And I'm off to my 6th year of Girl's Camp in a row!

This is most of the gang. Jamie, Cindy, Alisha, and Natalie were all late arrivals.

The best part of this year for me was that JASON was there!!!!

He came up to be a Priesthood leader on the 4th year overnight backpacking hike.

The hike was about 2.5 miles. It definitely gained elevation and was a good workout. The best part was that 2 miles of it were in the shade. Oh, and that JASON was there.

It was a pretty hike and since Jason and I brought up the rear we had a lot of time to rest. We started hiking at 4pm and got to camp at 7pm. We had gone up the week before to check it out and find a place to camp for the night but as we were hiking it with all the girls the spot we had picked out didn't look big enough. So we had to send out a scouting group to find us a new place to make camp.

Once we all got there we started to get out the tarps to sleep on (most of the girls were good with sleeping out under the stars and not having to pack a tent in) that's when we realized that everyone had thought that everyone else had packed the tarps and we only had two small ones. So some girls just set their bags on the ground (I opted to sleep in Jason's tent with him :)). We had ourselves some dinner and the Oreo's that Inez bought that I packed in.After dinner we made ourselves some moccasins and then all gathered round to roast Starbursts and have a little devotional and fireside.

By the time it was over it was late, like 11pm and cold, like 42 degrees, and Jason and I looked like this...

As everyone went to get into their sleeping bags a couple of people (all the ones from our ward who didn't have a tarp) realized that their sleeping bags were all wet from the ground. So they brought them over to the fire and dried them out and then cozied on up for the night. There was the sweetest girl there who was so worried about all the cold people, and a bit of a pyro, that she stayed up all night tending to the fire so those girls would stay warm. Inez said that finally just before dawn this girl sat down with her sleeping bag wrapped around her and just fell asleep sitting there.

We all endured through the cold night and come morning Inez and I weren't in the mood for the oatmeal that was for breakfast. Luckily I had planned ahead and snuck up a couple of Hostess cupcakes. We hid behind a tree and got the sugar rush we needed to make it back down the trail. I was in charge of the morning devotional and used a quote I love from Elder Holland...

"The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear!"

Overall the hike was amazing. I had so much fun especially because Jason was with me! Jason left from the hike to go home and say hi to the boys and then pack up to head to Zion's for a High Adventure camp with the scouts. The boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and even got to spend part of the time in St. George. The hike was only the first day and a half of camp so there is still more to come...