Into the Archives-18

6/30/2011

This was the bunny Caramel. We had the great opportunity to take care of her for a few weeks while her owners were out of town. I was about 7 and I was so excited to have a real pet even for just a little bit. KEW and I made little obstacle courses for her to go through. (I'm pretty sure it didn't work so well.) Besides fish, she was the only domestic pet we have ever had in our care. Sure we've caught toads, frogs, turtles, snakes etc...but this was the real thing! Unfortunately there is a sad ending. Only a few weeks after taking care of her she had to be put down. Her front teeth had grown too long because she hadn't gnawed on her wood block that was supposed to keep her front teeth filed. With them too long she couldn't eat. It broke my heart. But at least I had those few weeks to learn about rabbits. Since then I had to go through loosing 2 more rabbits. I only saw them once a month but Hans and Grettel were my rabbit friends at the nature center. They were the sweetest things. You could hold them for a long time and they would just sit there.
OK that's enough sad stories for today. I promise I'll have a happy story next week!

And Santa Visited Us at Camp...

 I'm in the very back row 10th from the left. 

(Click here to see these pictures bigger.)

Last week was...well...crazy. As you well know I went to stake YW camp. Normally my story would have started on Tuesday like any other normal girls would have (except the YCLs who went a day early). But no. I'm defiantly not normal. My story started on Sunday when, as soon as I woke up, I knew something was wrong.

On Sunday morning I woke up at 6 for no reason. Really not normal. Then I realized my head was kind of spinning. Defiantly not right. Oh yeah...my nose was all plugged up. aaarrrrgggggg....So yeah. My week was already not starting right.

Thankfully the spinning stopped enough to go to church and by the time I got home it had stopped completely. But the stuffiness remained. And it got worse. My head was over taken by mucus. OK. OK. Enough grossness!

(This was about what I was feeling like.)

So Tuesday rolled around and I rolled out of bed with it. I was excited but a little bummed that my head was feeling like it might explode. Like that was going to stop me! I got everything ready and got over to the church. Everyone was already there so after everyone figured out what car they were in we were off. Well because of my sluggishness I didn't realize until it was to late that the only seat left was in sister Millers car. And all that was in her backseat was luggage. Ah well our 45 minute drive was the awesomest!!! Trust me sister Miller is amazing. That is why she was our ward camp director and is our new YW secretary.

Alright. So that picture of her is a little creepy...but you know.

So when we got to there we spent the rest of the morning setting up camp.

This was our amazing screened tent. It was a life saver! It kept the bugs and direct sunlight out but let the breeze in. And our huge ward flag was on the front of the tent so it kept a lot of sun out too.

 Our ward theme to go with the stake theme was "Indiana Jones in Egypt."
Or "We're S.E.T. Indiana Jones Style."

Then we had our official welcome by the stake leaders:

Very awesome! The camp theme was "We're S.E.T." (Seeking Eternal Treasures.) So each song had to do with self worth.

Then we split up into levels. We played a few games including Whack-a-Moo! (We were supposed to teach them to younger levels but that never did happen I don't think.)

But then we had some more important business to take care of. The glow stick dance.

Last year the 4th years did a glow stick dance. 

(Click here to see it.)

It-was-awesome! 

So I made it known that all 4th years need to do it every year. And so we, as a 4th year group, put together the second annual 4th year glowstick dance!

We did it to the song "Tonight, Tonight". And here is behind the scenes. (In the second clip I'm 5th from the left.)

So for the rest of the day at every spare moment we worked on our dance. And trust me by the end of the day and for the rest of the week my legs were sooo sore. All that crouching will take a toll on your thighs.

We ate our sack lunch at the craft pavilion so we could get back to the dance as fast as possible.

After lunch we had free time. We could do crafts or do "water play" (more on that in a second.) I did a craft but we had to work on the dance most of the time.

For one of our camp crafts we made these cute little jars. After we finished them we got a tea lights to put in them.

 Well we didn't have a real pool. So this was what our water play looked like...

 ...and for some reason there were girls (mostly first years) found this mud hole and they played in it everyday. All I could say (along with many others) was ewwwwww!

 And with mud holes come crawdads. This was one of the biggest.

