The Wilderness Must Be Explored!

I swear every year my life tailspins out of control right before I go to Girls Camp. This year was no exception. Just too much happening at work, at home, with kids, and my dumb dog who seems to totally FREAK out right before I leave or like last year, once I'm up there. I seriously worry that I'll come home to a dead dog {from destroying the yard... again} or two kids who have driven their dad to the nuthouse.

It's a magic formula to send into a crying-up all night doing laundry-last second muffin baking in the hopes my family will forgive me for leaving for a few days-crazy-stressed out fit. The anxiety, guilt, internal torment, worry, and tension is so intense. I drove up to camp in tears, stressed out, and {I'm terrible to admit this} almost yelling at my Heavenly Father that if I'm doing what I'm supposed to, He better cut me some slack this time and keep the dog from eating Jeff's flowers AGAIN!

But then I drive into camp and see my girls. They run to the truck and give me hugs. They tell me they missed me {because I couldn't come up the first day} and they are soooo happy I'm there.

All of my turmoil melts away. Those girls. They make my heart happy. They remind me of all the good in the world and what's really important.

Our stake leaders chose the theme "Finding Joy in the Journey" and then every ward put their own twist on it. The girls picked the movie Up as our inspiration and decided we'd be "Wilderness Explorers" for camp.

And our camp flag was AWESOME. {It helps that our Secretary is a graphic designer and artist}

We did the usual.... decorate our cabin, crafts, skits, writing in adventure books, Up-themed dinner with the Bishopric, and testimony meeting. I'm sure the men-folk who come to camp with us find women completely weird when they see us pack an entire truck full of decorations.

I did have to be the "bad guy" and threaten the Beehives within an inch of their lives if they destroyed anything, drove the Laurels batty, or woke me up with their late-night shenanigans. We've been a bit spoiled and haven't had, what I like to remind the Laurels, "real" Beehives. Twelve-year-old giggling, kind of annoying, super excited about EVERYTHING girls. I love them! Even if they are a bit exhausting to keep tabs on.

Especially when, oh let's say another leader gets a surprise engagement from her boyfriend while doing their Rapunzel themed skit... oh yes. There was a white horse and handsome "Prince" involved. Thus ruining an entire stake of girls' perception on what true love and an engagement looks like in real life. Yeah. That took a few hours of explaining to the girls that not all boys come riding in on a white horse.

These girls.... Heavenly Father must have known I needed them. Now if He could just help me out with the chaos pre-camp next year :)