Camp Stand 2013!!

As I mentioned before, I was called to be the YW Camp Director. I was pretty excited. I haven't been to a Young Women's camp in a LOOOONG time!! I was even more excited to have Mikah come with me.

So we all met at the church on Thursday, July 11 at 8am. Mikah and I were a tiny bit late. I was running around all morning making sure I wasn't forgetting anything! Crazy times. We met and said a prayer and then all got into vehicles to drive to camp. Our camp was just outside of Cardston at Horseshoe Ranch. It was a very pretty campsite right by Lees Creek.

Camp Stand ready for the girls to arrive!! This was the night before.

As we were driving I was noticing how windy it was getting. It was crazy windy. We pulled into camp and I divided the girls up into tent groups. We decided before hand that we were going to divide the girls up before hand, instead of having them all go with their friends. I know some girls weren't really excited about it, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Then we gave everyone their tents and we started setting up tents. Well easier said then done! It was super windy and tents were blowing everywhere. It took us 2hrs to set up 7 tents. Then to make things worse the leaders tent was blown to bits!! The wind flattened it and splintered the poles. So we were without a tent. We decided to get the girls set up and then worry about what we were going to do!

By this time the girls were all starving. So we had everyone grab their lunches and we had lunch. We had decided that the leaders were going to sleep in Miller's cargo trailer. That's what we brought everyones stuff up in. It worked out perfect! It probably looked funny to have 7 leaders all packed into the trailer!

Here are 5 of us squished into the trailer. I am the 2nd from the right.

We then had our first activity. They made some key chains and then I taught them how to read a gps and sent them geocaching. They were all excited, but nobody found their caches. Darn it! Luckily I had come up the night before and put together a treasure hunt at camp. So they all followed it and found a cache with some backpacks in it that said, Camp Stand 2013. So glad that worked out!

After that it was free time. The girls went swimming, some went and had a nap and others played games. It was fun to sit around and visit and get to know everyone a little bit better. Then we started to get supper ready. The girls were given assignments to help with preparing and cleaning up all suppers, lunches and breakfast.

The Laurels made us some yummy dessert in dutch ovens. I helped dish it out.

It was Mikah's groups turn to clean. I helped them a bit.

We were all pretty exhausted after supper. I was done...so so tired. But after supper we had a little break. I could tell that Mikah was having a sad moment. I felt so bad. I went and put my arm around her and asked if she was ok. Well that made her start to cry. So we went for a little walk. She was feeling very homesick and missing her mom and dad. I finally got her to calm down and we went back and enjoyed the fun fireside together.

After the fireside we got the dance party started. The girls had a blast with all the glow sticks. It was fun to watch them be so crazy and have so much fun!! Mikah and I had some good laughs together! By the end of the evening some girls had the glow stuff all over their hands and faces. Crazy girls!!

Crazy girls!! Mikah is on the far right.

It was finally, time for bed! YEAH! I was exhausted. So, so tired, that I had trouble actually going to sleep. I couldn't. Plus I was freezing cold. I was laying there when I heard a weird noise and the trailer jerked. I sat up and nobody said anything. Then I felt it again. So I said, "Somebody is messing with the trailer." I made sure Julie had her keys to the truck. Then I ran outside. But it was super dark out and I couldn't see a thing. Later, Bishop Killian told me I looked right at him. They were hiding! ANyways I got back in my sleeping bag and tried to get warm and go to sleep. I felt the trailer move again, but I just went to sleep. In the morning I woke up all cuddled up to Kristine Strate's mattress. Good thing she had a big mattress. We all slept in till 8:30am. It was so dark in the trailer that the sun didn't wake us up. It was so nice!! Well when I walked out of the trailer I noticed that the front of the trailer was almost on the ground. I KNEW they did something. That's why I kept rolling toward the front of the trailer! Crazy!!!

We had a yummy breakfast and then we were waiting for Richard to show up because he was doing archery for us. Again we divided the girls up and we had 4 stations to go too. Archery, tying knots, beach volleyball and horseshoes. It was a fun morning. I think everyone loved the archery station the most!! Thanks to my awesome husband for taking time out of his day and doing that for us. He's pretty great!!

Here's Richard teaching a group of girls how to safely shoot a bow!