So after free time we had a special devotional. It was a military guest speaker...who had also been my YCL my second year!

And then we had dinner. It was then that we realized meal times were going to be fun! We walked into the dinning hall and you'd have thought there was going to be a hula. There were flowers everywhere and the windows had "palm trees" on them. For dinner we had pulled pork on Hawaiian rolls. Mached perfectly.

 

So as I said, every spare minute was spent working on the dance. But on top of that we had to work on our skit. Somehow we pulled it off. By now I was starting to loose my voice of course. (I tend to do that when I'm sick.) I guess it was good I was playing a guy part. Does the tin man have a deep voice?

 

 So yes we did a parody of "Wizard of Oz".

  The third years did a parody of "Finding Nemo".

 The second years did a parody of "Star Wars".

The first years did a parody on the movie "Tangled".

 All the ward leaders were asked to come up and lay on this tarp and do what they were told. This is how it went.

 And last of all the stake leaders did a "swim routine".

Then we went back to more thigh hurting work and finally at 10:30pm we did our famous dance! (I would defiantly make this video full screen because, even after a lot of touching up, its hard to see.)

This was one of my YCLs laying in the pile of glowsticks...

So then after that we stayed up until who knows when. I had four friends in my tent so it wasn't hard. We had pretty decorations from left over glow sticks!

The next morning after breakfast we had certification. That took most of the morning but we had got pretty much all of it done so we didn't have to worry about it the next day.

So while we were at it we decided to pass off our song.

Sister Gadd, our camp music specialist, decided to pick a hymn for us to memorize and pass off. She chose "Carry On" and drew it on a sheet so when we passed it off we could sign it. Yes she drew that whole song by hand.

OK so we were passing it off and by now I couldn't sing at all. It just came out all choppy and awful. Thankfully she let us sing it together. So I just sat there with my head in my arms (we couldn't look at the sheet) and mumbled along...or what ever sound I was making.

For lunch we ate salad, made hotdogs and cooked baked beans in a dutch oven. Well of course I don't like salad and hotdogs so I just ate the beans. I filled my plate to the top. So as I was sitting down I turned to to my friend Jasmyne and told her that something was going to go wrong with a plate full of beans. Hint they weren't in a bowl. Not a split second after I said that my friend Chase accidentally placed her hand in my boiling hot beans. Talk about self fulfilling prophecy. She had been reaching for something and wasn't paying attention to where her other hand was. I tried saying sorry over and over but I couldn't stop laughing.

And then to add to the excitement I ended up spilling some of on my lap anyway.

So for free time that day our water play was upgraded. We got a blowup water slide. So my swimsuit wasn't all for not.

 

Dinner time was interesting. The ward leaders had a pudding eating contest.

Along with that the dinning hall theme was Christmas. Soooo as the title of this post says...Santa visited us! To make it even better there were a few people who had a birthday that day.

So those awesome lanterns we made came in handy. They were beautiful ambiance for what was called "singing in the trees". Each ward picked a hymn and sung it for everyone else. As hard as it was for me I chose not to sing because by now my voice was hideous. I sounded like I was breathing helium.

Thursday morning our fourth year leader, sister T, told us we each needed our hair braided in a particular way. Even with my short hair (OK so its getting a little longer) she was able to get a braid in. She told us that it would come in handy in a little while.

After everyone had a braid she pulled out a map and a few shovels.

We were off on a treasure hunt.

We walked the trail through the back of the camp and found red X's along the path. We were supposed to dig these plastic boxes up but most of them had been unearthed for whatever reason. In any case there was treasure in each box. In the first one there was gold cloth for pirate headbands. In another one were eye patches. Gems for the patches. Little silver danglies on wire to stick in our useful braid. In the last box were stick on mustaches.

Along the way we crossed this scary bridge.

This is what we looked like after our hunt.

During lunch we had entertainment by the YCLs. They had to suck on a pickle until it was gone. (The room theme was rain forest that day.)

The rest of the day we basically free time because the fourth years were done with certification.

So Jasmyne and I said adieu to the rest of the girls who had to go do other stuff.

Even then they were only gone for an hour so we played mafia until dinner.

