Girls' Camp

Hillary, thanks for reminding me to post. Jason had Tuesday and Wednesday off work, so we've been spending a lot of quality time together cleaning, catching up on various errands, and swimming.



As y'all know, after I came home from Michigan I went to Girls' Camp in the middle of Tennessee. It was a little over an hour drive from where we live at a state park. It was beautiful there. Our campground was right on a gorgeous lake in the middle of the woods. With it came tons of mosquitos, but they were manageable as long as you carried your Off with you everywhere you went.

Braids were definitely the trend at Girls Camp

I enjoyed myself there. I was the "cabin mom" of a group of eight 13 year old girls, three of them were from my ward. They were hilarious girls. You'll be happy to know we stayed up late one night playing mafia. More than their fun personalities, I was impressed by their testimonies and faith in the Lord. They were so good at remembering to pray and read their scriptures, they truly were examples to me.

These are most of the girls from my cabin, and the lady is Cindy. She is the Stake Camp Director and also my visiting teacher. Funny how that worked out, eh?

We did have one girl from our ward, Carmen, who was a bit of a challenge. She was in a first year cabin and I checked in regularly with her cabin mom. I was told she had some mental challenges beforehand, but I wasn't sure what they were. Carmen seemed unaware of social cues and didn't understand the meaning of basic human interaction. At one point a girl who was trying to be friendly to her ptu her arm around her and rested her head on Carmen's shoulder for the good part of a meeting. Afterwards I asked Carmen if that girl was her friend and she looked at me and asked, "How long was she hugging me for? It made me hot and sticky." She didn't know enough to ask the girl to stop, but she also didn't understand that it was a friendly gesture. Carmen did have a great time, though, she said she felt more "normal" at camp than she's ever felt anywhere (it probably was because the girls were nice to her) and she absolutely loved to go to the lake. At one point, all of her clothes were soaked and in a big heap in her suitcase. The girls in the cabin had to loan her their clothes and shoes. She just did a lot of things that would occur to most not to do. In many ways, I think Carmen was there to teach the other girls. At the closing testimony night many girls were grateful they knew Carmen--they said she taught them patience and how to step outside of your comfort zone. In all, though she brough with her some challenges for everyone at camp, I believe she was meant to be there to gain confidence in herself, and to help the others.

Addie is holding the sock monkey that I made at Girls Camp. She pulled the button eyes off right away.

The leaders at Girls' Camp really liked me. I can't decide if that is a good or a bad thing. They told me that I have bought myself an eternal ticket to Girls' Camp. I did enjoy myself and would like to go back, but it also was a big sacrifice for Jason and I. Next year Jason has school during the summer, so I don't know if it's possible for me to go or not, but we'll see. Him and Addie survived and Jason said he appreciated what I do around here a lot more, so it was good for him. Besides, Addie is now more in love with him than ever and it's so cute to see.

Pigtails for church!

Oh yeah, and I only have 14 more miles to go to reach my 100 miles by July 1st! Wahoo!