A Typical Week

We have completed 7 weeks of Young Women camp with 4 more to go!  Here is what our typical week is like...
       At 5:00 am on Monday morning the water truck, parked by our cabin, starts up and heads out to water down the dirt roads before the buses of girls arrive.  It helps to keep the dust down.
   Leaders start arriving by 7:00 am.  The girls usually arrive about 9:00 am. 

This is the sight that greets the girls as they roll into camp. The buses line up down the mountain.

      At 7:30am every morning, except Sunday, we receive a "wake up" call from the security team at the Welcome Center.  It includes a greeting, weather report and a spiritual thought.
     By 8:00 am, the Elders on the Lake Team are usually down at the lake working on projects.  The project for today was to replace the pontoon motor and steam clean the boats- but- the weather is calling for rain, so, that project has been delayed.  Granger is down there now finishing up the inventory that he is in charge of.
     My Monday morning usually finds me doing laundry, catching up on the blog, cleaning up the cabin, and heading down to my office (my car at the point parking lot where I can usually can get phone reception) to take care of whatever business needs to be done.  Last Monday I spent time at Guest Services printing stuff for my Relief "Society lesson.
  
      We have 2 lake sessions on Monday: 2:00 pm and 3:30 pm.  We arrive at the lake 1-1 1/2 hours before the first session.  We clean, and prepare for the day, and then have a devotional before the girls come.

     Sometimes after our last session is over, we take off with other missionaries for an outback ride on the ATV's.  They are generally about 3-4 hours long.  We have seen some amazing scenery, wildlife and wildflowers.

     Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we run 5 sessions on the lake beginning at 9:00 am and ending about 5:00.  We start work about 7:45, and get done about 6:00.  

     Because we work Saturday nights, we can sometimes take a night off the mountain during the week.  We have checked out some local food places.

Us with the Taylors at the local bowling alley

Granger, Taylors, Ways and Webbs

 
     
     Our P-day is usually on Wednesday.  It starts on Tuesday night when we are done at the lake.  We have opted to only go home once a month.  Our day is different  every week, but usually includes grocery shopping and running whatever errands need to be done.  Sometimes we head down to Utah Vally and meet up with Robyn who has a Costco membership.  We have also gone to a few Lacrosse games, done a little touristy browsing,  and last week we met up with some other missionaries and attended a performance of  "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" at the Midway outdoor theater.

     Fridays are different.  We start about 7:30 am and haul trash for Camp Esther.  

  The camp hosts are hauling trash all week, so we give them a break on Fridays when the girls are checking out of camp.  It frees up the camp hosts so they can deal with everything else.  I drive back and forth through the camp and Granger loads the trash in the trailer as they bring it down to the road.  Then we make a trip to the dumpsters.

     Friday mornings are also "All Call" time.  Many of the wards and stakes will leave the leftover food for the missionaries.  Each camp will put out an "all call" to the missionaries and then it is a mad rush to the camps to see what got left behind.  It's kind of like garage saling,  or trick-or-treat on steroids.  It's pretty fun and has saved us a lot on groceries.  We get a lot of pulled pork.  That seems to be the most common meal at girls camp!

Missionaries "shopping" at all call

     We also have All Call treat time about noon.  All of the missionaries are invited down to the maintenance building where treats are served.  Granger and I are in charge of the 4th Friday of every month.  In June we served root beer floats.  This Friday we will serve ice cream sundaes.  Others have served cookies, scones, cinnamon rolls, etc.

     We head to the lake about 1:00pm for devotional and to get ready for our sessions.  Families and other groups arrive starting at 2:00pm.  We run 3 sessions at 3:00, 4:30, and 6:00.

     Saturday we start about 8:45 am.  We run 4 sessions, then have a break and then run 2 sessions for missionary families.  We finish the day about 8:30 pm.
     On the 4th Saturday, we do not have missionary families, we have a missionary social.

