YW Camp

Catherine's first year at YW Camp and I got to tag along! 

Attending Bynum Run YW ready for the two hour drive to camp.

Catherine opted to drive with me in the van full of luggage.

We blasted music and sang very loudly.

It was awesome.

Crafting with Brie at the Craft Cabin:

We are so beautiful!

Camp this year was very different. The big adventure was hiking the Appalachian Trail, which I think is just so cool! The oldest girls spent two nights on the trail, the middle group spent one night, and my group (the youngest, which included Catherine), only did a 5 mile day hike. I got to go with the energetic group, who basically ran the entire five miles. This may have caused extreme stress for the stake YW president, who kept telling the girls they needed to stay in vision range. That mostly was a failure. Their goal was to be the very first group done. They ended up being second, which is still pretty impressive considering we started after everyone else!

Running down the trail

My group of trail runners. I had so much fun with them!

Catherine survived the hike and enjoys a snack while waiting for a ride back to camp.

Catherine surprised me a few times at camp. The biggest shock was when she agreed to participate in the camp-wide talent show. She and three friends did a karaoke version of Taylor Swift's 'Love Story,' complete with a garbage bag wedding dress (featured below). I couldn't believe it when they signed up! It was so fun watching her be silly and just have fun with her friends. 

Our last night was Bishops' Night. 

We made mini pizzas and had a testimony meeting around the fire.

Sis. Sergent and Catherine making pizzas.

Catherine is wearing a mask because the smoke from 

the Canadian wildfires was really bad while we were at camp. 

Bynum Run YW with Sister Kraczek and Bishop.

Also, that is my glorious green tent in the background.

They insisted I needed to be in the picture as well.

I am not good at selfies. 

Catherine and friends enjoying some pizza on the last day of camp.

Added a few friends to the mix!

Apparently on the way home from camp there is an elephant emporium, which sounds weird. But apparently it's not really about the elephants, it's about the CANDY. It's a giant store full of all kinds of fun, rare, unique candy. And it's tradition to stop there on the way home. So we loaded a bunch of stinky, dirty girls into cars and unloaded them on the Elephant Emporium. And there was much candy purchased and much happiness had. 

Camp was both wonderful and difficult. We had a special needs YW who required someone to be with her one-on-one at all times. We also had some phone use issues, some personal space issues, and the usual camp issues (mostly lack of sleep). But I had several wonderful friends up there who helped me be a little more patient and forgiving, as well as letting me vent when I just needed to complain for a minute. 

Catherine had a great time and is so excited for next year. I'm so glad her first year of camp was awesome, and it was so fun to get to share it with her. Also many thanks to Jon for taking the week off work so that I could go!