Girl's Camp My Happily Ever After- Day 1

I got called to be the ward camp director and let me tell you it was quite the chore.  I had to come up with everything involved with camp from the schedule, to cabin assignments, to food.  Busy, Busy, Busy.  Camp this year was located at Otter Lake on Fort Richardson.  So it was really only about 30 minutes from the house.  We stayed in what they call Boy Scout Cabins.  They were cabins with 4 wooden bunk beds without mattresses, a table and chairs, and a wood burning stove.  They were very rudimentary but they were perfect.  We met Monday night and loaded up all of our belongings into 2 cars so that Tuesday everyone could just meet load firewood and head up to camp.  The girls met on Tuesday at 11 while Nate, the kids, and I headed up to get the keys to the cabin.  The girls actually arrived at camp before I did but only by a few minutes.  Then I had to run over to the other side of the lake to pick up one set of keys that were not where they were supposed to be.  Nate also rented a boat to fish on the lake (Nate was one of the priesthood holders for the trip.  We didn't get as many volunteers as far as priesthood goes so Nate came and stayed every night and all day Thursday and Friday.  Because Nate was there and I was there the little kids had to be there too).  Tyler, Ella and Nate spent a lot of time on the lake in that boat and they only caught minnows.  But they really liked riding in the boat around the lake anyway.

There were 3 cabins full of girls and a cabin of women and a cabin of men.  When the girls arrived at camp they made a cabin crest, decorated their cabin and unpacked.  As that was going on it started pouring outside and rained off and on both Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Natalie was running through some mud bogs in the rain and lost both of her shoes in the mud.  She and one of the priesthood holders got on their hands and knees and dug through the mud with their hands to find her shoes.  It was gross.  To this day the shoes aren't dry.

After the girls got all of the decorating done they headed up to the pavilion and decorated journals.  The theme for the day was "The main character in this story is you"  I wanted them to be able to write their own stories in their journals just as we write our own stories in life.

The girls then had dinner which was taco salad, watermelon, and scones.

And we had a guest speaker.  Gay Netzley came in and talked about her happily ever after and how to find it here now on earth.  She mixed scones and compared each of the ingredients to something in life that can help us achieve our Happily Ever After.  She then cooked up the yummy scones and we got to eat them for dessert.  YUMMY!

After wards we had a talent show.  Megan showed her talent of quilt making.

Kylee recited pi to the 39th 

 Ally with the help of Shayla played jingle bells on water bottles.

Natalie played her saxophone. 

 Allison played her guitar (she also played it all week long as we sang)

 Myranda showed us some of her drawings.

Maddy played the piano. 

I tucked my eyelids inside out. 

 Nichole signed the YW's theme

and Shelby read us some of her sayings that she likes to jot down. 

After the talent show I read a story called "The parable of the Princesses" which is a must read if you haven't read it yet.  It is about 3 sister sent to prepare their castle for their brother and the trials that they face along the way.  After "story time" we had a bubblegum blowing competition. 

Nahir, Marla, Ella and I stayed up chatting until the wee hours of the morning.  At one point Ella asked if we could whisper to which Nahir replied "No".  We were tired.  It was quite the successful first day I think!