Girls’ Camp this year was four days and three nights long. The first three days were at Reid Ranch and the last night was at a cabin.
Preparing for camp consisted of buying granola bars, throwing sleeping bags in trash bags, and buying gifts for Secret Sisters.
For Secret Sisters everyone got assigned to a girl and you basically sneak gifts onto their bed, one for each day. This year we only had to do four and they all had to be under five dollars. We made key chains, bracelets, and hair ties. It’s the Allen Way to make their gifts. They were dang cute.
Tuesday
Our theme for this year’s Girls’ Camp was “Wanted: The Divine You” and it centered around uncovering our divine nature. We went to our Grandma’s ward last year as well, so this was our second time with the same ward. It was Gretchen’s first year because she just turned twelve, so all four sisters went and our cousin Shayne who is Madeline’s age came with us again.
Tuesday we left at 8:30 in the morning to head to Reid Ranch where we spent the first two and a half days of Girls’ Camp. Basically the entire day we ate, used the paddle boats on the lake, and swam in the lake and pool. I loved that we could swim at Girls’ Camp because last year we weren’t allowed. Reid Ranch was basically a resort with a golf course, horses, a chef, pool, lake, and showers. We didn’t have to cook any of our food or clean biffies (porta potties). It was heaven.
This is the only picture I got on Tuesday and what you don’t see is that we managed to fit four girls on the tiny top of the bunk bed.
Wednesday
All of us girls went horseback riding and then basically repeated the previous day of swimming, boating, and eating. That night we had a musical fireside where our leader and her husband sang a lot of church songs including a song that she wrote and recorded with the young women in the ward. It makes me cry every time (You Are Divine).
Liesel’s horse was named Scar, which Liesel said was fortuitous owing to the number of scars she has accumulated over the years.
One of our crafts was making dream catchers, which take a while to get the hang of, but the third time’s the charm and I made a beautiful one for Madeline. It started out with me just showing her how to do it but it was going so well that I needed to finish it and redeem my pride from my previous fails.
Adult coloring.
Madeline, Shayne, Gretchen
The lifejackets were more of a hinderance than a help because they would probably choke you before they saved your life. Liesel was like, “My grave stone is going to read, ‘Cause of death: Lifejacket.'”
Shayne, Madeline, Gretchen, Liesel, Gwyneth
Thursday
A western playset from the dollar store that we set up and then quickly lost interest in.
We were supposed to go on a hike but then it started thundering so we beat a hasty retreat to the cars.
After we went back down to the valley, we did certification in which we learned the difference between a potgut, gopher, and chipmunk. A potgut is fat. A chipmunk has a striped tail. And gophers come out of holes.
After the certification we drove and ate our way to the cabin.
It also hailed.
I probably ate over half a bag of Lucky Charms. Because they are vegan.
Our last night was spent at the cabin. That night we had a devotional, faith walk, and testimony meeting. All three were extremely spiritual and there were a lot of tears involved. The girls that had graduated from high school planned the faith walk and they did such an amazing job.
The testimony meeting started at ll:00 at night and went until one in the morning. I was so proud of us because basically everyone bore their testimony. Afterwards we stood around the camp fire switching between our fronts and our backs. We were frozen.
Once we were kicked back inside, we had to make paper plate awards for all the girls because it’s a tradition for YCLs (youth camp leaders: 16 and 17 years olds). Paper plates are funny awards that are given to each girl and we did not finish them until THREE IN THE MORNING. Besides the two girls on the ends and the one on the couch everyone else slept on the floor and this picture accurately shows how crowded it was. You basically picked a position and stayed in that position because if you happened to roll over you rolled over onto a person.
Also everything said at THREE IN THE MORNING is absurdly funny. I laughed so hard that I cried. As did a couple of leaders, but that might have just been stress coming out in them.
The next morning we woke up at nine (six hours of sleep) and ate french toast, orange juice, and hash browns. We then finished up the paper plate awards and made sure that in our sleep deprived state they were coherent. Before paper plate awards, one of the YCLs did a devotional and I gave a spiritual thought about choices that affect our divine nature. I talked about my choice to be modest and uphold the standards of the For Strength of Youth and how that affected my prom dress and how comfortable I felt with what I wore. Afterwards we handed out our final gifts to our Secret Sisters. We then packed up and headed home to take naps and showers. Both were greatly appreciated.
HEY LIESEL & GWYN 