Girls CAMP!

I was lucky enough to be called as the camp director for our ward this year! The theme for camp was B.O.O.T. Camp....(Building Our Own Testimonies)! We went to a ranch this year out in East Texas. We stayed in cabins, which were primitive! They were little wood shacks with about 8 bunk beds along the outside walls, with mattresses that were so old they were falling apart and our neighbors even had bugs inside one of theirs!!! GROSS! We tried to put on our smiley faces, make our beds and get ready for a week of FUN! hahahaha!

There were MANY activities everyday that kept our girls busy and entertained! We had a little schedule book with times and events and duties! We had about 200 girls and about 50 leaders including our whole stake presidency. We did archery, went on hikes, played in the lake, canoed, sang & danced, ate, chanted, had R&R (reading & reflection), served a meal, prepared food, had a shaving cream fight and laughed and laughed! We also had many testimony building experiences that will never be forgotten by any of us! I will just tell you about 1 very powerful night!....... The night of the tornado, where we all ran to the 'shelter' ....(a huge steel framed cabin on the lake...with JUST steel frames...not sturdy walls)......all the girls huddled together in 2 big rooms crying, hugging close together and singing. At one point when the Sheriff told us that this was very serious and that the tornado warning was coming right for us......ALL the girls started singing "I know that my Redeemer Lives' very quietly, but very powerful! The stake President just stood, along with the leaders and sang quietly, we then sang "I am a child of God".....Then Pres Dotter offered a prayer and the storm HIT....for about 20 min the walls shook, the lights swung, the thunder and lightening crashed so loud and it rained in sheets!.....then, it was gone! We were all OK! Later that night we learned that the storm that had us in it's direct path had parted and gone all around us, but not through us. We were safe due to the power of the amazing priesthood, the power of prayer, and righteous young women who were were they were supposed to be serving their Heavenly Father!

So, despite the stifling heat and bugs and cabins and toilets(where we could not even flush our own toilet paper), we had amazing food, fun and crazy leaders that made camp awesome!

Enjoy some of the 400 + pics I took!

The leaders, on our cabin's front porch....

Our amazing shaving cream fight...me and JenThe crazy rope swing! I didn't make it out too far! The yellow slide next to the swing was so fast that it launched you off the end into the lake at like I swear 20 miles per hour! hahaha!Doin the cupid shuffle on skit night!

Fun at the archery range! The inside of our sweet cabin! One plus, it did have 2 plugs for FANS!!! Even though we were still wet from the humidity....the fans helped a TON! Our girls were in this cabin and the one behind it....we set up tents in between the two cabins for the girls due to the 'bug' and 'bed' problem! hahahaha! Moustache night! 'did oo say ambooger'?????

The Storm....Kind of hard to see but this is the start of the sever weather night from the 'shelter' or cabin where we were all together.Inside one of the rooms, singing while the storm blew outside. You can see the steel beams, but the walls were just heavy vinyl.The barn where we had to move our vehicles. It was across a field, so it ended up being too far to run with all the girls in the storm.

Serving breakfast to the troops! They were up at 6:30 to help prepare and they even had smiles on their faces!The pavilion where we had our programs each night.This is the front of the big cabin on the lake where we went during the storm....we came here during the days to sit in the shade and feel the hot breeze! hahaha!

The lake front. the girls cabins were on the left side of the lake. The big white building on the right was the storm shelter....not very much of a shelter! ...but a great view of the lake!