Friday, September 23, 2011

GIRLS CAMP 2011

I was assistant camp director for girls camp this year, so it was really fun to watch all of the things we had been thinking about and planning for so many months, happen in real life.

But first we had a camp kick off night. This is the banner that Bill Norton and I made for the event and for camp...


We took the original design made by Lori Stapley's friend, and moved it around and added color. 
Love it!


At our camp kick off event Corrin Grimes, Chrystal Begay, Sadie Maughn and the rest of the YCL's lead all of the girls in our favorite, most embarrassing song...
Tooty- Ta!



One of those things we planned months before was an obstacle course that was all about serving others. Each one of the obstacles and goals had a special meaning about helping our fellow man (or sister!)


Right next to the obstacle course, was the Zip Line. Tess is showing us how it's done!
A big thanks to Pres. Ballard who roasted in the sun for about 5 hours catching girls at the end of the ride.


This year was Tess's last year at camp. She was a second-year YCL (youth camp leader) and did a great job taking care of her girls and taking the bull by the horn! (Get it! She's holding a bull horn!!!)


She is leading the whole camp in the flag ceremony and roll call. I was impressed with her leadership skills!


Gathering campers getting ready for dinner.


Val Vista ward in their hand-made shirts. 
So cute!


The first night, we had a big skit created by Kandy Baldwin, based on the Candyland board game. 


All the Crawfords went on the most difficult hike on day 2. It was exactly six months since my precious little sister, Liza, had spent her last day on earth, so we wore our Rollersaurus shirts! It was perfect because Liza's favorite thing was hiking through the mountains. I hope we did her proud!


Me and my honey heading out!


In the turquoise shirt is probably Tess and Chloe's favorite person, Tiffany Coon. She is a wild and crazy ball of fun! Tess met her two years ago at 4th Year Camp and they had a blast! We just so happened to run into her in Utah, at Lagoon, later this summer!!! 


Chloe had her new tie-dye shirt on but was still Loving Liza. Here she is with Madi Stapley. Madi's mom, Lori, was our fabulous camp director! Do you like Madi's lanyard with her little camp booklet I made? :)


Tess's favorite way of posing for the camera. She is WAY too original to just smile!


I had to take a picture of these trees that looked just crazy with some branches up and some pointing down. I couldn't tell what was roots or branches or top or bottom!


This hike was more like a "climb" and we were with the Windrift ward girls a lot as we hefted ourselves up the giant rocks.

One of the girls got hurt so Russ and Karena got to carry her the rest of the way up the mountain. Luckily she waited till we were almost done before she fell and hit her hip on a stump.


About a week before camp, my sister, Maryjane, and I realized that not only were we going to the same camp location this summer (Lo Mia) with our stakes, but she was going to be there the week before me!! So I said she had to leave me something to find when I get there, like a treasure hunt. SHE DID!! 

She gave me this little clue on a piece of paper the night before I left. It said, 
"Apples are red
When you eat  your stew
Keep track of the time
and picture me and you"

Not her best poem ever but it WORKED! I knew she was referring to the cafeteria with the food references, then we looked around for pictures, or clocks etc. Above the fireplace mantle was a HUGE clock and on the mantle was a black and white picture of two girls outside in the woods (or something like that). And hiding behind it was this little card and bag of yummy candy! MJ had written me a little note and then... the cutest surprise of all...
She had my mom write me a little letter and she tucked it in there too! This is an old girls camp tradition, to get a sweet letter from your mom when you are at camp, but I was all grown up! It brought tears to my eyes to read the sweet things my mother had to say to me in my letter, and to think of my sister thinking of the PERFECT thing to hide for me up at camp. 

I felt VERY SPECIAL!!!!


Next was the crazy ward skit night on Tues. night and there was no limit on the laughter especially with Robin Hirsche dressed up as Angelina Jolie (toting along her adopted twins)


and Brooke Sampson as Alex Trebeck hosting Celebrity Jeopardy!!!!


To the left of Angelina, is Kate Middleton who recently married Prince Harry (played by the hilarious Pam Crist) and just outside the picture on the right, was President Ballard playing a western version of himself. 



He kept answering questions in an accent and talking about Ponies instead of dollars. We were in stitches!!


But I think the best thing of the whole Jeopardy was Brooke's creative quesions, like...
Meanings of LOL
States that end in Hampshire
Current US Presidents
Where is the Spirit Stick?
S- words
The Number 7


Tess wrote our ward skit that was based on the board game, Twister. It was hilarious and of course she cast herself as the was funniest fat person you have ever seen. Chloe was "Miss Integrity" and tried to fix all the things that were going terribly wrong at the "abnormally large game of twister." I'll have to try and find pictures later. But the picture above is from another ward's skit which was based on the game operation. My favorite part was when the patient on the table's heart stopped beating and one of the Nurses grabbed a Book of Mormon and a Bible and rubbed them together and shouted "CLEAR!" before using them like defibrilator paddles on the girl's chest. 
I died laughing!!! CLEAR!!!


