The One with Campfire!

I almost forgot to include these stories from camp!

Thursday afternoon when it started to get stormy Shelyse and I were at our site warming garlic bread for dinner that night.  The storm came up so suddenly it started blowing our 5 star camp apart.  We'd never staked the canopy over the hammock down so we could move it for optimal shade.  This was a bad idea and it was lifted right up and into some trees!  We couldn't get it down ourselves so Shelyse ran for help and I tried to prevent further major damage.  While she ran to the pavilion, I ran to the fire to put chairs away.  I was too slow though and had a perfect view of the "pharoah chair" falling into the fire!!  Remember this thing?

Umm yeah, it no longer has an awning.  It melted.  The worst part is for some reason there was a balloon in the chair, which got trapped by the awning when it blew over into the fire.  As I ran to try to save the chair the balloon popped from the heat and scorching plastic landed on my legs and feet!  Thank heavens it was a small balloon!  The storm was a blessing in disguise as we packed up most of our camp that afternoon and saved ourselves some time the next day.

Way back when we were still making blankets, Gabby and Ryann discovered that when you throw a ball of yarn, it unwinds.  Much like toilet paper.  See where I'm going with this?  They invented "yarning," the much kinder and more attractive version of the TP prank.  I told them they could prank all week if they wanted as long as it was never malicious.  They brought so many supplies but didn't use them until the last night.  They "yarned" the pavilion, which I thought actually looked really cute.  Somebody else must have disagreed however because this is what we woke up to the next day:
 

They also made the mistake of tying our leader tent's zipper shut with the yarn.  Initially I thought it was our own girls so I returned the favor and both of their tents looked like this:

Now that's how you lock someone in a tent!  The dual tie technique.  Seriously, the girls couldn't get out on their own and had to convince me they didn't prank my tent before I let them out.  I think I forgot to mention that I realized our own tent was tied shut when I woke up early to go to the bathroom.  I was not happy.  Thankfully I had my pocket knife with me and it was just yarn so I got out quickly.

However, if it had been my girls who'd tied the zipper pulls together they were sitting ducks in their own tents waiting for this!!

I was prepared.  And lesson learned- don't mess with Texas!!  Or Cindy Cooper.

The One with Craftiness at Camp

What's Girls' Camp without a few crafts?!  In addition to their personalized blankets we leaders gave the girls a little gift each day.  We gave them these monogrammed laundry bags right after the hike.  They were necessary!

I love the glitter!!

"Hike" is much too organized sounding for the bushwacking expedition Mountain Man Joe took us on.  This guy may be crazier than Justin!  But the girls love him.  Just to give you an idea, he scaled these aspens to hang a swing and set up a slackline.

Our campsite was used for 1st year certification.  Probably because half of the 1st years came from our ward.  Here they are learning some new knots that I'm pretty sure they've already forgotten.  Who needs a sheepshank when a square knot will do the trick?

Ward pictures!  Our camp shirts all had stars on their bellies- like Sneetches.  I'm pretty sure leaders were supposed to wear blue but we all liked pink better.

Back row: Shelyse, Melissa, me, Bonnie, Camilla, Danielle, Anne Marie

Front row: Gabi, Ryann, Josilyn, Sophia, Gabby

These are included in the "crafty" post because Danielle didn't want her camp shirt to conform.  I ordered some iron-on vinyl and we used my Cricut to personalize her t-shirt.  I love it!

Closeup

 The girls also got a little crafty with their fire-roasted snacks.

Starburst and Vanilla Wafer sandwich anyone?

Kim actually wasn't a big fan but I love her crazy eyes!

Stake craft time- making picture frames.

Ok, not so crafty but one of the spiritual activities was sending each girl on a mission.  They each received "calls" and were sent to different states and countries where returned sister missionaries from that area talked to them about serving missions.  It was really cool.  Amazing idea.

Kim, Gabby, Anne Marie and Penny

Josilyn's call.

Sister Anne Marie.

One of my other favorite experiences with these girls was hanging out around the campfire every night.  I think we were always last to go to bed.  Usually Gabby would bring out her ukelele and the girls would sing.  I taught them a few that I loved growing up (Eddiegutchacatchagamma, Pink Pajamas) and they taught me some as well (anyone ever heard of The Cat Came Back?).  We also sang more spiritual songs.  I forgot how pretty "I Heard Him Come" is.  It is awesome with ukelele accompaniment!

Also awesome around the campfire- tin foil dinners!

The One where Camp is Funny!

As is to be expected, we had some pretty funny moments at camp.  By far the biggest photo op was during the Minute to Win It challenges.  Check these out: (the girls are going to LOVE me for posting these!)

Gabby & Anne Marie picking penne up with spaghetti.

I think Gabby wanted to win! The focus!

 

Danielle & Anne Marie

Bonnie & Gabby

Ryann competing in the stack-nuts-on-a-popsicle-stick challenge.

Bonnie participating in the eat-the-cookie-off-your-forehead competition.

Gabby wanted to see if she could do it.

Or maybe she was just pretending to be a pirate :)

The next challenge was using a tennis ball inside a stocking to knock over 10 cups.
So much harder than it looks!

 The girls thought the nylons were hilarious!

 Because they are!!  Anne Marie looks like a spider!

And Ryann looks bald!

Balloon balancing.

You can always catch a funny facial expression during Minute to Win It.

Hopefully not seeing the future too soon here!

Other funny moments:

Ryann competing in the ninja challenge after skit night.

She actually made it to the final although this seems a bit unfair.

I love this picture of Gabby's face!

 Why is she freaking out?  This little guy right here.

Poor Ryann got dehydrated the second day of camp,

which gave her some pretty severe nosebleeds :(

Thank heavens Melissa the Nurse was prepared!!

She recovered in time for the 1st and 4th year nature hike.

It was so long Gabby had to carry me back to camp ;)

Champion cheese griller!

 
It started to rain really hard on Thursday so we gathered in the pavilion during free time and played games.

Beehives!

Photo bomb!

We played Pass the Pigs...

...and Bang!  We weren't allowed to bring face cards to camp but they

never said we couldn't shoot each other or drink beer to regain hit points!

The hand slapping game.  We used to play this game in high school before volleyball matches.  Aww the memories.  Also note the tarps we had to hang up to keep the eating area dry.  It was sooo windy!

 

Shelyse had just gotten pregnant right before camp (it's ok, she's married :) and was pretty tired all week.  Seriously, what a good sport.  I can't believe she made it sleeping on the ground all week!  One afternoon though I thought something was wrong with the tent and looked inside to find this.  I'm not sure if it was for shade or she was just too tired to close the umbrella :)

Another random moment.  I couldn't stop laughing when I got

home and realized I'd taken this picture getting out of the tent!

Silly Ryann.

Silly Danielle.  She wanted to see how many rocks she could put in my lap.

Let me tell you- a lot.  It was so heavy!

Helping Ryann get a hit on the volleyball court.

 
The last night of camp the ward bishops and stake presidency came up.  They played a running scavenger hunt game that was hilarious!  Ryann (far right) was chosen to participate as was her dad (third from right, he's our bishop).

And guess who won!  Actually, Debbie did.  Haha!  But Bishop knocked his own daughter out of the running.  Ruthless I tell you.  (I'd probably do the same thing!)

TBC again....