"Jesus Loves Ewe" - Stake Girls Camp 2008

I just got back from our Stake Girls Camp. Amazingly enough, there was no drama, or cat fights! Only thing to report is a couple of bee stings, one set of stitches and one twisted ankle!! Pretty great track record for having 265 girls for 2 days! I am currently serving as 1st counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency, and I have to say....Young Women's is where my heart is!! I have always loved the YW's program. It is definitely a way to stay feeling young. As we met with the general board this year, Sis. Dalton explained that their greatest concern right now with the Young Women, is that they truly don't know who they are or that they can repent. We decided as a presidency, that our theme for camp this year would be "Jesus Loves Ewe!" Each ward was a flock and had a name. One of the cutest names was the Country Crossing Ward, they called themselves the "Eweniques!" We started off camp with an opening ceremony where we discussed the theme and then we all stood and recited the YW Theme, (Which always gives me goose bumps when we're all together, it's pretty powerful)!! Then we had a surprise for them...we had made a skit bag for each ward. Each bag was full of 20 junk items that they had to take and make a skit out of. We asked them if they wanted us to do one right there without any rehearsal or knowledge of what was in the bag...of course we had a completely choreographed and practiced dance, but that is what made it fun. So we acted like we were trying to decide which bag to choose and off we went. The girls loved it. I thought I'd post it for all the leaders to enjoy, should they visit the blog. (It would only let me post it at the end...Enjoy!)The last night at camp, we had the Stake Presidency and all of the bishoprics and wives come up for dinner and a fireside. Dinner was Cafe Rio style....and it turned out AWESOME! We called ourselves Cafe 'Ole. We each had black aprons and visors. Jan Sisneros put our name on our aprons and then sewed cute chile peppers on our visors! The girls and leaders absolutely loved this dinner. As a leader or a Priesthood brother would come through the line, we would yell, "Leader, or Priesthood, clap our hands twice and throw our hands in the air and say, 'Ole!!" We served the delicious chicken salad with beans, rice, chicken, lettuce, salsa/sour cream, and topped it off with tortilla strips! Dinner was a hit with everyone and was so much fun to do. However, it took over 100 pounds of chicken, 25 bags of lettuce, 25 pounds of rice, and 5 hours prep time to serve 325 people!! We didn't have very much left over, so we planned pretty well! It was great!(Left-right: Melinda Johnson - Committee, Karen Waite - Pres., Wendy Franklin - Committee, Me, Shari Blatter - 2nd Couns., Jan Sisneros - Sec.)

Other highlights would include, delivering room service to each ward at night by giving them baskets of treats that they had ordered on a form during the day, Country Crossing Ward girls talking me into visiting their camp the first night and making me the butt of their jokes by tricking me into doing things that would get me wet or make me a fool in front of all of them, which to be honest, turned out to be a blast, and our closing ceremony where our Stake President spoke and then back by Popular demand, the "Dreamgirls" took the stage again! Camp was a complete success this year, and I count myself lucky to serve with the Sisters that I do. I have learned so much from each of them and consider it a great blessing in my life. A big thanks to my Husband for playing my part and his for the last two days, and for Grandma and Grandpa Hale for taking my little Sis. for two days so Trav and the boys could attend all of their sports events at night! I couldn't do this without all of you! Is it really time already to plan Laurel's Camp for June '09?!!