News del Mercado: Time Away

I was asked, for the third year in a row, to go to Young Woman's Camp (aka Girl's Camp) this summer. It's for ages 12-18, so Victoria barely missed it herself, but since she babysits now, I figured it would be a good chance to go to make it easier for the people helping with my kids while I was away for 3 1/2 days. The first two days some friends picked them up around 10, wore them out with whatever fun activities they involved them in with their own kids, and brought them home around 3. My friend, Gayla, whose kids are all grown up now, hung out with them at home afterwards while they took full advantage of their screen time. I'm sure they would have been fine without Gayla coming over, but they love her and she loves them, so I know they enjoyed their time with her until Jason got home from work. It turns out, my mom and Jim were able to leave their mission a few days earlier than originally planned and managed the drive from Philadelphia in one long day, so they got to be with the kids the other day and a half before I returned. It ended up working perfectly since Austin came down with a fever Wednesday night and was able to rest at home with Grandma and Grandpa the next day. He started feeling better just in time for Friday when they rode their bikes to the movie theater and watched the dollar movie as the beginning of celebrating Grandpa Jim's birthday.

In the meantime, I got to be a counselor for the first year girls at camp. They were all just barely older than Victoria, a couple of them her friends. The theme was "The Anchor of my Soul". All the workshops and hymns had to do with water and how Jesus Christ is our hope and anchor. I really enjoyed the messages, being with the young teenagers, and the food prepared for me and not having to convince anyone to eat! I was in charge of certifying the girls in cooking over a campfire and hiking. Each age group had a "mascot" and a color related to the ocean. We were the dolphins and our color was turquoise. I was impressed by how the girls worked hard to earn their certifications and to clean up their messes. They didn't complain on the 3 mile hike and all got along, for the most part.

I took very good notes for Victoria's first experience at the campsite next summer. Such as, send her with bedding, not a sleeping bag (too hot!) Also, a box fan would be nice. We were in cabins and they got pretty warm at night. Bug spray (obviously) and allergy medicine will make her life much easier! I hope I get to go again next year!

Fourteen girls in my group from the Stake and the three in the back are the Youth Leaders. There were two other Adult Leaders besides me.

After we got our nice white anchor shirts, they did a color "run" and "tie-dyed" the shirts. It was more like a run-ten-feet-into-a-bunch-of-color-dust, rather than an actual run, so I opted to take pictures and keep my shirt white.

Learning to build a fire.

It's burning!

I showed them how to make orange cinnamon rolls. Put a cinnamon roll in a hollowed out orange and wrap it in foil and put it in the fire. Delish!

The hike

Our evening devotional the first night.

The last night we had a "Desserted Island" party. Lots of desserts were served. This was coconut sorbet in a coconut shell- to die for!

Grandpa's birthday celebration with pie after I returned.

Grandpa's favorite thing: work on projects! He helped redo our deck.

He also made a ramp for the boys to shoot their cars down.

I got to sleep in my bed one night, then we had to take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa being here again and go celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. It was planned very last minute, allowing time to be dedicated to the deck on Saturday. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Carrabba's and stayed at the Marriott to enjoy swimming and the hot tub there. The next day was our anniversary and Sunday, so we enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel and then came back, but it was nice to relax together alone!