Sierra Ranch

GIRLS CAMP, what. what.
In true girls camp fashion. We laughed. We cried. We made time fly. My five days, four nights of camping bliss as Camp Director for the Sierra Ranch ward is over. I hate camping. I hate the preparation. But I love the girls. And although I'm not a fan of the dirt, lack of sleep, super hot days, unbearably cold nights, disgusting latrines and port-a-potties. It's fun to go. It's fun to be slap-happy tired all week. It's fun to see the girls bond together and get along in a way they normally wouldn't. And it's pretty amazing to see the girls grow so much spiritually in one week.

I made the girls set up camp, including their own tents. It's such a hard knock life. Some leaders had their camp all set up for when the girls got there. I neither had the time nor energy and if I have to get dirty - they should too. It's only fair, right?

We were at Campsite #10 at the top of the hill, by the upper ampatheatre. It was an intense daily workout walking up down, up down. After every meal down at stake, the girls usually had to go to flag or certification or something so I ended up hiking the 14 mess kits back to the top and requests to bring back sweatshirts, hats, water bottles, forgotten camp manuals, etc. My hands were always full. . . but that's just part of being a cool leader.

Speaking of cool. We had the coolest, funnest, most obnoxious leaders around. Just ask the girls -- they LOVE us.

This is Sis. Hizzle aka Mellissa, YW Secretary. The girls nicknamed her and she was fab. So sweet, so fun and totally volunteered to go hiking. Such a lifesaver.

This is Dawn. My sidekick. She is amazing! She helped out with all the prep work and came through like a champ. She's was our awesome cooking machine when stake let us down in the food department.

This is Maggie, YW Counselor. How do I explain. I can't. For those that know her, just know. She makes us laugh, and cry, and all the above. She was hestitant to come. And after a random late night call Monday night it was decided, she was coming! For the girl who hated girls camp, she did a mighty fine job and ended up loving every moment of it. I was excited that she had a great experience!

These are our stake homies. Sis. Robison, Momma Torres (Ally's mom, so the girls nicknamed her too), Sis. Crossman, Sis. Fackrell, and Sis. Thiriot... woot, woot.

Dawn hung up this Indian looking man to guard our tent. He did a pretty good job until the girls stole him, our pillows and TP'd our leader tent! I bought a game, KOOB, especially for camp but it didn't come in time so Jordan being the fab husband he is drove it up one night after work. Apparently, Sis. Shields broke the rules because their are no boys allowed at camp - I try to pull off the whole it was for their benefit -- but they weren't buying it and just reply in their sarcastic little voices, you know you wanted him here too. Please keep in mind Jordan was there for like point five seconds and as a result my tent got trashed. Good thing I can laugh about it until they informed me my pillow was in the latrine.

Kaylie, Becca, Nakaela, Aalyssa, Katie, Kaitlan, Ally, Meagan, Kylie, Katie Rae, Angela, Rachael, Kiana, Dawn Brown, Mellissa Hill and me.

This was our virtue hike. We woke the girls up at like 6 o'clock in the morning and made them start hiking. They were so mad at us, wanted to stop, and were moaning pretty much the entire 30 minute hike. It wasn't easy, especially that early. The climb was steep but ended up being so worth it. Dawn gave an awesome lesson/morning devotional about Sis. Dalton's talk: Return to Virtue. She made a gold banner just as the first presidency had done when they hiked Ensign Peak, that the girls could sign and then as the Sierra Ranch Young Women, we all called the Las Vegas Valley and the world to virtue. It was such a neat experience. Katie Rae gave a beautiful prayer and after a rough first day it was an amazing start to the second day of girls camp. The spirit was so strong that morning.

Katie and Ally.
Rachael and Mellissa Hill.

I wasn't a huge fan of the food. And that's about it.

Girls Camp is all about french braiding, and crazy hair styles. I was always braiding someone's hair. You're like a goddess at camp if you know how to french braid. And word spreads fast.

Dawn's taking out the pin-curls that were in Rachael's hair

These are the times.. sitting.. chatting.. laughing..

As part of certification the girls had to read a particular topic for fifteen minutes and then write in their journal. I'm not sure which one goes necessarily with each year but they were Baptism, the Atonement, God's Creation, and the First Vision. Each day we had "Grove Time" to read our scriptures and write in our journals. This year I split the girls into different groups and assigned different verses to read and we all discussed them as a group rather than splitting up individually, that way ideally the girls all participated in the discussions and passed-off certification at the same time. I liked the idea. I wanted the girls to really understand what they were reading and have an opportunity to talk about it and ask questions. I just remembered when I was younger hating going off and reading by myself, then not really comprehending what I was reading. For some reason I just always felt more comfortable in group settings. Overall the idea worked well, but it could use some twiking for next year. [I act like they'll let me go back another year].

Ally and Katie Rae writing in their journals one afternoon after Grove Time.

I had to make sure the girls did everything they were suppose to for certification. Ally, I'm sure is trying to convenience me roasting starbursts over the campfire counts as preparing a meal and cooking it over a campfire.

I had to teach some certification on Friday with Momma Torres to the 1st years. I think these girls were from Craig Ranch. Here are 3 out of the 4 1st years from my ward. Katie Rae, Katie and Aalyssa.
These are the Ward YCL's for the Nellis Manor. They were so funny, I remember the girl on the right's name was MacKenzie -- lame, I forgot the other. But they seriously had the goofiest outfits every day.


This was our turn to raise the flag.
One day while a ward was walking up to take down the flag one cute little second year whispered to another, "how do you fold the flag?" And the other girl whispered back "just like you fold a starburst wrapper." Ok, if that's not the funniest thing ever heard from two innocent friends. I couldn't stop laughing.

