girls' camp in pictures

I got back from camp today. It was my fifth time going as an adult, so I don't know how I managed to forget how tired I am after camp. Wow. I took a shower, did a little unpacking, did some laundry, loaded my photos, went to the grocery store, and took dinner to our YW president (her husband had surgery yesterday). I am wiped out!

I'm too tired to write much, so here are some of my camp pictures:


For our skit/lip sync, we were The Pirates Who Don't Do Evil Things.

The lovely fake bug that made the rounds in people's sleeping bags, etc. Our resident prankster leader stuck it in my hood, so I handed her the camera.


We had two minutes of silence on the lake and then we sang a song from our boats, which echoed around the area. It was really cool.

lake self-portrait

One of my favorite things about camp this year was getting to know all of the other leaders better. They are hilarious.

I was not the only one documenting our experience!

post-hike foot soak

post-hike treat, generously provided by the other ward in our shared campsite

our schedule for the week

There is nothing quite as great as guitars at camp.

I loved this ingenious music solution.

Laurel had this bug repellent contraption. She showed me just how well it was working.

I love being up in the mountains.

I taught a couple of people how to crochet flowers. (I learned how in a YouTube video just before departing for camp!)

Crafts, always a highlight of camp.

We used LOTS of bug spray.

Roasted Starbursts – one of the girls' favorite things. Me? Meh.

I do enjoy a good campfire (as long as the smoke isn't always wafting into my face).

The girls were good about following the no-prank rule. The leaders, not so much.

Can you see the rainbow?

We had such a huge storm! It lasted almost 24 hours and included cabin-rattling thunder, lightning, hail, falling trees, and the hardest rain I've ever seen.


We had to hold the lip sync at the stake pavilion instead of outside in the amphitheater. It was crowded and oh so cold, but the girls were as enthusiastic as ever.

We had several deer that came right up to our campsite! I loved it. I also saw two moose, and the other leaders in my car spotted a bear (I wanted to see that).

I decided that I just hate flag ceremony. It throws into sharp relief how un-fun I am. I hate singing silly songs and doing actions to go with them. It's pretty much torture for me. And it made me question my legitimacy as a leader at camp. And there was a 45 degree incline to get down (and up again). And we have to do it twice a day...

Of course we had to make s'mores one night.

to sum up:

Camp was good.
It was hard.
It was hot.
It was wet.
It was freezing.
It was an invaluable experience for us all to learn and make memories together.
It was exhausting.

I'm glad I went, but I am also so very glad to be home.

Sunday thoughts

Today the theme for our sacrament meeting was unity. Max and the rest of the young men returned yesterday evening from a four-day trip to Jackson Hole. Unity was also the theme for their trip, and several of them reported today on the experience.

Two boys mentioned that, even though there was a lot of fighting, they all developed a lot of unity over the four days. When I questioned Max later about the fighting, he didn't have a clue. Apparently there was no fighting in the cars he traveled in, or anywhere around him, so that's a bit of a mystery.

They did a lot of canoeing and went white water rafting twice -- first times for Max on both accounts and he absolutely loved it. He said he didn't do any fishing because he just wanted to keep canoeing. I was surprised by that, because I know he really enjoys fishing! He told me they had really good food because Brother Wimmer was in charge (he's the head of food at Thanksgiving Point). I know from experience that having good food can definitely affect the success of any camp...

I had been concerned about the almost continuous rainstorms last week -- I was so hoping that they wouldn't be miserable and that it would still be fun and a good experience. Today I heard that while they encountered plenty of downpours, they usually occurred when they were en route -- when they got to their destination at the campsite, at the river, the rain stopped every time. Pretty cool.

One of the leaders quoted Max in his talk: after the rafting, he asked Max what he thought. Max said, "I think you over-emphasized the risks of flipping over, getting lost, and dying. But I'm glad you did, because then we were prepared for everything." Pretty funny. I was left feeling very grateful for all of the leaders who made it a really great experience for my boy and all the others. These experiences are so great for building confidence as well as testimonies. And unity is something I am really hoping for as I leave for girls' camp tomorrow morning!

On the Father's Day front: Marc had a really bad headache in the night (migraine perhaps?) and didn't get to sleep until after 4:00, so he skipped 8:30 church and slept until around noon. He spent most of the day in bed, reading or blogging (sounds pretty awesome to me!) I gave him four bars of Amano chocolate (locally-made plantation chocolates that have finally found a local retail outlet at the BYU bookstore!), a manly-man flashlight since he is always frustrated by our lack in that department, and a homemade certificate for the online t-shirt of his choice.

I made no-knead Dutch oven bread (my favorite), grilled steaks with bleu cheese, twice-baked potatoes, green beans vinaigrette, roasted beet/bleu cheese/balsamic/bread crumb casserole, and his favorite peanut butter/chocolate brownies. And THEN I made a batch of Amie's gooey chex mix to take to camp. Yeah, I was in the kitchen pretty much all day. But I think Marc had a great day. (Incidentally, Eva said the blessing on the food and prayed for Daddy's favorite foods (for him) and for the bread (for her). After she ate about half of a piece of bread, she said, "I'm excusing myself." That girl is constantly cracking me up.)

Here's my favorite Father's Day moment of all -- I got this email from my mom tonight, entitled 2:00 a.m. banana run:

After a very relaxing week , right on the edge of the sound of Atlantic Beach, NC, we arrived home very late Friday night. The drive was uneventful, with Sneelock at the helm. Well, there was one incident of us being stopped for going 86 in a 65 mile zone....and right along with tradition, the officer gave Sneelock a "friendly warning" with a caution to slow down! He is very lucky when it comes to tickets.

We arrived in New Hope just about 2:00a.m. with an exhausted load of passengers, including darling and agreeable Miles. As we rounded the last corner to our home, Fred took the alternate turn to stop by the grocery store! I guess even a 2:00am arrival time can't distract the nightly banana run! I was especially tired, my back hurt and I was in no mood to stop at the grocery store. I really tried to talk him out of this stop, but did not succeed.

I was murmuring just a bit (!) and shaking my head at this obsessive and quirky habit to Ryan, and this is what he said to me. It seemed to be a tender and quiet reprimand in the form of an observation.

"Well, there are a lot of other things that he could be obsessive about that could be really bad. I guess if that is the worst thing that you have to put up with for an exceptional husband and father, it's not so bad."

Happy Father's Day, Sneelock. I love you.

AMEN! What a great perspective. I love you, too, Dad!