Girls Camp 2012: Food?

All I heard from my YW before camp was how amazing the food is! This is what they served on Wednesday night.....
 

Girls Camp 2012: Eternal Rewards "ER"

The theme at camp this year was Eternal Rewards or "ER." Our decorations were all medical themed. Our banner had pictures of the YW in scrubs and our center piece was a build-a-bear dressed as a doctor. It was a cute theme, but I was surprised by how many wards didn't really go with the theme and made up their own. Oh, well.

Here are some pictures of our decorations and other random things I saw around camp. I also took a few pictures of the YW before dinner on my last day.

Girls Camp 2012: FHE - The Healer's Art

Camp is a strange place.  People pound on the tables and yell/sing at you at meals for a harmless missed placed elbow. People happily sing about accidentally drinking their pet worm. AND FHE is on Wednesday night! (for those of you that don't know what FHE is...it's Family Home Evening and is usually on Monday nights, but not at camp!)

I had to go home on Wednesday night, but I made sure to stay for at least the lesson part of FHE. Sister B and the YCL's gave a beautiful lesson on the song Lord, I Would Follow Thee.

Lord, I would Follow Thee

Savior, may I learn to love thee,

Walk the path that thou hast shown,

Pause to help and lift another,

Finding strength beyond my own.

Savior, may I learn to love thee-

Lord, I would follow thee.

Who am I to judge another

When I walk imperfectly?

In the quiet heart is hidden

Sorrow that the eye can't see.

Who am I to judge another?

Lord, I would follow thee.

I would be my brother's keeper;

I would learn the healer's art.

To the wounded and the weary

I would show a gentle heart.

I would be my brother's keeper-

Lord, I would follow thee.

Savior, may I love my brother

As I know thou lovest me,

Find in thee my strength, my beacon,

For thy servant I would be.

Savior, may I love my brother-

Lord, I would follow thee.

Each of the YCL's took a verse and shared their thoughts. It was really quite lovely.

And like every good FHE we had amazing treats! Sister B found an idea on Pinterest where you take sugar cones and filled them with fruit, chocolate, and marshmallows and wrapped them in aluminum foil and throw them on the coals.

It was a great FHE and a great way to end my little trip to camp.

Girls Camp 2012: Skit Night - Old Spice Style

Tuesday night equals skit night at Girls Camp. However, they don't do skits out here like they do back home. I remember always planning the skit the day of and just kind of throwing it together. Out here in New Jersey? They plan the skits weeks in advance! They even write up the script for the girls to memorize the lines! Crazy!

This year the girls did a play off of an Old Spice commercial. You know the one? The one with the guy that ends with "I'm on a horse."

The lovely Clara played the lead, while all the other girls did things to change the scene so she could move from one to another quickly. Jeff wasn't so sure about how it would turn out, but I think it did! Sister B took a video of it and I will share a link once it's up. For now, you have my pictures. :)

The Skit!

Girls Camp 2012: "What do you do on Saturday nights? Go down and throw rocks in the lake?"

Ok, it wasn't on Saturday night...it was Tuesday. And yes, we were down throwing rocks in the lake. Sister B asked if we (Sister P and myself) wanted to go for a little walk before the skits (Tomorrows Post!). We ended up down at the lake taking pictures (Sister B is a photography buddy of mine). It was so beautiful down there. The reflection was absolutely amazing! I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but basically Sister P started throwing rocks in the lake while Sister B and I tried to get pictures of the splash. Yeah, we're a wild, fun, good time! I think I ended up with over 50 pictures of rocks splashing in the water. :)

While we were documenting the impressive rock throwing skills of Sister P, we kept being startled by some serious splashing happening in the lake near by. After we were done with the pictures, Sister P and Sister B decided to head over to see what the splashing was all about. Sister P was so committed to getting to the bottom of the mystery that she started poking the water with a stick. All of a sudden this HUG fish attacked them! Ok, it didn't get out of the water and attack them, but it started splashing like crazy! I was afraid for their lives as they screamed and jumped. We're assuming it was a fish, but we couldn't really see. If you ask me it was an alligator! Luckily we all walked away with our lives!

