Summer Happenings: Camp!!!!

I anticipated camp this year as being even more delightful and refreshing and fun than usual and it totally lived up to all of that for me. An Oregon forest in July is always an amazing change from July (=Hades) in Arizona. The company was superb (as always!). The kids were stellar and fun and talented. The creative outlet was rejuvenating. I laughed my guts out, cried some, got lots of good, motivational food for thought, stayed up til 4 am chatting with ladies that I love. I am such a blessed lady to have the opportunity to teach at camp every summer and to get to rub shoulders with all the amazing people that I work with. 

I left camp smiling from ear to ear - ready to be with my peeps again, but totally jazzed and renewed from a completely lovely week. Seriously - a great group of kids, amazing co-workers, totally inspirational, life-changing material taught all week, doing something that I love, and all in the middle of a forest in Oregon - could it get much better??

My (sainted) sister-in-laws kept Elena and Lily for us all week. It was a long week for all of them, but I am so grateful everyone came together, so I could have this week of camp. On Sunday morning I was off bright and early to the airport. In Oregon, Emily met me in Portland and we had lunch and much good chatting and headed down south. After the usual stop for the week's provisions, we arrived!

The weather was great all week - a mixed bag of some hot (although not compared to AZ!), some humid, some chilly nights, some downright perfect days, and always gorgeous, crisp cool mornings. I was pretty spoiled waking up every day to cool, quiet forest mornings with birds chirping around me. Boy, I could get used to that... I always say I am not a morning person, but if those were my mornings every day, I might just be one to pop up out of bed. :)

Pretty, pretty Camp!

 A lovely sunset one night

 Emily and I all dressed up for the tea party we had with the college kids. 

Afterwards they were gracious enough to let us give them seminars. Emily's was based on Theodore Roosevelt's quote about living "in the arena" and putting it all out there and taking risks and really living and doing. Mine was about identifying and working through limiting beliefs and remembering our potential.

I found this little story that I LOVE that I shared:

When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice it is small, but we do not criticize it as “rootless and stemless”. We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment of a seed.

            When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; we do not criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place, and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development.

            The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change. Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.

            A flower is not better when it blooms than when it is merely a bud, at each stage it is the same thing…. A flower in the process of expressing its potential.

-Timothy Gallway

There was also much silliness at camp. And plenty of space camp:

Space camp at one in the morning!

Thanks to Emily's genius, we did "Tutu Tuesday" with the guard. (And "Leg Warmer Thursday" and a few candy breaks.)

And there were staff pictures in Willow's afro wig:

 One hot day Scott decided the whole camp needed to change it up and he took his seminar down to the creek and afterwards everyone played in the water. It was gorgeous! Some of the lady staff in the creek:

On Saturday the kids had their performance and we all said goodbye. The kids are always great, but this year's group was really fantastic. Our little group of guard ladies was especially fun and talented. We each wanted to kidnap them and take them home with us to be in our guards. As Emily jokes: Pretty AND Smart.

Staff picture in the silly parade float that now resides at camp:

Field tech performance:

The guard track had probably their best show ever this year:

Drum Major performance:

A really fun treat for me this year was that my seminary teacher, Brother Moses', son was at camp! So, so fun. (And crazy! Where does the time go that his kid is a drum major and a senior?!) And what a small world. It's funny how life goes around and comes around like that. On Saturday, I was thrilled to get to see Brother Moses and his wife and chat for a while after the performance. Sure love that guy. He definitely ranks as one of the most influential people and greatest examples in my life.

Another fun thing at camp this year was that Sam and I were both pregnant at the same time! Sam is having her first baby - a girl- in just a few weeks! And I had just found out a few weeks before that I am having a boy. We sure had fun sharing stories and being the camp preggos. Haha. :) My pregnancies with Elena, Lily, Kate, and now this little guy have all overlapped with camp. Kind of cool that they have all shared that with special week with me.

The week ended on a crazy note when we hit an hour and a half standstill on the freeway due to a bad accident on the way back up to Portland (I had fallen asleep and had no idea) and I missed my flight back home. I got to the airport 10 minutes before my flight was leaving and was kind of freaking out. But the good people at Southwest helped me out and I (literally) ran to a flight that was half an hour away from take off (the last one to Phoenix for the day!). I'm sure the crazy pregnant lady in flip flops running through the airport was quite a sight. But there was no charge for the change over and the Southwest staff were all smiles and helpfulness. I am a fan of that airline! I had a layover and a delay in Vegas, but did eventually make it home late that night. Phew! :) It actually made for quite a neat experience - the Lord took care of me in what felt to me like a desperate and potentially unsolveable situation - what do you do when you get to the airport with only 10 minutes before your flight leaves?? But He worked it all out as smooth as butter. The whole evening rest of the evening I was filled with an overwhelming feeling of peace. The whole night was a beautiful reminder to me that "He's got this." Which I'm trying to make my new mantra. My life is in His hands and He can get me through anything that comes.

Hooray for another amazing year of camp! I can't wait for next year!