Our Stake Girl's Camp is this week. They do things differently here. Three woman from the ward were called to organize camp that aren't in the YW program. The President and both counselors were going, but I wasn't needed, with six women already up there, so I was happy to volunteer to help drive up girls for a two hour ride on Monday. . . finally a chance to get a photo of MyGirl up close and smiling. The girls were funny, playing the Skittles game half of the way up. . . . making a prediction then calling out the color of a Skittle, and when they stuck their hand in to pick one, and if it was the right color, they thought that prediction would come true. . . lots of laughs and a good way for me to quietly get to know them better.
I brought LittleBuddy to accompany me on the way back, and have a little mother/son time. Little did I know how much time we would have together.
Fortunately I was following a leader from our ward to Camp Joseph, newly bought by the church to use for all of the stakes around here. Its just 15 minutes out of Rye, Colorado, in a beautiful mountain setting. It had been used for the first time last year. We even saw a young elk on the way up.
Well, I was quite surprised, first to realize that the last fifteen minutes were all dirt roads. Second, that each ward was pretty isolated from the other wards. Third, that this was all there was - four gravel tent pads, a small pavillion with a small storage closet for each ward, and a small cooking firepit, with a larger pavillion and bathrooms for the whole group. Where were the leaders going to stay? On the ground, next to the gravel pad in the larger 8-man tent. (Feeling very grateful this was not where I was going to be spending the night for the week.) This was REAL camping. Our ward was assigned the "Jane Johnson Black," site. A little biography of her life as a handcart pioneer quickly reaffirmed to me that this was going to be more sacrifice than the usual girls camp for Mygirl. She's always begging us to take her camping, so I truly hope she gets her fill this week!
In the back of this horse trailer were ALL the gear needed for our ward for a week. The tents came out first, and the girls took one and a tarp, and began setting up their tents. Suddenly it occured to me that I wasn't leaving. The trailer was in front of me and the car of one of the other leader's husbands was behind me, and he was off doing other things. So, since we were going to be here a while, it was just me and LittleBuddy unloading the rest of the trailer. The main leader would help some too, when she wasn't busy doing other things.
We put it all in the pavilion, just as grey clouds were starting to form overhead. See the door on the left. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, the husband, opened it with the key he had gone to get, and I am not exaggerating when I say about 2,000 moths flew out all at once. I was, of course, directly in their path, and they were in my hair, on my back, etc. Ewwwwww! And, there was only 1 large Costco size pack of TP for 42 girls and 6 leaders and 2 priesthood brothers. . . I think they'll be needing to send the Bishop back into town once in a while.
Meanwhile, in all this time, the girls are still struggling to put up their tents. The girls closest were having the hardest time, and I realized why when I got there. The directions only included the last two instructions, not the first two. So, we finally got it set up and then realized all the things to stake it with were torn off. When I pushed against it I could tell it was going to be easy to knock the tent over, so we took it down, found a new tent, and this time it went much better.
This is the tent MyGirl is in. She likes the bright yellow, calling it the circus tent. Only four girls will be inside it, so that will be nice for her, but she was feeling a little nervous at the site of the zipline and archery range we saw when we first drove in. It'll be good for her try some new things and keep building her confidence. Its a beautiful setting, and she'll most likely be fine, although once she heard the leaders take turn on bear patrol each night, I saw her eyes get a lot bigger. When I got home BigBuddy told us a woman was at the garden center buying more koi for her fish pond, just across the street from the local middle school, when a bear walked through it. She was replacing the koi because the racoons had eaten them all. Racoons and Bears and Cougars. Oh. My. And, we're hardly in the deep woods. Guess LittleBuddy may have a few lockdowns at school next year.
So, instead of just dropping off the girls, I stayed over three hours, and once things were settled LittleBuddy and I left. He was a good trooper. He enjoyed taking pictures of the cows outside of Rye on the way home and the Rye Cafe sold lovely muffins which he enjoyed. It was pretty country. We saw the other leaders coming in when we were leaving. It should be a good week. Just praying there are no bears.
I brought LittleBuddy to accompany me on the way back, and have a little mother/son time. Little did I know how much time we would have together.
Fortunately I was following a leader from our ward to Camp Joseph, newly bought by the church to use for all of the stakes around here. Its just 15 minutes out of Rye, Colorado, in a beautiful mountain setting. It had been used for the first time last year. We even saw a young elk on the way up.
Well, I was quite surprised, first to realize that the last fifteen minutes were all dirt roads. Second, that each ward was pretty isolated from the other wards. Third, that this was all there was - four gravel tent pads, a small pavillion with a small storage closet for each ward, and a small cooking firepit, with a larger pavillion and bathrooms for the whole group. Where were the leaders going to stay? On the ground, next to the gravel pad in the larger 8-man tent. (Feeling very grateful this was not where I was going to be spending the night for the week.) This was REAL camping. Our ward was assigned the "Jane Johnson Black," site. A little biography of her life as a handcart pioneer quickly reaffirmed to me that this was going to be more sacrifice than the usual girls camp for Mygirl. She's always begging us to take her camping, so I truly hope she gets her fill this week!
In the back of this horse trailer were ALL the gear needed for our ward for a week. The tents came out first, and the girls took one and a tarp, and began setting up their tents. Suddenly it occured to me that I wasn't leaving. The trailer was in front of me and the car of one of the other leader's husbands was behind me, and he was off doing other things. So, since we were going to be here a while, it was just me and LittleBuddy unloading the rest of the trailer. The main leader would help some too, when she wasn't busy doing other things.
We put it all in the pavilion, just as grey clouds were starting to form overhead. See the door on the left. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, the husband, opened it with the key he had gone to get, and I am not exaggerating when I say about 2,000 moths flew out all at once. I was, of course, directly in their path, and they were in my hair, on my back, etc. Ewwwwww! And, there was only 1 large Costco size pack of TP for 42 girls and 6 leaders and 2 priesthood brothers. . . I think they'll be needing to send the Bishop back into town once in a while.
Meanwhile, in all this time, the girls are still struggling to put up their tents. The girls closest were having the hardest time, and I realized why when I got there. The directions only included the last two instructions, not the first two. So, we finally got it set up and then realized all the things to stake it with were torn off. When I pushed against it I could tell it was going to be easy to knock the tent over, so we took it down, found a new tent, and this time it went much better.
This is the tent MyGirl is in. She likes the bright yellow, calling it the circus tent. Only four girls will be inside it, so that will be nice for her, but she was feeling a little nervous at the site of the zipline and archery range we saw when we first drove in. It'll be good for her try some new things and keep building her confidence. Its a beautiful setting, and she'll most likely be fine, although once she heard the leaders take turn on bear patrol each night, I saw her eyes get a lot bigger. When I got home BigBuddy told us a woman was at the garden center buying more koi for her fish pond, just across the street from the local middle school, when a bear walked through it. She was replacing the koi because the racoons had eaten them all. Racoons and Bears and Cougars. Oh. My. And, we're hardly in the deep woods. Guess LittleBuddy may have a few lockdowns at school next year.
So, instead of just dropping off the girls, I stayed over three hours, and once things were settled LittleBuddy and I left. He was a good trooper. He enjoyed taking pictures of the cows outside of Rye on the way home and the Rye Cafe sold lovely muffins which he enjoyed. It was pretty country. We saw the other leaders coming in when we were leaving. It should be a good week. Just praying there are no bears.
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