Desert View Girls Camp 2013

I was the camp director for the 2nd year in the row for my ward. Our theme was "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" This year was a ward camp, so we had to plan everything. It was a little tricky this year with Ella's birth, but with a lot of blessings, everything came together really well.  We had our fundraiser on April 5th, just 14 days before Ella was born.  I had a lot of help and we raised plenty of money.  About three weeks after I had Ella, I had to start planning camp pretty seriously.  It was very stressful a lot of the time, but I also had a lot of tender mercies that helped me get through it.  Once we got to camp, it was very fun.  David was able to be at the camp with Madi and Brock for the first couple of days to help set up and to be part of the priesthood before our Bishop could come. It was such a fun and unique experience to have my whole family at camp with me part of the time!  It was a lot of work to pack for Girl's Camp, plus my entire family to camp and then to spend the next week and half in Utah with different cousins and family.  But like I said, once we got to camp, everything was a breeze...mostly. Ella was an angel at camp and was my perfect little sidekick everywhere I went. Of course I had many willing hands, but she mostly didn't leave my arms!  I really loved it, especially at night around the camp fire. We had a group of 14 girls, 4 of which were YCL's.  The girls were awesome! They all got a long so well, and were SO MUCH FUN!  I really lucked out with the girls... and the leaders.  We were very much blessed.  All of the leaders went above and beyond in their assignments, and everything just flowed really well.  Now I am not going to lie and say that everything leading up to camp was as easy... it wasn't. There were many times when I would be so stressed with a crying baby and two CRAZY kids and think, really, why I am the one doing camp??? This is not my time.  But really I would have missed out on a very spiritual and fun week.  I learned a lot from camp and the other leaders. I have realized that relationships and bonding with friends and family is what makes life enjoyable. Looking back on it all, I feel so LUCKY that I got to plan and attend camp.  In the end, I got way more out of it then I put in.