Rough Camp

Andrey and I were able to go to our Young women's rough camp. It was so fun. We had Sarah Roose as our camp director and me and my counselors went up with Andrey and Lawrence Hopper as the priesthood leaders. Lawrence brought his wife and two kids and it was so fun to spend time and play with them. We stayed at the Spruces up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We went hiking up Silver Lake. It is so beautiful. The ponds and lake are amazing, the greenery and flowers are so pretty, and all the rock formations and just the whole area is breath taking. If you have not been there I suggest you go.
We then set up camp while our Fairy Godmother (one of my counselors) went around and left gifts for the girls.
Let me back track a little. Our theme was "Princess: Find the royal within you." with the scripture being Romans 8:16-17 (I think...lol). It was mainly for the girls to focus on their divine nature and to know that they truly are princesses, heirs to God, and were beautiful and had so much to offer to the rest of us. They have a Heavenly Father who loves them and knows each of them and we wanted them to leave knowing that they are truly loved daughters of a Heavenly Father.
We had crafts that each of us, as leaders, were over. They made wands out of the large pixie sticks, tiaras out of the shiny pipe cleaner, colored castly key chains, made princess picture frames to put their pictures in, and made mail boxes out of decorated paper bags. We then strung the bags from tree to tree so they could leave notes and secret sister gifts in them as they wanted.
We had an amazing dinner, eating Navajo tacos and enjoying the cutest speaker. Her name was Carolyn Kemp. She dressed up as the Fairy Godmother and danced and acted out the song to Shrek 2 (where the fairy godmother sings to Fiona). It was so cute and she then talked to them about how to be princesses, finding their prince that can take them to the temple, and other dating standards. She then focused the rest of the evening on their love and beauty as daughters of God. I was so impressed with her and know that the girls enjoyed her and hopefully will take the time to have a relationship with their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, and come to know of their true potential as daughters of God.
We had s'mores and went snipe hunting with our 4 girls and one leader that have never been. It was so fun to scare and surprise them. I love snipe hunting. lol
We ended the night by singing softly around the camp fire.
The next morning, after cleaning up camp and eating omlets for breakfast, we played games, where each leader was over a game. We played scripture charades. We would split up into two teams and each one would act out the scripture story while the other team tried to guess which one it was. We had so much fun and saw how creative the girls are. And how well they do...or don't....know their scripture stories. lol
We then played a game called "Spud" where everyone is given a number. The person up throws a ball in the air while yelling out a number. The person who's number is called runs up and catches the ball or retrieves it and yells "SPUD!". Meanwhile, the rest of the players are running while the ball is thrown in the air and when "SPUD!" is yelled, they must freeze where they are. The person who's number is called then is able to take three steps towards someone and throws the ball at them. The person who is getting the ball thrown at themself can dodge the ball by ducking, but cannot move their feet. If they get tagged, they are up and are given the letter "S" if they are not tagged, the person that was up returns to the front and throws the ball in the air. You are out once you spell out the word "SPUD". It was such a fun game and worked well with our girl who was in a wheelchair. I was so glad that she was able to participate in all our activities. Of course, a waterfight broke out in the middle of this game between the girls and the priesthood leaders and we had so much fun with our water war.
We then ended the games with playing human knot where everyone grabs someone elses' hand and tries to get back into a circle, and then playing a few rounds of "Big Buddah." we left camp at 1 and returned to one of my counselor's houses and had lunch and a talent show where the young women got to show off their talents and what made them unique and special. We had many sing, show drawings, gymnastics, pantemiming (sp?) and clogging. We had such a fun time and this camp is one I will always remember.