Once upon a Talent-- Girls Camp

This week I got the privilege of going to Girls Camp!!! I got called to be the ward camp director a few weeks ago and attended a total of 1 meeting. So basically I had no clue what was going on. Camp in Nebraska is a lot of different then Girls camp in Arizona when I was a girl. When I was a girl we had cabins, in Nebraska we bring tents and camp. In Arizona we have a ward camp director and then cabin mom's to help, here we had me the ward camp director and I had an assistant camp director who is totally inactive. I have never seen her at church before, but she does bring her daughter to activities on Wednesday about 1/2 the time. So it was the two of us and a total of 4 girls. We were also in charge of cooking our own food over the fire. We camped at Little Suiox, Iowa. It's about a  little of an hour away. She We meet at the church and piled the girls into my truck and another car and took off.
The first day we set up camp, did some certification. I was in charge of certifying all the 3rd year girls. I didn't realize that the first time we were supposed to be playing get to know you games and did not come prepared. So I taught them Up Jinx, which is really a drinking game. The girls loved it and it was the only game they would play the rest of camp. After certification we then went on a Royal Crusade. Our theme was "Once upon a talent" so it was based on fairy tales, princesses, and anything Renaissance. And then we learned about developing out talents and learning new ones. So the Royal crusade involved learning to solve riddles, photography, egg drops, building a knight in shinny armor, and building sand castles.

  Here they are building sand castles at the lake. We spent all day outside and it was HOT!! After that we learned other talents like...

Walking on Stilts

Juggling

And other stuff. Like, how to hula, whistle, archery, bb guns, hula hoop, double dutch, and a few more. Then we headed back to the lake and went canoeing.
Before I go any farther, I give you a history or Little Sioux. It's a boy scout camp, but our ward goes on the second to last week in June every year. 2 years ago we moved it up a week due to youth conference. The week we would have been there a tornado hit the camp and killed 4 boy scouts. So, last year it was closed and we went to a different camp. This year we went back to our regular time, 2nd to last week in June. So tension were high about having a tornado. Well, back to camp. The first night we finished up with everything as were heading back to our tents when lightning started. So that meant we were not allowed to go to our tents and we had to hang out in some of the buildings. But then we got word that a bad storm was heading our way. So all the girls had to grab their bedding and head to the storm shelter to sleep for the night. Most of the wards got to sleep where there was AC, bathrooms, and showers. We got nothing but bugs! We were covered in bites when we woke up. We survived the  storm, but our tents did not.

The second day we went to work getting stuff hung up to dry while we were cooking breakfast. I spent about 15 mins with a bucket scooping water out of our tent. The fly flew off it during the storm, so there was nothing to keep the rain out. The girls tent got some stakes ripped out and it collapsed part of the tent in letting it leak. The girls were troops and helped out without complaining. We then had more certification classes followed by more talent classes.That night we had our royal feast which included a hog roast! Here are me with all my girls before the feast. After that was the ward skit. We had the best skit!!! It was so awesome! The girls put the whole thing together.

Here are the 3 princess! I had one 1st year, two 2nd years, and a YCL (youth camp leader). Here are my younger girls during the skit. They looked so cute!!! That night we were glad to sleep in out tent! But during the day the wind was so bad that it snapped one of the tent poles in half! So we got two pieces of plywood and splinted the pole together like a broken bone with duck tape. But then the wind snapped the wood in half too!!! But the tent still was holding up, so the girls had a place to sleep.

Here is a picture of my girls before the skit! I had such an awesome group of girls! I couldn't have asked for a better group!!

The third day was the the best!!! We went on a hike in the morning. I was in charge of leading the 3rd years on a hike. We went on the world shortest hike, then was assigned work duty around camp. Then after lunch we  learned self defense and then had a shaving cream war!!!!

 

We  were covered, which was a good thing, because for the whole time at camp we were allowed 1 three min. cold shower!! So we were pretty stinky by this time. We did wash our hair a few times using the water pump. But after the shaving cream war we washed it all off by going slip n sliding!!!

Look how huge this slide was!!! This is only about 3/4 of the slide!!! You would get going so fast!! I taught the girls that if they took some shaving cream and rubbed it on their rear they would go faster!! So it was really funny to see all these teenage girls lined up to go down and passing a can of shaving cream down the line and rubbing cream on their bottom!!! We got burnt but it was a blast!!! That night the bishop came  as well as the young women's president. We had stake testimony meeting followed by ward testimony meeting. That was a really touching experience. All the girls in our group shared their testimony which was a big thing. half of our girls of in active that came. We can't even get them to pray and activities. We have the experience of hearing them pray and sharing their testimony at camp. It was amazing!!
The next day we had a spiritual hike followed by breaking down the camp. Again my girls pulled through and were a huge help. We were the first one down and ready to go!!! We were glad to be on our way home to AC, showers, and a bed!!! I hope I get to go next year.