YW Camp-2008!

I'm back everyone! And camp was great, as usual. Although I still think last year was my best so far. There is so much that happens at camp, so I probably won't mention to much besides just explaining the pictures. keep in mind that I'm camping in all of these, so don't just me by these pics! And, they are supposed to give us a slide show sometime of all the pics that were taken at camp. When I gat that I'll put it on here. Those are the cute pictures. It was Brandi's sixteenth birthday on the second day. And her favorite colors are bright pink and bright green. So Nannie and Micha gave her a basket full of random things in those colors. We sang to her sixteen times that day, "happy Birthday to you!...."

Adorable Nannie! This is when we were waiting for the younger girls, 2st-3rd years, to show up

Face painting was one of our first activities to welcome the younger girls. I got a butterfly!

This was the van I rode in an the way up. "honk if you like Mormon girls. party wagon." Isn't that funny?!

We each signed the windows too. "Tiffany Alaine is Fabulous!"

Cute little Kendra, our neighbor girl and Chey's friend. It was her first year.

Chelsea and I

Three of our adorable second years! Ashia (pronounced Asia), Mackenzie, and Felicia

Myself, Nannie, Brandi, and Shalisha (she's in Brandi's ward). I'm wearing Brandi's hoody in this pic, and Nannie and Brandi are wearing each others! If you look close you can see the names.

Our camp directors! Tina, Denise (the main camp director, head honcho) and Marie. Amazing ladies who do a ton! They are dressed like leprechauns in case you want to know.

For our craft we made little bears. Some said they look like cats and others sat they look like owls. I don't know what they look like. Nannie and Brandi made one for two of our leaders. The only ones left were made out of this funny green material. Apparently it frays easily and the arm was starting to fray. So they just stuck the arm into the body and sewed it shut. They did the same thing to the other leaders too, only with a leg. It was quite funny. Tina said she is going to bring hers to camp every year now.

On Thursday parents come up to eat dinner and watch the skits. My daddy had to work, but i was glad to see my mom and my sis Cheyenne. (BTW, do you like my YCL shirt?)

Brandi and Nannie and I got to be crayons of our favorite colors for the skit. Everyone who knows us knows that we love these colors. I actually have heard it said that Nannie has an obsession with yellow. Yes I was going to be a green crayon. But I was glad that when I got there the orange was the one I got to be.

Nannie had a very hard time getting up each morning, and Brandi would try to pull her out of her sleeping bag. Well, the last night Brandi was the one who wouldn't get up, and Nannie tried to get her out of her sleeping bag. She told Nannie to "just go back to sleep", so Nannie gave up and got back in the sleeping bag with her. Denise didn't think they needed to sleep anymore. So, she tickled them, and when they tried to hide she went and got a can of silly string. It was cold and stinky, and she emptied the entire thing on them. Then they got her back with one. Just when they thought she was defeated she came back and chased them around the lodger until another can was empty. It was a mess, but so funny!

You know the games where you have to sit or stand and sing a little song or chant while you do hand motion type of things? Usually I don't care for those games. This one is the only one I've found that I actually like. It's called 'concentration'. it has to do with remembering your number and everybody else's and not saying the number of people who are already our, and not messing up the rhythm. With about 30 girls it gets hard, but I'm pretty good at it. I took this picture after I finally got out and there were only a few left.

This is April. You can't really tell in this picture, but she has gorgeous hair. This was her last year at camp, and that sarcastic look in her eyes is one she uses often. She has a thing of glaring at people (only people she knows) until they look away or keep staring at her until she can't stare anymore. It's kinda funny.

On the last day, before we left, I got permission to take a walk by myself. I took these and a few other pictures. When i got as far as I knew I should go I stopped to say a little prayer and just ponder things for a while. It was very nice. Especially because you almost never get a private moment at camp.

I'll end by mentioning that my favorite activities are always the spiritual ones. I didn't get pictures of them, because I wasn't smart enough to go and get my camera before they started. The Faith walk and singing in the trees where combined this year. It was dark, and we had luminaries that said 'He lives' lit up by a picture of the Savior leaning against trees with a sheet that had a red light shining behind it. A man sang 'His Hands' and then we all sang 'I feel my saviors love" together. I don't know how many started crying, but I was one of them. We also passed a manger seen, and on of our leaders, Nicole, sang 'in this very room', changed into 'in this Grove of trees.' I think we all felt that He really was in that grove of trees.

Then of course, there is the testimony meeting. I have never been to a camp testimony meeting that I did not cry through. This one was no different. The same luminaries, along with some that said, 'testimony' and 'pray' were set up by the flag pole, and a huge fire was lit. We passed out a candle to each girl. Some were red, to symbolize Christ's blood. And some were white to symbolize that He still lives today. I sat with Brandi, and Nannie and Micha, all of us alone on one bench. With a blanket wrapped around us we sat there together and cried, and laughed, and cried some more. It is always so easy to feel the spirit at those meetings. Hearing your friends testimonies, bearing your own. I know the Lord heard them all, and they were each written by the angels in the Book of Life.

Each year at camp I have grown, at least a little. Each time in a different way. Some were a little hard. I was dealing with some emotions that were not easy to settle. Others I had more of a 'spiritual high' that made me feel like nothing could stop me. Last year was my best year, because it was the spiritual high. It was the year that I felt the Lord strongly with me almost at every moment. This year was a little more of the unsettled emotion that makes me feel emotionally delicate. I had been having that kind of feeling for a while, and camp just seemed to bring it forward. I still have a little of it, but I released a lot at camp, and I am working towards gaining that unbeatable "I can do it, because He is with me" attitude back. I am so grateful for my friends. They are the ones who made camp the growing experience that it was. And I don't know what it would have been without them.

There was much more that happened at camp, but I can't posibly tell it all. So you'll have to be content with that!