Mikah's group learning how to tie knots. She's in the orange shirt.

Here we are walking over to the horse shoe station. Mikah kicked butt in this one. She did awesome!

Richard was packing things up and I was helping get things back into the trailer when Mikah came up to me. She started crying and said she wanted to go back with Richard. I felt so bad for her. Break my heart. I called Stacey from my cell phone and got her on her lunch break. She talked to Mikah and then talked to me. So we got Mikah's things and got her in the truck with Richard. He later told me that he was trying to make her laugh. He was driving crazy and doing crazy things. He got her laughing pretty good! Now she thinks he is a crazy driver, which he is!! ha ha!

After lunch it was free time again. We let the girls do whatever they wanted too. It was hot out so I got my swim suit on and went in the creek with some of the girls. We floated around the horse shoe bend. It was a hard work out on my stomach because it was so low. So I only did it once!! Then I went and crashed for about an hour! I was so tired.

We had Bishop Killian and Brother Robinson be our priesthood leaders for Thursday and Friday. I had lined up Brother Olson and Brother Humphrey's to come and switch them Friday night. We found out later that Brother Humphrey's had a family emergency and couldn't come, so Barry Robinson was going to stay. Well about 7:30 I looked over and there was Richard walking up to us. He came to switch with Barry. It was such an awesome surprise. I loved it.

The girls signed each others pillow cases after supper. I made one for Mikah too and gave it to her later.

Our plan was to head up to the top of the ridge (that overlooked our camp) for our spiritual fireside. We were going to leave around 9:30pm, so it would be dark and we could see the lights to the Temple. Well we were running a little bit behind schedule. We left just after 10pm, so we all loaded into 2 trucks.

Here we are! All the Young women and their leaders ready for our fireside. This was just before we loaded into the trucks!

The fireside turned out perfect. I was asked to conduct it and start it out with a spiritual thought and my testimony. Then the girls took turns bearing their testimonies. Richard and I sat together and it was so neat to share something like that with him. It was amazing. He kept saying, "Wow, YW camp is awesome!"

We got back down to camp after midnight. I had no trouble going to sleep that night. So tired!! But a good kind of tired! ha ha!

Saturday we had breakfast and then packed up. By this time I was starting to lose patience with girls. Some just wouldn't start moving. Drive me crazy. So we started taking the tent down with them in it. So mean, eh?! But it worked. They started moving really fast and got everything out!

Then we loaded up and drove to Waterton for our hike. We hiked up to Bertha Falls and then turned around and hiked down to Bertha Bay. It was a really good hike. We had lunch on the banks of the lake at Bertha Bay. Then we had a short spiritual thought after lunch. It was the perfect way to end our camp.

We saw this Grizzly Bear just as we were coming into Waterton! It was crazy!

Most of our group just before we started hiking. They are showing off their new hiking bags!

The girls hiking...don't they look excited!! ha ha!

Taking a little break!

Here is Bertha Falls.

This was just before we got to Bertha Bay!

Richard and I eating lunch on the Beach!! He loves it when I take his picture!

The girls giving us a little spiritual thought.

It turned out to be so hot out. So the girls and Sister Barnett decided to go jump into the lake. We watched them. They all were fully clothed. Nobody had a swim suit on!! Anyways, most of them came back and the girls were giving Richard a hard time, telling him to jump in. He said, "If Sis. Spencer will than I will." I said, "OK let's go!" So yeah, we both jumped in. I really didn't think he would and he thought the same of me! Oh man, it was freezing! The dock was way over from where the rest of the group was. Richard took of his shirt and he looked at me and told me he was going to take his pants off too. He thought we were far enough away, I laughed and told him no, because I knew some of the leaders had some real nice cameras!! Luckily he didn't, because here are some close ups of us jumping! ha ha!

Richard and I jumping in our first time!

Getting out of the freezing water and Richard yelling "I DID IT!!"

Richard talking me into jumping one more time!

Here we are jumping in once more! Kaylee Jackson came and joined us!!

We then had to hike out in wet clothes. One of the girls had an extra pair of joggers that fit me. So I hid in the trees and changed. So glad I did. We then drove back to the camp site and got the rest of the vehicles and trailers. Then we headed home. It was a great camp. So glad I was able to be apart of it. So much fun!!