It's ok!!! Girl's Camp is over!!!

Welcome Home!!!! It rang throughout my ears from the kids as they ran to greet me. I was dirty, grimy, exhausted and my hair...well, let's just say with no hair dryers allowed, as they drain the generator, there was a reason I was waering a hat all week and it had nothing to do with the kitchen!!!!

This is home sweet home for the week. This is one of the perks of being a cook.

We get our own cabin with actual beds and a shower with enough pressure to strip the paint off of an old barn door.

One thing you will notice about our beds is the place to slide in a card with the patient's name...yes, our beds are brought from an old decrepit assylum for the insane. hmmm...any connection with being a cook? Perhaps!!!

The week was fun. As cooks you are pretty much spending most of your time in the kitchen, which some people look down on, but can I share a secret with you? We have such an incredible spirit in the kitchen I recharge for the year every time I go.

No, we don't get to mingle with the girls except for meal times and a special occasion on friday.We have such a wonderful spirit when we work together. By the end of the week we had become more than just "friends." We became true brothers and sisters serving these wonderful daughters of God. To see their smiles, hear their songs and bask in their heavenly glow during the entire week was priceless.

I know that all stakes and wards run their girl's camp differently, but for ours the entire stake full of girls arrived on Monday ready to spend a fun-filled week making new friends and enjoying old ones.It was a time to be silly, learn about yourself and stretch your gospel wings a bit.

We brought in 250 girls and leaders for the week and it was challenging but fun to supply them with all their meals. The camp we attended was even visited earlier by the general authorities, including the young women's general presidency. They deemed our camp the "Taj Mahal" of Young Women's camps. What a wonderful thing to hear. It looks like the church is taking an interest in buying the camps the girl's attend to bring up the rest of the Girl's Camps to the same standards and really give all the girls the same experience ours have. We shall see what the Lord decides regarding camp.

I have survived another year and have made girls smile by being jsut a bit crazy...fun, yet slightly crazy. Perhaps I do deserve my bed after all!!!!Well, other than that I will say that I am happy that I am home and that life will now be returning to normal...now that I have completed 2 out of the three of my callings. Now I just get to be the "Laurel Advisor." I like that!!!! Of course, now that we have decided on selling the place we have a ton of things to do and it looks like we are ready to get started on that list!!!!