hiked their shorts up and walked as far out into the water as they could. LOL. When it was time to come back in, Sis. B sang the "Baby Shark" song so they knew it was time to leave.

We had dinner at 5:20, and it was BBQ sandwiches, beans, potato salad, and watermelon. Isn't this a cool way to present the watermelon slices? I've never seen this before. Our ward was assigned clean up duty along w/ a few other wards, so we stayed after dinner to clean up the mess hall. I'm amazed at how dirty these young women are and how they don't clean up after themselves! I guess their Mom's are like their maids and clean everything up for them.

At 6:30 we had a Stake devotional from the Stake leaders, and then at 7:30 we split off into wards to have our own ward testimony meetings. Bro. W came from our ward since the 3 members of the Bishopric were out of town. He also brought 2 Laurels w/ him that asked if they could come for testimony meeting. Bro. W shared some great thoughts about what a testimony is and how to gain one. Then we opened up the time for the YW to share their testimonies. I'm thankful the 2 older Laurels came, b/c one of them shared her testimony and was a good example of how it should go.

But, these are all 12 and 13 year old girls and they've never done a camp testimony meeting before. It was very unconventional b/c it ended up being more like a round table discussion instead of a testimony meeting. But, that's OK b/c they are learning and the Spirit was still there.

For dessert we got to have root beer floats. However, as you can see our girls had treats/snacks NON-STOP! They asked if we could stop at Sonic on the way home tomorrow and I told them no way, Jose! They've just snacked and eaten the whole camp and if they want to go to Sonic, they can talk their parents into taking them!

No one really wanted to go to sleep on time tonight since it was our last night at camp. There was lots of talking and giggling going on. But that's part of the fun of camp!