Camp & A Trip To Kayles

This year I had the opportunity to go to Girls Camp...again. This is my sixth year of going and now I can fully guarantee that I will not be going back next year! (and hopefully, for quite a few years!!) I've always had so much fun at girls camp and this year was no different. Originally I was going to go because I thought I'd be working...but lo and behold: Something magical happened...(actually it wasn't really magical, it kinda sucked in all honesty...) anyway, to make a long story short I wasn't working for 3 out of the 4 days that girls camp was actually going on! So, a week before, I decided to go! Whee! Anyway, I really did have a fun time and I'm glad that I went. The theme of camp this year was "See No Evil, Speak No Evil, and Hear No Evil", with monkeys as our mascot. At first I thought, "Monkeys?!" but, as the trip went on, I found myself LOVING this cute theme. Everything was planned so well, and I'm grateful I could be apart of it!

Me and Tiff were up there together this year and I'm glad we could spend this last little time together!! She's been one of my best friends these past few months and I'm going to miss her. (Which may seem odd if you KNOW me and Tiff...and especially if you know our background and history together....AH, hatred! :) hehe) Tiffany is going to BYU ID this fall and I'm going to the LDS Business College. So, we may only be a few hours apart (we googled it), but I still doubt we'll see each other very often...sorry Tiff!

This year I went up as Jr. Staff. Jr. Staff is better than YCLs, but unfortunately, we're not quite staff yet...we're just kind of...there. No, really. Although we did have a flippin blast! All we do is sit there and watch everyone else work...really! Oh, and I guess we run the store. This year it was called the "Banana Cabana". The picture above shows all the Jr. Staffers. (Starting left to right) There's Yasmine, Tiffany, Kayla, Alexis, Brianna, Rhonda, and ME!! There were so many fun things that we got to do. There was one time, when our two leaders (Sis. Shnepf and Sis. Houston) decided that they wanted Sonic. So, they left camp to get them and all of jr. staff sonic, while we went and taught their Music class. haha. It was sooo worth it too! (I got a strawberry limeade! Mmm!) But, we also did have some sucky moments. Now, that we have "staff" in our title...girls seem to think that we'll solve their problems for them! On one of the days, we were all just chilling in front of the store and a whole ward came up to us complaining about their YCLs and having to clean the bathrooms...BLAH BLAH BLAH (I kinda stopped listening)...anyway, I will admit, we may have been a bit rude to them at first, but we couldn't figure out what the problem was. I told them to just suck it up and do it. Anyway, basically, we ended up giving them a huge lecture and their YCLs a lecture. Then we forced them into a group hug. (Tiffany's idea...not mine!) But, for the most part, it was a really fun experience!

One of the other things we did was a Stimulation Hike. Basically, you take a ward out on a "hike" and find perilous things along the way. These trials we run into, just happen to be all the things that they've certified in! Fancy that! :) One of the events involved me having to get bit by a rattlesnake and Tiffany having a broken leg and blood spewing from her arm! ............... I'm not kidding! This is a picture of us with our battle wounds.

One of the things we do up there is skits. The skits are so much fun and all the girls LOVE it! My ward (Cooper Ward) did a skit based off of the story "Little Red Riding Hood". Thanks to me and Tiffany...we turned it into "Little Red in the Hood"! Hence forth...gangsta! Woot Woot! The girls were sooo good! (Starting left and going right) We had Alex and Karly who were the bad gangsters (Mandy Wolf) and tried to lead Little Red astray. Then there was Bonnie who was the sweet old rapping grandma. Next is Kiera, Little Red, and the star of the show! Finally, there was Sierra, Hillary, and Kennedee. These girls were the angels who watched over Red as she traveled to her grandma's house! My sister and Mom wrote the cutest script ever...but it only worked out because the girls did sooooo good! I'm way proud of them!!

Jr. Staff did a little music video in between each of the skits. Our first one was to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. We all wore hoodies at first and creeped onto the stage in the dark, then when the chorus came on, we took our hoodies off to show our white shirts and turned on a black light. Then we danced to thriller. The music wasn't as loud as we needed it to be...so, it wasn't as cool as what we wanted it to be. But, it was still fun! The next one we did was "Fabulous" from High School Musical. We all wore feather boas and just acted like we were fabulous. Whee. Next was "SOS" by the Jonas Brothers. We had Rhonda, Kayla, and Brianna as the Jonas Sisters and the rest of us were there fans. The was one point when Rhonda threw her "sweat rag" to me and Tiffany tackled me down to get it. I still have bruises from that. Next was "Let's Get Physical". He He. We did a work out video: starring Moi! I was the crazy intense teacher and all my students got kicked, hit, or fell out by the end. I had so many people tell me that that was their favorite one! It was waaay fun to do! Our fifth one was to "Popular" from Wicked. We had Yasmine in the middle and the rest of us danced around her and dolled her up so she could be popular like us. Finally, the last one we did was "Hoedown Throwdown" from Hannah Montana. We'd planned to do this one and learned the dance for it and when we got up there, we learned that they had a class for the girls to learn it too! So, at the very end, everyone got up and danced together. The girls loved it and we all had so much fun! Maybe I'll tape myself doing it sometime and I'll put it on here...that could be fun! :)

Now, camp wasn't just all fun and games (believe it or not). We did have some spiritual times too! There was a Values Walk that was amazing! We went on this walk as a ward around to different people. Each person would focus on a different value, starting with Faith. Divine Nature. Individual Worth (which was one of my personal favorites). Knowledge. Choice and Accountablilty. Good Works. Integrity. Then we ended up at a cabin with our Stake Presidency: President Speakman, President Guthrie, and President Rogers, who talked to us about Virtue. It was such a good spiritual experience and I'm glad I was able to be apart of that. We also had an amazing testimony meeting. Some of the girls who got up I hadn't expected too...and our Bishop had the opportunity to really teach us that we all do have a testimony, even if we don't think we do. Then, he taught us how to bear that testimony. It was one of the most amazing testimony meetings I've ever been too.

Well, after girls camp, I decided to go and visit my sister and her family. My sister has three adorable kids: Spencer, Landon, and Theresa. I had so much fun hanging out with them and I'm going to miss them all when I leave.

This is with me and Landon. It was the only good picture that I could get! haha. This is one of the cutest kids EVER! When he sees me, he puts his hand in the air and yells, "LOOUUU!" It's soo cute!!

I'm way excited for all these great experiences I've had so far this summer and i'm excited for the few I know that are coming up! It's been a great summer. :)