Girls Camp 2013

This was an awesome year to be going to girls camp. It was Cynjyn's first year to attend.  The only bad thing about it was that we got home from Oregon on Friday and Taz had to leave at 6 am Saturday morning to help set up the Scout Camp.  It was a stake encampment, the exact same time as girls camp, but he is in the stake boy scout leadership since he's already an eagle, so he went up early.  It was hard on him to come home and leave less than 24 hours later, and the other hard thing was that Garry and I were both leaders at Girls Camp, so we have NO pictures of Taz at Boy's camp:(

Luckily, the girls left for camp the following Tuesday, so we had a little more time to prep.  We set off Tuesday morning at 7 am.  Cynjyn, Bethany and Angela rode with me and Sister Oyler in her car.  The girls were excited and goofy on the way up.

We arrived at camp and set up the tents.  The first and second years ended up sharing a tent and these two besties were "roommates"!

I thought I 'd get a picture of us on the first day while we were still smiling and happy!

Let's just say that it rained A LOT at girls camp!  EVERYDAY, but usually only for a couple of hours and no classes were ever cancelled due to the rain.  We had scary thunder and lightning storms though and the lightning was so close, plus we were on top of a mountain...exciting, but super scary too!  I was standing next to Maggie Thatcher huddled under our easy up and I saw a shot of lightning and then seconds later a HUGE boom of thunder and we all screamed and I grabbed Maggie and we just stood there hanging onto each other scared and laughing.  It was surreal. 

One day, Cynjyn and the other first years were the cooks in camp.  They all did a wonderful job and pitched in and got things done in a timely manner.

Most of the days at camp were themed days.  This is how these two celebrated crazy hair day!

This was the day we all wore our camp t-shirts.

Garry as usual, was a great help around camp.  Jay Shafer was up the last part of the week as a helper too.  They made an awesome Dutch Oven dinner for us one night. 

 

Fun times were plentiful at camp this year.  Cynjyn had a little too much fun with the whip cream bottle.

One morning at flag, Maggie had something in lost and found and if you had something you had to go up in front of everyone and sing a "punishment" song.  Well, Maggie didn't want to go up so Savannah, Cynjyn and Danielle volunteered to go up in her place...Go bAnaNaS.

Thursday night is skit night and we had a skit in a bag for all the wards.  Our theme was Italy and we did a skit about Da Vinci trying to find just the right thing to paint.  The girls were in groups of "people" that were trying to convince Da Vinci to paint them.  These three were tough girls.  Cynjyn could climb Mt. Everest bare foot.  Bethany could find anything in the dark without a flashlight and I don't remember what Shae's tough trait was.

Our skit was cute, not the best, but not the worst either.

The girls were assigned a YCL as their big sister for the week and every morning, they had scripture study together.  Tanner's friend Ashley was Cynjyn, Tommie and Bethany's big sister.

We had a service day where we had to clear ground brush from camp.  It was hot and miserable that day but Cynjyn jumped right in and worked sooo hard and never complained and hardly ever took a break.  A minor crisis at camp this year was that we were running low on water.  So for a few days we could only use the port a potties.  I kid you not, they were so full that the gunk in them was about 12-6 inches from the top!  They were soooo gross, but thankfully, not stinky.  Anyway, we were assigned to clean them on Friday, the next to the last day.  Those cute little first years went around and cleaned every port a potty without complaint and didn't even wait to be assigned it, they just went and did it with Sis. Davis.  Cynjyn, Bethany and Tommie rocked our camp this year.

Friday was hike day and Garry went with the first years!

We had good food this year and lunch was a fend for yourself kinda meal.  C had a PB, banana, choc. chip, whip cream sandwich one day.

And Jen and I made desserts like banana boats and some chocolate homemade raspberry jam thing Jen came up with.

We spent a lot of afternoons under the Ez ups because that was when it did the most raining.

 

They had fun activities for the girls.  One day they went to archery and repelling.  Cynj was a pro at archery thanks to her summers in Oregon.

They had a 70 pound compound bow that Garry tried just to see if he could manage it.  He did, but missed the target and shot a little high.  The impact was so strong they couldn't get his arrow out of the tree!

Most first years are afraid of repelling, but not these two.  Bethany went first and breezed down the cliff, then C went and was down in a matter of seconds!  No fear on their parts.

 

Zip lining was also a favorite.  Cynjyn was determined to be the first first year to go upside down the first try.  She succeeded!

This was Bethany's attempt to go upside down the first time and this was a far as she got.  But she succeeded her second time down the zip line.

They went to shot gun one hot afternoon.  Apparently they had time to make up a cool hand shake.

One afternoon they went canoeing and Sis. Oyler was driving them there and they got lost for over an hour, but eventually found the lake and their way back.

Here they are with her, she was a great leader and the girls had a fun time with her.

Our three first years not only survived, but thrived the first year of camp. 

Unfortunatly, the only night it rained all night was Friday.  So, we were packing up Saturday morning in the rain and packing all the gear wet.  It was hot and miserable when we arrived back in Vegas!!  We had a great week, but were glad to be home!

Taz also got home that same day and this is the only picture I have of him.  He and his spirit stick, but he did have a great time.  Some highlights of his camp:  rain everyday and so a lot of his merit badge classes were cancelled, so he spent a week up there and didn't earn a single merit badge.  He and Lawson brought their Kendama's and a chipmunk or squirrel  chewed through Lawson's string and carried his ball off and also took Taz's whole Kendama.  Taz earned the spiritual challenge and got a pocket knife.