We had a nice July for the 4th we went to the Veyo pool and played there and then headed to Dixie State. James had to work concessions so Avery and I just played around campus, listened to the Sawyer Brown concert and waited for Fireworks. Concessions closed for fireworks so James was able to come out and watch them with us which was really nice. Avery loved cuddling up to him while we watched. They had a really good firework show set to music. A few days later on the 6th I headed out to girls camp with my ward. We got up to camp and got settled in, got all the tents up, kitchen, etc. We had our lunches and then headed up to the amphitheater for devotional, flag ceremony and find out what the girls are going to be doing. They had 3 classes for the girls, the first one was making Alex and Ani bracelets. Then they did hair braiding and chalking. Then they went to a short fireside about loving yourself and the way you look and they took funny pictures. That took up most of the afternoon. We had a little down time before dinner and played some games. After dinner we headed up for retiring the flag and fun stuff from the Stake. Then we headed back to camp for our own ward fireside by the fire. :p Then we said a prayer and got the girls to "bed" meaning in their tents so they could talk, giggle and keep the leaders awake till after midnight. :p Thursday July 7th was SUPER fun and emotional. After breakfast we headed up to the amphitheater for our shouts, devotional, flag ceremony and to find out what we would be doing for the day. The stake had a bunch of "giant" games planned for the girls. Giant Jenga, giant Bad mitten, etc. It was a lot of fun to watch the girls and play along with them. At noon we had some ladies from the special needs mutual come up. they got to choose a special dress and then each ward had the chance to take one of these special ladies back to their camp for lunch. We have a special angel in our ward already, Amber. We had the chance to have her with us for the afternoon; because she was usually with the YCL's. We had Ambers favorite food for lunch, pizza. We learned all about her and even played her favorite game after lunch, Uno. :) Then our girls gave her a makeover. They did her hair and makeup and helped her get into her new dress. Then it was time for the stake beauty pageant. Each lady got to walk the red carpet and show off her cute new dress, while someone from her host ward was the MC and talked about her likes, and dislikes and her gown. This was such a special event and the spirit was so strong, I was in tears. They all looked so beautiful and had this wonderful glow about them. Amber looked amazing and you could tell she felt like a queen. After the pageant our girls practiced their lip sync for later while we got dinner ready. At dinner there was a hum of excitement about the lip sync. Our girls loving doing this every year and their goal is to ALWAYS make people cry. They are very good at what they do too, they succeed every year. This year the song they chose was Irreplaceable By: Madilyn Paige They did a wonderful job. the story they put to it was a group of girls all in black and one in red trying to fit in with the others, but they kept laughing at her and rejecting her. She read her scriptures and prayed to ask for help. the next day while trying to fit in with these girls a new girl came in and became her friend instantly. These two friends didn't care what that group of girls thought of them and slowly a girl from the group would go a join the two girls. They would take off their black shirts revealing a vibrant shirt underneath that explained their personality. One girl had on her soccer uniform shirt, one had on her swim shirt the other a shirt with a violin, etc. Till all the girls were together and they didn't care about trends of looking a certain way. Again they did a great job and sure enough they accomplished their goal and had the other girls in tears. After the lip syncs were over the ward had a big dance party waiting for all the girls with music, lights and even food. I love the energy that oozes from these dances. I even joined in on one of the dances. :p After the dance we had a devotional with our girls around the campfire again before we got the girls even more sugared up with s'mores and sent them to bed. :p
July 8th was HUGE I cant believe how much they packed into today. So they had all the wards rotating between zip line, archery, repelling, and time at the lake. We had zip line first and then archery, then we had lunch before going up to the lake. We had kayaking, paddle boarding, or just playing in the lake, and then repelling. I didn't really want to do repelling and we had more than enough leaders, so I stayed at the lake. :) It was beautiful, relaxing, but hot and I got burnt BADLY. I didn't realize just how bad till later that night and into the next day but it was...ouch!
After all that fun we headed back to camp for some quick R&R and some games with the girls before the bishopric dinner. Then we headed up to the amphitheater where we had a couple guest speakers for the night. one of them was former American Idol contestant Carmen Rasmussen. She had an amazing story about how she always wanted to stick to her standards even though she was surrounded by others who didn't share those standards and how she was being pressured to not to. I really wish I would have taken notes or recorded what she had said because it was very inspiring. After these two amazing women spoke to the girls, we all went back to our camp for ice cream and testimony meeting. It went so great, the spirit was strong and I had the chance to be reminded just how strong, beautiful and amazing these young women I work with are, inside and out. I am so happy to be their leader and to have the chance to teach them and more importantly learn from them.
July 9th this was a simple day, we packed up camp and went home. We did do a before picture and an after picture when we were at church. :) As always girls camp was a wonderful experience and I really loved it.
The rest of July I think I will just update with pictures. Most of it is just everyday things that happen and that we do. :)
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