Ward Girls Camp ~ Day 1

 

It happened. It finally happened. After months of planning, Zoom meetings, changes, adjustments, trying to collect paperwork and figure out rides for everyone - ward girls camp for the 2nd ward and Lone Pine branch happened this past week. I was so so nervous leading up to camp with not knowing what to expect. I've never been to this campground before. I've never ever done a ward girls camp before, only stake. I was nervous about the lack of bathrooms and the heat.

 

 

Found this little heart shaped leaf that had blown on to my chair in the afternoon and it reminded me that everything was going to be okay.

We got to Lake Diaz - 75 miles from Ridgecrest - around 8:30am on Monday. We all set up tents and unloaded a trailer and cars with food and gear. I should have taken a picture of all the cases of water! But many hands make light work and it didn't take super long really to get most things set up.

We went to the Lone Pine church building for sack lunches, some orientation, some crafts and setting up for the carnival that the youth camp leaders (YCLs) were in charge of in the afternoon. Lots of pop up tents were put up for shade and it got a bit windy but the guys were great with keeping everything staked down despite us having to move the canopies around so many times. 

 

 Fun kit of a water bottle and journal decorating craft that all the girls got to do 

 

 

 

So grateful for a cool place to get out of the heat. And use real toilets since the campground didn't have that...

 

Play some games outside for a bit

Some of the carnival games - throw a ring over a Tootsie roll pop

Mask decorating

Writing letters to the missionaries at this station. Cute setup!

Potato sack races

Disney Karaoke was pretty fun and popular for the girls

Darts with balloons in the building where it was a bit cooler

Corn hole game - my favorite!

I did get a photo of the BBQ setup...I guess this guy from Lone Pine used to have a business. The food was super delicious. The corn on the cob smelled soo good! Sadly for some reason I did not take a picture of my dinner. The camera forgot to eat first!

 I had hemmed and hawed about bringing the teardrop camper to Diaz Lake for quite a bit. I just couldn't decide what to do because it was hard for me to picture how parking would be, managing to unhook it from the car after backing it up into a spot, etc. On Monday evening I decided after finding out I would not get to share a tent for a few nights with a friend because the original person sharing the tent with her ended up being able to come to camp that evening instead of later in the week, that I would go back and get the teardrop. Luckily everyone seemed okay with that. So I drove 75 miles back to Ridgecrest, got to shower, sleep in my own bed, talk Tony's ears off and in the morning grab a bunch of ice at Stater Brothers to take up to camp and drive back with the teardrop camper!

Stay tuned for day 2 of girls camp...