Girls Camp 2011

The week after school was out, the girls left with about 6 other girls to go camping. It was an organized camping event with our church here in Germany.  There were campgrounds about an hour away so Brian and I volunteered to take a few of the girls, all their stuff, and then hit up Trier which was nearby.  The girls really thought they'd be roughing it so we prepared for the worst. Plus, rain was in the forecast more than it actually rained.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually a lot more lush than the mud we expected, and the bathrooms that were rumored to be a mile's hike away were, in fact, only a short walk down the hill. Ticks were the only real threat and it only rained one day of the whole camp.

I have been saving this post for awhile now because I really wanted the girls to run a commentary and write about camp, seeing as I wasn't there.  So, I've finally been able to pin them down and get them to be my first guest bloggers! :) Woohoo. Can you believe it? I'm professional now. :)  We kind of just went through and just described the pictures, but there really was so much more that went on.  If there are holes and we left an explanation out, let me know and I'll get them to add something in.

So, on with the show!  Presenting, Guest Bloggers: XANTHE and XOE VILLA

XANTHE: These were some of the Young Women (YW) in our own ward  that helped set up the food canopy we ate under for our meals. The other girls were off setting up the tents we would sleep in and then setting out all of the sleeping bags and getting ready for devotionals. Our camp site was in Baumholder (Its name stands for "The Tree Protector") and took us about an hour and a half to drive there.

XOE: Setting up the canopy we ate all our meals under. It was actually easier than it looked but they were missing some pieces so in this picture they were figuring out how to make it work.


(MOM'S NOTE: a "ward" is the actual church group you meet with based on the proximity to the ward building.  Because of the number of people in the area, they split them up by location.  Our ward is called the "Wiesbaden Military Ward)

XOE: Blowing up our "beds." We were "roughing" it compared to all the other wards because they had cots and mattresses. The pool floaties were actually durable and didn't lose air or pop at all.

XANTHE: The Beehives (the younger girls) and the YW leaders bought pool floaties to sleep on and they were O.K. to sleep on... not the best, though.

(MOM: but who likes camping mattresses anyway?! Can't beat $2.50.  We bought two just in case one of them popped.  And none of them did! I'd say they were a pretty good buy.  Everyone caught on to the trend and even the leaders used them.)

                                              XOE:  Our little sign we had in front of the campsite.

XOE: The flag we made. Every ward had to pick a theme and ours was "Lovely." We all got to paint our names on the flag in a flower.

XANTHE: (From left to right) Haley, Xoe, Xanthe, and Ashley. The Beehives (the younger girls) of our YW. Before camp we all made pajama pants and wore them almost every day. As you can see, Morgan from our ward and was the YCL (Youth Camp Leader), is holding an axe in the background. We didn't even know she was there. Funny.

XOE: In front of the canopy. Every ward had to make a "flag" and had to hang it in front of the campsite. In the back, Morgan, holding an axe....

XOE:  Everytime somebody said lovely, we would have to yell "woo" and throw our hands in the air. Morgan again...

   XANTHE: All of our lovely (wooo...!) YW in our ward. We all took a picture together.
                                                     All of the young womens in our ward.

 XANTHE: One of the activities that the Beehives got to do at Girls Camp was to use coordinates to find objects that helped us to a specific place that we had to get to. And, also, with every object you find, there is a scripture.

  XOE: For one of the activities we had use clues to teach you to read coordinates and find your way through tough things. After we did the activity we sat down they passed out packs of gum.

XANTHE: Every time we found a clue with the coordinates, we all stamped out "coordinate cards" with a stamp that was sort of similar to the object we found.                                 
           
XOE:  Stamping our coordinate cards.

XANTHE: This is me, Xanthe.  Xoe came up really close and go a picture of me, but i didn't know that it was that close....

XANTHE: Xoe, Me, and a girl named Ashley Busby that has the same birthday as us (Weird, huh?). We went around together to find the objects with the coordinates they gave us.

XOE: Xanthe using her compass to figure out coordinates. Everytime we find a coordinate we get a stamp on our card.

XANTHE: Once again, the beehives still doing the coordinates.
MOM: They forgot to tell you about the cool t-shirts and lanyards they received when they got there.  They all got camp t-shirts and a lanyard with each of their camp schedule on it so they knew which activity to go to next.  As you will see, it started to fill up with pins, pens and papers.

   XANTHE: I got a turn to read a scripture aloud and then we moved on with the next clue.

