Camp is...

Hello! I am now back among the living after a fun week of camping at Nisqually (isn't that a great Northwest word? Bet you don't know how to say it!). It's taken me a few days to start feeling more like myself ... I'm not good when I don't get my required 8 hours of sleep ... but I am feeling a bit more chipper this morning, so I thought I'd tell you what I think Girl's Camp is.

Camp is...

Dirt, dirt and more dirt. Dirt under your fingernails. Dirt between your toes. Dirt in your nose. I never realized what a girlie girl I am, but the first thing I thought about when I got home was that I needed a pedicure!

Silly, funny, camp songs. I have a couple of favorites. My very favorite is the moose one. "There was a great big moose (echo), he liked to drink a lot of juice (echo)." It's fun to sing and easy to learn. My second favorite, but for a completely different reason, is one that starts out, "Grow bananas, grow grow bananas. Peel bananas, peel peel bananas. Go bananas, go go bananas." When they 'go bananas', they run all around the stage. This song progresses to, "Grow the mullet, grow grow the mullet. Comb the mullet, comb comb the mullet. Rock the mullet, rock rock the mullet." Hee hee. It still hits my silly sense of humor.

Learning how to kill plastic deer with a bow and arrow. I did not attempt this. If they had had hay bales, I would have been all over it, but they just looked too much like actual animals for my tender heart.

Finding a comfortable place to sit. It's amazing how tired of sitting on hard things you get by the end of the week.
Finding anywhere to sit other than the ground.
Science experiments. A couple of the girls from our ward were in charge of Family Home Evening on Monday night. They taught about testimonies. Part of their lesson was playing with corn starch and water. This was very interesting to some of the girls.

Sleepless nights. I am not a night person. Once the sun goes down, so do I. (This is kind of yucky in the winter around here when the sun goes down at 3 pm.) It was hard for me to stay up late every night. I've decided that I can never be a YCL leader because they never go to sleep. Man, I wouldn't even be recognizable after staying up all night. Can you say...grumpy?

Spa days. What, you're saying? I thought you were at camp. Well, since I had sacrificed so much to be at camp (at least that's what they said), the Stake leaders treated us Ward leaders to a spa afternoon. They rubbed our hands and scrubbed our feet. It was glorious. I felt badly for them though. As soon as I put my feet in the water, it went brown. Yummy.

Cheering your victories.

And your defeats. This is another one of the leaders from our ward and sweet little K**** who is also from our ward. There was this game call Hatchi. It was kind of like the game show on "I survived a Japanese game show." Well, this game was called "Rock, Paper, Scissors." If you won at rock, paper, scissors, you got to put a plate of whip cream in the loser's face. K**** loved this game. Poor Sis B! It was hilarious for the rest of us. Sis B is so excited to be a part of a story that will be told for YEARS to come.

Early mornings. Not only did we have to stay up late, we had to get up early too. Have you ever tried to get a bunch of teenagers out of bed at 7:30 am when they've stayed up way later than they normally do. It's not a fun thing.

Devotionals. This is one of my favorite part about camp. Every morning we had a devotional introducing the theme for that day. (The theme of the whole camp was President Hinckley's "Be's".) I got to do the devotional on Friday for the whole camp. (That's only about 80 girls, so it wasn't too bad.) The theme of that day was Be Humble. I was having a hard time getting my thoughts together for this devotional. It wasn't until I got to camp and had a chance to sit alone in the forest, that it came together. After the devotional, one of the girls came up to me and said that she loved my talk, it was exactly what she needed. That made the whole thing worth it for me. Even if she was the only one I touched, that's plenty for me.

Hard. It's hard to leave your nice comfortable bed for a week. It's hard for me to leave my husband for a week. It's hard to eat food that, while it's really good, just isn't your own. It's hard to deal with the eye rolls and grumbles from some of the girls.

Totally worth it. I would go again in a heart beat. Even with the dirt and the sleeping on the ground. It's worth it to see testimonies grow. It's worth it to see friendships strengthen. It's worth it to sit around the campfire and just laugh together. I don't know if Brent would agree, but ...

I do have to admit, though, I had a hard time this year at the beginning of the week. We were camping in levels instead of wards this year, so I had to get to know a bunch of new girls. And ask them to do stuff. I got a lot of looks that said, "Who are you to tell me what to do?" On top of it all, I was tired, which never makes my mood great. But then Wednesday came and we had skit night, which was quite funny, and then we roasted marshmallows around the fire, which was yummy, and we just got a chance to sit. That changed my whole attitude. I knew I was there for a reason and I knew I could handle any teenage angst that came my way.

So, if you ever have chance to go to camp, I have a couple of suggestions.

Bring a cot. It's amazing how much better you feel when you can sit on your bed and tie your shoes. Always sitting on the floor kind of sucks.

Bring a lot of socks. They will get dirty, very dirty. And you just feel better when you have somewhat clean socks on.

Bring bug repellent. I have about 100 mosquito bites. I was even using the bug repellent, but apparently these mosquitoes are the new kind that like the repellent.

Bring a good attitude. You're going to need it. Sometimes all a grumpy teenager needs is a smile from you and it will break their mood.

Go. It's worth it. It may be sort of yucky at the time, but it's worth it.

So, there you have it. My week at camp. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm enjoying being back in the land of the living.