I called my friend Eve as my camp director and she did a great job planning everything. I am so glad I didn't have to stress about all the details. We had 12 girls come to camp which was more than I thought. I got to get to know the girls so much better which was so fun! On the first day, we were setting up and one of the leaders came up to me and said "There is a boy in that tree." I looked to where they were pointing and told them that boy was my husband Gavin. He was our priesthood leader for a couple of days!
Most of the yw at camp had never even been to camp before so they didn't know any of the camp songs. Which was crazy to me! Girl's camp songs are my favorite part of the girl's camp. It took a lot of singing and enthusiasm to warm them up. What really did the trick for them was me leading them in Little Red Wagon. We were all rolling on our bellies laughing after that.
Our camp theme was the Youth year theme "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." We made camp tie-dye shirts a week before camp with the theme on the back. We had several different craft ideas around the theme. One of them was a nail art! This craft was a little bit of a flop because we didn't check to see if the craft came with hammers. So we only had two hammers for all the girls to all share.. Not very many girls finished it at camp.
We painted gardening pots and talked about our garden of possibilities. You are what you grow. We talked about watering what we want to grow. If we want to grow our relationship with family, testimonies, learning, etc we should be focusing on that. We talked about how plants need good soil in order to grow. We had the girls ponder on things they can plant their faith on. The girls loved painting the pots and one of them even shared what they learned about this at church in a testimony meeting the following Sunday.
It was so hot during the day at camp I was sure grateful we had the ocean to swim in right there at the end of the lawn. We spent a while playing with water balloons and splashing in the ocean. My first time ever swimming in the ocean at girl's camp! It was lovely. We didn't have a shower so we all just hosed off with the hose after. It felt good. We had a movie night one night and watched Parent Trap I guess this is the girl's favorite movie right now. I couldn't complain. We also got some beautiful sunsets every night.
We spent one-afternoon playing dot-to-dot for hours on the lawn. And I mean probably about three hours. I think this game was a highlight for the girls. We all wore our tie-dye shirts so it was pretty much impossible to see who was who. They had so much fun we ended up bringing down a speaker and microphone so we could play it in the dark. We also spent hours making bracelets and tying yarn in our hair.
A lot of the girls didn't have tents so they were all sleeping under a big canopy. They had tons of snacks and weren't being responsible with their food so they woke up in the morning to cockroaches on their beds and in their bags... I did not run over and help. I yelled from across the lawn to wack them away.
On the last night of camp, we had Bishop Hadley and his wife join us for dinner, the faith walk, and a testimony meeting. For the faith we chose to do the talk in the last general conference from Camille N. Johnson called "Jesus Christ is Relief" in the talk she talks about how Christ eases our burdens and gives us strength. We had 14 stations around the yard and each station had a burden that the girls might be facing ex. (Sometimes I think I am not as good as those around me and I feel really down about myself). At each station there were rocks the girls would pick up to represent that burden. They walked around the yard passing through all stations reading burdens and adding rocks to their pack. Some of the rocks were quite big. It ended up being a really spiritual activity for the girls. They shared all their thoughts during the testimony meeting. The girls went on about the burdens they read. Some said when the burden really applied to them they would pick up a bigger rock. One of the other girls said she could barely hold her bag it was so heavy so she relied on the strength of the other young women encouraging her. Another young woman said that because she was the oldest she felt like needed to take on the burdens herself so she picked up the biggest rock she saw each time. All of their testimonies were centered on Christ that night. One of the girls said this was the strongest she has ever felt the spirit. I was so happy when I heard this because this is why we do girl's camp! So grateful that it all worked out and everything happened how it should have.
Other young women's activities this summer!
I taught the girls how to make French baguettes one Wednesday night and they loved this! I forgot that some young girls really don't know much about baking. During the kneading part, one of the girls had the dough in both her hands throwing it back and forth like a ball. Her dough was so sticky I saw it clumped down her arm. I was surprised she managed to get enough off for bread. We made a cinnamon roll baguette and one normal one with garlic salt. The girls were hoarding their bread after because they didn't want anyone to snag a bite. I heard them all telling their parents they were going to make the break the next day. And they did because I received several text messages of pictures they took of them making bread. Success! This French baguette recipe really is the easiest and yummiest recipe.
Another one of our activities was taking a hike to the stone dam! The girls could have been here all day swimming. There is a rope swing above the dam that you can swing off to into the water. Some of the girls told me they weren't going to get in the water before we left the church and I told them to bring their towels and clothes just in case. Of course, they didn't, and of course they got into the water with their jeans and cotton shirt. They looked really uncomfortable on the way back home.. Lesson learned! We also hiked to Kalepa Ridge with the girls. I am surprised by how many girls grew up here on Kauai but hadn't ever done any of these hikes. They were sure tickled to be out in the mountains.
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