best week ever!

OK so we have ward camp and that is really fun and you get to hang out with your family and we love it but THEN there is girls camp!! i love girls camp, i think i have gone 9 years, 7 in hawaii. this was a really big, involved, hours and hours and months of planning girls camp. there was a main camp committee of 3 and then 3 or4 of us in stake young women's that supported and did whatever we could to help out. there are a ton of pictures but i had to include them all believe me there are a LOT more! the order is a little funky but oh well.nani kanahele the camp director loves survivor as i do and we played a day of survivor games, shooting ceramic tiles with slingshots, tug of war, making fire, a team relay that they were tied together for, this is part of that relay, they had to sling shot a tennis ball through a Y in a tree, they are tied together and they had to run and go get the ball everytime they missed but they all got it through eventually.
the first day the skies opened up and downpoured on us so our first day and all night was very very wet, we were soaked and so was everything we brought but it just made things close and cozy and the rest of the time was beautiful. all things have a purpose.
there was a spiritual journey, the girls were put into groups and walked around the whole camp and listened to stories from women of courage, women from the bible, pioneer women and girls from our stake, there is a lot more to this activity but it is long to explain so i will just say it is one of the neatest things i have ever seen and made a huge impact on the girls!
girls just hanging out talking, they love being together and have so much fun
this is all of the camp, our stake young women, they are awesome!
my friend debbie on the far left re-wrote the words to i will survive so that they were all about camp and how we smelled and slept in tents but we will survive, we danced and the girls cheered and clapped it was so fun! i am on the far right looking pretty!
i had a group of girls for a hike, we just had to do the 1 mile which was a piece of cake but it was fun and beautiful, the girls on my hike.
this is the stake group for camp. the planning commitee, stake young women leaders and our bretheren who support everything we do and come to watch out all night and protect us at camp. we are so grateful for them!
maidy, sue, loha, nani, tammy, and me, debbie had to go home that day.
each day the youth camp leaders presented the theme for the day, using my posters i had so much fun making!
this was our camp t-shirt designed by one of the girls. our theme was a season of courage
our devoted girls camp directors, they are incredible women, so glad i got to know them.
we did a service project, we made cards and bookmarks and put together birthday kits for children at the homeless and domestic violence centers. they put in a birthday card, balloons, candles, a walmart gift card, a cake mix, frosting, a book , a banner and a pin the tail on the donkey, hopefully they will love them!
these are the girls from my ward, i am so glad i got to camp with them since i am not their young women's president anymore.
this is the men helping make the last days lunch of chili and rice, james on the right was a trooper, we gave him a hard time but he was a huge help and support to us and a lot of fun.

i have a testimony that girls camp helps the girls draw closer to christ, helps them bond together and gives them time away from the world. the camp we were at was so beautiful, very far away and you just felt a wonderful spirit there, the girls didn't want to leave. there is no running water there so we had no showers for 3 days but they didn't care, it was such a wonderful experience! even though i didn't get much sleep and was exhausted when i came home and am still cleaning things that i had to take it was an awesome week and i am grateful i get to go to girls camp!