Patrea asked me if I’d help Tony in the kitchen for girls camp this year. It’s the first year all 3 girls would be there, so that was a good reason to stay and also a good reason to go. The thing that made it a difficult decision though is that girls camp ended Friday and we leave for our big summer trip Sunday. I really had to think about it, but in the end I want the girls to know that we love to serve even when it’s not always convenient. Because honestly it’s not usually convenient. Anyways, we worked worked worked to have everything ready for camp and our big trip before we left. And Monday morning we were ready.
Matt and I celebrated our 18th anniversary with a morning kiss before these youth camp leaders and I headed to Prince William Forrest in Virginia.
We got our gear unloaded and they started doing their YCL things. When Sarah and Tony arrived we all unpacked their van and after Nick brought them their fancy Costco dinner, we headed for our big Costco shopping trip.
We had 3 carts and one pallet and they were all full. And we closed the place down. Like, we were the last people to check out with our 4 carts. We left Costco at 9, loaded the van, then hit Walmart where we did the 4 cart thing again. We didn’t get everything unloaded back at camp till after midnight. Sarah and I had the Pax cabin all to ourselves, so we showered and then stayed up talking way too late.
Kitchen duty started every morning at 7 and didn’t end until 10 or 11pm each night. It was a lot of work! Frankie had invited a friend from girls camp in Virginia so I made sure to be down at the drop off spot Tuesday morning so I could meet her mom. On my way back to the kitchen I covertly snapped this YCL helping her little campers to their cabin.
I made 2 1/2 gallons of Cafe Rio deliciousness for dinner that night.
I covertly snapped this cute camper getting her lunch as I mixed and chopped my vats of dressing.
Bahamas! They divided the girls into countries (kind of random countries like Chile and the Bahamas
) for their Olympic theme and Delaney was Bahamas.
Each ward slept in a cabin/cabins all together. I grabbed this pic and then adi told me she hadn't been the one to actually make their sign. Oh well. 🤗
I really didn’t take a lot of pictures, just some random ones whenever I had time and was thinking about it, which wasn’t often.
We had some girls come ask if we needed help Tuesday night, and even though I was tired and didn’t want to make Wednesdays dessert then, I figured if I had an offer of help that I should take them up on it. So they crushed Oreos for my crust and filling, and I hand mixer’d up 5 quarts of heavy whipping cream till I got stiff peaks. Then I hand mixer’d 8 blocks of cream cheese and butter and you get the picture. I made 3 giant pans of Oreo Pie. It was tricky because we couldn’t do anything with any nuts. Anyways, Tuesday was another late night, I guess they all were really.
The YCL’s came up with the menus with a little help from Tony. They wanted a yogurt bar one day, which I love but was tricky to get 180 people through and it’s so hard to gauge how much food to have and we ran out of everything before everyone had eaten. Tony also had yummy eggs he made almost every morning so no one ever went hungry even when we ran out of mains.
Each day we had girls helping before meals and after meals, and we got much better at tasking them for both as the week went on. I grabbed a shot of Lily mopping floors to send to Alecia.
The boys had planned everything, so they were the chefs and then Jodie, Jae, and I were helpers. It was an easy week in that we all worked hard and well together. No drama, no anger, no frustration, and it was extremely hot with no ac in all the camp, so that’s saying something. I loved it too because when there was something that needed done, one of us would just do it. No need to ask or assign people, we just jumped in. And there was always something to do, so that worked out.
On Thursday we hustled to prep dinner and clean up lunch so we could go watch some of the variety show. I got to see all 3 girls. Frankie and Delaney did a dating game skit with the other girls from Pax. Delaney was the boy and Frankie was the pageant queen.
Then the YCL’s did a cute dance.
And then it was back to the kitchen. After pasta Thursday night we deep cleaned everything - we left that kitchen much better than we found it! And we pulled everything out and put it on the tables to divide and pack.
I wanted to make sure to grab a pic of the 5 of us, so I ran outside and asked one of the girls after their bishop time. Patrea made us aprons and we all got camp shirts too, Jodie just forgot to wear hers. 😂
I helped Will Gillingwater cook for girls camp years ago, but it was just ward camp so it was so much smaller and simpler. I brought a book and my swimsuit this time not knowing what to expect, and I never touched either one. 😂 It was busy but good and the time went by fast. And Tony had planned delicious food and everyone was so grateful. And just like that it was Friday morning. We stayed to help load cars and clean the kitchen and then the 4 Rays + 2 YCL’s were off. These cute girls were so sleepy! 20+ people in a cabin makes for late nights. The girls were wired and having fun together and then we had 2 snorers that made it difficult to sleep. One night we had a big storm and the power went out, so no one had thought to turn the lights off, so then when the power came back on at 2am we all bolted up out of bed.
We stopped for milkshakes on the way home and talked all about camp. My girls had fun. They didn’t like it as much as ward camp last year, but it was still a good experience. Frankie struggled with her friend Violet that came from Virginia. She was pretty introverted (which is fine), but didn’t seem to want to participate with her, and that’s always hard because she felt responsible for her. Delaney doesn’t love being around people all the time, so that was her biggest complaint, but Adi loved being a leader and is looking forward to being a camp leader again next year.
Girls camp was great and I’m glad it’s over. 🤗
