Girls Camp

The week after Jamie left was girls camp. It was ward camp this year so we got to choose where we went. We camped right next to Banks Lake in Electric City, WA. It was a beautiful spot!

This was the first time our Young Women had ever done a ward only camp, though it was our ward and two branches that all went together (there was 2 girls from 1 branch and 1 from the other). Usually they go to Ensign Ranch, about 2 hours away. It has all the amenities one could want. There is a huge cafeteria style kitchen. the stake does all the cooking. There is horses, climbing wall, showers, flush toilets, they are pretty spoiled there.

So excited to get going on our adventure!

None of those fine things existed at Banks Lake. We had contracted with a porta-potty company to bring a porta-john up for us. When we got there they hadn't delivered it yet. We tried calling them, but got no response. In a panic we called Dale and he told us he'd bring one up from out of the orchards, though it was going to take him over 2 hrs to get it to us. In the mean time there were a whole bunch of girls (and me!) that needed to use the potty. About 4 miles up the road was a state park, so we loaded up into cars and went to find the potty. That is also where the shower was if you wanted to take a shower, though it costed $.25 per 2 minutes, or something like that.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay the whole week because of the baby. I'm sure camping with grumpy Gus would have been loads of fun for everyone! I went up with them Tuesday morning and spent most of the day with them then came home. I went back up Thursday morning and spent the night so I could help transport girls back on Friday morning. Malia was her grumpy self. If only she'd let others hold her! There were many arms that wanted to hold her, but she'd have none of that. Only mom will do.

The girls seemed to have a great time! Getting camp set up took a little bit. Lucky for them the camp director, Sis Evans, had come up Saturday and got the kitchen all set up for them. All they had to do was set up their tents. Which proved to be a little more challenging for some than for others. One group had chosen a tent with no instructions. We worked at it for over an hour, even called the people who we were borrowing it from. No one could tell them how to set it up. We gave up after an hour and chose another tent.

After camp was set up they got changed into swim suites and played in the lake and went canoeing. Wednesday they did a service project in the morning, cleaning up the area they were camping in. Bro Evan came and taught them how to throw knives. He even made each girl their own knife! There was more canoeing and playing in the water and crafts. Thursday was the day they were all looking forward to! They were going to go up to Republic, about an hour away, and go for an early morning hike then go horseback riding. At the farm where they split into two groups. One went horseback riding while the others stayed behind and mucked out stalls, milked cows, and played with the kittens that had just been born a few weeks before. They ate lunch then switched. They LOVED this!

I went straight to the camp site instead of going to the horseback riding place. I knew Sis Evans would need help preparing dinner since everyone else was gone. I got there about 2:00 and dinner preparations were already underway. We were making tinfoil dinners; chicken and potatoes with a rosemary  lemon mustard sauce. It was so yummy! It took a long time to prepare and the hornets were out of control! I guess they were a problem all week long, but man did they want what we were making. I was so afraid Malia was going to get stung. I tried to keep her out of the way as much as possible.

Malia hanging out while we worked on dinner.

Funny story: After we got dinner all prepped and on the coals to cook we knew we'd need to get water to do dishes with later. The only place to get water was from the state park, 4 miles away. We had a big pot that water was kept in. There was no secure lid, just a pot lid that went on it. So we loaded the pot up and headed to the state park. There were two men there cleaning fish as we pulled this huge pot out of the back of the suburban. We started to fill it up and these guys kept watching us. They said 'I don't think you two ladies are going to be able to lift that thing once it's full and we can't help you. We're both disabled.' They were older men, I'm sure with back problems. We just laughed, we'll get it. And we did. No problems at all. That is until we started down the road to our campsite. It was a dirt road. Moderately bumpy. I can hear water sloshing around. I see it flying out of the pot. Sis Evans and I just bust up laughing. There is water flying everywhere, no matter how slow I take the road. There's nothing I can do about it. We stop about halfway there to see if maybe we could do something, what I'm not sure. There is water running down the outside of my car. Cue another round of laughter! We got back to camp, there is water pouring out of the my car. We are dying, laughing so hard. I suppose we should have only filled it half full, the other half is in my car! So. Much. Water. I cleaned it up the best I could, but it was soaked! I left the back open most of the evening to let it air out. Lesson learned, don't put the pot INSIDE a car, take the truck!

The girls arrived back just as dinner was finished up on the coals. PS--we weren't allowed to have a fire, so technically we weren't allowed to even burn coals, no s'mores for us or late nights around the fire.

Girls were already fighting over who got to ride down with me in the morning. They had taken paper and written their names on it and stuck it onto seats in my car. It was getting a little out of hand...so many girls wanted to ride with me and I could only take 5. So, I told them if they wanted to ride with me they had to clean up dinner. 5 girls promptly jumped up and started on dishes. I was so impressed!

Thursday night was testimony night. After dinner was all cleaned up we had a little devotional and then let the girls share their testimonies. It went on forever! Everyone shared, some shared more than once, they kinda fed off each other. In the past testimony night was done with the whole stake, not on a ward level. So this was a new experience for them. I had a grumpy baby who didn't want to go to sleep so I kinda just stood on the outside of the group so her crying didn't bother anyone. It was a spiritual experience that I hope they always remember. We had two nonmember girls with us who also shared their thoughts and feelings during this time.


Friday morning we were trying to decide how to get the porta-john back home. Do we call someone to come empty it? Do we haul it full? We called Dale to ask him what we should do. In true Dale fashion he told us to pull the plug and let it drain while we drive. Gross! Better yet, there is no such plug, but even better...we looked for said plug! So we came up with the idea of putting plastic wrap around the seat to keep splashes for getting everywhere. I asked who'd like to have that job and was so surprised that someone volunteered right away. Then someone else volunteered to help her get it done. Such good girls! No one complained as we broke camp and loaded the trailers, they all worked hard and got it done quickly.

Attempting to move the porta-john onto the trailer

I LOVE girls camp! Serving with the Young Women is such a blessing to me. I love teaching the gospel and seeing their testimonies bloom and grow. They are such good kids. It is such a blessing to call these girls my friends.