Girls Camp

 6,956 bug bites.

90 crepes.

72 breakfast burritos.

52 Diet Cokes.

48 pulled pork sandwiches.

25 hungry teenage girls.

13 ways to make s'mores.

10 faith-filled leaders.

4 chaotic days.

3 sleepless nights.

2 bumbling co-cooks.

1 unforgettable girls camp.

Check.

Thanks to my dear friend Molly, for braving girls camp and joining me as a camp co-cook, and to all the other ladies who love these girls enough to endure storms, snipe hunts, Bunny-Bunny, and complete chaos.

The world can be complicated and hard and we can tend to worry for the future. When you feel that way, get yourself to girls camp with your local teenage girls of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you will know that the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades.

S'mores bar!

We made creeps. Molly spent 8 hours making them all, but they were a HUGE hit!

For testimony meeting, it was incredibly windy and rainy. It was actually pretty miserable. I would say camp was fabulous until the last 12 hours, and the last 12 hours were really, really rough. But, testimony meeting was still lovely despite freezing almost to death.

You can barely see it, but we got a rainbow at the end of testimony meeting.

Audra and Claire had a great time. Claire didn't want me around too much, which was fine because Molly and I were plenty busy with food anyway. We actually made almost all the food beforehand and then froze it all, so all we needed to do was heat it up. That was a BRILLIANT move! It made everything so much easier, which was good because we were working out of 4 kitchens- the back of my van, the camp trailer, some refrigerators that I had to drive to every time I needed something from them, and then the cooking area where we actually heated the food. It was a pain, but we managed.

The theme was "look up"- as in look up to God. The camp leaders did an excellent job- the girls were physically and spiritually well fed! And, we were all excited to come home and enjoy our nice warm beds!

St. Mary's Glacier

 We had a great day today! A friend of ours who moved to Hawaii was in town and invited us to go on our favorite hike- St. Mary's Glacier. Ben took the day off work and we joined them. It was really lovely. Between the road trip and this hike, it is finally really starting to feel like summer!

Sad Story

 Me: I have some sad news, Ben. I got a ticket.

Ben: What?!?!?

Me: You can chastise me. I deserve it- it was completely my fault. But, while you chastise me, you have to look me in the eyes. (removes sunglasses with flair)

Ben: EWWWW!!! GROSSSSSS! (runs away)

Chastisement averted.

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4H Fair!

 It was a stressful week getting record books and Audra's project finished. But, we did it! Interviews were done, record books turned in, and I am so glad to have that crossed off the to-do list.

Camille made a skirt so she could add that to her record book accomplishments.

Audra made this cute tree skirt. We can't wait to use it this Christmas!

All three of the girls learned a new skill- applique. Thank you, YouTube!

Merona, ND

By Friday the younger two were getting a little grouchy. It was a lot of driving and a lot of change, and they were hitting a wall. Nevertheless, we had another day in ND, and we wanted to make the best of it. We went on a short hike, toured a mansion and a couple of museums, got some taffy and fudge.

This is the museum dedicated to Harold Schaefer, the inventor of Mr. Bubbles and the Gold Seal Company, who basically built the town of Medora and the entire tourist industry in ND. He had a ton of money, and he gave it all away in trying to build up Medora- he paid to pave the roads and everything. It's certainly because of those donations that Theodore Roosevelt National Park was able to be created in 1978. But, he cheated on his wife of 29 years and left her and his 5 kids to marry a married woman and mother of 3 because they found "true love." The girls were rightfully mortified and it certainly tainted our opinion of him. Agh, we shouldn't judge.

Anyway, here's some photos:

This is the taffy and sarsparilla we bought. The girls love sarsparilla.

Walking around town.

This was the Chauteau De Mores. He was a nobleman who came to Medora (named after his wife) in 1905 for cattle ranching. The venture failed, but his mansion remained and we toured it. It was pretty cool. 10 bedrooms upstairs. That would sure be nice!

This was from The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame.

This was a short hike to the petrified forest. There was lots of whining by this point.

And, that's a wrap.