Girls Camp!

Heather and Kelly...

...departed on Monday morning with the 4th year girls for their backpacking overnighter.  Kelly was one of the leaders, and the girls bedazzled the truck with their 4th year slogans.  The hike took the girls to an area with a clear pool of water and some great rock jumping.  

Jenna...

 departed on Tuesday morning as a first year camper!  She joined a carpool with Sarah and other girls her age to make the trek to camp.  She was nervous, but glad her dad was going to be there when she arrived.  Jenna is not a risk taker, so it was a blessing having Kelly already at the destination.  That took some nerves out of the experience.  Jenna was brave enough to journey out with some other campers and leaders the next morning to do a "polar bear plunge" in a nearby waterfall.  Unfortunately, the rest of her camp experience was spent under-the-weather.  I think new food, new location, altitude and being away from home got the best of her.  She was able to stay until the last day, but didn't participate fully in the fun activities on that last day.

Melissa...

 arrived on the morning before the last campfire to teach a class.  It was a card assembling service project for our servicemen.  The girls assembled cards to package and send to Operation Write Home.  From there the cards are sent out into the field for servicemen and women to select and use to write home to their families and friends.  We covered the regulations for card making which included things like not using glitter because it makes the soldiers uniforms visible in night vision goggles.  The project was more meaningful after we discussed the life and death nature of the people we were sending the cards to.  I was able to stay for the testimony meeting and campfire that night which was a real treat for me.  I haven't been to girls camp in 25 years!  It was great to be there, to be reunited with my family, to spend the night in a cabin, and to help get the camp cleaned up before we all departed.