Or I just love it.
Maybe both.
Bare with me as I attempt to conquer an entire week in just one post.
I've been to Girl's Camp 12 years now. 6 as a youth, and 6 as a leader. This year was different for me though.
For the first time ever I had family at camp with me.
My daughter Casidee debuted as a first year.
And so did The Man.
Kudos to that mighty fine man.
Camp means a lot of things to me.
It's my firm belief that if you bond with these girls on their level, they'll listen to you on other levels.
This year's theme was BOOT Camp.
Which stood for Building Our Own Testimony
We spent the week in a campground near Payson Lakes.
Our first stop was The Grotto.
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| Emily and Cas |
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| me, Cas, Mik, Soph |
Holy moly, that water was COLD. With all capitals.
As in, sharp pains in my feet when I got out of the water cold.
But it was so beautiful.
Here's what I learned at camp this year.
Because I'm pretty sure that being a leader, just means that I'm subject to learning more than ever.
Ballison gets confused on what qualifies a person to be a "broski."
Whitney has an unnatural fear of watermelon seeds. In her defense, she thought it was a spider. In our defense, it wasn't.
The Bishop ate a moth. He was talking and it just flew straight in.
I'm terrible at the card game bs. Which we called Beef Stew. But the Bishop, is apparently the Stew Master.
Apparently catching Snape in a pillow case is a viable thing.
Gail has no talent for the game Vroom, but when she's forced to spell her name with her head, she looks like a zombie.
Also, Gail and Emily make a great boy band. Word.
Fleming. Enough said.
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| Fleming the doll |
Normally I hate the skit portion of Camp, as far as me having to come up with and be in a skit, but I love watching them.
It makes me feel that everyone is so much more clever than I am.
This might be a pride issue.
We were so close to not doing skits this year. So close.
And then with a 30 second decision on someone who has more authority than I do, we were off in our groups throwing together inpromptu skits. No assigned theme. No assigned props.
Ready set go.
For the record, everyone else is much more clever than I am.
We saw the funniest puppet show ever.
And I mean ever.
I wish so much that I would have gotten it on video, but in hindsight, I'm thinking it was probably one of those things where you had to be there.
I laughed so hard I cried.
Man, that Fleming should be on Broadway.
I heard a rumor that he may be getting his own facebook page.
I know you all hope that's true.
This skit was a re-written song.
The passion was mind blowing.
Meet the female boy band:
The men folk solved a crime.
Every word started with C.
It was like Dick Tracy meets Sesame Street.
And the Dating Show will never be the same for me.
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| Barbara, Ann, me |
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| Stacy |
Like start his own diy blog crafty.
How did this happen?
Speaking of crafts...
duct tape purses anyone?
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| we even had penguin duct tape |
Emily helped Brandon tackle a duct tape wallet:
While the other guys slept the afternoon away.
Though West eventually got up and helped with the duct tape purses.
Seriously, that man can craft.
How many men does it take to light a lantern?
Let's not tell them that it isn't even close to being dark yet, okay?
Oh, and that group of men? Giggle louder than the girls.
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| Annie, Sophie, me |
I learned that I can no longer hula hoop.
And it really hurt.
Really.
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| It's a perfect fit, don't you think? |
One morning, while the men folk got things ready to head to the lake, we women folk made pancakes.
It was breath taking beautiful.
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| Brandon, Brian (Bishop), West, me |
and to Brandon's delight, West would win.
This would be where I learned the term "yolo."
You Only Live Once.
And it might be said that Mik can totally rock a mumu.
We were split up into teams (Go Pink team!) and made to shave balloons.
I lost only to West.
Is he sure he's never been to Girl's Camp before?
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| Gail adding bleach pen details to my shirt for me |
Annie rocked her violin.
And the girls danced like no one was watching.
Except we all were.
With cameras.
Amidst all of this tom foolery and bonding, we did have those moments where we reached out to those girls.
Like the hike to see the sunrise.
Where I gave a devotional using this song:
Where I lost my camera in that great big clearing we sat in. Where after a lot of talk of tender mercies, we walked back to that clearing and found it again.
Annie put together the testimony rope course where we blind folded the girls and talked them through branches and bushes all while they hung onto a little bag that represented their testimony. Some of us were good and helpful leaders, some of us were not, and ended up getting those little bags from the girls.
It was a powerful object lesson.
How grateful I am for every year that I get to be a part of Girl's Camp.
How grateful I am that my daughter's are now coming of age to be a part of it.
I truly believe it to be an amazing program for those young women, as well as we leaders.
How I love all of these girls and would do anything for them.
And thanks to The Man for doing something new and going with us this year.
