I suppose if I had thought too much about Girls' Camp, I would have freaked out about three nights of camping. Fortunately, my mind was consumed with so many other thoughts in finishing our home and moving and unpacking, that I didn't allow my mind to go there. For those of you who do not know, I am not a camper. NOT. But, I was looking forward to spending time with the young women of our ward, the leaders, and my daughters.
Amy packed up again for camping and her 4th year hike on Monday. I dropped her off at the Stake Center on Monday morning at 7 am. Again, she was with a lot of her friends, so that part was kind of fun. I sent her off with many of the 4th year girls of the Stake for their hike. We had packed up sleeping bags and pads on Friday afternoon and dropped the off at Adamson's so that they would be transported to camp for us. We weren't thinking that Amy would need hers. Fortunately, we had extra sleeping bags at home and Chris' bought another mattress from Cabela's for me to use. I just sent that one with Amy.
While at Cabela's, Chris also bought me a cot. His words, "I want you to enjoy camping." Well, that is a stretch, but the cot might ease things a bit. We actually were ready to purchase a cot and headed to the back of the store to look at kayaks with Misha. I ventured in to the discount area where I found the exact cot marked at least 60% off. The employee there opened up the cot and helped me put it together to make sure that it was in good working order. Two straps were broken that helped in carrying the cot, but they didn't effect the usability of the cot. We could figure out straps. When Chris came in search of me, I showed him my find. He was impressed, especially as the employee also showed us how to get an extra $10 off.
So Misha and I were packed and ready to head out on Tuesday morning, meeting our group at the Stake Center. Again, 7 am. At the last minute, I grabbed what I thought was my iPad and Misha and I were off. Not five minutes later, Chris called. Groan, what did I forget? Since I was the leader in charge and was already a couple of minutes late leaving home, I didn't want to have to go back. I had grabbed Chris' iPad and not mine. Chris kindly said that he would meet us at the church. Once I arrived, I checked in with all of our drivers, made sure all girls had arrived, all drivers had permission slips, and all gear was in transit. After exchanging Chris' iPad for mine, we were off.
I drove Misha and her friends in my car. Since I had never been to Camp Batel before, I followed the other drivers.
We arrived 9-ish at the Camp. Our gear that we left with Adamson's had already been distributed to all of our tents by the YCL (Youth Camp Leaders) who had arrived on Monday. Next year that will be Amy. We all got settled, found our t-shirts and schedules, and waited for Amy and her group to arrive. There was just so much about camp that I never understand during the planning. Now it all began to make sense.
When Amy's group of 4th year girls arrived, almost all of the girls were tired and zombie-like. I guess one of their group snored like a lumberjack, and none of the other girls got a great sleep. The next night wasn't much better for Amy. She was kind of a poop around camp all day long because she was so tired.
The next night was exciting for a few of the leaders who started innocently enough singing and helping a group of 1st year campers handle their time away from home. This morphed in to having to clean up throw up in the middle of the night. Not fun for them.
My favorite moment of the whole camp was during our service project. We were helping to move firewood and logs out to the road for a gentleman who came to gather the wood to heat his home for the winter. He had had a stroke and had lost feeling in one side of his body.
As the girls worked, they started singing (camp songs no less which would not leave my brain) and all of a sudden as if dominoes were jumping back into place after being knocked down, a human log-moving line formed. The logs were quickly passed to the road, and the effort expended was minimized. It was amazing to watch it happen and then be part of, especially when there were enough girls to form a second line.
We later learned that Jerry, the man who came to collect the logs, arrived later in the day to begin gathering. When he found out that the logs were all stacked along side the road for him, he was brought to tears. Because he does not have full use of both of his arms, he goes to a country store in Laramie, has them start his chain saw, drives with the chain saw on idle for an hour, and then proceeds to cut, load, and haul wood. It was wonderful to be a part of such a blessing.
We bribed the girls with french fries and ice cream on Thursday evening to inspire them to clean their tents and have all of their stuff packed and ready to go for the morning. We wanted to leave as quickly as possible after the final flag ceremony. There was also a prize for the cleanest tents. It worked.
As Friday morning rolled around, the girls had their stuff out of the tents and ready to go by 9 am. Many of them pitched in to help clean our camp area as well as the pavilion where we ate meals. It amazed me though, that there were girls that just sat and watched it all happen. Even after I asked them to go help. By the third or fourth request to help, I wasn't being quite so nice.
But we made it out of camp by 10:45 am, had time to stop at a McDonalds for ice cream and french fries, and pulled in to the church with a bunch of tired and dirty girls...and leaders.
