What You Get when you Combine 50+ Girls and a Desert

The last week of June we had our annual girls camp for the girls in our ward. This year we thought we would do something a little extra special and go down to Southern Utah. Have you ever been there? It's beautiful but really, REALLY hot the last week of June. We loaded up the cars, trucks and trailers and headed down to Green River.

 On the way down, we thought we would take a little detour off of I-70 to check out a petroglyph named The Black Dragon. (As an aside, Brad and I took the kids to see it several years ago and we drove back and forth on that stretch of highway five or six times before we could find the turnoff.) We pulled up to a small stand of cottonwoods and had a nice lunch and the girls tried to stay cool by spraying each other off.

On this first stop, we learned a very important lesson; we learned that a full sized truck pulling a fully loaded trailer has no business driving on soft sand.

Luckily, there were plenty of helping hands.

The trailer was unhitched, emptied of all its contents. Then the work began. Girls were sent up the hillside to gather flat rocks to put under the wheels. After a quick prayer, most everyone lined up behind the truck and started the push. (I had to document the whole affair, so I didn't push.)

Half of our party was unaware of what had happened because they drove out in front of the truck. They waited a couple of miles away wondering what had happened to the rest of us. They figured out what had happened when they saw the huge dust cloud billow up into the sky. Everyone behind the truck was now the same earthy red color. We take blending into the enviroment very seriously.

Then we got the trail man(girl) handled and moved it out of the way. (I'll save that story for another post) After that was done, an assembly line was formed and we loaded up the trailer and hitched it back up to the truck. Yay! Keep in mind that it was about 102 degrees while this was happening.
By then, the rest of the party had driven back to see what was going on. Sometimes it is good to get the bad thing out of the way at the beginning of the trip, right? So I get back in my car and it won't start. Are you serious?!  Michelle, our Young Women president fortuneately has a Suburban that is very much like Mary Poppins magical carpet bag- she not only produced a shovel to help dig out the truck but she also had a portable battery that comes in handy when someone's car won't start. We drove back out to the highway. Because the road was so narrow, the cars that came back to see what was going on had to drive for a couple of miles backward. Those women have some skills!

When we got to Green River State Park, we set up camp. The water was extremely high this year so the girls were told to stay away from the river, although someone forgot to tell the mosquitos.

YCLs.

The next day we drove to Moab to raft the Mighty, Mighty Colorado.

Everyone had a great time, even the people on our raft. We had a girl for a river guide and because she was the only female guide, she felt like she had something to prove. She pushed us hard. It also didn't help that 2/3 of the raft had the average weight of 80 pounds. Combine those two things and let's just say it was a little intense.

After rafting, we went to a park in Moab and just hung out and had dinner and waited for things to cool down before we went on our hike. In the evening, we headed out to Corona Arch. Underneath the Arch, we had a short devotional. It was a visual, and spiritual feast!

This was Rachel's first year as a Youth Camp Leader. This means that she was responsible for 6 girls and she was the "mom" for their tent. The theme this year was Winnie the Pooh and each tent was assigned a character. Rachel's tent was Kanga and Roo. She stayed up until 2:00am the night before making cute pockets for them and making a map of the 100 acre Wood. I'm not sure where the I heart JB comes in the Winnie the Pooh story, though. I've read the Winnie the Pooh stories many times and I have not a single recollection of Justin Bieber being in any of the stories.

Emma after several days of roughing it. She forgot her razor.

One of the priesthood leaders brought water balloons and there were many welcome, wet games.

I was soaked by some of my girls. They "lured" me out of the pavillion by saying, "Sister Miller! Theres a --spider--yeah, a spider here that we want you to see!" I thought I would play the good sport and let them douse me. I did manage to dump half a cooler full of water on a couple of them though.

Emma is here in her tent writing some notes to the other girls in the camp.

During free time there were crafts and other things that were organized. I noticed that Emma was missing. I found her in her tent. The poor thing was wiped out.

I never went to girls camp when I was a girl but I can tell you that as an adult leader, I love it.