Madison's 1st Year at Girl's Camp

Rincon Stake Girl's Camp 2010

I was really worried to send Madison away for four days, the length of Girl's Camp.   There is no cell phone coverage on top of Mt. Lemmon where Zion's Camp is located.  It's a church campground.  We camped there a couple of summers ago for a ward campout. 

Even though I was worried, I was lucky enough to have friends who were leaders, and they promised they would keep an eye on her.  That was great, It gave me some peace of mind knowing they were aware of her.  This was her first time away from home, with no way of letting me know how she was doing.

Well, you can probably tell from the pictures that she was having the time of her life, and I will not worry at all next year!

Here's what she liked from the whole experience: 

• She loved the food!
• She liked practicing for skit night.  The theme was "Stand Up, Lead Out."  She was one of the "flip flop" girls that stood on stage holding letters that formed the word flip flop.  Her favorite part of the skit was when some of the girls said some foul language, they washed their mouths out with soap.  One of the girls was assigned as the "beeper," so the girls weren't really saying bad words-- there was just a "beep" sound.
• She liked making new friends.  She camped with three girls in a small tent.  There names were Symony, Samantha, and Sarah-- which is weird that the all have "S" names, except for Madison.
• The spirit was really strong there.  When they arrived at camp, they had the song "I Will" playing throughout the camp.
• She liked how they camped in small groups, in individual tents.
• She liked being one of the camp designers.  She decorated the tree's branches with pink flip flops.  She also made a foam finger  for the "Battle of the Bishops"-- to cheer them on!
• She liked how they handed out camp uniforms.  They handed out one flower for their hair, pink and black sashes to use as scarfs/belts, and they also gave them pink t-shirts that said, "Stand Up, Lead Out" on the back, and a little flip flop on the front.
• She liked that they taught the girls how to make necklaces.

The only thing that she had mixed feelings about, was the Zip-line!  She said it was kind of fun, but mostly scary.  She said that she was scared the men that were holding the tires(which stop you), would let go-- and then she thought she might bump into a tree!!!  Apparently our Bishop, Bishop Henderson, did the zip-line head first!  He was trying to be SUPERBISHOP!!!

She said her hike was super tiring!  She felt better about her hike after she found out the 3rd year girls had to hike for hours and hours, and they said it felt like the were climbing up endless stairs!

They had to wake up every morning at 6 a.m. -- but on the last day, they were able to sleep in, so she stayed up as late as she could.

And finally, she said that they would have to wait in long lines for a  shower.  Some of them decided to wash their hair in the sink, because they got tired of waiting in the long line.

and as Madison would say, "Stand Up, Lead Out!!!"