15 things I learned from girls camp

Warning, everytime I use the stupid bulled points it is a big disaster and they are where they shouldn't be. Ugh!


1)When camping, a rock is your best friend.

• The first night we all froze... all-night-long. I HATE sleeping bags. I actually hate camping. But I really have anxiety over the sleeping thing. Because for one, I am on the ground usually, two, I ALWAYS freeze. So this time, against Corey's "you can tough it out for a few nights" attitude, I bought a blow up mattress. I also was given the idea to make my bed with blankets and sheets. Which I did the first night and FROZE. Like shivering all night long. Like thinking I could die from hypothermia cold ALL NIGHT long. So the next night my camp leaders friends taught me the trick of... wait for it...duh nu nu nuhh....the rock. It has changed my world.

• So I cooked a rock in the fire and them wrapped it up in my towel. I slept so warm and cozy and WONDERFUL all night. The rock stayed HOT for a long time! I might try that here at my house with our fire place. It was pure heaven. I actually decided if I can solve that night time problem I might only hate camping 75% instead of 100%. So that is good.
  
• The one draw back was, as I had my rock cradled in my towel, like my sweet little loved newborn, it started smoking. We thought maybe it was steam from a wet towel. But the smoldering proceeded to get worse until we decided it was on fire.
  
• Yep...Fire. Not steam. It was worth sacrificing the towel, though. I think I might make a few bags out of it for next time when I want to hug my rock but not with the same towel I use on my bottom. Sorry for the visual.
  

2)I really like a helpful man around.

• For girls camp we always have two men come up. They are our "Priesthood Holders".
  
• In the LDS religion, priesthood is considered to be the power and authority of God, including the authority to perform ordinances, and the power to perform miracles.
  
• So these men are our Priesthood holders and they come to camp should anyone need a blessing due to injury. They probably come up for other reasons as well but I don't know of them off hand. But I really appreciate them because they are men. I am sorry. You will never find me promoting women's rights. I like a good man to do the hard work for me. Don't get me wrong. I think women can do many a thing just as good as a man. I had my group of girls figuring out how to set up the tent. We didn't need the men to do it for us. We can do amazing things. I have figured out things that were "guyish" before my husband. He has been known to ask my advice on how to fix the car. Okay, that only happened once, and I was clueless, but still...he asked. So I know women are as good as men.
  
• But I love having a gallant men around who never let our wood supply go down, who started our fire for us each morning, who didn't eat until we had all eaten, who stayed up at night and took responsibility for the fire and closing up the bear box. I just like it. It is a nice security.

3)There are some really nice people out there.

• I forgot my toothbrush. No big surprise there. I do it every time I go some where. E-V-E-R-Y-T-I-M-E. And I love to brush my teeth. My nice friend found out and offered to loan me hers. I declined. A little to "eww" for me but nice offer none the less.
  
• I also forgot my pillow. Not a big surprise there either. I LOVE my pillow. I like a really flat pillow. It takes time to get them that way, you know. So the first night I slept on my towel. I complained enough that that next night when it was time for bed I found three pillows on my bed. Left by sweet friends who had gone home that day. It was great.
  
• I also had some great friends at home watching my rugrats while I was gone. Since I don't love baby sitting, I really appreciate them doing it for me. They also took them to ball games which was all the more hassle! Thank guys!

4)My girls are stronger than I thought they were.

• The camp offered some really amazing things. Like rock climbing and repelling and a sky high obstacle course. I REALLY wanted my girls to try these things but didn't think they would ever try. Some girls just flitted around the activities with not a care or a scare in the world. But my girls struggled. But they tried anyway and I was so proud.

5) Teenage girls aren't impressed when their leader screams in the sail boat.

• I guess I am scared of boats. I was so scared to get in that I ripped the life jacket in doing so. Then I screamed every time the boat moved one way or the other. Freaky. The girls were not amused. Not at all. I thought it was funny.
  

6) Out door showers are the way to go.

• Shout out to out door showers! Who knew? Not me! But there is something fabulous about being outdoors when you shower. The cool mountain air blowing about you. They were enclosed on the sides and I doubt anyone would care to look under so I felt pretty safe out there in the wilderness shower. It was super relaxing! I'm going to build one.If I ever become rich I am building myself an outdoor shower.
  
