While the rest of the country has been sweltering in heat, the northwest has actually had a rather cool spring. When we pulled out in 5 school buses (Brent and I following in our car pulling a trailer full of gear) it was raining cats and dogs! I thought we were in for a miserable week of weather. By the time we arrived at camp, the rain had stopped. The YCL's and leaders were able to set up camp without soaking our gear while the campers went on a 5 mile hike. That was a true blessing. The rest of the week the weather cooperated nicely. On Wednesday it was beautiful blue sky and this was the day set aside for canoeing, slip-n-slides, volleyball and outdoor games. Perfect. Ensign Ranch is huge--there were actually 3 stakes there, and we never really saw one another! The activities this place provides is what made this camp so fun. Thursday and Friday the girls rotated around to the following stations: archery, rifle range, orienteering, ropes course, horseback riding, climbing tower, and various certification classes. We had over 200 people there--about 180 girls and then leaders and Priesthood.
Brent was in charge of the compass/orienteering class. He did a great job. He taught them about compasses, maps, GPS, and avalanche locaters. In their final "test" two groups were created and asked to locate 2 lost young men--Peeta and Gale! He had hidden pictures of these "Hunger Game" hunks, so the girls were very motivated to locate them. I helped him with this class, and also participated in the "Nature Hike" which actually turned into a first aid/mock disaster class. I was the "crazy lady" whose only visible injury was a bruise on my head, but I wandered around crying, moaning, and calling for my baby and claiming that the last memory I had was shopping for pink shoes at the mall! We staged about 7 of us with very real looking injuries and required the girls to think fast on their feet and assess the emergency. It was quite fun.
The theme for our camp was Job 23:10 -- "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." We were embracing the Olympics theme. Each ward choose a country to represent--our ward was Italy. We had fun decorating our camp and using all things Italian in our devotionals and firesides. By the time Saturday morning rolled around, everyone was ready to come home. We really enjoyed Ensign Ranch and had a lot of fun with the darling young women in our ward and stake.
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| Some of our YW. They were braiding each other's hair--something they did every day! |
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| Getting ready to climb the tower! It's pretty well known that I'm really afraid of heights, but I gave this a shot! I actually got about 3/4's of the way up, and then made the mistake of looking down. I then started to get queasy and lost my nerve. I decided to come down since others were waiting for their turn. I do consider it a small victory that I got as far as I did. I actually liked it! The next time I try, I'm just not going to look down--just keep looking up! |
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| That's Brent climbing the tower. He also spent that day belaying the rest of the climbers. He actually worked really hard at camp the whole week. We really needed the brethren that were there. They were so helpful. |
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| At the rife range. Brent also manned this station. It was fun shooting a 22! |
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| Our targets. Well, no surprise, but Brent definitely did better than me. I hate to admit, but I think my eyesight is fading a little bit too. He had his glasses on, or else he wouldn't have hit the target at all! |
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| "Bishop McLaws" (everyone still calls him that) working around camp. He's wearing the T-shirt with the theme on it. |
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| That's me as "the crazy lady!" (And besides, it wasn't hard for me to claim to be crazy and looking for my baby. . . the point was that I don't even have a baby. . . he's actually 6ft. 3in. and in the wilds of Africa somewhere!!! The girl's were suppose to calm me down, ask questions and treat me for shock.) |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!
HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL 4th of JULY!!!
2 comments:
I remember going to Ensign Ranch for girls camp my first year! That's so cool you guys went there... I remember the teepees too! :)
Is that last picture for real? i'm confused. Looks like fun! With a hat on, Dad's hair looks really gray :). See you soon!
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