Girls Camp 2011 Wrap Up

So girls camp was last week. We got home Friday evening. It was such a fun week. I'll be honest, I hated girls camp when I was a youth. I remember only liking 2 of the years that I went, the others don't bring fond memories to mind. I don't know why that was, probably because of my anxiety and whatnot. But I'm happy to say this is my 2nd year as our wards leader and I LOVE camp now. Seriously I wish I had been able to have better experiences as a youth. It's like we're in this safe bubble, free from the world and all it's temptations. Even during free time when everyone is acting goofy, you can feel the spirit. It's so neat to be surrounded by good, wholesome, like-minded people.
Here is our week in a nutshell (beware, this might be a pretty big nut):

 waiting for the ferry for 2 hours gave us time to explore nature...we were the starfish this year at camp so we gotta represent :)

 On the windy ferry. I love ferry rides, I wish they would have lasted longer!!

Goofy girls, 'milking the cow'...some old guy thought that was hilarious for some reason :)
After we got to camp, we spent time setting up camp. Half of us had cabins, the other half stayed in tents. I was in a cabin with four of our younger girls. So we helped set up tents then unpacked in our cabin. After that they had certification time. 

Later on that night we had the faith walk. That's always one of my favorite parts of camp--I had to miss it last year :(-- this year they had 3 ladies read part of a talk from Women's conference which was really good then we went on a walk down to the pretty lake. The sun was setting and it was perfect!! Every girl lit a luminary (white bag with sand and a candle) and put it on the dock. It was pretty cool- even if the dock did start to sink.

Finally a group picture of ALL our girls. We had 7 girls this year!! Last year we had 3 (plus 2 that were youth leaders) Seriously I'm pretty sure we have the best girls in the stake, if not the world. They are all such good examples and they are all amazing friends. We didn't have any problems or issues.

The next day was Wednesday. We woke up to RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN. It was a bummer to see but actually it wasn't that bad, it was quite warm actually. This was also our hike day. Me, being the spaz that I am, forgot to bring shoes besides my crocks and slip-ons which are not hike friendly...so I got to drive a load of girls up to one of the trail heads on Mt. Constitution. After dropping them off, my assistant Hannah and I went into town to pick a few things up from the store. Then we decided to drive to the top of the mountain to see the view, this is what we saw:

Fog, and more fog. BUMMER. But it worked out. The girls got done with their hike early so on our way down I picked up a group of girls and brought them back down the Mt. Then went back up to get another group. That's when I found out two of the girls from my ward were LOST somewhere on this blasted mountain...
I don't remember panicking because I knew they would stay together and they wouldn't veer from the trail. So I never thought we wouldn't be able to find them I was just worried someone had fallen and broken their leg and they were stuck on a trail. But I knew we would find them, there wasn't another option. I volunteered to drive back up the mountain to the other trail heads to yell for them. No girls. I went all the way back to the top and grabbed two trail maps so we could start planning our rescue. In my mind I kept repeating please go to the road or stay put on the trail. If you go to the road, we'll see you if you stay put on the trail, we can find you faster. I didn't realize until I started driving down another group of girls back to the campsite to get a few other leaders that I was shaking uncontrollably and felt like I was gonna vomit. Prolly not the best to be driving down this crazy switch-backy mountain (For the record, I was up and down that thing 6 times in one day :))
So I loaded up the last girls and started driving down while the two other leaders stayed at the trail head just in case (PS NO cell service). After driving down almost the whole mountain, we saw two girls walking UP the road back towards the top. They had made it almost to the bottom of the mountain in about an hour and were going back up...crazy. I honked my horn so loud and they climbed in the car. We turned around, went back to tell the other leaders then back down to camp. The girls said they were fine but that would be totally scary. At least it wasn't longer than it was!!

After the hike, we had free time. I stayed close to the cabin to get my gitters out. We had the 'cool' hang out cabin. Last year our tent site was the hangout of choice for most the girls and it was the same this year. We made bracelets, ate, talked, laughed. It was a nice tension reliever.

Our two lost girls after their adventure. SO glad they are safe and not hurt!!

Tuesday was our skit night. It was good. Pearl was our 'pearl of great price' perfect. 

 Even JBeibs made an appearance at camp. Apparently it's tradition for our ward to use a cardboard cutout in our skit...last year we got Taylor Lautner, the girls went CRAZY. This year half the girls were excited, half can't stand him haha.

This night I ended up going home. We had a really sick leader so I drove home with them just in case. We got home around 2am. Then that next day I went to the airport to pick up my aunt and uncle from the airport (just got back from their mission to russia!) 

Then I hopped in a car and drove back to the ferry to go back to camp. This was a funny story (now looking back, at the time it wasn't). The ferry left at 4 and we live about an hr away and we left at 3...we ended up parking at the top of this hill and had to run down to the ferry. I'm not a runner by any means especially with a heavy backpack and a pillow...luckily they held the ferry for us for about 5 minutes but we made it!! It was well worth it plus the dinner that was waiting for us was delicious!! As were all the meals!!

It was bishop's night that night which is always fun. We roasted marshmellows inside since all the other fire pits were being used. Then we walked down to the lake and played (laid) on the floating dock. We almost lost our YW pres. when people got a little excited on this dock..woops.

I wish we could have stayed out longer but 10pm was the curfew. 

That night we stayed up a bit too late and painted nails and did hairs. 

After packing up camp and testimony meeting, we headed back to the ferry. We had about a two hour wait. Bye bye Orcas Island!!

Overall it was a great week. And I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to go again this year. I'm not grateful for all the unpacking I STILL have to do but that's ok. It was fun!!