The One at Girls' Camp

Camp was such a busy week!  More accurately, a busy couple of months for us leaders.  I debated whether or not to actually go as I was released from YW two weeks before.  I'm glad I did go though.  It was my last chance to be with the girls and other leaders I'd become good friends with over just a few months.

I could list a ton of details but I'll try to limit the text here and just explain the pictures.

Our campsite was awesome!  Two of the stake leaders were from our ward and they assigned us the best site.  With the firepit and water spigot start we had and the luxuries the girls brought we really lived it up all week.

Girls around the firepit: (left to right) Camilla, Shelyse, Josilyn, Gabi, Ryann, Anne Marie, Melissa, Gabby, Bonnie, Danielle, Sophia.

Gabi could almost always be found in this "pharoah chair" (remember that awning for later!).

The theme for camp was "Oh the Places You'll Go" so most activities, crafts, etc. were pretty "Seuss-y."  We decorated our camp with flags from the places we'd like to go.

Shelyse and Melissa using some heavy machinery to put up our "flagpoles."

Closeups: Shelyse is actually from Canada so we made sure to have a Canadian flag.  Also proud of the girls for including college in their future plans :)

Not all flags were actually from countries.  Recognize the Deathly Hallows?

Peru!

Go America!!

After decorating our campsite the whole camp got together and played wiffle ball and water balloon volleyball.  It was pretty hot so everyone preferred that second game.  Maybe they preferred it because this is what the ball field looked like:

Gabby vs. Camilla.

Just missed it!

Go 1st Ward!!

The first night at camp was also skit night.  The 10th and 31st wards were combined and they made up a cheer that they would yell at 10:31 AM and PM.  We were not huge fans but the girl in the middle here is a former 1st warder.  She is super sweet and it was fun to see her again.

We were told to introduce ourselves before starting our skit and I thought it would be hilarious to parody the Sound of Music.  Melissa had an emergency whistle and I made up different calls for the girls.  My favorite was for Anne Marie.  I just blew the whistle for as long as I could and she tried to step out 3 times before I finished!

Our ward banner.  I don't remember why we painted a can of Spam.  Maybe it was inspired by our Green Eggs and Ham skit.  Definite possibility.

For our skit Shelyse found a Seuss-ified retelling of 1st Nephi and the girls acted it out.  They did so well!!  As you can see by Gabi's name tag, she was our "stage hand" and got to be Vanna White with the props.

Camilla attempting to tempt.

Bonnie and I were the "unrighteous people" in the great and spacious building that looks like a camp shower.  Ok, it was our camp shower.  See, deluxe accommodations at our site.  Bonnie had brought some of those Pop-Its firecrackers and we scared the girls when we ran out and threw explosives at them."  It was awesome!  Apparently, I was really into it.  I look a little psycho here!

This is getting long.  And picture heavy.
To be continued....

The One with Individuality

Way back in April we had a mutual activity where we started making crib sheets for Melissa (YW counselor who works in a NICU) to take to work.  As we were sewing we started talking about girls' camp coming up and the girls said "let's make blankets!"  Which quickly escalated to "let's make blankets with our names on them!!"  I think all the leaders' jaws dropped at the same time.  They couldn't be serious!  What a project! Well, they're wish is our command and we made it happen.

Quick tangent- none of this could have been possible if it weren't for Grandma Sabol.  Justin and I were eating dinner at her house soon after the camp blanket idea was formed and I mentioned that I didn't think we would be able to do it because fabric for that many blankets was out of our budget.  Grandma then went to the back bedroom and came back with 2 bolts(!) of fabric.  I was able to cut just enough pieces for the front and back of 8 blankets!!  Perfect!!  Between Bonnie (my other counselor who is a quilter) and myself we had more than enough scrap fabric for the girls to create designs for their blankets.  I used my Cricut to cut all the letters and shapes out.  It probably took 7 mutual nights to finish these but the girls absolutely love them.  Me too.  I love how individual they all are!!

First up, the Mia-Maids: If you can't tell from their blankets...

...Danielle is always so classy.

She definitely has style.

...Anne Marie is our silly, girly-girl.

The girl can giggle!

 Gabby is her own person.  I kept thinking "this is not going to look good"

as she described what she wanted to do and picked fabrics.

I was wrong.  It looks amazing.  She's also my volleyball player :)

Beehives next:

...This Gabi is so random.  Seriously.  She's also persistent.

Hers is the only actually quilted blanket and it took for-e-ver!

*I called her Gabitas (the Latin form of Gabi) to differentiate from Gabby.  Otherwise we would have had to call her Big Gabby and no girl wants that.  Especially when you're only 15 and over 6 feet tall!