The last full day of camp, Wed., we all wore our matching camp shirts, and lucky Russ got to wear HOT PINK (Val Vista ward's color) all day!!! 


Corrina Nottingham is watching Russ fill up her homemade 2 liter bottle rocket with air before we shoot it off SUPER HIGH!!! 



A big thanks to Sean Stapley for setting it all up and all the young men in our ward for making all the rocket blasting stations!!! It was a lot of the girls' favorite part of camp.


That's me, I was really there! Gotta have a braid in the hair at girls camp. It's the law!


Now a little glimpse of Girls Camp through Chloe's camera. 
This is one of about 15 pictures taken on the bus on the way to camp. 
Shaylee and Callie were in about half of them!


The theme of camp was SWEET IS THE WORK and each ward was given a cookie or treat related name for their cabins. Val Vista ward lived in the Cookie Cottages. See the cute gingerbread girls up on top? CUTE!


Sister Hall is the best. Simple as that!!!



Chloe and Madi being silly again!


and again!


Corrine Grimes was one of Chloe's fav's too!


Hanging out with the very fun Tiffany Coon again!!





Russ's Birthday "Girls Camp Survival Kit"

 This year, Russ's birthday landed on the first day of Girls Camp, which he and I and 2 of our daughters would be attending. So, the night before camp (July 24, 2011) we had the Koskis and Wilsons over for a birthday dinner and we gave him a "Girls Camp Survival Kit" as a gift.



Inside the kit were other small packages with labels explaining how each gift would help him survive camp.


This bag contained his favorite treats, candy, beef jerky and smoked almonds. YUM!


This hilarious mini foldable pocket chair had a tag that said, 
"To help you rest your weary bones"


This one had a new pair of flip flops in it for him to wear around his cabin in the evenings, just like the girls do.

Peter liked the packaging of this one!



Russ is digging into his first bag


Russ checking out the VERY big bra the girls picked out for him and placed in a bag labeled, 
"To help with PRANKS and SKNARPS"
Also in the bag was Saran Wrap and candy.


Claire-bear trying on the bra! It's a bit too big for now.
Olivia is holding the last gift, an ipod holder to strap on your arm while running or hiking, which was in a package labeled, 
"To help you get a little peace from all the chitter chatter!!!"

LOVE YOU RUSS!!!!
Happy Birthday and thanks for putting up with all us GIRLS!


Summer Random Fun

This summer the Crawfords tried some new things to try and keep the doldrums away.
 One of Rustin's and mine (and Chloe tried it too) was playing disc golf.


(picture of total stranger from internet- but you get the idea)

 Rustin, Mason, Gary, Chloe and I had such a blast playing, that we would go out and play in the 103 degree weather! We even braved slimy pond water when we accidentally threw the discs in the water.





Rustin crammed on Chloe's flip-flops and waded out in the muck to retrieve his precious disc! 
Watch on video!


Can you see all the slimy weeds in the toes of Chloe's flip flops??? 
EWwWWWWww!!!

I threw one in later that was too far in to get, but the park manager (who is Rustin's friend) called the other day and told Rustin he had scooped it out with others and to come pick it up!

Rustin and Mason couldn't get enough of disc golf so they would try and play inside. Bad idea Rustin!!!



Rustin played on The Force, a summer lacrosse league and kept himself in good shape with 2 hour practices and games a few nights a week. I kept in shape by jogging around the complex for 40 min. while he practiced and then read books, or watched his games. I love the color of the sky in this picture!



My cute dog Jasper just has to lay on the towels as I am folding and stacking them after they've dried on the fence all day. I just keep plopping them on his back but he doesn't care!


On the night of July 14th, I took Kaitlyn and Olivia to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2. We had such a blast! I left them at the theater to hold our place in line and while I was gone at my meeting, they let everyone in to the theater WAY earlier than expected. Unfortunately, I had not left the girls' tickets with them! Fortuntately,  I had asked these two teenage girls to keep an eye on them for me and one of them saved us seats in the theater, and the other one waited outside with the girls in the dark until I got there. Phew!!


My creative girls HAD to make shirts for the special occasion!


My little Olivia partied so hard with a bunch of friends from diving that happened to be in our theater, that she fell asleep 30 min. before the movie started. I let her sleep and then woke her up just in time! She stayed awake for the whole movie! :) 
It was AWESOME!!!!



We also had the Legos out for a few weeks and had a blast making project after project. Of course girls build different things than boys do!



 Summer isn't all play. I did have some work to do! As assistant Girls Camp Director for our stake girls camp, I had a huge task (that I assigned myself) of putting together 300 booklets with the schedules and songs in them for the girls to wear on lanyards and use all week. I write their names all by hand and they turned out so nice! But it took several days of writing for hours and hours at a time. I even got out my list of fonts so I could make sure my writing looked nice.



One of our favorite games is "Take Two" with the Scrabble tiles. After many competative rounds of this game, Rustin used all the tiles to make this excellent crossword puzzle. I guss his brains haven't turned to mush this summer!