Girls' Camp

Eden 1st Ward Girls' Camp was 28 June - 1 July 2023 in Ashton, ID at Yellowstone Golf Resort at Aspen Acres. A family in our ward are part owners of this RV park slash golf course, so that's how we had the connections to this rather out of the way little spot. We literally drove through miles of fields before coming up to a clump of trees, which was the RV park and golf course, and then there were miles and miles more of just green fields, and the next thing you can see is the Tetons way in the distance. This was my third girls' camp in our ward, and it was a this time was a big party. Our camp directors this year were a hoot (see first pic!) and had lots of fun things planned around the theme "Adventure is Out There" (from the movie Up). Each day was a specific type of adventure, so we had mental adventures and physical adventures and spiritual adventures. Super cute and clever! I missed my fam that week, but it was nice to get to know the girls and leaders a little better, to forge those friendships a little stronger. But I was definitely glad to be home again and getting to sleep at a decent hour after all those late, loud nights. Ha.

(I'm back again to rewrite this post after all my text (except the first paragraph) and captions disappeared a few days ago. I was so mad and sad and tired that I just put the computer away let myself cool off a bit. I hope what follows will be as good as what I had written previously, but if it's short and lame, then you know why.)

Ashley and Katie dressed up as characters from
the movie Up to introduce our camp theme at
a weeknight kick off activity a couple of weeks
before camp. See what I mean? A hoot!

The schedule . . . but we didn't follow it exactly, and
I didn't take pictures of everything either. But this gives you
a general idea of our days.

Wednesday morning we met at the church and were ready
to roll!

For dinner our first night we drove 15 minutes into Ashton
to eat at the famed Big Jud's in the back of a gas station
(we actually filled up at this gas station in May on our way
home from Yellowstone but we had no idea about the burger
place in the back!)

We ordered a party platter to fee 20-40 people,
which included giant burgers, tons of fries and tots,
pitchers of soda, and ice cream cones for everyone.
But the leaders were afraid there wouldn't be enough food
so we all ordered our own single burgers. Needless to say
there was plenty left over.

The schedule says "Teton National Park Hike" on Thursday
but that was very vague and broad and the hike person (don't ask me why
there was a hike person) wasn't even there, so the rest of the leaders
brainstormed a new option: two "hikes" at Mesa Falls and Big Springs.
(These are two of our oldest campers, Maiya and Eden, who happened to be
in the group that we lost (to be clear, they did not know they were lost, we
just didn't know they had headed down to Lower Falls ahead of everyone else).)

Here I am with Jenny and Laura, two great friends.

Walking on the boardwalks to see Upper Falls isn't really
what I would call a "hike" but it was super beautiful!

We also walked a mile downstream on a trail through
the woods (yes, more hike-like, but not strenuous or even
moderate) to see Lower Falls, which was hard to see.

After the falls, we drove up the road a ways to Island Park and
parked at Big Springs. The plan here was to hike another easy
hike along the river flowing out of the springs, but just
as we pulled up, two young moose came out of the trees
and started moseying around in the water hunting for lunch.
We stood on the bridge for probably a half hour just watching
them eat and walk. It was pretty magical. Probably my favorite part
of camp!

Ella and London and the moose.

We also enjoyed the big fish under the bridge.

And the seagulls were entertaining, too, all lined
up on the railing like that.

It was fun to watch their little feet paddling under
water since it was so calm and clear we could see them.

After a while, we walked around the spring to Johnny
Sack's cabin to look around inside. The moose had moved
over near the cabin, and Aeva here was obsessed. She didn't
have her phone, so she asked to borrow mine to take a pic
and I snapped one of her, too.

Here's (one of the spots) where the water
just comes flowing out of the ground.

After our hikes I was so hot and sweaty I snuck off to
the showers to wash off while everyone else had some downtime.
(We skipped the zipline and service project that afternoon since
we were all ready for a rest.) After dinner, some of the girls
and leaders decided to check out the golf course, so we had fun
watching each other learn a little bit about the game.
April and I enjoyed the show from the bench.

Maylee, Annie F, Mila and Emery all tried putting
while Aimee and I chatted in the back. Aimee was
our golf pro (she's not really a pro, but she does play
in some big tournaments as an amateur and she was a
good teacher that night).

