Girls Camp

July 23 - 27, 2012

Girls Camp was a lot of fun. The stake was in charge this year, and they did a fantastic job! The theme was "Light Your Torch at the Olympics", and they did a lot of fun Olympic-type games/challenges. The girls had a blast.

I was only there for the first 2 days because I had to get back to work, but I actually had a blast, and I was so impressed with how great all of the girls got along. They were so sweet and supportive of each other. I was sad to leave early.

A little gift for the girls to go along with a devotional.

Up bright and early and still beautiful and excited for camp!

A couple of our YW are dancers...Can you tell?

On our hike...

Love them!

Keeping Busy w/the YW...

I've always loved working with the Young Women. They help keep me young. This is some of what we've been up to lately...

Bowling with the Laurels

Sledding in Idaho City. (How cute is Brook's hippo hat?)

Afterward - Checking out the old abandoned Antique Shop in town.

And coming up: We have a youth temple trip in Twin Falls (The Boise temple is under construction), YW Fundraiser, Girl's Camp at Pinetop, and right now we're working on a fabulous Ward Road Show. Stay tuned...

Camel's Back Park

I'm loving the spring. Everything is green, and the weather is absolutely perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We've spent the last few weeks outside as much as possible! Family picnics, volleyball, baseball, basketball, tennis, walks, frisbee golf, etc. Love it.

A few weeks back we got to take advantage of the nice weather for mutual and hike up Camel's Back...



Boise "skyline" in the background. Eric's bldg is the shorter white one coming out of Steph's head. :)



This shot makes me laugh. Melinda looks like she's in anguish.  Her sister is standing on her hair.



The YW human pyramid is a must.



I love Kendi's energy.



She asked me to help her with her grad announcement, and I immediately knew I wanted to keep it simple and showcase this beautiful picture of her. Love those eyes.



YW Overnight Retreat

When we told our girls that we would be going to Utah this summer instead of Girls Camp, I think they were actually more disappointed than excited so we decided to throw together a mini "camping" trip to make up for it...

Aren't they cute? We didn't get much sleep, but we had a blast.

Yeah, we know how to rough it. Let's face it, staying in a cozy cabin is a lot more appealing than staying in an ice cave.

Lots of sledding and only minor injuries.

They actually gave each other these lovely 'staches while they were awake. Others weren't quite so lucky.

The very clever Paula Campbell came up with this game - "Jeepers Creepers, Guess Whose Peepers". The prize of course, Peeps. (Can you guess which eye belongs to me??)

Terrace Lakes Hot Springs

Crazy Girls. They broke the previous record of 3:30 in the snow with a new record of 10 minutes!

Color Me Beautiful

The theme for New Beginnings this year was "Color Me Beautiful" so I decided to do a colorful Photoshop project for our lovely young women...(Photo cred to Diane Smith)

Minute to Win It

click to enlarge

Ok, so you saw a preview of some of the "Minute to Win It" games from our McCall trip, but that was more of a trial run for the big event. A couple of weeks ago we did a big Minute to Win It challenge with all of the YM/YW, and they did awesome!

YWIE 2010: Hats Off To You!

I've been a busy little bee this month planning for our Young Women in Excellence program that took place this last Wed. I really don't mind putting in the work for these types of things, but it's always frightening for me to be the one in charge. Unfortunately, I planned for like 50 ppl, and only about 20 showed, but what can ya do?

I decided to cheat a bit and recycle our theme from Saipan: Hats Off To You.

Straw Hats from Hobby Lobby. $1.50 ea. With colored flowers & ribbon to represent the 8 YW Values.

The girls performed 2 musical numbers. Nearer My God to Thee (with 2 of the girls on violin - so beautiful!) & As Sisters in Zion (EFY medley)

For the program, we mixed it up a bit; rather than the typical value skits, we added a twist. We challenged the girls with Whose Line Is It Anyway type improv games to go along with the values.

And, finally, these last few shots are of our adorable YW at the temple a few weeks back.

Girl's Camp 2009

Success! Another Girl's Camp came and went, and I think the girls had a good time. This year was much less stressful because I wasn't the person in charge. Plus, it was my second go at it so I had a better idea of what to plan and expect. One thing I've learned along the way is to focus less on making camp perfect and more on making the girls feel loved. And, they're actually really easy to love when you take the time to know them, rather than wasting all of your time being stressed and uptight over all of the details.

Maddie's Alfalfa impersonation.

I wonder why someone brought shaving cream to camp. Curious.

Madison stepping over to the cliffs.

We saw some incredible sunsets & sunrises.

This was the night we were all playing in the water & on the beach & spotted a couple of sharks a few feet away.

Madison & her uke.

Bird Island - after a hot, sweaty & somewhat trecherous hike through the jungle.

Can you see "Girl's Camp" in the sand?

And finally, our little octopus friend. We also saw 5 or 6 dolphins!