YW Day Camp

For those of you who have no idea what a YW Day Camp is, I will explain. Every year in our faith, the young women (YW) have an annual week camp trip. They learn everything from starting their own fires without matches to hiking the beautiful country that surrounds them.

This year, however, our area is not having camp and instead having a Regional Encampment. So this means that I have to make sure that each of my three YW get their camp requirements done for the year. Sounds easy? Not even close. I have one YW that needed to finish one year, another YW to finish two years, and my last YW to finish up one, two, three, and complete her fourth year. We had a lot to accomplish and I was going to do my best to get them done.

After changing my mind so many times, I decided that a day camp at Delagoon Park will fulfill all the camp requirements necessary for the Young Women. You see, I am leaving soon (another story) and I wanted to get this done for the girls before I leave which leaves us with May to work on. Because it is May, I had to worry about cold temperatures at night and massive tick issues during the day-thus the day camp.

It was a beautiful day. Perfect day for camping. The YW got their bright and early (8am) and started off with their tasks of starting a fire and cooking an awesome breakfast. Afterwards, they went right to work getting their camp requirements finished.

They are being taught how to sharpen and take care of a knife.

My yw here is learning how to tie a variety of knots from my son, Ethan, the new Boy Scout who came much better prepared than I was with his assignments.

Since this was her first year camp "experience" she got the job of cleaning up breakfast dishes. Doesn't she look happy about it?

My oldest YW had to write a poem about nature that surrounds her. With permission, here is her poem:

"The fire is burnin'

While we're out learnin'

You can hear the singing of birds

and see all the dog turds

Boy, do I love nature!"

After they accomplished all their tasks, the final task was to hike a five mile hike. We went on the bike trail in our town and we were able to hike and learn about our environment. We learned about the trees, sumac, saw an otter, the weather and tried to learn a song about "Idaho"

I hope the YW enjoyed this day camp experience as much as I did. I wasn't sure how it was going to work since this was my first time, but I am glad and thankful that I had help from my family and from the Readers who gave up half of their day to help the YW accomplish this. I have fabulous YW and they make my job so easy. I love you guys!!