Ending June, Welcoming July

We got the spirit stick, hurray!!

Seriously, no one told me anything about spirit sticks!!!
Doing a little embroidery up on the mountain.

I can not believe July has arrived. June forgot to tell me she was winding down.

We finished girls camp last week. It kind of felt like a wedding or some other big to-do. You work and work and work some more, and then, it is suddenly all over.

Last Tuesday, I got up at 4:30 am to make the final preparations for camp. I just have to tell you, that I am not an outdoors type of girl, at all. The closest I usually get to the outdoors is to allow bugs and lizards into my house. Most of that was done in Texas. Ugg. Anyways. It took hours to pack the coolers just to head up to camp. And, I am getting more OCD in my old age. I packed the coolers by food group and by the day that they would be used. Then, I typed up what was in each cooler; placing a tag on the cooler itself and then a master on in the menu/recipe folder.

We had planned to meet at 7 am at the church. I was a few minutes late and I had to get some real food before heading up the mountain. When I got there, Debbie, our YW pres, said she had bad news. Bad news? hit me with it. Everything to planned, packed and ready to go. (We loaded up the night before.) OK, she was right. It was bad news. Our cook had a family emergency and wasn't going to make it right away, if at all. No swearing on church property, right? I can plan and shop for food, but cooking in the great outdoors is far outside my comfort zone and abilities.

Luckily, Debbie's husband finished work early on Tuesday and headed up the mountain to spend the balance of Tuesday and the bulk of Wednesday with us. He was handy enough to bring a book about cooking outdoors. Ha ha. He does love camping and has done it a lot. But, not much dutch ovening. We did make a great cobbler for our potluck dinner that first night.

Tuesday was filled with setting up camp, decorating, getting the lay of the land and working on not running, screaming off the mountain. I truly missed the mountains while we lived in Texas. You will never feel closer to your maker than "high on a mountain top." :) I froze Tuesday night. Duh, no one told me I had to strip down, change all my clothes and then get into bed. The next 2 nights were much better.

Wednesday morning brought a crazy breakfast time. Not only were we new at cooking outside, but stuff takes so much longer to cook at high altitudes. There are flag ceremonies every morning and evening. I think we were on time 2 out of 6 times. We suck. Wednesday the girls worked on certification. Yup, they hate that part of camp. There was also lake time in "leech lake." Yes, there are leeches, I saw them.

Wednesday evening was the stakes "spiritual experience." Let me tell you, it was an experience all right. All it all, it was to teach the girls to listen to the still, small voice and to stay close to the iron rod. That part was great. It was just the hour before the 5 minute experience and the 3 hours after that we trying. I won't go into detail, but there was a lot of singing of hymns, sitting on tarps placed on the mountain and feeling like we were being held hostage. But, I can tell you this: it was a bonding experience. We will never sing, Spirit of God, As Sisters in Zion or Child's Prayer without thinking about our "time" on the mountain.

Thursday was workshops, crafts and lake time. By Thursday afternoon I was like, 'time to go home already?' Thursday evening was our testimony evening around the camp fire. It was nice, except for all the fire and smoke :). I cannot believe how strong the girl's testimonies are. But, they have to be strong to survive all that Satan throws out at them. I really wanted them to think about their testimonies while at camp. Everything that I planned was leading up to that testimony experience. I feel that we succeeded in that area.

All in all, it was amazinglying terrific. I over planned in all areas: food, activities and stress. I could pull off next year much easier.

July, what do you have in store?