{the tew family}

This year our stake theme for Girl's Camp was: "The Wizard of Oz: There is no place like home." Each ward was also assigned a specific part from the movie and a Young Women's value. We were given the great old forest (where Dorothy and friends find the lion) and Virtue was our value. We called ourselves "Queens of the Forest" and used Article of Faith 1:13 as our scripture: "...if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

Day 1
The gang ready for the drive to camp...I got to drive our Bishop's
huge truck - the rear view mirrors alone are the size of our regular car!

We got our camp all set up and ate lunch in "munching land."
Our camp director, Denise (in the pink) did such an amazing
job. She made all sorts of clever signs, crafts, and had treats
everyday for us that came from Glenda the Good Witch
in a darling Wizard of Oz lunchbox.

She even made life size cut-outs of the Oz characters!!!
Aren't they awesome?
They stood and welcomed everyone who camp to our campsite.

The first present from Glenda were these hilarious
rainbow umbrella hats. It was so fun to see all of us
wearing these and bouncing along the trail to flag ceremony.
These hats got some good use too as the wind started
to blow and dark rain clouds loomed overhead.

Only a few short hours after we got to camp the temperature started to drop
and it started raining! :(
We bundled up and squeezed under our canopies to sing camp songs
and work on some crafts. We made a really simple no sew
t-shirt purse. (they turned out great mom!)

And the best part was we got to wear our polka dot matching rainboots!!

Despite the rain we made a delicious dutch oven dessert that won 1st place for
overall appeal and 2nd place in the taste test.

The rain continued to fall and so did the temperature. By bedtime we could see our breath and all 3 of our tents had leaks! We were able to get things mostly dried up and the girls were great sports about sharing extra blankets and pillows. However, all of us almost froze that night! I have never been so cold. My body was shivering so bad that it started to scare me a little bit. The night passed very slowly and I worried about the girls.

Day 2

We woke up to warm weather, blue skies, and everyone alive and well after a freezing cold night...
We were sooooooo happy!

We sat around the fire pit journaling, reading, and playing games.

Our dishes dried in the sun...

and so did our sleeping bags! We had blankets, sleeping bags,
and pillow spread out to dry over all our picnic tables.

For our skit we performed a twist on American Idol titled,
"Oz Virtue Idol". The girls did a great job!
(I was flying monkey Seacrest - hence the mask)

Getting things ready for tin foil dinners -
a camping classic.

My two counselors - the fire whisperers.

Our Youth Camp Leaders Megan and Tara lead the group
in some singing...

Then we had a spiritual hike prepared for the girls. There were 7 or 8 stops on the hike where the girls learned different things. The post I was in charge of revolved around trusting in God and having courage - with a fear factor twist. In a nutshell: I asked the girls to give me a summary of the story of Daniel in the lion's den - the main point being that Daniel prayed to God and had this enormous trust and faith that God would spare him from the lions he was trapped with. So I told the girls that since it had been raining I had the opportunity to collect quite a few earthworms. I told them that I had done my research about earthworms and that they were totally edible, and barely had a taste. I wanted them to trust me and have the courage to eat one. The catch was that they had to be blindfolded. Almost all of the girls participated and held out their hand as I placed in it a slimy gummy worm that I had soaking in water. They would then take a bite and realize it was a gummy worm and all start laughing. We ended by asking the girls for experiences they had where God has helped them to do difficult things that required them to be courageous. They shared all sorts of powerful stories These girls are amazing!

Day 3

The sun continued to shine on the rest of our camping days!
We had a really fun obstacle course -
jumping rope...

balancing balloons...

trying to whistle with 4 saltine crackers in your mouth...

Queens of the Forest Rock!

and then we saw the FIRE!

It was a little too close for comfort...

We all met at the pavilion to say a prayer and go over our evacuation plans if necessary. One of our leaders drove out of the canyon so she could get cell phone service in order to call the ranger. We found out that it was a controlled burn in the town right next to us. Whew! It would have been nice if the rangers could have let us know that ahead of time!

The Leaders - I love serving with these gals!

The Laurels

The Beehives

Crazy Queens

Playing Mafia with our Stake Young Women's President

Day 4
We got camp all packed up and were getting ready to head home when we saw this:

A FLAT TIRE!!
We tried to get the spare out but the Bishop must have been rear-ended because his bumper was crunched and there is a little pipe above the bumper where you put in the wrench to get the tire out and it was totally jammed. So luckily our camp nurse had a bike pump and we took turns pumping up the tire for over an hour!

We got it from 0 psi to 60 psi!!

And then we found the hole in the tire and duct taped it.
Duct tape fixes everything right? RIGHT!!

We made it all the way out of the canyon and back to civilization and
the tire held up perfectly.

What a great year at camp!

The other night while Nate was at soccer practice I went on a walk that was inspired by this post and the fact that every rose bush in the city is blooming and begging to be sniffed. I took my camera and a house key and headed out around the neighborhood. It was a lovely night and it felt good to stop and smell the roses.

Sniffing...