Like real, actual love...

Me, Savy, Erica, and Jamie getting ready to go hiking. The theme this year was B.O.O.T. Camp... "Building Our Own Testimonies" hence the camo.

well i'm back from girls camp, obviously. this year was Stake, so we had K3, K4, K5, O1, O2, Alton, and Glendale all there. it was up by Mammoth Lake, on some property that my bishop and his family owns. since his wife happened to be our ONLY official leader for my ward, we had permission to sleep in the heated sheep wagon. we didn't, but we could have. haha

another thing that was different this year than any other year was the fact that i was a Junior Leader... weird! i got special priveleges (as in... making the littler girls do whatever i didn't want to do. haha), i was allowed to give girls permission to do stuff (such as sleeping with another ward because she was all alone in hers and we're all about the buddy system.), but something else was different that i did NOT expect. when testimony came around, i was sitting next to Savy and there was this huuuuuge long awkward silence. i was wondering why this was happening, because it had never happened in any other previous years. but after a few minutes, it hit me and Savy at the same time... it's always the older girls that go first. we were so used to waiting for them to go first and follow their example, but it struck us that we were the "older girls." so first Jamie went, then Nikiah, then Savy, then me. suddenly, there were no more silences, because all the younger girls were following what we did. i don't know why that hit me so hard, but it did. and i'm still having a hard time getting over it.

another great, great thing about being a Junior leader was that i got to help conduct the Snipe Hunt! if you don't know what that is, i'll just tell you part of it. Snipe Hunting is where you take the younger girls (mostly first years and a couple second years) into the woods armed with pillowcases and flashlights. the idea is that we're looking for Snipes which are... well, i can't really describe them. just that they're fairly small, VERY fast, strictly nocturnal, they have incredible hearing (so you have to shut the heck up), and glowing red eyes. oh, and you have to keep your flashlights on the ground AT ALL TIMES because snipes live in trees mostly, and if you shine your light on them, they take off and you basically can't ever find them again. i won't go into the other part of Snipe Hunting, however. if you really want to know, you'll have to ask me in person. on the other hand, if you DO know what Snipe Hunting is... let me just say that i am incredible at it. really, i should get some kind of award! haha

so basically, this year was honestly the best year i've ever had at girls camp. the very first day was REALLY windy and the first night was a nightmare because it was absolutely freezing(i've never been so happy to wake up in my life. that includes Christmas and all birthdays.), and the dirt there was so fine it was like camping in gross powdered sugar. but other than that, i had so much fun hanging out with Nikiah and Erica and Jamie and Savy.


Savy, Nikiah, Erica, me, and Jamie in Mammoth Cave.

the skits are always interesting. this year, we got our props from Kanab 4th ward... and they are some sick, sick people. some of the things we got included a pinwheel, 5 or 6 crowns made out of pipe cleaners, a pair of old disgusting oversized longjohns, a pair of cow-print pants, a Daniel Boone hat, a Flintstone dress type thing, and several strange hats. i ended up wearing the longjohns (gross), the Superman cape, a hardhat with a crown ducttaped to the top, and i used the pinwheel as a flower. i was Garett the Good.


Me doing my "Garett the Good" pose that Lucy never could quite get enough of. Needless to say, our skit got more laughs than any other.

so that's pretty much all i have to say. except that i fully intend on going to girls camp next year and the year after that. as far as i'm concerned, eighteen is still a perfectly good age to go to girls camp. =]


Erica and me. Honeyface and Sweetie Pie. Sapphire and Pumpkin Butt. (Those last two are what we call each other when we're "fighting". the story behind Sapphire is a really good one, but i told it so much at camp that i'd feel pretty bad if i posted it on the internet. haha)


Nikiah and i. i think she might be why i had so much fun. this was her last year at camp with our stake, so maybe that's why i made the absolute best out of it. i love Nikiah. like, real actual love... =]


in other news, i get my braces off in one day and 11 hours. so i guess that makes 37 hours... or so. but who's counting? also, i've got my second date since i've turned 16! i have no idea when it is or what we'll do or who we'll double with or any other details, i just know who it will be with and that it will (hopefully) be sometime this summer. whoo! i'm super excited. that kid is like one of my best friends and i know we'll have a blast!