Friday, June 26, 2015


Thursday night when we got home, everyone was pretty wiped out.  We had planned a campfire night but the girls ( and leaders) just didn't have it in us to do it.  We opted for manicures and pedicures.  We had a little blow up pool for them to soak their feet in and they were all cute to paint each other's nails.



 The next morning we had planned to go out on Strawberry and fish and boat.  Kelley and Rick left early to get the boat from over at the slip, then Rick was going to launch Marks boat and drive over with Kelley.  We were doing breakfast and cleaning up at the cabin while we were waiting for them.  We waited and waited and didn't hear anything so I text Kelley.  He said Marks boat wasn't running at all and his boat was running really rough.  He said he was afraid he wouldn't be able to make it to the Soldier Creek side. Everyone was really bummed.  We talked about it with the girls and decided there must be a reason we weren't supposed to be out on the lake that day.  We said a prayer, asking for protection and help for the men trying to dock the two boats in the wind with no power.  
We started making our washer stamp necklaces while we were trying to come up with a plan B for the day.  It was pretty tricky to hammer the stamps without them slipping but after a lot of trial and error, we went for it.  I think the girls had fun doing them.  They turned out really cute.  I was sure grateful for Charity's help. She  has a real calming effect on everyone took my stress level down at least ten notches.    Stacey went down to the marina to see if there were any fun hikes or  beaches we could try .  They suggested going over to Aspen Grove cause they have a nicer beach over there.  
By this time the Bishop and Jerry and Dave had shown up.  They went over to help the men at the Strawberry dock. I guess it was pretty rough.  They didn't have much to say about it when they got back, just looked really frazzled.They brought back all the life jackets off the boats so the girls could use them over at the aspen grove beach.  We loaded up and headed over there.  








The girls just jumped right in (thank goodness it was a hot day cause the water was pretty cold!) and had fun swimming over to the little island.  

The fishermen got all the gear out and helped the girls that had gotten their fishing license.  It was pretty windy so that made it kind of challenging but I think they had fun anyway.  Kelley was sweet with Mary E.  She wanted to fish so bad and really kept trying and trying.  (didn't leave the line in the water long enough for a fish to have a chance of biting it, but she got the casting down pat!)



















Stacey went back to the cabin early to start getting things ready for our spiritual activity.  She had gotten letters from different  ladies in the ward with encouraging words about getting to the temple.  They also had a letter from their parent that was more personal.    When we got back, we drove around to find a little walk for the girls to take where we placed these different signs.  Stacey had made them so cute with  our theme "Anchor yourself to Christ"


We gave all the girls a journal that they could write their thoughts in as we walked along.  Stacey had made these other signs that had all the  ways the girls had listed that they thought they could Anchor in Christ.


 We handed out the letters, then gave the girls some time alone to read them and write in their journals.








 As we walked back to the cabin, the sun was just setting.  It was really beautiful.
When we got back to the cabin, the men had set up this cool temple scene with a picture of Christ and there was nice music playing for them to listen to.  We all sat and enjoyed the music while they wrote in their journals some more, then we walked across the road to the neighbors (who have an amazing fire pit and offered to have us come for our testimony meeting) and we got the fire going.  


                           It was such a beautiful evening.  The stars were all so bright and clear.  It was wonderful to just sit and stare at the sky.


 The girls bore sweet testimonies. They really opened up and shared their hearts.  Even two girls who are not members of the church that came shared their feelings.  Its  pretty cool to see how the girls are touched by the spirit.  Just being in this amazing setting makes you feel so close to Heavenly Father.       It was pretty special night and the spirit was strong.  I hope the special feeling will stay with them as they remember this special night.




Thursday, June 25, 2015


Well we survived another girls camp.  I'm so glad we had it early this year so I don't have to worry about it the rest of the summer!  It really turned out pretty special even though some things we had planned didn't work out.
So several months ago, we started throwing around some ideas with the girls about what they wanted to do for girls camp.  The Miller girls mentioned that they have a cabin at Strawberry that we could stay at and they all went for that idea.  We thought it would be fun to go fishing on Kelley's boat too, so we started building our camp around that idea. 
We thought we would have between 12-15 girls that would want to go but ended up with 17.  We were getting a little worried about fitting all the girls on the boat so we asked  Toby and Mark if they could come up with their boats too. They are so great!  Toby said his folks would come up and take the girls out boating.  Mark couldn't come but said we could use his boat.  So Toby drove Marks boat.
We met at the church at 8 am and got on our way soon after.  We thought it would be warmer and have nicer beaches at Deer Creek so we went there for the day Thursday.
 Tobys parents brought their boat over to the dock and picked up half of the girls...Toby was driving Marks boat and was having trouble with it.   It would go for a little way, then kill and wouldn't start again.  He had half the girls on his boat and they got tired of waiting around for it to start so they just jumped in and went swimming.









Toby's parents were pulling a real fun inner tube that would hold four girls so we kept switching out the ones that were on the other boat so everyone could have a turn.  
Word got back to Rick about what was going on with Marks boat and he knew just how to tweak it to make it go.  After that it ran great all day.  Mark had a different kind of tube on his boat that was a little more challenging to hold on to....and Rick was driving the boat!  He likes to go fast and gave the girls a wild ride. They would wipe out so bad and go flying, but they came up laughing.  They all loved it!















Rick talked Stacey into going on the scary tube.  Toby was driving and they were really flying!  Felt bad Stacey had to get payback ride for the wild rides Rick had been giving!  She was brave though and held on till they had a massive wipeout.


All the leaders got on Toby's parents tube and he gave us a real fun ride.  He was doing some turns and went back over his own wake to have us hit some big bumps.  Becky and I went flying off the tube, then I heard everyone on the boat screaming.  they had run into their own wave and it swamped their boat.  They had about 6 inches of water in the boat.  They all started bailing and got the pump running.  They said that had never happened to them before!  It was kind of ironic cause he was driving so cautiously to make sure none of the girls got scared or hurt.






It really was a fun day though.  We had perfect weather and the wind didn't come up (like it always does on deer creek) till right before we left.  A couple of the girls didn't do very good with the sunscreen though (even though we were constantly telling them to re apply) and ended up with some nasty sunburns.