The sunset was lovely that evening, so we went out
to an open grassy area outside the campground to watch
and take group pics in our matching sweatshirts (though
I don't have a copy of that pic yet).

Aww, cute! The bishop and Sherene walking back to camp.

The sky was kind of amazing!

Now: for a little tour of our campsite. That red barn
down there is the check in/office thing, but there are
two bathrooms there that we used during our stay.

On the left is the leader's cottage (with the trailer
in front - some leaders slept in it, too). On the right
is the home of the owners. I slept in my car, as usual.
I parked my car between the tree
and the golf cart on the first night and the lights in the
house shone into my window the whole night! I moved
across the road to what I thought was a shadier spot
the next night, but the moon was huge and bright and
shone in my window the whole night! Needless to say, 
I didn't have the best sleep of my life on that trip, but
that's okay.

Across the road was the group camp site. It was nice,
with multiple levels for tents, tables, cooking area,
and fire pit.

I loved the glow stick dance party. This was instead of 
skits, which I wholeheartedly supported. The girls taped
glowsticks all over their bodies, then each tent group
made up a dance to go with a disney song. They were
so clever and cute! (Also: another first at girls' camp for me:
we watched fireworks on the 8th fairway, launched by the owners,
right before the glowstick show.)

The first pic I took on Friday was after 6 pm! We did a lot of
"spiritual adventures" that day. My favorite was our solo
journaling time for almost an hour that morning. I set up
my hammock and just chilled and wrote and that was just
what my introvert self needed!

The guy who made this place really has a thing
for metalwork. This creature was right in our camp
next to our "kitchen". On the way to the bathrooms
in the barn, there was a giant metal guitar that was
like a marble run for golf balls. You turned a wheel
which carried a golf ball to the top and then went rolling
down the ramps to the bottom again. I wish I took a video
or even a picture of that!

We bumped our service project till Friday
morning, and instead of stacking wood, we
picked up pinecones along the edges of the
fairways and greens. We also discovered the zipline,
and some girls spent some time hanging out back
here.

We also spent three hours that afternoon on a paint-by-letter project.
The gist is this: everyone started with a card

(there were 150 cards, so we all did many more than one 

by the end), maybe 4x6" or so. There were little hexagon 

"pixels" with letters corresponding to paint colors printed on it,

but it didn't look like much. No one knew what we were 

painting for sure (but lots of girls guessed ;) until all the

cards (they had a letter and number written on the back

so we knew where they were supposed to go on the board)

were in place. It really was pretty neat to watch it all come

together.

 

And when it was finished, it made all the 
tiny hexagon painting worth it.

Group shot with the finished product.

The Jesus painting made a great backdrop and object
lesson for our testimony meeting that night (which didn't
end till 11pm!), too.

On Saturday morning, I was up early, as usual. My walking
friend Jenny had left the day before, so I was on my own for
a morning workout. I had been itching to check out the disc
golf course on the golf course the whole time we were there,
so this seemed like the right time to do it. Unfortunately,
on my first hole, second shot, I lost one of my discs in
a giant spruce tree. Dang it. I searched around for quite
a while, and even came back after I finished my round, but
never found it. Womp, womp.

 

The morning was beautiful, though! I loved the clouds
and the sun and the rain coming down in the distance.
Made my soul happy (even if my socks and shoes were
squelching through the tall, wet grass while I searched
for my disc in the rough).

Remember what I said about metal work?
Every disc golf basket was hand made
(which was honestly a little frustrating
as far as disc golfing goes - my puts bounced
out a lot!), but the unique sculptures on top
were pretty cute!

Look waaaay out there and you'll spot the Tetons!

Not sure what this one was supposed to
be, but there's a bounced out putt again!

Skiers.

Bikes.

Green fields as far as the eye can see. One girl said
it was like we were in a Van Gogh painting as we
drove to our campground the first time.

Bird and nest.

Owls on a branch. I think this one was my
favorite of all.

And that's a wrap. This year was a little weird with so many adults there that didn't seem like they needed to be there. And I slept horribly. And the mosquitoes ate me for lunch. But I have always loved girls' camp, even when I was a young woman and wasn't sleeping well and missed my alone time. I love camp in our ward now because the girls are amazing and kind and look out for each other. I love to watch that. And the leaders are amazing, funny, good women, who have become good friends, much thanks to time spent together at camp.