   XANTHE: The field we did the coordinates in. Far into the picture, with all the tents in the background, that was the whole stake's campground. The stake is what is called when more than a few wards come together to do things. Every ward came from all over Germany. Ramstein, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden, and more. The little red and blue canopy to the right were the arts and crafts tables.

XANTHE: The mid-day activity where a guest speaker would come give us a lesson each day. The Girls Camp sign has the name of each ward that was there.    
XOE: One of the pavilions we had lessons in. The sign has all the names of the wards.

XANTHE: All the stakes beehives and YCLs (Youth Camp Leaders) doing arts and crafts. We were making necklace boards.
XOE: Painting necklace boards for one of the crafts. The vinyl sticker that went on the front said "We seek after these things".

XANTHE:  Ashley and I doing our necklace boards. Mine was lime green and Ashley's was black (I think).
XOE: Painting necklace boards. The Art's N Crafts part of the days were our favorite.

                                                         

XANTHE: All of the Beehives at the devotionals in the morning.
                                          

XANTHE:  Xoe, Sarah, Savannah, and Katrina at Devotional

                                                                           

                                                                                 Morgan

 XOE:  All the Beehives of the stake went on a hike to a lake that we could swim in. It started pouring rain.
                                                                  Getting ready for a hike

   XANTHE: All the pretty flowers that we passed by on our hike.

                                                    Ashley and her mom, Miss Sarah, one of our YW Leaders.

 XOE:  It rained on our hike and we forgot our umbrellas.  So when we got to the site where we were going to go swimming, a lot of girls still went, but a lot were cold.  The leaders started taking people back to the campsite. Here is Xoe, Xanthe, and Ashley. We were all to cold so we went back to the campsite.

A lot of us got our hair braided by Morgan and Ms. Sarah. What they did on us was super awesome! (Okay, from here on out, it seems like Xoe did most of the commentary since she wrote first.  Xanthe didn't comment if hers would have been the same.  So if there isn't a name, it just means both of them were writing.)

                                                         A slug Hayley found.

   All of our dishes from dinner. It was raining so hard so we just set out our dishes to be cleaned.

 The place we would meet at for devotionals.

 Another activity where we had to go through different obstacles like pioneers.

Some of the girls. Two of the girls in the front are in another ward. Hayley is from our ward in the back.

 We had to use a huge long straw to pick up marshmallows by sucking in our breath.

                                 Xoe trying to hold a marshmallow with the straw.

                                                        The place we did the activities

                               Sarah Anderson holding the bucket from the water game.

                                                              Xoe, Ms. Sarah, and Ashley.

Part of our campsite.  Our tent is the one on the right.  All the beehives slept in that one.

 Sitting around reading our parents notes, they gave us. We also got treats and stickers. Reading our parents notes was one of my favorite parts.

                                                                   

Notes we made. We had Secret Sisters but I didn't get any pictures of the presents she gave me.  Secret Sisters were an awesome part of camp.

Xoe eating the ice cream the bishop gave to us on Bishop's Night (when the "bishop" from our ward came to camp to share a message, make dinner and sleep over.  He made us laugh in his little tent.  We also played a trick on him by putting string in front of his tent door so he would trip in the morning. He thought it was funny.

  Bishop Meyers. Our bishop is Morgan's dad.

Xanthe helping to cook the fajitas we had for Bishop's Night. We got to wear aprons, customized chef hats, and cooking jobs and supplies.

                                           Xanthe helping to scoop the fajita mixture.

                           The dutch ovens we used to cook the fajitas and the dessert we had.

                                                  Bishop Meyers setting up the fire.

           Xanthe making the chicken mix for the fajitas and wrapping them up to put in the dutch ovens.

                                                                      Setting up a fire.

   XOE:    This was Ashley, Hayley, Xanthe, my tent.

      Somebody in another ward had got their hair braided but did it backwards, from the bottom, instead of top.

                                                            Our fajitas in the dutch oven.

                                                                                Xoe

                                                            Morgan and Xanthe cutting brotchen

                                                            Xanthe, Morgan, and Brittany.

                                                               Our chicken from our fajitas.

                                                                       Ashley eating her fajitas

                                                                       Xoe eating her fajitas

                                                                      Xanthe and Xoe eating.

                                                                      Xanthe full from eating.

                                                           

 Our dessert....Peach cobbler. Xoe was super sad because she didn't get any because everybody ate all of it.

The dutch oven we cooked the peach cobbler.

We had so much fun at Girls Camp.  We made friends with people from the other ward and can't wait to go back.  We got to read our scriptures, sing songs and it was the best time ever!!!!!!!!!!