It's a Wonderful Carnell Life: Valley Forge Girls Camp

Me and Brie with our 2 favorite girls @ GC

Luckily, I didn't get maimed by a bear or a puma however there were 3 sightings during my first 'real' camping experience.

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to be an adult leader for 5 days at the Valley Forge Stake Girls Camp. I have been to girls camp before back home in St. Louis, however our form of camping at Cuivre River consisted of lodges with bunk beds, running water, showers, mirrors, and electricity so this was indeed an adventure. Ryan laughed at me when comparing this experience to 'Camping Barbie'--but, in all reality it was a pretty accurate parallel.

The theme of Girls Camp was Princess Academy. All of the devotionals and groups were centered on different Disney Princesses and focused on how we each possess individual worth and talents that make us unique daughters of our Heavenly Father. At first, I was a bit leery about the theme thinking it would be too girly for outdoor camping, but this was actually wonderful. I LOVED it so much because I personally, learned a lot about myself and found a lot of inner traits and talents to be grateful for that I wasn't aware of pre-camp. These are the 23 amazing young women I got to spend most of my time with:

This was my hut. I don't know what to call it because it's not a lodge and it's not a traditional tent, so I deem it as a 'tarp hut':

I did not sleep a wink the first night I was here because I desperately missed Ryan AND because I was deathly afraid of wild animals getting into our quarters easily: bears smelling food/smelly toiletries or snakes crawling into my sleeping bag to stay warm.

The second night was equally terrifying because some of my older girls played a prank on me and the other leader by spraying silly sting into our sleeping bags... When I crawled into my bag to go to bed, I felt it and thought a snake was at the bottom. I panicked--majorly--jumping 3+ feet in the air and out of my sleeping bag, squealing, and then proceeded to hit my bed with my flashlight {thinking about it now, a flashlight wouldn't have killed a snake, but when you're frightened, logic doesn't usually set in}. Needless to say, my friend Brie and I created this masterpiece with the culprit's jammies behind our scare:

The shower and bathroom situation was terrible--5 showers for 125+ girls and leaders located on a distant remote path. {lame} Toilets were equally terrible if not worse...

Despite these 'extreme' camping conditions, I had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and the surrounding nature was beautiful! Every time I went from our sleeping area to the mess hall, I got to walk along a path and see this:

We did a lot of exhilarating activities like boating, archery, and hiking. I'm not sure which was my favorite, but I had a BLAST trying everything. But, I saw 2 river otters while kayaking, so that automatically trumps everything!