I got another 40 or so pictures coming at ya about more of our Girls Camp adventures. Camp was such a blast. It is so fun to go back and look through all these fun moments. Obviously, many of my pictures focus on my ward since my daughters were there, but sometimes you get spotlights from other wards. We have such great girls in our stake.
The first and second day of camp, we had some rotations. Here are some of the things they participated in.
WORKSHOPS
There were quite a few workshops. We started in Basic First Aid. Sister Benson taught us about splinting broken bones and later about CPR. There is no longer camp certification, but it was fun to have some of the basics covered at camp. For many of these girls, it is their first year of real camp, even if they aren't 11 and 12. Covid messed things up for a while.
Another workshop was about emotional resilience. Each of us drew an affirmation card as we came into the pavilion. Sister Braun said the card chooses the person. And then we had to write for 10 minutes about why we embodied that word. I pulled 'I am ready.' It felt like such a great word for me. It was fun to go around and see some of the other cards people had pulled. Ivory had inspired and Pearl and Daisy both had 'I am intentional.'
Sister Braun talked a lot about guilt vs. shame. It was a great lesson. I hope the girls listened well.
We also did a session on meditation (with Sister Braun's mother). I'm not very good at sitting still in the first place. I think meditation is wonderful, but it was hard to feel it there that day with all the bugs. Things kept flying into my face. I finally stood to let my back stretch a little.
One of my favorite workshops was self defense. Sister Price did such an excellent job. She talked about being aware and assertive and telling people to "STOP" when they get too close. She put her finger on her lip, like a creeper and came at one of the girls. And then she had them practice. There was lots of giggling, but learning too.
She also taught the girls how to break someone's grip if they grab your wrist or neck.
Sister Hartley taught the girls to make fires. She showed them the teepee, the log cabin, and how to start a fire with tinder and flint. Some of the girls took those skills straight back to their campsites for dinner.
One day it rained quite hard in the middle of workshops. Sister Benson took her kids under the large canopy in third ward to continue with CPR training. I simply put this picture in because of great memories. On a different day I happened to be eating lunch under this same canopy and it started to pour. We were playing Mafia and I was killing it. (Literally) I was Mafia twice in a row. It was an intense three games. The third game, I was the doctor and I saved Emma Mendenhall twice. Once with a bullet proof vest and once with a Narwhal proof vest. (Those are hard to find, but if you ever need one, you know who to call.) It was such a fun time.
I think the only one I'm missing is the internet safety workshop. It was a good one, but I didn't include any pictures. But be smart about what you put online.
ARCHERY
Let's go to archery next. It used to be that you could bring your own stuff to Shalom, but now they have their own area for archery and their own supplies. It was very organized and super fun. And I believe there were only a few injuries, mostly just scrapes along the inside elbow where the guards didn't cover. I wasn't up there to watch my girls so I was happy that someone took pictures.
Daisy didn't shoot. She's not a huge fan, which may be because of the year we did family girls camp and Pearl ended up with a large welt on her arm. (But it clearly didn't slow Pearl down.) They tell you to cover the tips of your arrows as you walk back. Ivory has it down.
I got to shoot before I left. This is my grouping. Not too bad.
CRAFT
The craft was string art. Katie and Stephanie went dumpster diving and found a lot of free wood, so it was the perfect craft. They even bought some sanders to smooth down the wood and they let the girls use them. It's awesome to see girls use power tools.
The girls had a lot of fun. There were templates, but lots of people did their own thing.
I had an idea come to mind and I spent plenty of time in the craft area. The instructions were to use 30 or less nails so that there would be enough for everyone. I was close, but went a little over. I think I used around 140 nails. Oops. I guess my vision was a bit ambitious, but I liked the final product.
In the craft area, there was also a place to decorate bandanas in Emma Sell's honor. Emma is a sweet girl in our neighboring ward who was involved in a very serious car accident just a couple months ago. She is recovering, but it is still uncertain how much function she will eventually have. The outlook is optimistic, but there is still a long road in front of her. We put #Emma Strong on many of the bandanas and all the girls had one to wear to support her. It was awesome, because Emma got to come to camp one of the days. She went to workshops with her ward and ate dinner with them. It was so good to see her.
SKITS
Let's talk about skits. I can't put everyone's skit on here. Every ward did a great job this year. There was Hawaiian dancing, a sea theme, Harry Potter references, and a connect four game built out of humans. That was our ward's skit. It started with Lizzie and Ivory playing a game of connect four, but it became life sized with the girls having yellow or red handprints on their faces. It was cute and it all tied back into the theme.
Our Stake leader skit was really fun. I wrote the whole thing one day while I was sitting in church and then everyone helped me to make it a bit better. It had a great message and the girls seemed to really like it. The funniest part was putting together the costumes for the operators. "Celestial Services, how can I connect your call?" Alissa made us amazing head sets and Becky kept talking with a New York accent which made me struggle to keep a straight face. We practiced a few times and we still managed to mess things up the actual night, but who cares. The message came across just fine. And Nicole will probably forever have the phrase, 'Spontaneous Dance Party' connected to her. :) Oh, Jenni was a ribbon runner and Katie just happened to bring a sweat suit that fit her perfectly. It is now hers, which is nice since she looked fantastic in it.
One more event for this post. On Thursday after the hikes, we decided to take showers. We did quick showers in the biffy with a Camp shower that had been warming up in the sun. (Or trying to warm up with the sporadic rain.) But you aren't allowed to wash your hair in the biffy, so we washed it in camp. It was so glorious. Katie washed everyone's hair and then we washed hers. It started to rain during the process, and we looked hilarious holding umbrella's and washing hair, but it was so worth it. It felt amazing. And nothing connects you as friends like washing each other's hair.
That about wraps up this post. Still more adventures to come...
No comments:
Post a Comment