Girls Camp 2014

It's done.  It's over.  Hallelujah.  It's not my favorite thing to talk about right now, but such a huge part of my life merits a little post at least.

In January I was called to be the Assistant Camp Director.  A few weeks later they called me back in and switched me to the official Camp Director and the previous one would be my assistant.  Great.  Then the next 6 months ensued.  We worked hard.  We made rules.  We tried to plan.  Camp came.  The girls had fun.  We had awesome Star Wars themed t-shirts.  Darth Vader came to camp several times, each with an envelope relating parts of the movies to the gospel (think board game action cards).  The girls thought this was hilarious and very "Bachelor" like and started calling them date cards.  We had rain.  We trained to be Jedi's. We crafted.  We kayaked.  We roasted (literally and figuratively). We prayed.  We sang.  The stake visited.  We ate.  A lot.  We slept.  Not much.  No bears.  (Thankfully.) No major incidents.  No pranks (much to the dismay of a loud few.) We had fun.

I still feel overwhelmed when I think about it.  If you ask me about it, I will probably only say the girls had a lot of fun.  They did.  They loved each other.  They laughed.  They played. I didn't see anyone being excluded.  The older girls took these cute new Beehives and absorbed them into their groups and loved them. That was honestly my favorite part.  I am biased having my own daughter be there for the first time.  I could not have asked for a better experience for her.

Rhodes Rolls.  Totally worked.  Took some practice, but they were yummy!

I was reminded often at camp how much Heavenly Father loves me.  How often he watches out for me and how he uses others as his angels.  I was reminded once again that my no pranking rule was very important. One small prank was allowed- the snipe hunt.  I, however, was quite worried about it because of the extremes it has been taken to in the past years.  Every evening that we tried to do it, it rained.  I am positive it was not a coincidence and the Lord was sustaining me and the decision I had made.  I felt love for these beautiful girls like I love my own kids.  I hugged a few of them and had to keep myself from handing out kisses and "I love you's." :)

There have been a lot of compliments on camp.  Some criticisms.  My assistant assures me the critics are nit-picking.  Yesterday, though, I got a letter from the Stake Young Women presidency.  It warmed my heart and gave me what I needed so that I could know I did do a good job and that I reached my goals even if others thought that my rules and ideas were a little (lot?) silly.

See?!  How do you not say "I love you" to these cute girls?!!

Next year is Stake girls camp.  As a teen, I would have groaned.  As the camp director all I can say is, "WAHOO!"