 This picture may look awkward but its just me getting really mad because I was so into the game and I just had to kill off McKenzie. I was almost to the point of writhing on the ground. (Turns out she was a citizen) Oh yeah. And you see the duct tape on my arms? I found out that they make a great tan line! I mean I did it on purpose but I just had to let you know that everyone notices when you look like a tiger before and after you take it off.

The stake leaders did the napkin race during dinner.

After dinner was ward night. Normally the whole Bishopric comes. But our bishop was out of town and my dad had to work so it was only brother Bennion left. He did a great devotional by himself.

After the devo we had a few minutes to mess around so there was some sword fighting going on.

Then it was time for B.O.M. We went down to the "Chapel" (a little clearing on a hill with benches). Along the way there were actors acting out the plan of salvation. When we got to the chapel we were handed little scraps of paper that had Book of Mormon page numbers on them. When everyone was seated we were told to start reading. (We had been told to bring our scriptures) After about 15-20 minutes between all those people we had read the entire Book of Mormon. That was a cool experience. 

As soon as that was over testimony meeting started. It was over 2 hours long and yes I did eventually get up there. I was worried about my voice but it turned out OK. It gave me an excuse to explain to everyone that I did not normally sound like that.

 While waiting for breakfast I had a great view of some great friends.

Daily theme: Flamingos

For our breakfast entertainment 6 volunteers were put up to the challenge of blowing bubbles while standing on one leg.

And after breakfast was the second annual sleeping bag race. I got second again only loosing to Shelbe. Again.

After that we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned until only our screened tent was left standing with a few chairs. We were the first ward to be cleaned up so guess what we did? We played mafia!

At lunch we watched as ward leaders pulled apart frozen solid shirts.

Sister Miller didn't win. But we and a few allies were determined to open the shirt if was the last thing we did.

As the last activity of camp we did testimony balloons. We wrote our testimony in a couple words and then went to the field and released them. Maybe someone will find one...

After that everyone packed up and left like normal people. But am I normal? Nope. My dad was on the last shift of priesthood so he had to stay until every last person was gone. So I stayed with him. And bishop Jarvis was late like always so almost all KC3 ward was left and we ended up leaving at the same time as they did so I didn't mind staying at all. (Remember they are my sister ward and I love them almost as much as I do my own ward.)

And as a closing you can look and my awesome friends...camp can really get to you in a weird way.

In case you were wondering and worrying: my voice was back the morning after camp (why not?) and now I only have to blow my nose a few times a day.

 Thanks for reading!
(And you thought the Chicago post was long...)

Fridays Song-A Rig A Bamboo

A-Rig-A-Bamboo (The Princess Pat)

The Princess Pat,
lived in a tree,
she sailed across,
the 7 seas

She sailed across,
the channel too,
and took with her,
A RIG-A-BAMBOO

A RIG-A-BAMBOO,
now what is that?
Its’ something made,
by the Princess Pat

It’s red and gold,
 and purple too.
 That’s why it’s CALLED,
A RIG-A-BAMBOO

Now Captain Jack,
had a mighty FINE crew,
they sailed across,
the channel too

Their ship did sink,
and so will YOU,
If you don’t take,
A RIG-A-BAMBOO.

A RIG-A-BAMBOO,
now what is that?
Its’ something made,
by the Princess Pat

It’s red and gold,
 and purple too.
 That’s why it’s CALLED,
A RIG-A-BAMBOO
  

OK so I think I need to record all these camp songs because there aren't many good recordings anywhere. But this one is pretty good. Its actually a longer version!

Thursdays Song-Peanut Butter and Jelly

 Peanut Butter and Jelly

Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)
Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)

First, you take the peanuts and you pick 'em,
you pick 'em you pick 'em, pick 'em, pick 'em!
Then you crush 'em, you crush 'em,
you crush 'em, crush 'em, crush 'em!
Then you spread 'em, you spread 'em,
you spread 'em, spread 'em, spread 'em!

Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)
Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)

Now, you take the berries and you pick 'em, you pick 'em,
you pick 'em, pick 'em, pick 'em!
Then you mush 'em, you mush 'em,
you mush 'em, mush 'em, mush 'em!
Then you spread 'em, you spread 'em,
you spread 'em, spread 'em, spread 'em!

Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)
Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)

Now, you take the sandwich and you bite it, you bite it,
you bite it, bite it, bite it!
Then you chew it, you chew it,
you chew it, chew it, chew it!
Then you swallow it, you swallow it,
you swallow, swallow, swallow it!

Peanut, peanut butter!  (And jelly!)

OK so this guy does a lot of talking before he gets to the point so skip to minute 3. It is also a shorter version but its in skit form so its pretty funny.

Into the Archives-17

6/23/2011

Some of the Briathwaite cousins in 2007.
I'm the one in the orange shirt.
I love all my cousins (I have already done 2 other ITA posts about some of them) and the 20 hour drive is worth it if I see them enough while I'm there. My cousin Andrew was getting married so we were there for a few weeks. That was a fun time!
(We found out that week that my dad was being called into the Bishopric. We weren't even there that Sunday when he was called!)

Wednesdays Song-I'm a Nut

I'm a Nut!

I'm a little acorn round,
lying on the cold, cold ground
Everybody steps on me,
that is why I'm cracked you see.

 (*Chorus*) 

I'm a nut! (click click) I'm a nut! (click click)
I'm a nut! I'm a nut! I'm a nut! (click click)

I can sing and I can dance
I wear ruffles on my
whoops! boys, take another guess,
I wear ruffles on my dress

Chorus

Called myself on the telephone,
Just to see if I was home
Asked myself out on a date,
picked me up at half past eight

Chorus

Took myself to the picture show,
Sat myself on the very first row.
Put my arms around my waist,
got so fresh I slapped my face.

Chorus

Bought some roses at the store.

Told myself I wanted more.

That's why I broke up with me.

Now I am a nut that's free!

Chorus

Gee, I miss me all the time.

Wonder if I'm doing fine.

Maybe I'll stop by to see

If I have a chance with me.

Chorus

Well this is the short version. For some reason the whole version doesn't seem to be out there. 

Tuesdays Song-Old McDonald

Today is the first day of camp!

Old McDonald-The New Version

(Sung to: "Old McDonald", "Cut Down the Old Pine Tree", "Home on the Range", "Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone", "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", "Mrs O'Leary's Cow".)

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.
And on that farm he had a tree,
Well they chopped down the old pine tree. *Timber!*
And they hauled it away to the mill,
*Log! Log! Log!* 

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.
And on that farm he had a home,
Home, home on the range,
Where they chopped down the old pine tree. *Timber!*

And they hauled it away to the mill, 
*Log! Log! Log!* 

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.
And on that farm he had a dog,
Oh where? Oh where, has my little dog gone?
Oh where? Oh where can he be? He's,
Home, home on the range,
Where they chopped down the old pine tree. *Timber!*
And they hauled it away to the mill,
*Log! Log! Log!*

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.
And on that farm he had a sweetheart,
Let me call me sweetheart,
I'm in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
Oh where? Oh where, has my little dog gone? 
Oh where? Oh where can he be? He's,
Home, home on the range,
Where they chopped down the old pine tree. *Timber!*

And they hauled it away to the mill,
*Log! Log! Log!*

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.
And on that farm he had a grandpa,
Late last night, when we were all in bed
Grandpa took the ladder to the shed
And when the cow tipped it over,
He winked his eye and said...
Let me call me sweetheart,
I'm in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
Oh where? Oh where, has my little dog gone? 
Oh where? Oh where can he be? He's,
Home, home on the range,
Where they chopped down the old pine tree. *Timber!*

And they hauled it away to the mill,
*Log! Log! Log!*

Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

This is a bad recording but it was the only one I could find anywhere! So I defiantly plan on recording it at camp.

Mondays Song-Sippin' Cider

 This is a very very popular song at camp. 

Truthfully it drives me crazy but its a classic no one should miss out on.

Sippin' Cider

(Sung to: "I Met a Bear")

    **Group 1 (group 2 echos)

The cutest boy, (The cutest boy)

I ever saw, (I ever saw)

Was sippin' ci--, (Was sippin' ci--)

der through a straw. (der through a straw)

   ***All together now

The cutest boy I ever saw,

Was sippin cider through a straw.