...Ryann is super spunky and all over the place.

Much like her blanket :)

Josilyn is super sweet.  She actually wasn't even 12 yet when we went
to camp and I am so sad I will never actually be her YW president :(

I saved the Laurels for last because Camilla is my only original YW still in the ward and Sophia is technically not in our ward.  They're just best friends and attend each other's mutual activities. Camilla works on Wed. nights and Sophia is actually not even in our stake but was coming to camp with Camilla.  They chose their fabrics and designs and I actually made their blankets.  After I finished Sophia's blanket I wished my name was on it.  I love how it turned out :)

These two started watching Friends on their own and then found out I have all 10 seasons which gave me like 1000 cool points.  So I still see them once every few weeks when they come to get the next set.

The One in the Black Hills

Continuing our 4th of July adventure!

The morning of the 5th we packed up our tent and drove around to see a few more sights (like Crazy Horse) before hitting the trail.  The roads in the Black Hills are suuuuper windy (that's wine-dee, not win-dee) and narrow.  Just a reminder:

 
Justin got a little umm, annoyed is a nice way to say it, at the tentative drivers.  Here's Justin's impression of non-Utah drivers on winding mountain roads:

I almost peed my pants this was so funny!!  He kept doing this whiny voice "Oh no, the road curved!!" to go along with the face.  Priceless!

Here's how Utahns handle winding roads:

 

Like men.

This was our first (and possibly only) backpacking trip for the summer and it was a good one.  We decided to do a loop and hiked a little over 10 miles the first day.

Here's the trail we did:

We started and ended at the same trailhead (green square/car) going counterclockwise around the loop (yellow dots).

We only saw 2 other hikers at the very beginning, 2 horseback riders about an hour later and that was it!  It was really fun to be out in such a beautiful area with just my hubby :)

Trailhead

Justin at our lunch spot.  What a mountain man!!

Pretty views.

At the end of the first day we were looking for a stream to camp by because we were running low on water but the one indicated on the map was dry.  We just kept walking until it suddenly started to rain.  That was the fastest we've ever set up the tent!  Thankfully we got inside pretty quickly and (even in our haste) chose a good campsite as we stayed dry even though it rained all night.  Oh yeah, and we're super hard core backpackers because we brought our tablet and watched some TV before we went to bed :)

First night campsite.

We had pad thai for dinner.  Justin said I couldn't have any of the peanut butter.  It literally had his name on it :)

We woke up the next morning, packed up and hiked to Harney Peak.  This was the steepest part of the trail.  Justin and I made really good time the entire trip though because we were in the Black Hills and we're used to mountains.

The pine beetle is sweeping through the Black Hills.  So sad :(

I look like a hobbit!!

Harney Peak had some beautiful views but a lot of traffic coming from another trail (the Sylvan Lake area is really popular and easy to hike).

Words to live by :)

The top of Harney's has a fire tower.  The army used to man it...

which is why this marker is there.  We were pretty much standing on it to take the picture above.

 

 I look great in this shot.  Justin is just silly :)

We ate lunch on the peak and then decided to ditch the tourists and get back to our isolation.  We hiked to within a mile of our car and set up camp for the second time.  This time we were a little pickier about our campsite as it wasn't raining on us.  We camped up on a little knoll just off the trail.

Cathedral Spires

These lilies grow wild all around the trail.

Hobbiting again.

It actually did rain on us a little while we were walking.  This time we were prepared!

Campsite #2- we opted for higher ground.

Once we were all settled inside the tent we heard some weird animal noises.  Kind of a half bark, half moo if you will.  Neither of us had heard it before but I thought it could be elk.  We were actually within cell service so Justin decided to search for "elk sounds" on his iphone.  I had to tell him to plug his earphones in- if it really was an elk I didn't want to attract it!!  YouTube didn't produce anything exactly like what we were hearing but after a little while we realized there were actually two of whatever-it-was out there!!  One on either side of us.  So crazy!!  Neither of them were very close to our tent but they were clearly talking over us!  A little scary at the time because I really had to pee but did not want to go outside!  I did eventually and didn't see any big animals nearby.  I even looked around for them.  So I guess scary movies are actually accurate when people go checking out weird noises.  We were both super tired and fell asleep quickly.  I didn't hear anything all night so the elk or whatever must have gone to sleep as well.

It also rained all night again but our trusty tent kept us warm and dry.

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up and were at the car within 20 minutes.

On our way out!  This part of the trail was probably my favorite.

There were huge boulders on each side and it was so green and pretty!

I didn't even notice until I took my shoes off but I'd earned a gigantic blister on my heel :(

I highly recommend SD.  Probably only in the summer though :)