I'm back.

I'm back from Girl's Camp! 5 days of roughin' it up in the mountains. Luckily I only got one bug bite.

I had a pretty good time up there! During the day it was hot, and at night it was freezing cold. One morning I had absolutely no will to get out of my sleeping bag. It was so warm in there! I stared and stared at my tote (we kept all our stuff in 18 gallon totes) just willing it to come to me. My friend noticed me staring and asked what I was doing. I told her I was trying to use the force to get my stuff to come to me, but since I'm not a fully trained Jedi, it wasn't working out so well. Don't worry, I gave up trying to use the force and braved the cold.

Since the whole thing took 5 days, that means lots of pictures.

Day 1:

Since I'm a Fourth Year this Girl's Camp, I got to go on the Fourth Year hike. It was all uphill, but I was still pretty buffed up (if that's what you want to call it) from Youth Conference, so it was pretty easy.

Our destination was a waterfall in the middle of two mountains. It was so pretty! But I didn't have my good camera, so most of the pictures are blurry.

I was still my odd self at the end of the hike.

We drove up to camp and did some archery. I pretty much sucked at it. But it was fun.

Our theme this year for camp was: Get a Grip. Meaning get a grip on the iron rod. So they gave all the fourth years sticks that they had cut and baked for walking sticks. We whittled off the bark, sanded them down, and WHALA! We had a walking stick. We didn't really do anything the rest of the day. I don't have any pictures of it, so it must have been boring. Although that night my tent safety pinned the zippers of the tent next to us so they couldn't get out. They kept us up all night and we were pretty annoyed at them. Yeah, we were feeling pretty mean that night.

Day 2:

We woke up and our ward started coming up the mountain. Every ward got a value color. We got the color purple which stands for Integrity. We were happy to get that color because integrity basically stands for every value.

Once all the girls were at camp they sent us on a scavenger hunt. At the end of the hunt we found a gold box with all our camp shirts in it, a purple bandana, and little plastic crowns. Our ward name was The Princess Warriors.

My friend Veronica, who isn't a member, got to come with me to Girl's Camp with me. I'm in the middle, Veronica's on the right, and Meghan W. is on the left. We stuck together the whole camp. We were even in the same tent, just the three of us. I think Meghan thought me and Veronica were crazy by the end of camp.

My look-alike Timmi, on the far right.

We decorated our Secret Sister bags and then hung them up.

Mine.

Veronica, who is a FABULOUS artist, drew Aang for me on the back of my bag.

This is how we kept our cups. Surprisingly, they didn't get dirt in them.

Our Secret Ward came and decorated our table for our dinner with the Stakies.

Then we did our skit! We picked Hercules for ours. Since my name is Megan, they appointed me to be Meg. My friend Wanda was Hercules. Our play was that Hercules was on his way back to his father, but along the way he would have to face temptation. On the way he would find his girl (Meg) and she would travel with him on his journey. We even had singing! It was great.

My leaders had me and Timmi be in charge of the.... wait for it.... SNIPE HUNT! I don't want to say anything that might give something away. All I can say is that we made it as scary as possible and that it was fun.

Then we went down to the amphitheater and the fourth years graduated from Girl's Camp! Sadly I didn't get any pictures of that.

Day 3:

We woke up the next morning and did our ward craft. We glued pretty paper to Scrabble pieces and made them into necklaces!

Like my shirt? It's my favorite.

Then we went and did our Stake craft, which was also making necklaces! We made the bigger one with the "M" on it.

We lounged around for awhile.... I think this is the first camp where I have been able to ask for candy and actually get some! They had candy all the time, all of us were wired all camp.

After we lounged around, we went to the amphitheater. We sang songs and they took the wards out one by one. We came to a place were they had set PVC pipe along a path to symbolize the iron rod. They told us to hold onto the rod and to not let go, then they sent us on our way. Along the trail they had people tempting us. They were pretty convincing! There were times when I didn't know what to do. Then we came to a place where they tied a blind fold over our eyes. It symbolized the mist of darkness. At the end of the trail they took our blind folds off. There was the Tree of Life! They had stretched white Christmas lights all over this one tree. They had beautiful music playing and all of our leaders were there dressed in white. It was so beautiful! We were all crying and whatnot. It was amazing.

Then we went back to camp and had this big discussion about the topics in the For the Strength of Youth. In no time it was midnight and we were falling asleep in our camp chairs. So we went to bed.

Day 4:

On the fourth day we did certification. It was boring, but we learned some good things.

Veronica and I thought that one of the ways to carry an injured person would work out perfectly for a handshake. So we did that and made up a chant to it. It goes like this:

"AANG, AANG, AANG! APPA, APPA, APPA! MOMO, MOMO, MOMO! TOPH, TOPH, TOPH, TOPH!"

Yeah, we're pretty imaginative.

Running happily (should I say happily?) to the latrines. I hate the latrines. They are stinky and gross.

I got my hair re-braided.

People washed their hair. Some people even took a shower! We had a solar shower.

My friend Sela and I played an hour long UNO game. It was crazy. I had UNO at least three times, but she always put down a draw two and before I knew it, I had half the deck in my hands. Haha, I just love my face in the picture above.

We had to reshuffle the deck like four times...

This was my hand at one point. It was pretty frustrating.

We then gave out our Crazy Camper Awards. I got the Shoe Thief in the Night/Prankster award. Let me explain.

I woke up at 5 am that morning and stole everyone's left shoe. Then I put a paper in the right shoe that said: I took your left shoe, now your only choice is to choose the right!

The next morning every one had just one shoe on. It was hilarious. I eventually gave them back because they had to go on their hikes.

I got these in honor of being a prankster.

Then our Young Women's president sang and danced the the White and Nerdy song in them. It was pretty funny.

We then went to the amphitheater and this lady gave a talk. It was really good. Then we went to camp and did our testimony meeting. As soon as I bore my testimony, I realized that I had forgot some things. So I got up again! After I got up twice, about 3 other girls did. But in consequence of me bearing a powerful testimony, I have to bear it again in church next Sunday.

About an hour after testimony meeting, me and Veronica went a little loopy. We stayed up all night talking about weird things that I can't even remember. It was pretty fun.

Day 5:

We went home!

Before we left camp, we had a Hairy Leg contest. It was a little weird and awkward to have a leader come around feeling your legs. My hair on my head is REALLY thick, so naturally, my leg hair is thick. So, I won! Doesn't it give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside just knowing that I won?!

Right... I didn't think so.

This is what I won.

Then we drove home! We had two pregnant women with us that stayed at camp the whole time. They are some strong people.

I am so glad to be home! I even went to bed early, which is not normal for me.

Veronica and I on my front porch.

My dad told us to act tired....

But we just ended up laughing.

I am so glad that Veronica and I got to go. It was a good experience.

I am now off to sit around and listen to classical piano music. Relaxing...