Woods of Wisdom: Girls Camp 2010

What can I say about Girls camp? I went myself as a first year beehive, two days as a 2nd year Beehive and never went again - until this year at least. When you're given a calling, you don't turn it down and in this new ward, I was asked to be ward camp director. I have been working with the Young Women at church for over ten years now and I have managed to get out of camp every year. I had a bad experience as a 2nd year Beehive and I never cared to go back again. I had a friend from my ward who was going to be my buddy. Turned out, she was not going to be able to go after all. Our leader made her and my mother promise not to tell me because they were afraid I wouldn't go if I knew she wasn't going. The night before we left for camp, my mother told me but said she still wanted me to go and that I could come home if I still didn't like it once I was up there. I was pretty angry at my leader so I had a bad attitude and came home the second day. Besides that, everyone else in my cabin had a buddy from their ward with them and I was by myself. To me, camp was bad enough sleeping on the ground outside in the cold with trails of ants crawling over our sleeping bags then having to get up at the crack of dawn after getting no sleep. So, I went home and never went back to camp as a young woman, or even as a leader until this year.

I will say that if you have to go to camp, Heber Valley is the camp to go to. President Hinckley built it because he was worried that girls weren't enjoying camping. His vision for the YW of the church wasn't so much the camping skills, but the spirituality. So the rough aspects of camping are somewhat eliminated and other things are highlighted. The camp covers 8,000 square acres and 24,000 girls attend through the summer. It began being used in 2003 and is still in the process of being developed, they hope to eventually have 5,000 campers at a time. Pres. Hinckley called it the "Temple in the mountains, or the temple without a roof." It is definitely my kind of camping. we had showers, toilets, cabins with bunkbeds, electrical outlets and doors that lock and keep you safe at night and a great little kitchen outside in the center of our cabins.

I also had three of my five girls at camp with me this year. I loved being there with them. Camp is one of those things that in the end, you're always glad you went and this year was no different.

2010 Kaysville West Stake Girls Camp

Webb Lane Ward

We had the best cook, Lisa Smith. This is her with her daughter Carly.

Look how fancy our snacks were set out each day

Our ward banner

Me and my teenage girls. I love being with them. They are so much fun.

Love them all.

Something was very funny to Madi.

Madi trying to get up on Mikayla's bunk while still in her sleeping bag.

Casey showing us her talent

Emma doing the Napolean Dynomite dance

4 of our YCL'S being silly

Janice, Ashley, madi and Casey

Madi and janice

feeding the beehives baby food

YCL's hanging out

John Bytheway was a special guest speaker for us at camp.

My girls were sitting right up front so I told them to get a picture of him before we started. They were too emabarrassed to take his picture so they only took this one. He told us that he had just been made bishop in his ward and had to head home to do his first temple marriage interview.

Taylor's creative way of wearing her handkerchief

Karen, Lisa and Lisa

Can you see how much Taylor wanted to a part of this play?

Madi and Madi

Madi Ferguson was our honorary YCL because she was so young(not quite 12 yet) and her big sister was a YCL who graduated already but wanted to come back to camp with us this year. So Madi stayed in the YCL cabin with her sister a lot.