Girls Camp- Wed. THE HIKE!

We were able to choose one of three hikes to go on; Easy, Medium and Hard.

We chose HARD! 8 miles, 1500 feet up rocks we had to climb over hand and foot, and 5 hours later we were still glad we went!

Off we go!

Danica and Marina- ready and willing

We kept stopping for picture breaks because it was so beautiful! 

Thanks Kristin Larsen, one of the fearless YCL leaders for all your help and for taking this picture of my hubby and I...

Loving the hike so far!

Val Vista leaders, Sandy Bell...

Brooke Sampson and Lauri Malolo

We had to walk along this fallen tree. I loved all the chunks of rocks stuck in its trunk

My favorite family of friends from girls camp; Emily,  Kelsey (my YCL), Shannon and Xarissa Levine. Had so much fun singing with Xarissa and Kelsey on the bus and chatting with the whole fam on the hike!

(and had quite the emotional experience with them the next night)

The stake leaders asked the girls to carry the "Return to Virtue" banners on each one of the hikes. The girls passed it as they got tired but were troopers!

Brooke and J.J. heading up the steep part.

Here comes Bro. Crawford!

We haven't gone very far up the mountain yet but I already started taking pictures of the view. I couldn't help myself, it just kept getting better and better and I didn't want to miss anything!

Like our trip to Hawaii, I couldn't help taking a picture of this sign.

Carragain with her cute blue fingernails pointing to the poison ivy.

There were several places that were soooo steep we needed help up. My awesome YCL, Devon, stayed and helped many hikers up the rocks. She rocks!

Up!

Up!

Who needs a rope when you've got Russ's big strong arms!?

Drink up!

Allie and the Val Vista girls taking a break and blowing bubbles??

When we got to the barbed-wire fence, Bishop Budge was there to see that we got safely under.

Of course his trusty first counselor was there to help him help others!

Peggy Caffal hiked with us and had fun learning our crazy camp song, 

"I Like Mormon Boys and I Cannot Lie!"

Carragain showing us the Elk hoof prints

Another great view

Resting at the top, my YCL's Torrin, McKayli, Hannah and Kendra and their girls

My good friend and fellow YCL leader, Marilyn Tenney who helped with the girls who were in charge of the hikes and hike devotionals. Thanks Marilyn!!!

Torrin Turley. Does she look familiar? She was one of the ten virgins in the photo book "Reflections of Christ"

Hannah Brinton enjoying her much deserved lunch!

McKaylie, who I have known since she was about 5 years old! We had so much fun talking at the end of the hike about little brothers and sisters, being a mom and life in general! Love you McKayli!

 FUNNY STORY: This is yet another YCL, Kendra Altman. When she saw Russ the night before she realized she knew him somehow but couldn't put her finger on it. Then she said to Becky Taylor, (another fearless YCL leader) "I think that's the guy who hit me with his car!"  Not only was she right but but Becky realized that her son, McKay was IN THE CAR with Russ when he hit her!!!! 

About a month or two ago Russ was stopped, waiting to turn onto Elliot and didn't see Kendra who was waiting on her bike next to him. He started out into the street when he saw this girl limping with her bent, red bike! He stopped and asked if she was OK. Her ankle hurt a little but her bike took most of the brunt of it. He drove her home, made sure her ankle was OK and then the next day brought her a BRAND NEW red bike just like the one he hit! It was quite the funny coincidence for them to run into each other (no pun intended) at girls camp! There were no hard feelings and she had fun teasing him and he was glad he took such good care of her!

VVW!

We came a LONG way baby!

Jennie, Rochelle and Sharly, happy to be at the top!

Getting ready for the devotional. We had 88 people out of 260 choose the hard hike!

Fellow YCL (Lindsay?) helping Aubrey get cactus out of Aubrey's bootie. Ouch!

Torrin, Hannah, Kendra and Kelsey giving their INCREDIBLE devotional

I was so proud of them I almost BURST!!!

That would have been embarrassing!

Russ leading the way back down! On the way back down we went down switch backs instead of the steep rocks. We had more sun but more fun! I had some great talks with several adopted girls from Russia (Marina and Christina) and another girl from Texas. Amazing girls!