Emmy goes to Girls Camp!

Emmy recently returned from 4 days of Girls Camp with our ward.  I sat her down the next morning and took notes while she was being talkative because I know how rare those moments are.  You can always tell if she is in a good mood because she talked nonstop.  So here are my notes.

She ate really well, including lots of food she won't try at home, like cheese and scrambled eggs.  Isn't that how it always goes?  Your kids are picky for you but at a friend's house or camping with others, they eat everything!  She was introduced to hawaiian haystacks for the first time and is now begging me to make it.

They went on a 6 mile long hike which was "super hard" according to her.  Half way through they all stopped to eat trail mix and have some sort of lesson from their YW leaders. 

They spent one day on the beach at Echo Reservoir.  The water was really cold and it was windy but she still had fun.  She fell asleep on the beach and got a little burned.

Pranks are always a part of girls camp, both from the leaders and from the girls.  This year it was all leaders.  My friend Natalie, who is the YW president, zip tied the girls' tent zippers shut (when the girls were not in them).  There were also air horns and silly string attacks.

Her tent mates were Camille Jess, Hannah Sparks and Destiny Harper.  

  

They had two moose sightings, one right in the camp site.  Raccoons got into the food every night.  One night they actually took off the lid (that had handles) off the food bin, took out the bag of marshmallows, ripped it to pieces, and actually tried to put the lid back in place.  I question the validity of that but....

They spent their free time doing lots of french braids (apparently "butt crack" is the term for parting your hair down the middle - such ladies!), doing crafts, making jewelry, etc.

The last night was the testimony meeting when the bishopric and their wives come up for dinner.  She said everyone bore their testimony.  She said she bore her testimony about the importance of friends and their influence on her.  

They chose secret sisters for a day who they were supposed to do kind things for all day without coming out and telling them that they were their secret sister.  They did things like get them a drink, leave them notes, braid their hair, etc.  She said sometimes it was kind of obvious who it was, but sometimes it was hard to tell.  At the end of the day around the non-campfire (no campfires allowed due to fire danger), they would go around the circle and guess who their secret sister was and if they got it right, they got to pick candy out of a jar.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity she had to go on this camp.  I never went to girls camp when I was her age because I was usually visiting my dad in California.  Because of that, I never really bonded with the girls of my ward the way they did with each other.  Even though Emmy isn't much of a "camper" (notice the make-up in the picture below), she still has great things to say about her camp experiences.