   ***Continue above pattern for whole song

I asked him if, (echo) He'd show me how, (echo)

To sip that ci--- (echo) der through a straw. (echo)

I asked him if he'd show me how,

To sip that ci-der through a straw.

He said of course, He'd show me how,

To sip that ci---, der through a straw.

He said of couse he'd show me how,

To sip that ci-der through a straw.

First cheek to cheek, then jaw to jaw,

We sipped that ci--, der through a straw.

First cheek to cheek then jaw to jaw,

We sipped that ci-der through a straw.

Then all at once, that darn thing slipped,

And we were si--, pping lip to lip.

Then all at once that darn thing slipped,

And we were sipping lip to lip.

That's how I got, My mother-in-law.

And 49 kids, That call me Ma.

That's how I got my mother-in-law.

And 49 kids that call me Ma.

The moral of, This story is,

Don't sip that ci--, der through a straw.

The moral of this story is,

Don't sip that ci-der through a straw.

DRINK ROOT BEER!!

Its better if you have someone to echo you but this was the best recording I found:

Sundays Song-Rise and Shine

We've never actually sang this at camp. I plan to change that. But my mom has sung it to me a couple times and I really like it.

Rise and Shine (The Noah Song)

The Lord said to Noah, “There’s gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord said to Noah, “There’s gonna be a floody, floody
Lots of Rain and lots of muddy, muddy.”
Children of the Lord

Chorus:
So, rise and shine, and give God your glory, glory
Rise and shine, and give God your glory, glory
Rise and shine, and (clap) give God your glory, glory
Children of the Lord!

The Lord said to Noah, “You’d better build an arky, arky
The Lord said to Noah, “You’d better build an arky, arky
Build it out of birchy, barky, barky
Children of the Lord!

(Chorus)

The animals, he brought them, he brought them by twosies, twosies
The animals, he brought them, he brought them by twosies, twosies
Elephants and kangaroosy, roosies.
Children of the Lord!

(Chorus)

It rained and rained for 40 daysy, Daysies
It rained and rained for 40 daysy, Daysies
Drove those animals nearly crazy, crazy.
Children of the Lord!

(Chorus)

Noah, he looked up ands saw a dove-y, dove-y
Noah, he looked up ands saw a dove-y, dove-y
Saw it up in heaven above-y, bove-y.
Children of the Lord!

(Chorus)

The sun came out and dried up the land-y, land-y.
The sun came out and dried up the land-y, land-y.
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy.
Children of the Lord!

(Chorus)

(optional verse) The animals came off, came off by threesies, threesies
The animals came of, came off by threesies, threesies
They’d heard about those birds and beesies, beesies.
Children of the Lord!

So this is the end of, the end of my story, story
So this is the end of, the end of my story, story
Everything is hunky dory!
Children of the Lord

(Chorus)


 Here is how it goes:

Saturdays Song-Boom Chicka Boom

Tuesday I go to camp! (You've probably picked up on that in the last couple days.) Each day this week I will have a special post for you! So...while I'm gone my friend "blogger" (we all know him very well) will automatically post a new song on my blog each day until Friday (that's the last day). Not just any song. A camp song. They are very important to the human race. Nonsense that lights up your day. Well until you've heard it for the 101st time. (I've had experience.) It might get on your nerves. Yet anything can make you go crazy if you've heard it that many times. So without further adieu...Today's song is....

Boom Chicka Boom

(leader sings line, everyone repeats)

I said, a boom chicka boom!
(I said, a boom chicka boom!)
I said, a boom chicka boom!
(I said, a boom chicka boom!)

I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom!
(I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom!)

Uh Huh!
(Uh huh!)
Oh, ya!
(Oh, ya!)
One more time...
(One more time...)
 

Some Extra Verses:

Underwater: sing with fingers dribbling against your lips

Slower

Loud: as loud as you can!

Higher

Opera: sing in an opera voice

Tongue in Cheek

Grandpa style: sing while pulling lips over teeth

Lower

Baby style: sing in a baby type voice

K-mart Style: hold nose and sing

Faster

Frankenstein style: hold arms straight out, and sing in a deep voice

 

Verses with Special Words:

 

Valley Girl:

I said, like, boom!

I said, like, boom chicka-boom!