Some of you might be asking, "If all the YW leaders were down by the lake....Where were all the YW?" That's a really good question!....and I don't have an answer. Ooops!

Girls Camp 2012: Tie-Dye and Craft Fun!

Girls Camp! I LOVE Girls Camp. I only got to go up for two days this year, but it was better than nothing (like last year).

I went to camp as the Tie-Dye Specialist (official title). What does that mean? Well, it means that on Tuesday I worked the Tie-Dye extravaganza down in the Craft Hut. I feel like most of the camp came down. I'm not sure the exact number of shirts we ended up doing, but I know it was close to 100. It was pure chaos! I just felt bad for the Craft Lady, cause we totally took over half the Craft Hut.

I have to give a shout out to Kimmy! She was my helper and she totally rocked the tie-dye scene. I don't really remember tying or dyeing any shirts, so I can only assume that it was all Kimmy! (Picture above (LEFT) is Kimmy refilling the dye bottles)

The two pictures that are bottom right are of Sister B crafting! She was showing her mad craft skills. She was coloring the boarder of her wood plaque with a Sharpie! It doesn't matter how you craft....as long as you enjoy it!

On Wednesday we started rinsing out the shirts. Luckily I had another helper (Mary), who came down and helped me with the rinsing! I don't know how many shirts she ended up doing, but it was a lot. She's the best! Unfortunately, it started raining so we had to bring all the shirts in and hang them from the rafters. Luckily everything turned out!

Palmyra Trip: Camp and the Peter Whitmer Farm

I know this is probably a little out of order, but I figured I would show you a few pictures of the camp we stayed at. The camp is called Seneca Lake Camp. It's an LDS owned camp and is located only 45 min south of the church history sites. While working with the Missionaries running the camp was slightly difficult (They messed up our reservation, then denied that we had one even though we had email communications...Awesome). I would recommend youth groups staying there!

On our way home we stopped at the Peter Whitmer Farm. It was a quick stop, but I'm glad we did.

Palmyra Trip: Hill Cumorah Pageant

We headed over to wait for the Hill Cumorah Pageant to start after our visit to the Temple.  While we were waiting some of the cast came around and visited with us. Lehi walked up and had the kids guess who he was. I think Gandalf and Dumbledore were among some of the guesses. I guess we didn't tell the kids that it was a story about the Book of Mormon. We will prepare more next time. I had the girls pose with Lehi and some random boys that were walking around with him. (Nephites?).

It was really a wonderful show. I just couldn't believe how many people they had in the production.

It looked like it was going to rain the whole time, but there was patch of clear sky just above the stage and the audience. About 5min after the show was over it started to pour! Someones prayers were answered. :)

Palmyra Trip: Temple

Ok, now for some more Palmyra trip pictures.

After the Sacred Grove and Smith Farm, we loaded the kids up for a short drive to the Palmyra Temple. I mean short. We probably could have walked it.

The Palmyra Temple is probably the smallest temple I have ever been in, but it was absolutely beautiful. The stain-glass was lovely! All the windows had images on the Sacred Grove. I hope I get to go back for another visit.

After spending some time in the temple, I forced the kids to pose for a couple of pictures. The boys were being very difficult, so I never got a nice picture of everyone. You would think it would be easy. One, Two, Three....look at me. Apparently this is not the case for the YM in my ward. That was just too many numbers for them. Look at met trashing the YM on my temple post! Terrible! I will repent later.

And I'm back....for a little bit

Sorry I have been so MIA lately. Things have gotten really busy over the past few weeks and I haven't really had time to blog. I still have pictures from the Palmyra trip I want to share and I'm hoping I can get those up sometime next week before I leave for Girls Camp! Yes, that's right...Girls Camp! I'm only going for two days, but I'm still really excited. Busy, busy busy! I hope to get some good pictures while I'm up there, so I can show you what I have been working on.

Also, I have been investigating some fun New Jersey diners with the lovely Sarah. I hope to share pictures from those adventures real soon!

Until then...here's a picture of Brie :)