• 
  I tried to find you more cool pictures of out door showers but quickly discovered it was not a safe area of internet exploring. Wah.

7) There just might be another 2 1/2 year old girl who is just as cute as my 2 1/2 year old girl.

• The naturalist, gave us a little tour of the woods. He was oh so smart and it was really informative. When we started out on our hike his little darling girl was on his shoulders. The naturalist, Jesse, was telling us that there was a beetle kill in our area that wiped out all the trees. His little girl repeated it, "there was a beetle kill". That was so stinking cute it got us all to laughing so hard. The light bulb went on and she realized she was making us laugh. So she said, "there was a beetle kill, guys" We busted up again. Her little eyes looked like little rainbows when she smiled. She was so cute. And she loved making us laugh. She said it a few more times and it never got old. Not once. We laughed every time at her. It was so funny. I think her dad was getting a little worried if he was going to make it through the tour because she liked talking to us so much. But we did, and it was great and don't eat mushrooms you find in the wild. You'll die.

8) In my next life I might need to become a marksman.

I hit every bullet into one of the black targets that I was shooting for! All ten! Go me.

9) Here is what you do if you see scary wild animals according to Jesse, the naturalist... (by the way just typing and hearing the name Jesse, rekindles my want for another baby. Jesse has ALWAYS been my all time favorite boys name. I don't even know why we never used it. But I want to!)

Anyways advice from Jesse,

Jesse says,

It is Jesse's opinion that,

(I could say the name all day)

• If it is a black bear you be big and loud and try to intimidate it.
  
• If it is a grizzly bear you lay on stomach criminal style with hands behind neck and elbows out so the hear can't turn you over.
  
• If it is a cougar... Jesse shrugs his shoulders...well, lets hope you don't see a cougar. Nice. Thanks for that, nature expert.

10) I learned an old Indian legend.

Something about mice getting into the Indians tee-pee. So the gods sent down a pine cone with nuts in it. The mice jumped inside to eat all the nuts and the gods clamped shut the pine cones.

• 
  See all their little tails sticking out from being shut in the pine cone? Cute....huh?
  
  

11) The power puff girl wig just never gets old! Never!

• One of the best things I learned at camp was how priceless a tub of props are. The girls made up skits by this beautiful lake and we got to perform this on this stage and it was fantastic! I truly could not believe the hystericalness the girls came up with in the short time they had to prepare the skits. Talented girls, for sure!
  
• Us leaders did a skit also.

• We were all kids in bed. Our baby sister kept asking if it was time to go wee. We would have to ask the next sibling who would ask our mom. It was not time. When it was finally time we all got up and said yay and pretended to play the Wii.
  
• The old twist on this would have been we swung the baby sister in our arms while she said "wee". That was a goody from when I was in camp. I loved that the leaders came up with a modern twist to it that still applied by playing Wii,instead of swinging and saying "Wee" . It cracked me up though, cause all the girls just stared at us. I don't think they got it at first....AWK-WARD.
  

12) No, ants do not taste like lemon drops.

• My cool geological friend was informed they do. But they don't. We both ate one each and they don't. Neither of us swallowed though. They are too crunchy for that. And you can feel their legs. Like little wires.
  
• Google says the fat ones taste better, Melanie. We'll have to go for those next time.

13) Our family is so grateful to belong to a church that gives us the avenues for such growth.

• The girls spent time everyday in "solo" time were they went in the woods alone. (not too far off, of course, lest they see a cougar) In "solo" time they had a chance to ponder the scriptures and talks from our Church leaders.
  
• They also had testimony night were they had the chance to bear witness to the things they believe such as the Atonement of Christ, prayer and Joseph Smith.
  
• The girls also spent time learning camping things like fire building and shelter building and how to purify water.

14) If it is flat it is Fir, if you can roll it, it is....shoot. I already forgot. Spruce, maybe?

15) Girls camp is FUN! And we have the sweetest girls around!

• I remember the last few years, when I dropped my girls off to church for camp, feeling so sorry for the leaders and glad it was not me going up to camp. Now I hope I get invited back! It was so cool!
  
  

• A few days after we got back the girls set up a spa night for us. The rubbed our feet (ha ha) and head, and shampooed our hair, and did something to our cuticals and rubbed our hands, and gave us a facial... It was so sweet of them and so fun. I have NEVER had that before.