I said, like, booma-chicka, like, rocka-chicka, like, gag me with a spoon!

Like, uh-huh!

Like, for sure!

Like, same thing... 

 

Janitor style:

I said a Broom-Pusha-Broom,

I said a Broom-Pusha-Broom,

I said a Broom-pusha-mopa-pusha-mopa-pusha-broom.

 

Barn-yard Style:

I said a moo chicka moo

I said a moo chicka moo

I said a moo chicka bocka chicka bocka chicka moo...

 

Flower Style:

I said a bloom.

I said a bloom chica bloom.

I said a bloom chica blossom chica blossom chica bloom...

Race Car Style:

I said a vroom.

I said a vroom shifta vroom.

I said a vroom shifta grind-a shifta grind-a shifta vroom...

Astronaut Style:

I said a moon.

I said a shoot-me-to-the-moon.

I said a shoot me blast me shoot me blast me shoot-me-to-the-moon...

Mr. Rogers Style:

Can you say boom?

Can you say boom chica boom?

Can you say boom chica rocka chica rocka chica boom?

Can you say uh-huh?

Can you say oh yeah?

I knew you could!

Parent's Style:

I said a boom go to your room

I said a boom go to your room

I said a boom go to your room and don't come out 'til next June.

Photographer Style:

I said a zoom chica zoom

I said a zoom chica zoom

I said a zoom chica click-click chica zoom

This is a song that is sung at just about every other summer camp out there. Here is a demonstration by a YMCA summer camp: 

Into the Archives 16-First Year of YW Camp

6/16/2011

This was YW girls camp 2008. My first year! My dad who was in the bishopric came for testimony night. He had just gotten a new camera so he had to try it out. Wow that was a long time ago. I was only a little 12 year old beehive.

A few more memories about my first year:

The theme was "Tradition. Spirit. Honor." And much to my dismay...Pink. I have no idea why they had to pick that as a theme color. (That was the only time we even had a theme color.) But I made a point to take as much BLUE as I could just to bother people. My ward YW presidency decided to get all the girls...all 5 of us...camp chairs. Everyone got pink. I asked very kindly for a blue one. (Hence the blue chair I am sitting on in the picture above. I have taken it to camp ever since then.)

When we drove up I had a distinct feeling I had been there before. It wasn't until over a year later that I was watching a home video of me when I was only a young toddler that I realized why: in this video I was crawling and toddling around on this wood floor...and there were a lot of chairs...there were a few glimpses of the walls...and more chairs. As I watched this it struck me. That was the dining hall from camp! It wasn't just deja vu. I had actually been there before! My mom was a YW's leader back then and had come to visit the camp. But why I had remembered that particular place from when I was just a baby keeps me confused to this day. (just an extra note: we go to a different camp each year.)

There was a dutch oven cooking contest. My ward was teamed up with KC3rd ward because we were so small. Together we won the first place cooking spoon...that was pink and sparkly. Our ward ended up keeping it.

Each day the stake leaders would choose which ward had the most "camp spirit" and award them the spirit stick for the day. (There are two pictures of it in the slideshow. Its big, pink and purple.) Camp spirit included: singing while waiting for dinner, being as loud as possible when asked which ward had the most spirit..etc. Huh. Tough luck for my ward of 5 shy girls. Yet on the last day we, together with KC3, won it. We let KC3 keep it.

Each ward was awarded a random prize. Ours was "The Most Hairspray" award. This came from our skit:

A few weeks earlier we had set aside a whole activity to plan our skit. That year each ward was doing a skit. (Other years it was by cabin or Levels) We thought we had something...until we got to camp. Then everyone decided that it was lame so we came up with another one. Ten minutes before we were supposed to go to the fire pit to do our skit (rhyme not intended) we decided to do yet another one. Who knows why. Well it turned out everyone else had prepared a lot better than us. Jasmyne saved the show.

When we had been trying to figure out what to do ten minutes before, Jasmyne had been messing around with her bug spray. She realized it was like hairspray and thought it would be a great idea to put into the skit. We ended up just using a spray bottle instead of using a whole bunch of bug spray not to mention its just gross to have that much on you.

