Girls' Camp and Camp Hobe

THIS POST IS AS LONG AS MY DISNEY WORLD POST, IF NOT, LONGER, SO BRACE YOURSELF!
I have so much to write, I mean, I have been gone for basically two weeks in a row! On Monday of LAST week, I left to Girls' Camp with my stake on buses. When we got to Heber Valley, we got our camps all ready and our beds and cabins situated. Our theme of the year: Incredigirl! We've got the Power! We learned rules of camp from the camp missionaries, and we started certification right off. Now, I have to admit, certification really kind of bores me. But that is one of the biggest reasons we go to Girls' Camp for...to certify in essential skills, like fire building, the heimlich, rescue breathing and cpr, pocket knife stuff :), astronomy and constellations, and much more. I did that for an hour with my year group, 2nd years. We did certification until Wednesday...I think. Like I said, this was all last week and I haven't had time to sit here and post what with me leaving again THIS week's Monday to another camp. Anyway, during the week, we did things like frog hunting, where we hiked a short trail and found a pond full of frogs that we caught. Sis. Anderson, the leader who took us, put a frog in her mouth, and so did her daughter!!! I wasn't there that time they went, but I saw pictures! Every night, we would congregate as a stake at the ampitheater, and we would do our cheers. On Tuesday or Wednesday I believe, each ward did a skit. The skits were hilarious! Now, to one of my favorite parts: The Challenge Course! There were about five courses that consisted of five or six small challenges, and one big one. Our stake got assigned to the giant swing course. We departed camp with our years...in my case I went with the other 2nd years and a few 5th years since they didn't have a time set for them to go. At the course, we did small challenges like a rope one, a different one where we had to get someone to the middle of the "poison lake" with just a rope. We went through all of them except one, and it was time to hit the big swing. We got all harnaced and helmeted up, and I waited my turn until I could get hooked up and swinging. When I actually did, I held onto a rope that was attached to another rope that people were holding. When it was time, the people would sprint, pulling the rope, pulling me to the top of the tree really fast. I had to let go of the rope I was holding in order to fall. And I did at the highest point of the tree it was possible to get to. It was fun!!! But, I kind of get motion sick, so I was feeling a little dizzy by the end of the ride. We did one more small challenge, and we went back to camp. What a crazy and tiring three hours that was! But, the highlight of Girls' Camp this year was testimony meeting. The Neilsons of our ward came and spoke to us...that was amazing...and then we started bearing our testimonies. I was bawling my eyes out by the end of it. It was so spiritual and wonderful, I loved it. And, my dad, being 1st counselor in the bishopric, was able to come, which was great, too. All in all, I had a fantastic Girls' Camp, the food was delicious, too!!! We rode home on buses and I took a nice shower and I picked up my brother and sister from Camp Hobe, a camp for kids with cancer and there siblings, Kids' Week. The next week (which is this week I am in now) I knew I would be going to Camp Hobe, except it was TEEN camp. I was nervous for it, very. I went to Kids' camp last year, so I was insecure about being the youngest this year, 'cause I was the oldest last year and it would be different. When I got there, I checked in, found out I would be in cabin 13 with mostly thirteen-year-olds, but some who were fourteen. We numbered ourselves...each member of our cabin had a number so we could do roll call. I was #1. It was funny. My counselors were Mattie, Staci, and Ashley. I LOVED my counselors! Mattie was hilarious and so energetic: she always said "It's happening!" or "It happened" or "It's going to happen!"And she and Staci would always sing "Joyful, Joyful" from Whoopi Goldberg's movie "Sister Act" or something like that. Ashley was pretty awesome, too! We called her Red. I think on Thursday, we changed Mattie's name to Maddadiah just for fun! I loved all the counsellors there! Schmatt, Kevin, Chris the Creeper :), Michael, Tanner, and there were way more. They were all awesome. And, I totally loved the nurses and the doctor who were in the infermery to help us if we got sick, and they also gave the kids with cancer their daily meds. They have a big white board outside the infermery