Camping during spring break....in March. The best!

Our spring break camping trip consisted of....

8 different families camping over the space of 3 days.  This made a total of 16 adults and 36 children (yep 52 in all!)  We bought our first tent too for the outing.  Its pretty spacious.

There was plenty of badminton and volleyball,

Lots of slingshots for the kids as well as the adults,

Pocket knife whittling,

Jump roping, and dodge ball in the barn,

and a four wheeler to ride.  There was also plenty of dogs.  It turned out we were the only family without one.  (I'm okay with that though.)

 Some of us wanted to see if a choke chain really worked.  : )

We cooked tin foil dinners and had PLENTY of yummy dutch oven food over the space of three days,

Shot 22's, AR15's, and BB guns,

Jacob even made it up each night and camped with us (he even got up early to go to work, what a true dad!)

And of course one of the most favorite camping past times....

 

 The bonfires!

 But don't worry, we had  plenty of s'mores to go along with all of this!

Girls just want to have fun!

A week at girls' camp....

When I went to girls camp as a teenager, we had to pitch tents and cook our own food.  Here, we had cabins, some of us had A/C and the staff at the girl's scout camp cooked our food.  More on the food in just a sec.  I got put with the third years and by chance, we were in an air conditioned cabin.....with fans.  McKay was a second year and they were all in the treehouse bunks, without air conditioning but it had electricity.  It could have been worse.  Fourth year were on cement platforms with screens and no electricity.  McKay chose a top bunk and by the time she unpacked, it was covered with sweat.  So I took her straps to her duffle bag and tied her fan into the rafters.  She slept fine and even complained that she was too cold on a couple of the nights.  Jake would have been so proud of me!

 The first time I saw this picture, I realized how much McKay looks like me.  

At camp, each ward was suppose to have their own "camp" shirts.  Since all of our Young Women had just gotten their "I'm A Mormon" shirts a couple months previous, we decided to get zumba hip scarves for all of us.  We also learned a dance to the song "Arise"  (click here for a free download from lds.org)  We got the original seven value colors (Faith-White, Divine Nature - Blue, Individual Worth - Red, Knowledge - Green, Choice & Accountability - Orange, Good Works - Yellow, and Purple - Integrity) and then we had gold coins so that everyone represented "Virtue."  Maybe I can find a video of the dance floating around.  However the video below is the one our Beehives made.

I had less than 13 hours of sleep from Sunday night to Friday afternoon.  On the last night of camp, one of the other leaders texted me at 2am and asked if I was still awake.  Of course I was as I was packing so she told me that some of our Beehives had come up with a song and memorized a dance to go with it! They are so talented!

 I was so ready to be home!  I want to give a big shout out of THANKS to each of my friends that had my children for a day.  It made it so much easier on Jacob and me.  This sign was up for less than 48 hours and yes, our HOA turned it in as an "eyesore".

They even missed McKay.  Just a little.

Back to the food. It was awful and very limited.  I'm really not a picky person but the only good thing I can say about it was the salad was okay, but it often ran out before I could get to it.  I was lucky to have FABULOUS counselors and a good Bishop who brought up some "brown bag lunches" during ward time on Wednesday.  It's amazing how good a PB&J sandwich is when you are hungry.  I also had a dear sweet friend from the ward that brought up some goodies on Thursday when she came up to teach a class.  You don't realize what a staple food is for us.  Especially with a bunch of teenage girls!

Our theme this year was "Shine Your Light."  It was amazing.  They tied in lighthouses, candles, and flashlights with it.  We did several service projects throughout the week and there really isn't a better feeling then when you are serving another.

If you would have asked me on Sunday before I left for camp if I would go next year (or again for that matter) I would (did) say "No Way!"  By the time I came home, I was saying I would do it again and couldn't wait for next year.   To put it short, I LOVE our Young Women!

Owl always Love you!

Lately, it seems like I'm always late. I consistently run five minutes late for anything, no matter how hard I try.  And now it seems like my posts are always two weeks behind.  I guess it's better late than never right?

I was a cabin mom for the Third levels this year.  I had 13 girls that were in my "family".  Only two from my ward.  This was fun because I got to meet new girls.  We brought little handouts for them so I decided to go with an owl theme.  Since the first night we had FHE on the 100th anniversary of girls' camp, Jacob helped me come up with an idea on making a journal.  I had tried to find cute but cheap journals at the dollar store and struck out.  So he designed and sewed these adorable journals for the girls.  On the back, I came up with the quote, "Remember Hooo loves you." 

On Tuesday, I handed out hand sanitizers and had put an owl sticker on them with a card saying, "Owl promise to be clean....100 ideas on how to make it to the temple."

On Wednesday I handed out these fun rice owls.  You can throw them in the microwave and use them as heating pads, or the girls even put them in the freezer and used them to cool down.  They did take a couple (understatement) more hours then I expected but I was trying to keep the cost down and used my scrap materials. 

On Thursday, I handed a "stress reliever" bag that had bubbles, a punch balloon, and a candy necklace.

And finally, on Friday, I had a cute little owl printout that had a fold up of an owl that you wrapped around a fun size candy bar (I used skittles and starbursts) that said, "Owl miss you, have a fun summer!" 

I really am not that creative.  I got ideas off of the internet (I finally went on Pinterest) and went from there.  Although I was quite impressed and happy with the results.

Jake and McKay crashed on Sunday as I was trying to get everything done, together, and also packed.  I only got 45 minutes of sleep that night which led up to the next five days totaling just less than 13 hours of sleep.  I was okay and was fine with it but somehow it stressed Jacob out.  He informed me that the next time I wanted to take on a craft, I had to get approval from him.  I guess I should mention that this wasn't my first "craft all-nighter" project.  I'll have to show you my journal jars in a later post!

The view of the "older and wiser".

McKay posted on her blog about her Pine Basin School trip. To see her version click HERE. As a parent, I got the chance to sit out and "people" observe. I loved it. (All the pictures are courtesy of McKay and friends.) Since McKay has been in school, I have never been able to help out with her class. I was either pregnant or nursing. Hurray, times have changed. I went as a the only other girl chaperon.The first thing McKay did on her first "free time" was climb the trees. I like this picture better than I liked her portrait sittings. (Which I did reschedule. They were just too sad.)This was a retired school teacher that taught the nature lessons and distinguishing trees on the hikes. He came up to me at lunch before the hike and asked when did they start letting high school kids come? I thought he was joking, but he wasn't.The gaga pit. This game is very addicting. The kids got the adults in and kicked our butts. Being small has it's advantages. All I can say is the next day I was left with bad posture, a sore back, butt, and ribs and don't forget the skinned up knuckles.. But yes, it was fun.A hike up and past the underwear tree. (very disgusting) Not a good idea to run up the hill after eating dinner. Also for not having run since April maybe that had to contribute with the sore butt.On a serious note, McKay has some really nice friends. Being able to observe all the others, you forget all the drama that can go on in 5Th grade. The make-up, the rumors, the old fashioned "going out" and girlfriends and boyfriends have already started. In fact a couple of girls got "broken up with" up at the camp and there were tears. It makes me appreciate the fact that McKay has friends that are nice and good influences. That morning, I was making hot chocolate. Since the night before, they went heavy on the chocolate, there wasn't a lot left. I did as I was instructed and put 2 1/2 spoonfuls in. I had one after all the girls had theirs, and "yucky", I am surprised that no one said anything. It was just a tad more that watered down hot chocolate. I guess they were all grateful for a little "heat" in the cool morning. That or maybe I looked a little scary with no makeup.