I Survived Girl's Camp

Greg at White Pine Lake

The over night hikers returning to Tony Grove

Group of wild girls before we headed home

We had a great time at Girl's Camp. We left Wednesday morning at 10 am (after having a continental breakfast from the Stake YW Leaders). We went up Logan Canyon about 40 minutes to the Israelsen's Cabin. It was beautiful and perfect weather. That first night, the 4th year girls, their YCL's (Katie and Janelle), Greg & I, Kristina (my Secretary), Bishop and one of the girl's dad's headed of on our overnight hike. We drove to Tony Grove and hiked 4.8 miles to White Pine Lake. We set up camp and ate dinner, hung around went to bed and got up to hike back. It was a tough hike, but I'm glad I did it. We had fun. We got back to camp before the other groups were back from their hikes. It was nice and quiet so we got cleaned up, relaxed and a lady from our ward came up with some fun crafts to work on. We did crafts (stepping stones, Scripture bags, scrapbook pages, etc), played water games, did an obstacle course, had a Fireside with Gary Wilkinson, heard stories by Brother Erekson, and ate lots of yummy food!! My hint to anyone who is ever YW Pres or Camp director--call a food specialist to worry about all the food!! She was amazing!! (Thanks, Carrie!). I am so lucky to work with such awesome women--my counselors, secretary, advisors, camp directors--they are all truly amazing women and I appreciate all they did to make this year's camp a success! We got home on Saturday afternoon--I was SO tired. For the last night, we opened up the cabin (where I had been sleeping because I let a YW use my warm sleeing bag since it was soo cold) for a slumber party. Well, a handful of girls decided they were going to stay up all night long (thank you Kate, Katie and Emily!). I didn't get any sleep that night.

The night before we left for camp, Greg's sisters came. Shannon and her three kids, Katie, her friend and her son, then Shannon had two of Ashley's kids. My house was packed with kids. Shannon stayed here the whole time I was gone along with Wendy and her three kids. My poor house--they all had a fun time, but I think I'm glad I was at camp! Too many people in one house can only mean STRESS to me. When I got home, Greg and the kids were at Zach's game and Wendy and her girls were cleaning up before they left (thank you!).

While I was gone, I missed two of Zach's games (they won both) and one of Tanner's tournament games (they won). I missed most of Zach's first game (got to see an amazing finish) and the second. They won both on Saturday as well. Since Tanner's team won, that meant they played again on Monday (yesterday) in the tournament. Well, Tanner had scout camp this week. So, we didn't know what to do. We have always believed that when you are part of a team you are committed and you stick it out. What were we going to do? Scout camp is about 5 hours away so we thought we could have him play Monday and then Greg could drive him up....on Sunday we just asked Tanner what he wanted to do. What a hard decision when you know he wants to do both SO bad. He chose to go to Scout Camp with the group. So, he left yesterday at 5:30 am to Camp Loll in Wyoming. He will be home on Saturday. We called to see who won last night and his team won! I think we'll go over and watch their game tonight--it's the championship game in the lower bracket--so if they win, they'll get 3rd place! Go Phillies!

Sorry for the long post--lots to catch up on. It's been a zoo around here as usual. Last night we let Zach invite his baseball team over to watch the Home Run Derby and have a barbecue. It was a fun night--we all head to Seattle on Monday for his tournament there. We are excited for the road trip and to see a part of the country we have never seen.