Our first day we got to do the ropes course (trust activities). The bishop and I actually got through the first one (helps if you're tall.) The second activity was climbing a rope over a vertical wall, to a TINY platform on the backside and then climbing down a rickety A-Frame latter. Sorry, girls, I don't trust you that much!! I decided to keep the girl who recently had back surgery company! No one was able to get over. Turns out the bishop knows the guy in charge of the wall and told him it needed some major improvements (including chopping about 3 feet off the top and actually attaching the ladder to the wall somehow!)
That same day we got to go to Tibble Resevoir to go canoeing. The Dell owns 12 canoes that you can borrow. We just used 6 since we are a small group (and since we only had one truck for towing!) The girls had a BLAST!! I was a party pooper and made sure I was always in the no-tipping allowed canoe! All the other girls spent most of their time playing in the water or towing their canoe back to shore!
We were VERY lucky to get our outdoor activities done on the first day, because it pretty much rained, thundered, lighteninged, and hailed the next few days!!! Somehow the leaders got the campsite at the very bottom of the hill and we got QUITE the mudslide some right through our tent! (The zipper was left open an inch or two). This was the floor AFTER we moved all our soaking wet gear up on our air mattresses.
And it made it kind of hard to make a fire!
So we made our taco salad (with gourmet Cafe Rio dressing - we're really roughing it!) inside the lodge. And luckily, all our activities could be done indoors. We had our getting-to-know you games and journal making craft under the pavilion. (While watching the mud slowly coming down the mountain and filling the pavilion as well!) We had our movie skit night that night in the lodge. All the other wards and the stake did not have tents as good as ours and they were all Soaking. So they all moved indoors. After one sleepless night of constant thunder and lightening, and another one threatening, we moved indoors as well. Good thing since it DID thunder and lightening all night again. I've NEVER seen anything like this in Utah. It really reminded me of a mid-west thunderstorm. One of the workers told us he'd seen the doppler radar map and the red center was directly over Mutual Dell. He also said he'd never even seen Mutual Dell on the radar maps ever before!
Instead of a skit, the leaders decided to write a song instead. We picked the two movies, The Little Mermaid and Twilight out of a hat and had to mesh them together. Here's our result (to the tune of Part of Your World)Look at this guy, isn't he neat?
Wouldn't you think his complextion's complete?
Wouldn't you think he's the guy, the guy who has everything?
Look at this girl, she's such a clutz,
for loving this guy she's totally nuts!
Didn't you think he played a better Cedric Diggory?
He's got fangs & muscles a plenty.
He's got pale skin & glitter galore.
You want werewolves? Well there's 20.
But who cares, no big deal, she wants more!
She wants to be where the immortals are
She wants to run, wants to run with the werewolves.
Isn't it just too bad she can't have them both?
Who will she choose? Who will it be?
Should she choose fur or eternity??
This was so fun - we're almost done...
What team are you on??
The next morning we got all ready for our hike to Timp Cave. When we got there we realized they'd closed the trail due to rockslides during the storms. While we were trying to reschedule for another time this summer, they got the word that they'd gotten the trails cleared and we could go up. We were actually the first group allowed to go up that day! What a blessing. That and clear, but nice and cool weather! Somehow I got with the speedy girls this time and we were the first ones to the top. It took us an hour. I was proud of myself! The trail is paved, which makes it very nice!
My favorite views were of the valley between the mountain peaks.
I made it!!
The cave tour was AMAZING. The guides are actually called tour interpreters, which means they have the liberty to choose their own script. Since we were a YW group, she related EVERYTHING to the gospel and girls camp. She was amazing. I also enjoyed hearing the history of the cave. Here's a picture of a stalactite and stalagmite grown together. 
This is the Heart of the cave. It's many stalactites grown together. I'd heard the story of the Indian girl that jumped off the mountain for the rain gods before, but I hadn't heard the part about the Indian boy she fell in love with. This heart represents the story. And also how if we as individuals can get along, our hearts can knit together and make something better. (Of course, she told it better than that.)
I think these were called the Jaws of Death. We all entered this cavern in the dark, then she turned on the lights and showed us what we just walked under. Without the light of the gospel, we sometimes don't know what dangers we're entering.
I really enjoyed that hike and tour and really want to do it with my girls some year!Later we got to go on the zipline. I'd never done that before!! These girls sure do get a lot of outdoor activity opportunites! We each got to go twice. Some of those girls were doing the most outrageous stunts!! (Didn't get a good pic of me - sorry you have to miss that!)
Here's our tent by the end of the week. Even though we really had weather troubles, even the girls realized the positive effect it had on our camp. Several mentioned during their testimonies how the rain brought us all together more. Before the rain, everyone would hang out in their own tents or go off in small groups. After the rain, when we'd moved to the lodge we all hung out and slept together. Testimony meeting the last night was really great. I had planned a short activity about testimonies to preface it and help them realize how testimonies are are most important blessing in our lives.
We left Friday morning after packing and cleaning. Our girls were good to get everything done quickly, but since we had to wait for the other wards to move their things before we could clean, they had to learn some patience. We were all a LOT short on sleep, but it was great to see everyone getting along and making it a great experience! (Especially since we heard a lot of griping from the stake members that were used to camping in cabins!!)
