"There's No Place Like Home"

Before I tell about our most recent events, I feel like I need to play "catch-up" for a little bit.  I can honestly say that this has been one of the best summers of my life!  Brad has been extremely patient and supportive in allowing me to participate in a lot of different activities, one of them being able to attend our ward's Young Women's girls camp.  Because of the Stake Trek in July (more on that in a bit...), instead of doing Stake girls camp they decided to make it smaller and just do it within the ward.  [I just realized some people might not know that I've been working the YWs program as the 1st counselor for the last year...that's why I got to tag along :)]  We picked THEE best person [Jen Kofford] to be the camp director and she picked THEE best assistant [Crystal Worcott] to pull it all together.  We gave them 3-4 camp themes to choose from and along with the YCL's [youth camp leaders] they chose the Wizard of Oz line of "There's No Place Like Home" and ran with it, paralleling Dorothy's adventures to the Plan of Salvation.  When we arrived to the cabin (on Bear Lake, oh yeah!!), we were greeted by the munchkins and Glenda and told that we needed our ruby slippers to continue our journey.

Next, the girls were separated into 2 different tents and designed their flags...

The Flying Munchkin Monkees

The Munchies

The girls also entertained us with impromptus skits...

And the Wicked Witch of the West made her appearance [to grab cell phones and iPods]

 

We enjoyed eating at the Emerald City Cafe and that night we were able to enjoy watching The Wizard of Oz on the big screen.  

Disclaimer: I LOVED being a leader at Girls camp [minus being the leader in charge of chores, boooo!!]; it was so neat to see girls interact with other girls that they usually wouldn't talk to, seeing them work together, and then participating in the midnight talks with the other leaders.  I grew so close to these women in that time we spent late at night.  

The following day, we headed out to the Minnetonka Caves where we were able to explore the caverns with the tour guide [this cave was a lot smaller than Carlsbad Caverns but reminded me a lot of it...] followed with shakes and lunch in Garden City.  

Following our outing, the girls were able to hit the lake and go swimming. 

This rest of girls camp was filled with boating [epic tubing], crafts, a skit from all of the leaders [(Priesthood included), Certification, a yellow brick road walk, and a testimony meeting (unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from those events...).  It was great to see the girl's grow in testimony and understand even more their purpose here on earth.  I loved seeing their friendships form and solidify, as well as to grow as a YW presidency.  When it came time to leave, I don't think anyone really wanted to go.  It was an amazing experience, one that I'm glad I didn't miss out on. 

Here are some more random pictures taken throughout the week...

Lots of braiding going on during the week.

I loved her apron!  She brought it herself.

Brother Carlsruh [1st counselor] and Bishop Spiers

The wonderful ladies I get to serve with, Liz and Cami