Girls Camp

I don't even know where to really start with this.  It turned absolutely fantastic!  I have no words to even express how wonderful it was, the amazing people that helped, and my Heavenly Father who gave me His strength to accomplish something so far out of my reach.

The weekend before Sam's wonderful younger sister Jessica came to town to stay with the kids.  We enjoyed some quality time with her before we had to take off (me on Monday and Sam on Tuesday).  One night we took her canoeing up the Snake River to Pillar Falls. We had a great time playing games with her and the kids loved having her around.  She did a fantastic job with the kids and it was so nice to not worry at all about them while we were away.

 The rest is just a sneak preview of camp.  The first day we took out "phenomenal" YCLs to the Payette river to go rafting.  I had never done this stretch of the river and neither had most of the girls.  It was so fun to see their excitement and we had a great time with them.

 (for posterity sakes: Front row--Tara, Sheri, Samantha, Taylor, Megan, Kelsi, Emily B, Ellie, Emilee, Kayla, Hanna, Sister Huber.  Back row--Kylie, Audrey, Sister Jensen, Emily C, me, Kendall, McKenna, Amanda, Emily W, Elizabeth, Breanna, and hiding in the back Sister Bates and McKay)

 We took 3 rafts down and this was #2.  Look at their faces...so funny!!

 Our camp theme was "Be a Hero".  This was all the leaders with their camp shirts on making silly faces.  We had a great group of leaders too and I am so thankful for helping us make it such a success.

This was one of the few times we actually got to be together.  Sam was one of the assistant cooks and a priesthood leader.  This particular night was our "Walk with Christ".  We are singing songs, getting ready for our Stake Presidency to speak.  We then went in groups to different stations the YCLs had about different parts of Christ's life.  Each station one of them bore their testimony, talked about a personal experience, and had a song.  We ended with Sam singing, "Never a Better Hero".  It was an amazing experience, especially to hear the girls thoughts about it afterwards.  All of them mentioned what a spiritual experience it was and I know it was because the YCLs put it all together (with a tiny bit of help from leaders), presenting everything, and the girls really look up to them so it was like watching their "heros" share their feeling about the Savior.

Anyway..I will share more later but it's a week behind me and we are doing fantastic.