So I don't remember what the skit was about but I do remember it involved a whole lot of "hairspray". Everyone loved it! And that is why our ward got the "hairspray award".

(It is currently in my care...though Jasmyne should probably have it.)

And last but not least I got a personal award. The "Nature Lover" award to be exact.

I was almost back to my cabin one day when I came across one of my stake leaders, sister Keeney (who was also in my ward). She was crouched down on the ground looking at something. I came and looked over her shoulder. There on the ground was a little snake. She was trying to herd it into a little bag. I ran back to my cabin and grabbed my snake identification booklet (yes I take that kind of stuff to camp) and ran back. By then sister Keeney had it in her bag. I flipped through the book as we walked back to the main area of camp to show everyone. I found the page (p.11). It was a Northern Red-bellied Snake. And that is why I was the Nature Lover.

Epilogue of the snake story:

The camp director happened to be a snake lover like myself and found a box to put it in and kept it for the rest of camp. Only a couple weeks later I caught one in my own yard and kept it for a few months.

 OK for some reason all of my memories from camp involve awards. I'll try to think of something else. 

On the last day we did opening exercises-flag/YW theme/prayer-with...you guessed it KC3. (BTW I have nothing against them. They are all my friends because we were together so much my first year of YW.)

I still remember fondly of the camp song all the first years learned and presented to everyone. Our JC (now they are called YCL's) taught us the song. Her name was Tracy so we called her "Tracy the JC" (really original right?) This is how the song goes:

 Hunka-Hunka

Me a live in an itty bitty housey
Me a live on the thirty-firsty floor
Me a carry an itty bitty washer
Ruffles on the petticoat 10 cents more
Me a like a meow meow
Better than a chow chow
Me a like a hunka hunka
Happy happy me
Way down in Hong Kong
Big mama come along
Take away my hunka hunka
Poor poor me
Then I go to Hong Kong
Give the mama bong bong
Take back my hunka hunka
Happy happy me!

Yeah it doesn't make much sense. But it has stuck with me ever since.

Well OK that's probably long enough for now.
4 days until camp (2011)!!!
Happy Happy Me!

Lots of Water and Some Friends

And now I will tell you about another exciting weekend.  

As a 4th Year at stake YW girls camp we get extra special treatment. Its our last year of being a camper before we become YCLs (Youth Camp Leaders) for the last two years. So last weekend the 4th years and our assigned YCLs got to have a "high adventure". It wasn't really a HA but that's what it was called. Ether way, it was a night to get to know each other before we go to camp next week.

First we got to the Tauvelis house at noon and ate our sack lunch. Then we headed over to the lake just down the road and spent an hour canoeing.

 

This is Sister Tauveli who is the 4th year leader.

We floated around for a while and then had a race to the other side of the lake and back. My partner and I made it back way ahead of everyone else and had enough time to get out, walk around for a while and take our canoe back to the dock before almost anyone else had made it back.

Then we went back to the house and made dinner in dutch ovens, messed around a little, finished making dinner and packed it up to take to the lake.

Back at the lake we rented two pontoon boats and ate dinner in style.

After dinner we went swimming. Unfortunately the current was stronger than it looked and pulled a few girls pretty far away so we had to go rescue them with one of the boats. We stayed out of the water after that.

So we turned on the radio and did some dancing...

And we took a lot of crazy pictures.

On the way back to the house we did a few Chinese Fire Drills. Now that was pretty crazy.

So after three fire drills we got home and played games.

First we played Mafia. I was a mafia the first round so of course in the second game I was killed off really fast.

Then we played a game that I called Whack-a Moo since I can't remember the real name.

Everyone sits in a circle and each person chooses a different animal sound. The person who is IT stands in the middle with something like a paper towel tube or rolled up newspaper that can be a soft whacking stick. One person in the circle starts by saying somebody elses sound. IT has to hit that other person with the whacking stick unless that person says another persons sound. When IT finally hits someone before they say another sound they trade places and the old IT sits down and says someones sound to start the game again.   

If that made no sense just watch this and it might help.

 So for the rest of the night we played games, lazed around, made a few plans for camp and then went to sleep. 
Next morning we woke up to this:

Our friend Carol is a great alarm clock. 

So that was our little HA thing. Just 7 days until camp!