Girls Camp

Where to begin when my heart is full.  This week I am seriously lacking in pictures of my own kids - instead I have a few photos of my adopted girls from girls camp.  

Monday I spent finishing preparations for girls camp and for my kids spending the week at Tina's.  We dropped the kids off at Frank and Tina's that evening, then I got stuff packed up and ready to head out bright and early Tuesday morning!  

Tuesday morning, we met at the church at 6AM and headed to the camp ground.  We got there, and got to setting up camp - a couple hours later we had everything set up and we were checking everything out and making ourselves comfortable.  We managed to get some crafts and activities done before the first bout of rain set in and we ran for cover under our tents and shelters.  The rain finally cleared in time for the evening program (sorta) and we had fun singing and goofing off.  

Wednesday was the hike day.  Since our ward didn't have any second years, I went with our first years on their hike, which ended up being longer than the intended 3 mile hike due to park rangers re-routing us.  We got to our stopping spot and had lunch, then as it started sprinkling, we headed back - we hadn't gotten more than a couple hundred feet when the downpour started.  We all arrived back at camp drenched!  To warm up, we all crowded around a heater in one wards tent and had a sing-off - two teams trying to come up with songs that fit a certain word/genre/artist etc.  We spent our afternoon working on cheers in the rain and then we all headed to a local church building to do our evening program in a dry warm place.  While there, a girl from one of the other wards had an allergic reaction and was sent to the hospital.  This was followed by a different girl from a different ward going missing.  That evening was filled with prayers, worries and eventually gratitude for answers to prayers.  

Here we are working on a cheer! 

And here we are in garbage bag ponchos at the church building!

Thursday was our final day of camp - we spent most of the morning at the lake doing crafts, going in the canoes, and enjoying a few hours of sun before we started back to get out of the approaching rain.  That evening was the testimony meetings.  Dan and Bishop Ker came down for the evening program - it was SO GOOD to see Dan!!  He sweetly (and not very truthfully) said that when he saw me walking up to meet him, I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  - I hadn't showered for 3 days by that point.... but it was nice to hear :)

Here are the girls again in what became our traditional dress for the week - trash bags and ponchos.  It rained hard for nearly half of every day, but we still all managed to have a great time, learn and feel the spirit together and make new friends.   The testimony meeting was wonderful - as I expected, I cried through most of it, but it was wonderful to hear their testimonies and their faith strengthened.

Here is our ward - ready to head home on the Friday morning.   All eagerly looking forward to a hot shower and a warm bed!

We got back to the church building to unload and send home around lunch time, then I went home and took a wonderful long shower!  Dan and I went out for dinner and enjoyed a quiet evening - with me going to bed early.

Saturday morning, Dan went to run some errands then picked up the kids.  I ran some errands too and then was excited to have the kids home with me again!!

Church today was wonderful - James had been running a fever the night before so we kept him out of nursery - which did NOT make him happy.  I took him while Dan did some setting - aparts, and he spent most of the time trying to run away from me and telling me to go away and telling me that he didn't love me anymore.  Then 10 minutes later he cooled down and was all sweetness again.  Our evening was nice - Dan and I played Killer Bunnies with Eileen - she's been loving it lately.