Here's what you've all been waiting for... this is really long, with lots of pictures. May I present to you,
GIRLS CAMP 2009
First of all, some history of my time involved with the Springfield, OR Stake Girls Camp...
1994-1997: 1st - 4th year [1995 = Trek #1]
1998-2000: Stake Camp [2000 = Trek #2]
2001: Off [mandatory year off between being a stake girl and a unit leader]
2002-2004: Unit Leader
2005: Ma & Pa leader w/ my brand-new hubby for Trek #3
2006: Unit Leader
2007: Off [brand-new baby to attend to!]
2008: Unit Leader
Which equals a total of 7 years attending as a youth, 6 years as a unit leader (including Trek #3) and brings us to...2009: Stake Adult - Jigsaw/Jamboree w/ Lori Bradford and Heritage Mtn/Certification w/ Shelly Johnson
W/ Shelley, my partner in crime all week. Loved getting to know this woman better and becoming closer friends. (And I'm not really that much taller than her!) This year's theme:
She who possesses values is the fairest of them all.Stake Girls: Royal Value Jesters
Stake Adults: Queens and Kings
The other units were all princesses!1st years: Giselle and Belle
2nd years: Pocahontas and Fiona
3rd years: Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel
4th years: Sleeping Beauty
Monday- Set-up w/ stake adults and stake girls. I had to work part of that day and then ended up having a ton of stops to make along the way and finally made it up there by about 5pm while most everyone else had been there since about 11am.
- We ate dinner and then Shelley and I set up our tent and unloaded my gear. Decided it was too dang hot to put the tent fly on.
- Later that night I went to "train" the stake girls on their jobs during jigsaw certification.
- Late night showers to try to cool off. The water heater was still turned on, though, so we were clean but still hot. Slept on top of my sleeping bag until about 2 or 3am when it finally cooled off.
High temp: 102
Tuesday- Early morning wake-up courtesy of Shelley and I!! We woke up with the sun a little after 5am and chatted for a bit. Fell back asleep for 1/2 hour or so and then were up and talking (a little louder) by 6am. We got lots of dirty looks that morning and yet no one had yelled at us. If they could hear us when we were talking at a normal volume, why didn't they just yell at us to keep it down?! I'm thinking we are not the only ones to blame for their lack of sleep!! :)
- Eat biscuits and gravy for the first time in my life. Not bad, but a little heavy for me first thing in the morning.
It cracked me up that Christine parked right in front of the 'No Parking' sign. Goober.
- Girls arrive and do their set-up.
I love my sissy!- Find out my cousin Heather, who was supposed to come, was in an ATV accident and in the hospital and will probably have to have surgery.
- Soooo HOT!! Higher than average number of girls go to swim in Rambo lake/mudhole.
The heat was really getting to some of the leaders. We do cRaZy things when it's triple digit temperatures!- Day 1 of unit inspections and Shelley and I's first nightly Heritage Mtn. skit as the witch and mirror.
"Wise council, wise council in a frame... tell me how to make it rain."
- Late night showers. They finally turned off the water heater but they're still warm.
High temp: 106
Wednesday - Destiny w/ Bishop Luke.
- Jigsaw (certification) in the morning.
- Crafts: Jewelry making. Also paint wood cookie per request from our head cook, Sis. Farralley.
- Annual water fight with Alicia Turley. I love this woman!! We have carried on our water fight for 10 years now... it started when I was a stake girl back in 1998. I think the Trek in '05 was one of the worst. I love it! And for the record, she almost always starts it (she's sneaky)... but I make sure to finish it!!
She is also our "bead lady" and paints all of the early bird, attendance, jamboree, etc. beads.
- Unit Leader dinner w/ a royal theme and several courses to the meal. Cooks make mental note that stew is
not an easy meal to prepare for a large group when camping. There was lots and lots of prep work involved. I don't envy them, but I definitely appreciate them!
- Letter from hubby! Yay!!
- Heritage Mtn. skit: "Wise council in a frame... this heat is driving me insane!"
- Sing-A-Long: Our words were chloroform, indignant and serendipitous and our actions were playing ping-pong and synchronized swimming.