     Sundays we have church at 10:00 am in the Hinckley pavillion.   Sometimes it's quite chilly, but it is beautiful.  The second year missionaries are generally the speakers... something we can look forward to next year!

     At 2:30 pm on the first Sunday, we have mission meeting.  On the 2nd and 4th Sundays, we have potluck, on the 3rd Sunday we have district meetings.
     Sometimes at 6:00pm, we go down to Smith and play "marbles" with some of the other missionaries.

     On Monday, we start all over again!!!

     
     

Elder Oliekan to the Rescue!

One of Granger's assignments on the lake is to drive the rescue raft and rescue canoes that get dumped in the lake.  We also get to drive the pontoon boat and pull the girls out of the lake when they capsize.  Sometimes the rescues get a little funny and even a little weird!

Granger always wanted a boat!

His first rescue was actually a YW flag that a gust of wind blew into the water-

The same gust of wind blew a leader's hat in!

 

When the canoes capsize, they have to be pulled from the water, emptied, and then towed into shore

It's a lot of hard work

Granger held the record for 3 pulled in at once, until Elder Pulley broke it by towing in 4

This canoe actually sank to the bottom of the lake.  Granger found it, pulled it up with a grappling hook, and we pulled it to shore, complete with a leech inside!

"We got it"

Canoe Rescue team: E/S Oliekan- finders and retrievers, Elder Mitchell- grappling hook maker, Elder Moretti- fellow searcher, locator, and prayer giver, Elder Jensen- our fearless leader!

These are the first girls we rescued on the pontoon

These girls were excited because we loaded them back in the canoe for another chance.   We actually pulled some of them in again...

Sometimes it's the leaders that go in!

These two little Beehives didn't have a clue

Elder Oliekan jumped in their canoe and gave them paddling lessons

He taught them well,

and then sat back for a nice canoe ride, letting them do all the work.

He had a lot of fun with these cute girls!

Fourth of July!!!

Our 4th of July actually began on Thursday the 2nd of July.  The missionaries decorated their ATV's, work vehicles, or anything else they could find and we held a parade for the Young Women.  We bought some patriotic sparkly stuff, flags, pinwheels, and snagged some "lifesaver" buoys from the lake.  We filled up the back with water so Granger could spray the Young Women as we went by.  I opted to drive so he could shoot.....BIG mistake!!!! We didn't realize that the biggest water fight would be with the missionaries.  Talk about childhood regression- we were wet before we left the parking lot!  Everytime we backtracked through a camp, I was the one getting drenched by the missionaries!  Granger hardly got wet.  Lesson learned, I will not be driving on the 24th!

Ready to roll- and squirt!

Sister Honroth and her dump truck

The only horse in our parade

The Pulley's and their "Skunk Bug"

Sister Moretti

E/S Holliday

Brother Wimpey

E/S Bridges

Sister Simonsen and Sister Phillips

E/S Scott

E/S Crabb, Elder Simonsen and Sister Phillips

E/S Dye

We did have a lot of fun and the girls loved it.
On Thursday we celebrated Granger's birthday with his favorite cheese cake, and the Lake team.
On Friday we reenacted the parade for the groups and families in camp- minus the water.  Because so many of us had to be to work right after the parade, Elder Lundgreen put a ban on the water.  So, I switched places, donned a paddle and "paddled" my way through the parade.  It got lots of giggles and laughs from the kids!

We then spent the rest of the day working at the lake.  We did 4 sessions of family campers and 2 sessions of missionary families.  Elder Terry set up his speakers and we had patriotic music all day. 

This was actually the hardest day that I have had on the mountain.  We had a lot of fun and worked hard, but I really missed my kids.  The 4th has always been a big deal at our house.  I knew all day where my kids were and what they were doing- and we were missing it.  I appreciated the pictures the kids sent.

Grandkids at the parade

Ryker and Jackson

Travis and Ryker

Ryker

Ryker at the fireworks