Girls Camp

Our stake rotates between stake and ward Girls Camp.  This year was a ward camp year.  We headed to Camp Hinckley in the San Bernadino Mountains.  We left on Tuesday morning and I had a few girls in my car.  I was driving Rich's car so that he would have room for all the kids back home.  The engine started to over heat around Baker.... but it was fine when we turned off the AC. The girls needed to stop for a potty break so we pulled over in Baker.  The car seemed back to normal.  However, just a few miles outside of Baker the car wasn't picking up speed.  I decided to pull over and the car just died.  There was smoke coming from under the hood and it started to leak fluid.  We said a little prayer and called Melissa Belt to let her know what was going on.  They did some shuffling around and came back to get us.  We were in the desert waiting for about 1 1/2 hours.  It was hot but the girls had good attitudes.  I told them that now we had a good story and camp hadn't even started yet!

We finally made it to camp and our late arrival only threw the schedule off just a little bit.  The leaders got this awesome cabin!  We loved having a kitchen, bathrooms, and beds.  It was my kind of girls camp!

We had over 40 girls from our ward at camp.

We had a lot of fun leaders.

Our theme for the year was: It's Better to Look Up.  It was based on a talk given by Elder Carl B. Cook in 2011.  (One of our girls free handed this poster!  Amazing!)

During the week the girls made arrows to hang around the sign saying "It's better to..."  It was fun to see what they came up with.

We had so many great activites.  Wednesday morning we went on a fun hike to a heart rock.  The group in front got a little lost because the trail was unclear but we found our way to the rest of the group.  Because we went the long way we were able to walk along the creek and see a rattle snake.

We also participated in a Lifeboat activity which got everyone a little emotional but I think bonded our group overall.  We really were able to see how much the girls cared for one another and how they felt about themselves. 

We also had a great fireside, had a movie night (we watched UP), had a hilarious skit night, and some great rotations during the day.  I was in charge of crafts so I didn't get to go to all of them.  I had fun with the girls doing craft though!

We had a picturesque little pond near our cabin.

I don't even know how it began but we had a group of girls who came to hang out with us in our cabin every day.  We had so much fun with them playing silly games.

It was really nice for our entire bishopric to be at camp for part of the week. 

I wish I had more pictures that I had taken... but we asked the girls to give up their phones for the week so I thought it was only fair to keep mine put away as well. 

It was such a great week to get to know the girls in our ward better.  They really are amazing.  I am lucky to work with them and the other leaders.

Lydia really wanted to go with me (she is a girl after all!)  I hope I am able to go with her when she is finally old enough to go.