Being crafty in nature takes work. These cute tile frames with the YW theme for the year on them were so cute. We figured out they serious would just not stick. After almost giving up, Rachael's determination, even if it meant seriously peeling one letter at a time, she was going to finish because she wouldn't do it at home. And that's what we did -- I busted out the credit cards and for hours we sat peeling and cutting back one letter at a time. I'm so glad it turned out to be not as easy as it looked. It was precious time spent sitting around the table talking and goofing with the girls. Those are the times that really make memories.



The girls are always dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. It's like a big competition who can be the most obnoxious.

Angela and Michaela. This is my favorite Stankowsky girl. I freaking LOVE her. I want her to be my family. She jokes she's going to marry Sam so true to Sunrise Terrace fashion seeing as I find out I'm related to someone somehow through this marriage or that, I hope she does. This year I found out about Courtney Houston. She started calling me cousin... so I had to clarify exactly how I was related. I think I need a pedigree chart A) for Terri's family and B) for the Sunrise Terrace Ward.

Meagan, Ally, Kylie, Kaitlan and Katie Rae.

Katie Rae.

Maggie, me, and Mellissa.

It worked out that we actually got to go on the zipline quite a bit this year. The girls loved it. We talked Maggie into going! Amazing. I only ventured on it once because the YCL's think their so funny. Something like a joke gone totally wrong and I got the brunt of it. Apparently they were going to count off 1, 2, 3... and let go on 2 instead of 3 but both girls weren't in sync with the brilliant plan and they ended up dropping me not launching me and I smacked my legs on the launch boards and with that had no momentum, so I basically stopped half-way and had to pull myself to the end -- not fun. It freakin' hurt.

Mellissa Hill, Meagan, Ally, Kylie and me.

Here Angela and Kaylee are taking their crack at shooting BB Guns.

They could shoot their guns at a number of targets such as ex-boyfriends, etc. Becca choose the cast of Twilight.

Me, Dawn and Mellissa were all hanging out waiting for our girls to finish with shooting. Dawn's been in the ward since I think Feb-ish, and Mellissa really just moved in like a month ago and got put straight into YW's. So I really didn't know them very well at all. I loved hanging out and getting to know them better. They are both amazing -- and we were joking and laughing together all week.

This is KOOB. A girls camp game MUST HAVE. Our ward girls were introduced to it by Susan when she was in Young Womens, and they taught me last year so I just had to get for them this year. It's a very stragetic and competative game. The red block in the middle is the King and he's like the eight ball in pool, don't knock him over. The girls could play this game for hours. They get so into it!

This is a picture of Jordan's aunt Vickie.. She looks so enthusiastic. I love it. And she'll probably get mad at me for posting this picture.

And this is her ward, Sunrise Terrace. They have the cutest girls... with half of Jordan's little cousins in it. They sit in the same spot flag after flag and it's like unwritten marked territory. I think their cheaters - they get to take home the spirit flag every year -- Janette totally riggs it! :)

Girls Camp is all about who can scream and cheer the loudest. That's what camp's all about and as leaders, the girls love when we get all into it too. But just incase you have no comprehension of when you gather 13 wards in one place and have a screaming contest -- you better be fully stock with extra strength Tylenol.

And did I mention all the cheers make you look obnoxious and retarded. They are definately only approved for girls camp.

I love that Susan brings her trumpet to party. I have to say that, yes we heard and sang more Michael Jackson songs at camp in one week than I did my whole life. But why not, when you have someone as cool as Sis. Thiriot to bust out the tune.

Sitting on those cement blocks for like an hour twice a day really does a number on your back. It killed. But it's totally better than the wood logs they had when I was younger and we had ants crawling all over us.

We had some downtime (aka we didn't go to something we were suppose too) and instead were just sitting in our camp braiding hair, chit-chatting when the girls starting "preforming" for us. They wanted to do a dance off, but we didn't have the appropriate music so they were just being their goofy selves. And I happen to record about 20 minutes of it... I love seeing the girls get along and have fun being with each other, with girls at this age it's not always so peachy.

the video isn't uploading so i will add later ---

[so the girl in a bright green shirt on the end -- from the camp across the way, I know what ward but to avoid totally putting her on blast -- she's a little out there. She just comes over and starts dancing with our girls, kinda man handling Meagan. We were all sitting there thinking who is this girl totally crashing our party? She's kinda weird.]

The bishopric came up on Friday to make us dinner and participate in the testimony meeting. For not being a huge fan of the stake cooking this year, I was so ready for a good meal. We had dutch oven potatoes and chicken. I think they made a little too much, I don't think they quite got the grasp that girls don't eat as much as boys at scout camp. We love our bishopric, they are pretty much awesome!

Kaite, Rachael, Ally and Kylie


I think I'm making fun of Kiana or something. We're getting ready to give out the awards before our testimony meeting Friday night. That "testimony stick" that I'm holding is the greatest idea. We pass the stick around the circle of chairs twice. You can pass or bear your testimony, or you can even go twice if you feel so inclined but this way has worked so good for our ward. The girls bear their testimony pressure free and if they don't want too then you know the stick keeps going. I personally, hate bearing my testimony in public. I never say what I want, or really how I feel or I just prefer to keep to myself {I did bear mine by the way, it's like a requirement when you're a leader}. So I just don't think sitting in awkward silence for sometimes hours waiting for every girl to have an opportunity to share is necessary. Given our testimony meeting was still almost two hours long, we had time to enjoy dessert afterward and all but one shared their testimony.
That peach cobbler must be oh so good.