Youth Camps arrived! Clark had been in some meetings over the last several months helping to plan out young men's camp. Clark and Cal also had a special camp out on their own with other youth leaders in preparation for the summer youth camp. Since Clark was a Youth Camp Director and Cal a Youth Camp Leader, they went to camp a day early on the 26th. The other kids met up the next day in Waynesboro at the Kate Collins Middle School Parking lot to meet up with their groups and head to camp. It was Clark's 18th birthday! I was sad I didn't get to see him on his birthday, but Lee did. It's also Nesquik Day and Christian made a flag and neckerchiefs for everyone. We made a shirt for Xavier.
Happy Nesquik Day! Happy Birthday Clark!
Tuesday through Saturday I was with the first year girls with one other lady, Kristy. It was tricky that we didn't have three leaders as there were three groups of girls. So we wandered from group to group. My campsite was the opposite end of where Haley and Shanna camped. And Haley and Shanna were in different groups as well. We camped at a scout camp in platform tents. When we arrived we unloaded our stuff, did get to know you things and did a scavenger hunt. Here are random pictures because I have no idea what day is what practically!
Shanna and Cortlyn.
Lee was at camp Wednesday and Thursday with the boys. But he went down Tuesday night so he could be with Clark on his birthday. The guys were camped about a 1/2 hour drive from us.
There were a lot of fun things to do at camp!
Lee helped with blacksmithing. The guy he worked with was a true live-off-the-grid guy. He works at the scout camp for some extra money and also did odd jobs and construction. He just lives off a few thousand a year.
Yep, Gaga ball still lives on.
Archery! Haley ready to get a bulls eye!
One night the young women were in charge of making dinner and.....it didn't go well. Every morning and evening they did excellent trainings for the leaders which was awesome. Another young woman leader should have been there, not me. But the YW president for our ward was there, Kristy Liskey. But I think it would have been much more beneficial to have more YW leaders there. They had the girls cook dinner while we were at the meeting so we wouldn't "interfere". Look what we saw when we got back.... And the other dish was hot dogs. I don't eat hot dogs. Thankfully the ladies in the kitchen had some food and I got some of that before the campwide devotional.
Elden, Liam and the Carlson young man...can't remember his first name....
We heard that Clark did a wonderful job as a YCD.
Elden at the Blacksmith's.
Thursday evening Lee surprised us by saying hi! That was so fun. He couldn't stay long as there was still a 2 hour drive back home.
Levi, Elden and a friend
There was a COPE course at the camp which we all enjoyed. A climbing wall as well. I loved doing both. And Haley and Shanna rocked them both as well. Me with McKay!
Clark and Cal's last day was a canoe trip.
Elden's last night was a hike with camping in the woods.
Our last evening together we did skits. Haley narrated the 3rd year skit and it was pretty awesome.
One of the groups! Carmen Bean was the YCA for this group.
Sequoyah Sorensen was the YCA for this group.
Megan Adam for this group. The other adult, Kristy Cypher. We had two sets of twins in the first years!
The YCAs!
The girls from our ward and one young woman from the Spanish Branch. This was the last little get together before splitting up and heading home.
We had lots of critters at camp, especially mice! The platform tents aren't sealed at all. I didn't keep any food or gum in my tent and still a mouse or mice chewed up spots on my backpack and a hole in one of my shirts. One night I heard some thing moving around in my tent. I grabbed my flashlight and looked around. On the right side of my cot, on the ground my flashlight spotted a mouse. It was eating something, sitting on it's hind legs. It looked up at me and I must say appeared quite cute. Then I whacked it out of my tent with my long, heavy duty flashlight.
When the young women weren't cooking for us, we had awesome meals at the lodge! This was breakfast the last day. TONS of food!
We all met back up again at the middle school, chatted with people and headed out. We stopped at Cook Out to get milkshakes and snacks on the way home. After a quick unload, Lee and I met up with our friends John and Tara to take Tara out to eat for her birthday. We quite late! Looking but, I shouldn't have set anything up that night. We also went to Harrisonburg for some church stuff that night as well. Whew. What a week! I enjoyed being at girls camp, which was good since I was there ALL week. It was fun meeting more ladies from the stake, or seeing my friends. But it's not something I would like to volunteer for in the future. Though I did volunteer for it this time. All of our kids were at camp and I wouldn't be doing anything special while they were gone so I volunteered. Kristy Liskey asked me if I wanted to go to camp, or felt obligated. I said a bit of both. One of my favorite activities was the orienteering. I should have paid more attention in the beginning on how to do it. But then the second half the girls followed clues and came to a treasure. But each group needed to get to the end as well because they each had to help unlock the suitcase. Each group had a different code to help at the end. It would be fun to replicate at the family reunion, but I'm not sure if I'll do that... Becky and Joe McIntyre did the orienteering and said it took them a REALLY long time to set it all up.