that said: Nurses Advice-Try Not To Catch BEIBER FEVER!!! But later, someone erased the "Not" in the sentence, and it said: Try To Catch Bieber Fever!!! Then, this girl in my cabin, named Kenna, had a brother named Brandon who was in the oldest boy cabin, changed it to Hammet Fever because that is his last name. Anyway...on the first day, we went into the field, and there was a table for each cabin. We had to do this challenge that was super fun...and we all came up with cabin names. I am going to say all of them from the youngest cabin to the oldest: Chocolate Penguins, Orange Flipin' Flamingoes, Sundrops(my cabin), Whoppers, Steve the Ninja Cow Cabin, Wild Thangs, and the G6's. Okay this is funny: the reason the oldest boy cabin was called the G6's was because they were literally cabin "G" and "#6". That was pretty much perfect because, there is this rap song that says "Like a G6, like a G6, na na na na na na, feeling fly like a G6!", and that was their cheer and they would go around saying "Like a G6!" They were my favorite boy cabin because they were all definitions of studs. They were gentlemen, letting the ladies go first in the food line, and they threw our plates away for us a couple of times, and they were just awesome! But, I loved every cabin so much. Every day we had a game show thing where we would compete against every cabin. We, the Sundrops, were doing well the first couple of challenges, but we kind of fell away after, but we still did pretty good. My favorite game show was "Are You Smarter Than A Camp Counselor?", where we competed against the counselors and the other cabins. There was also a game show called "Make a Deal" held every mealtime where they would pick about four contestants at the end of every meal. The host was Schmatt. I got called up surprisingly and the nurses held up three boxes. I chose box #1 since I am #1 in my cabin and inside it was a stick and some pinecones. I decided to make a deal, obviously, 'cause who wants that? :), and my whole cabin came up and we did a congo line around the room so I could choose from a different box. I think I chose box #3 and I got a $10 Chili's gift card! Other prizes in boxes of other contestants were Cafe Rio, and Coldstone giftcards, or Classic Skating, Seven Peakes, or Lagoon day passes. Cool, huh?! I was glad with what I got. Another thing that they had there that wasn't there last year was the ropes courses. There was a giant swing, just like at Girls' Camp, and a zipline, and other small courses. Oh yeah, those were awesome. I wasn't scared to go on the swing at all since I had already done something like that, and I was barely scared to go on the zipline. The low courses were fun also. The whole camp I enjoyed good food(though not as good as Girls' Camp), campfire songs, my fav being "Bubblegum" and "Herby", and many other activities like archery, water games and swimming, real scuba diving in the pool (which I didn't really like because my ears were killing me), learning the sign language to the Camp Hobe song, drama games, a band coming to play for us, three comedians doing stand-up comedy for us, a hypnotist hypnotising a few people on stage. I loved the whole experience and decided it was way better than last year, even! And one last thing: throughout the week, there was a stick that we all were supposed to sign. It is a tradtion they do every year that after the stick is signed, they burn it, symbolically showing that whoever was there years in the past, is always the with the next groups in the future. It is kinda cool. Before the stick was burned on Thurday night, we all sat around the campfire and we passed the stick around saying what we wanted to about Camp Hobe. One kid, who made us all laugh, said, when the stick was passed to him: "I have one thing to say. Put sunscreen on the first day." :) Haha. Sooooooooo true. When the stick was passed to me, I was blubbering away emotionally the whole time I talked, so I don't remember exactly what I said, but there were a bunch of people who cried also, I wasn't the only one. :) That night after, we had a dance like they do every year. We danced at least until midnight...it was so much fun, probably my favorite part of the whole week. And then we went to bed. There is so much more for me to say, but I don't think I want to torture you anymore. This post is SO LONG! There is so much swimming in my mind right now...I just hope I can remember all of this. I don't want to forget, because that would just be depressing. THE END...Finally! :) Hey, it took me forever to write this post, too.