Sunday, August 7, 2011

Girls Camp! August 2011

I love girls camp. I always have! This was my first year they asked me to come as a leader! Wahoo! And I have to say, it was the best place for me to be too. They asked me to be in crafts. Tell me exactly, who doesn't want to spend a week crafting the days away?! Dream come true I tell you! My friend Tammy got asked to be in crafts as well. She is a true crafting genius, so it really was no surprise. Together we crafting this banner. Valerie, who we met for the first time as we began this whole adventure (you plan for months in advance, so we met Valerie at one of our first meetings), began crafting our banner and then needed to leave one of our prep meetings. Tammy and I decided that we needed to "take it home." And, boy oh boy, did we. If you can't tell from the picture, we used all sorts of items from the crafting bins to make a whole camp scene. It includes a teepee, a campfire with someone roasting a s/more and sitting on a bench, a dock, a lake with fish, a person fishing, a bird, the flag circle and flag, and a first aid area.
If you turned around from where this banner was hanging, this would be your view. The craft cabin was located smack dab in the middle of everything. A perfect place for a secretly pregnant lady (only some people at camp knew I was pregnant, evidently they don't want to make it a hard and fast rule that all pregnant ladies can go to camp, it was all touch and go at the last minute if I was going to be able to go right before camp).

The theme for girls camp this year was Heavenly Ever After and involved many of the different Disney princess stories. Of course, we had to make some crowns for the first night, skit night, to show off our princessliness.
 Evidently I have a hard time keeping a straight face for the camera. Oops. This is me coming up with my costume for being Pocahontas.
 Tammy went all out as Ariel. This red wig, which was nothing close to a wig at all, but rather a bunch of curly string, came into great use I think every night of skits during the week of camp.
Valerie is pictured here as Cinderella and Shelisa as Belle. We made up a song using the tune of "Look at this stuff" from the Little Mermaid and talked about all our crafty crap. It was highly clever.

The following morning (ish -- The days all seemed to run together as we spent the entire time either crafting and eating) Valerie and I woke up before six to go do the Polar Bear Swim. Can I just say, it was FANTASTIC! I was much too much of a sissy to do it when I was a young woman at camp, but this year, the water and weather was perfect. It was a little chilly going in, but by the time we got out, it was perfect!
To participate in the Polar Bear Swim, all you have to do is swim to the little dock (pictured at the left) and back, but we decided to go all out and swim to the rock across the lake. All the girls decided to go all the way too, so there ended up being a huge group of us crossing the lake together. Afterwards, the brethren had hot chocolate waiting for us! It was so nice!
That day, I spent some more time doing crafts, and surprise, making unsolicited winks at the camera.
 These girls were youth leaders and were somewhere in between being real leaders and being girls. Basically, they got all the fun of being the girls, but none of the responsibility of being a leader. Sweet gig, eh? Daylene on the left made all the colors of the knit bracelets (there was a color for every value in Young Womens) and their popularity skyrocketed after she was sporting them all around camp.

 This is Brittany, another youth leader, who got to spend a lot of time at crafts with us too.
 Snow White, I mean, Emily Merrill was HI-LARIOUS throughout camp. She was the Assistant Camp Leader and one of the head honchos. Most nights she dressed up as a Disney Princess and talked to the girls in a seriously funny way about the different values they represented. Tammy is of course, laughing her head off at Emily, because that's what he did most of camp. Did I say AT? I meant WITH. We love Emily.
 So, I was the notorious nazi over the rings at camp. It was not my craft, but I totally took it over. Mainly because I was obsessed with making these cute fabric covered rings. I limited myself to making just one a day. But then I was a total hypocrite making sure the girls didn't go over their limit.
 Craft, Eat, Craft, Eat, truly my dream come true! To be fair though, I did spend some time doing crafty humanitarian things too and made a fantastic aqua beanie for a newborn.
 There was a day sometime in the middle of the week where most of the girls were out on hikes. We asked some of the youth leaders to cover the craft area while Tammy and I went out canoeing. We had so much fun! These lake is beautiful!
 The following morning, the crafty ladies all got to go to archery together. Here is Tammy, Marci, and I trying on the equipment.
 Don't we look super scary?
 See? No normal faces from me. Everyone else is smiling and I am freaking out. What, am I four?
 I did get a bulls eye though! And then of course, I made myself a bead to commemorate such a skill.

Remember how I said I was a nazi about the rings? This is me, also being a nazi about the rings. I found the perfect brush to mod podge the rings (to help them stand up a little better, wear and tear, wise) and I totally wouldn't give up the paintbrush. I would simply offer to do it for them instead. I am a super square, aren't I? 
Now, speaking of mod podge. I was wrong almost the entirety of camp calling the substance, "modge podge." Until one day I noticed by looking at the container that it was indeed called "mod podge." I tried to tell everyone about this craziness and Tammy called me out, telling me she had noticed me calling it the wrong name all of camp, and it was driving her crazy, but she was trying to be nice, so she didn't correct me. Uh, who on earth wanted the name to be "mod podge?" I must write a strongly worded letter informing the company of their need to change the name to a more pleasant sounding one, perhaps "modge podge" which springs forth from one's lips with greater ease. They will thank me profusely I'm sure. So watch your crafting aisles for the change. It's only a matter of time.
 Exhibit Z on weird faces. I have issues. But, now I also have headbands for Baby girl when she comes in December.
This is not a weird face, why? I'm simply staking claim on my dessert for the evening. Heaven forbid I miss a dessert.
 On the evening before camp ended, we got together for a Bishops' fireside. These are all of our ward members at camp. I think everyone had such a good time!
 And here are my peeps, the crafting ladies. Love them. We had more fun than anyone else at camp. This was the perfect calling. From the left, Valerie, Tammy, Me, Shelisa, Marci and Heidi.
So the last night, before our skit, we may or may not have thrown all consciousness and rules out the window. We made lots of rings. We made rings to our hearts content. All for the sake of the skit of course. Grand total of rings for me: 14. Shhhh. Don't tell the girls.

No comments: