8.21.2007

Girl's Camp

I survived Girl's Camp! Actually, it was a lot of fun.
For anyone reading who might not know what Girl's Camp is....it's pretty much what you think: a week up in the mountains with 80 teenage girls. The girls learn "camping" and survival skills, play in the lake, swim, hike, act silly, sing songs, and have a fun time bonding and making new friends.
I have great memories of going when I was younger, so I was excited to be called as the assistant Stake camp director (especially since my friend Jennie was the Director) There was much coordinating that went into it over the past months but once we got up there things ran pretty smoothly. There was some normal girl drama (how could there not be with 20 girls sleeping in one cabin?). But by the last day when we had a testimony meeting they were all in tears saying how much they loved each other and how glad they were that they came to camp. Cute girls.
Our camp was up near Big Bear and the weather was pretty nice. It really cooled off at nights and made sleeping quite enjoyable (aside from the saggy matresses and occasional snoring from bunk mates). It wasn't until we got back on Friday that I realized, it had been roasting hot all week long at home. Glad I missed that!
Jennie is a creative wiz and decided we needed cute t-shirts for camp (no men's sized Tees). She teaches Screen printing at Arcadia High School and so, she came up with a logo, bought the girl T-shirts, and then printed each one herself for all the girls and leaders. They were adorable and the girls were very pleased. I don't have a shot of the actual camp shirts. But she made some extra shirts just for me and her because hello, we totally heart camp!
Here were are at the camp fire one night. It's perfect that we both enjoy acting like idiots together (and that we know how to smolder a fire?)
I know you won't know any of them, but how cute are these girls?! They're waiting in line for dinner. I've actually missed seeing them this week.
Here are some of the Stake leaders, chilling after dinner.
We decided to start something new this year and I instituted a Camp Store. Even if you're in the mountains, it's still fun to go shopping. I made fake money, which the girls could earn by showing up on time for meals and campfires, for doing "good deeds", etc.
At the store, they could purchase candy, soda, Otter Pops, popcorn, water guns, beach balls, and more. But THE most coveted item was....the Hello Kitty water bottle!
I only bought 5 of them, since I was trying to keep costs down. And I priced them at $10 camp dollars. The girls were going crazy and just HAD to have one. By the second day, all 5 bottles were purchased. I told the girls who missed out, however, to hit up the Target dollar section when they got home and they could own one too. That made them feel better.

All in all it was a really fun week. It felt more like one long day, than an actual week.
Here were some of the best things I heard from various girls while up there:
"Sister Willard, can I drive your car?" (from a 14 year old as were headed back from the lake)
"I can't eat this sandwich, there's too much peanut butter and not enough jelly. I normally just eat jelly and bread." (Jennie told her to wipe the peanut butter off)
"I went swimming yesterday and I now I think I have water in my brain."
Oh, the girls. Gotta love them.

Of course it was so much fun to come back home to Lucy and Casey. Lucy was so excited when we got there and ran up to us with great welcome home hugs and a few nose rubs. What a cutie.

Yea for Girl's Camp!

6 comments:

dietcokegrrl said...

It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun, but I have to say that this camp sounds waaayyy too comfortable for girls camp!! And the girls waiting in line for food look way too clean for camp!

When I went (and this is NOT an exaggeration) we got ONE shower for the ENTIRE week!! No joke. No one looked good after day 3. I won't even talk about the rules for the toilet.

We didn't have mattresses, (nor shopping I am so sad to say) and we got our food out of a window, while we ate at long picnic tables. Our "cabins" were just frames with some type of tarp nailed over it.

The only people who were not roughing it were, I guess, the leaders and I remember our last year (as Adventurers) we got to stay in the "A-frame" cabin that had actual bunk beds with mattresses (I think), but at least that was an actual cabin. But we still only got one shower. It was really gross.

Ok, this is more of a novel than a comment. But it definitely sounds like my kind of camping. No tents, showers available and SHOPPING. Sign me up!

dana said...

haah. You are so right Doris!
We totally had it easy, for sure.
I've talked to other people who really had Girl's CAMP like you...and well, I guess as leaders, we decided we wanted to be comfortable?
Of course, I had the luxury of pulling the pregnancy card whenever I needed. Um, I can't go hiking. I'm pregnant. It came in very handy.

Nicole said...

Looks like a fun time! My girls camp sounds like this, it was in Big Bear at Camp MaKye (sp?) We had a-frames,(cabins w/ heaters & beds when we were leaders) showers, cooks to cook our food, running h20 etc & also the camp store!!! I LOVED the camp store!! Good job on bringing back the "camp store" How fun! Love the T-shirts too. Very cute!

Zen Mama said...

Welcome back! It looks like you had a great time!

My first and second years of girl's camp were in tents and the second year we were rained out! We had to go to the church to sleep the first night because it was too wet to pitch our tents but we were not allowed to use any church facilities because we were camping.

When I moved back up north I could believe how posh the Alaskan girls had it, camping in cabins (no heating) at the Boy Scout Camp. (Still primitive compared to your camp, it sounds!) But we made our food a good portion of the time, used outhouses, and learned a lot about keeping the bears away.

I miss camping.

Sara said...

wow! Us mountain girls really knew how to rough it! As I read your post I thought, now this is the kind of camp I wish I could have signed up for! In all 6 years of girls camp I never got one shower... unless you consider hanging a gallon milk container from a tree with water in it a shower! We would put our hair in dredlocks to help with some of the pain of no showers. No A frames or cabins- just the basic tent borrowed from the family of 14 in the ward. We cooked our own food and had to hang it in the tree (next to our "shower") in order to keep it from the bears. The leaders didn't have to rough it as much though-- they opted to sleep in the cars most nights!
Still, such fun memories!! And btw, your camp shirts are so adorable.

debra said...

I'm so glad you loved camp! I miss the Big Bear camp.... we use to go there when I was a YW. I was girls camp director this year for my ward and we were at the new Girls Camp up in Heber that the church built... it was SO nice and for sure not "real" camping. We did the camp store too and it was a huge hit-- I love the fake money idea (we just had tickets, but it still worked well!)

Anyway--- hope all is well with you. Your little fam is too cute!