We left for camp by 9:45 and got to Aspen Meadows around 11:00. We set up tents and ate our sack lunches. The first picture below is of all the girls working together to move a table while McKady Kump, our birthday girl, was laying on top catching a ride. We had an orientation around 2pm with Bro. and Sis. Muir, the camp hosts. They encouraged us to think about and ask Heavenly Father, "What am I supposed to learn this week? What will make me a better person?" We gave out t-shirts and played the "horizontal ladder" game as a unity and team building activity. It went fairly well except Marcie, who was the one walking on the elevated ladder, fell! I felt so bad. She was super brave and got back up again!
After that we introduced the personal study/reflection time we wanted the girls to have almost every day. I explained that this was a time that I think back on fondly from my camp and EFY days. The scripture study time was when I really learned how I best learn from my personal scripture study. The YW were very quiet and took this time seriously, which I was very happy about. Then we went down to the pavilion to make bracelets, talk, hang out, and have pulled pork sandwiches for dinner that night! The sad news of the evening was that Andrea Gunnerson was quite sick for most of camp with a fever, sore throat, and congestion. After dinner we used the amphitheater for our skit night. The girls were divided into three groups and were given a bag of props/costume pieces. They were also given a scenario and some key words and performed for each of the other groups. They all did awesome and you could tell they really loved dressing up and being silly! We had apple crisp for dessert and then headed back up to our camp site and I was asleep by 11:15ish.
Wednesday morning we had our devotional, omelettes in a bag for breakfast, packed our lunches, and left for our hike. We had a little bit of trouble finding a hike that was close by, had a destination, and would be 2-3 miles in length. The hike I found was for Big Elk Lake. However, the directions to get there were pretty shady. The road was so terrible to get there! Super rocky and bumpy! Some girls got pretty car sick. We passed some four wheelers on the way up that said we should probably stop because our cars (even with 4-wheel drive) probably wouldn't make it. We drive a little further but then decided to park in a clearing and start the hike earlier than planned. We still needed to go 2 miles just to get to the trail head. So we hiked and found these cool rocks overlooking a smaller lake and ate our lunch. My phone GPS said we were .5 miles to the Big Elk Lake trail head and also only about another mile to Little Elk Lake. So we opted to go for Little Elk Lake but ended up needing to leave the trail and go up and over a hill to find the darn thing, but we found it!
It was lovely and the girls had a good time throwing/skipping rocks, dangling feet in the water, and MaKayla even swam a little in her clothes. Thankfully the weather wasn't too hot and mostly cloudy.
At our lunch spot MaKayla accidentally fell in some mud and Annaleah was nice enough to help clean up her behind. :)
We were gone from camp a total of 6 hours and probably ended up hiking close to 6 miles. But the girls did really well and were patient with us even when we didn't 100% know where we were going. I kept calling it an "improv" hike.
When we got back to camp we had otter pops and soaked our feet in kiddie pools with bath bombs. We had free time and I showered!! After taco salad and peach cobbler, I gave an evening devotional on "...that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."
Then we did our glow stick night! The girls want to do this every year and I don't blame them. We bought about 300 glow sticks and many rolls of clear packing tape and they make themselves stick people. We went for a walk and visited another ward that was camping there and our camp hosts, the Muirs. I even tried to get pictures of the girls swinging.
Thursday we made water mark t-shirts using glue and shirt dye. They turned out pretty cute. The girls also had more personal study time, then we had the girls rotate through archery, horseshoes, and a slack line. (The picture of Dan doing archery is from Friday.)
The girls loved the swing set there! We had some cows roaming through camp as well. They actually knocked over some of the hay bales at the archery range. Poor Cate Gunnerson kept getting bloody noses, but tampons did the trick to stop it a couple times. Here are the Kossin girls holding up their water mark t-shirts.
The Mia Maids were also in charge of a game on Thursday afternoon. We played some intense Hide and Seek where they set new rules for every round. For example, for one of the rounds, we couldn't touch any leaves. Brigette McKamy gave our evening devotional that night, we listened to MaKayla Cardall's comedy routine, and we played the skittles questions game where every color represents a question, as well as another question game with a beach ball Erica made.
Friday after we had quiche for breakfast, the Laurel class gave a little fireside about being a pineapple, meaning stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside. They also gave us a scavenger hunt. Two groups' maps weren't quite correct so they took quite a while to find their treasures. The groups that finished quickly had some free time so I called and talked to Dan for bit. The girls then had some journal time. After lunch the Laurels also taught certification. We had free time and later Dan and Sylvia arrived! We played games and talked for a while and Dan even tried out the archery. We had pizza and salad for dinner, then we had our testimony meeting.
Dan gave a little lesson before about being connected and strengthening relationships with each other and with the Lord. He gave each girl a carabiner. Becky also gave a thought about what she had learned about prayer while at camp and during her personal study time. Many girls shared their testimonies about how the personal study and reflection time really helped their testimonies grow! Major success! We had donuts as a treat and the girls enjoyed their last night at camp by going on a night hike and Sabrena Koehler playing pranks with her stuffed dummy, "Francine."
Saturday the girls were awesome at helping pack up and clean up. We had left overs for breakfast and we were out of there by 9:30am! One last group picture!
I rode home with Erica and we were back to the church by 10:40.
Dan was amazing getting all the kids ready, McKenna to stake choir at 8am, then fed all the kids breakfast in his office and to a baptism by 10am!
We all got home around 11. Dan helped me unload and unpack while I started laundry and showered. My 10 week pregnant body did quite well at girls camp and I never really felt nauseous. However, once I got home and relaxed a little (aka- let my guard down) I felt pretty yucky and SUPER tired. I crashed hard on the couch after lunch and then finally got moving to get a grocery list ready. We ran errands in the evening. Phew! What a great week!
*Here's what Dan and the kids were up to while I was gone!
He took the kids plus some cousins to the $1 Summer movie then got them "special juice and bread" for lunch. They also went on a bike ride on the Lagoon trail.
Wednesday Ben went to a birthday party for one of his old preschool friends, Annie. Thursday, Dan had to work some in the morning, then they went to Western States LAGOON DAY!! He said it was definitely tricky managing 4 kids with very different height qualifications and ride desires. Thankfully there were other extended family members there to help.
Dan even said Anna did better than last year and rode quite a few more rides than last time.
Friday Dan had to work some more, so the kids had fun at the Holdstock's house! In the afternoon, when he came up to camp, Dave and Laurie were nice enough to watch the kids and put them to bed.
Sunday I shared my testimony about what I learned at camp. The YW in our ward are happy, joyful, brave, hard-working, and had great faith in their leaders even when things didn't go as planned. They have been taught of goodly parents whom I look up to and I want my kids to be like them. I'm grateful for my Savior and everything I do and say is because I want to return to live with Him again!
Anna was supposed to pray in Primary that day, but was too nervous. I also sang in RS with Kim Ulmer and Meghan Johnson for Marilee Novak's lesson about visiting teaching. That night we had to role play with the kids because there was so much fighting. They liked it and practiced talking nice to each other.
Monday we had a meeting for Bethany's speech. She also had her more extensive hearing test. She passed and they said there were no major concerns other than there was one frequency that needs to be retested in 6 months. The kids did not do so well during the testing and I there was lots of fighting. :( Thankfully the kids took naps in the afternoon since we went to the Bee's game that night! We were lucky enough to sit in the box with Grandfather. The train is always a hit!
Bethany hated the Bee mascot though. There were a few other Nelson family members there as well.