- Late night showers officially part of the pre-bedtime routine. Shelley and I decide we cannot go to bed stinky and sweaty. Gross. Christine joins our shower groupie.
High temp: 106Thursday- Destiny w/ Bro. Neilson from Ashland area... "No! No, Goliath!"
- Day 2 of Jigsaw
- Crafts: Painted boards w/ "Reflect on Eternity" lettering and temple-etched mirrors... I wasn't much help this day, but I did get Megan's
Giselle unit beads painted, complete w/ sparkle glaze.
- Heritage Mtn. skit: I don't even remember our opening rhyme, but we both lost it big time. I was able to compose myself though, for my "I'm a lean, mean rhyming machine" line. Good times. (Check back for when I get the video!)
- Skit night. Stake adults were given Snow White theme w/ focus on all 8 YW values. In the end, I was the echoing wishing well to Susan Wright's singing Snow White. Very fun and it meant I didn't have to "wear" a dress!
DeLacie Barney, our camp nurse. She is so cute and fun! I really liked getting know her... so happy and positive!
The value gems in their sparkly princess gowns.
The priesthood leadership was the dwarves "mining" for the value gems to fill an order for Camp Alpine. We had Doc, Dopey and Sneezy (aka Sleazy). Too funny!- Star-gazing. For the first time all week it was actually chilly!
- Late night showers continue. Feels good to be fresh and clean... even if it is 11pm!
Friday- Morning Exercises: Shake Your Foot, courtesy of the stake girls.
- Destiny w/ Shelley: It. was. AMAZING! The spirit was so strong and everything came together well. I think my favorite, though, was all of the adult leaders singing "Walk Tall" to the girls. Wow.
- JAMBOREE!
Lizzy doing the balance beam at Jamboree.
Alicia getting in on some Jamboree action. No injuires... yay!
3/4 of our Stake YW presidency. Just missing Eileen (who was home with her beautiful new baby, Lalia).- Crafts: Pot-holder first aid kits. I had NO TIME to make one. Will have to beg Danae for use of her sewing machine later.
- PM Flag: Get to announce Jamboree winners w/ Lori Bradford.
3rd place - unit #
3 + 2 = 52nd place - unit #
8 - 6 + 2 = 41st place (
drumroll please....) - unit #
3 cubed minus my age plus the # of days we'd been at camp plus the square root of 36 divided by 2 and minus 2 = (
anyone, anyone??) 3(this was very fun to announce!)
- Heritage Mtn. skit: "Wise council in a frame... is this skit getting lame?!"
- Bishop's Mountain-top
- Testimony meeting
- Stay up late, but not too late, to tabulate points and Heritage Mountain results.
- Dump cake was a bomb. No, not
da' bomb,
a bomb, as in
not good. Whose idea was it to buy white and lemon cake mixes?? Dump cake is a strictly yellow cake mix recipe. Hope the lesson was learned with that one!
- Last night of the late-night showers... tomorrow we go home!
Sisters. Aka 2/3 of the Toftdahl girls.- Take down units and clean-up.
- Final Flag ceremony.
- Morning Exercises: Muay thai kickboxing, courtesy of me. I was up on that dang stage way too many times that week! Nobody booed or threw rotten fruit at me, though, so that was good.
- Heritage Mountain results and final skit.
"We can do one more rhyme, for old time's sake. What rhymes with great....? Unit number EIGHT!!"- Circle of Friendship in the amphitheater (too hot to do it in the field).
- Drive home... finally have cell coverage and can listen to all my voicemails.
- Traditional stop at Dairy Queen for burgers and ice cream.
Oh how I missed MY BOYS!!Ahh... it was a good week.
He was hopping around our dining room! Sean caught him and built a make-shift home for him for the night because we knew Ethan would want to see it (you do weird stuff like that when you have kids). We're pretty sure it was a Pacific Tree Frog and we set him free the following evening. A couple weeks later I spotted him (or one of his brothers) keeping cool in the shade of our cucumber plant.
I love a good Sandra Bullock romantic comedy!
Anyway, it was a good movie... though I missed the "epic" battle at the end. Compared to the book, the ending was pretty low-key.
And then, personally, I was pretty impressed with my mickey mouse pancake. Thank you very much!
This is the remains after a typical lunchtime watermelon binge!
