San Juan Island Youth Campout

We have been thinking about, talking about, and planning for this trip for a year and now it has finally happened. We did a youth campout at the San Juan Islands, and we had the most incredible time. This was my first time going to the San Juan Islands, and I loved every minute of it and would love to go back. We had 6 young women, and 6 young men go plus a bunch of leaders. I also brought Baylor and McCall with me and Nate would have gone but he had a busy work schedule for the weekend with Kid Fest. Our schedule was jam packed and we all loved every moment, every experience, and every memory made.

We met bright at early on Wednesday and made the long drive to the Anacortes ferry terminal. It was a pretty rainy drive down and on the ferry for a bit but the rest of the time we had beautiful 70 degree weather. We had about an hour to wait and one of the leaders bought everyone donuts that we enjoyed and then all the young women went down to the water. It was low tide so plenty of rocks to flip and crabs to find. We even saw some herons and a couple of river otters playing in the water.

The ferry ride is about an hour and was beautiful. You go around all these islands with incredible views. The young women played cards games for about half the time and then wandered around on deck for the other half. We were all hoping to see a whale or other sea life, but we didn't see much.

We arrived at Lakedale Resort where we would be camping and call home for the next few days. Our campsites were at the very back of the property and in a very wooded area which was really nice. The resort is wonderful and has a little store, a lake with kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, etc. that you can use, a ping pong table, a giant Jenga and connect four, a disc golf, volleyball pit, bikes for the kids to ride, and a craft area. It was amazing and we could have spent more time doing the things at camp, but we had an island to see.

First thing was setting up camp. The girls took a little longer than the boys and needed some help from the leaders since their tent was a little bigger and more complicated, but they did it and had a big tent for them all to sleep in and then a smaller tent for all their gear and their changing tent. My tent was right next to theirs. The boys were in a different campsite and then in between was where a few of the leaders slept. It worked out great! My two little girls were excited to camp, especially McCall who was so excited about her princess sleeping bag.

We had about an hour to explore the property. The girls had fun riding bikes and wandering through the camp store. Baylor, McCall, and I found a huge frog right at the edge of the lake and we were excited to show the young women. They tried to catch it, but it was quick.

Then for dinner we had a cook off. I was in charge of this dinner, and I divided the youth into two teams. Three young women and three young men on each team. They are usually pretty separate, so this was a great opportunity to mix them up a bit and work together as a team. They each got the same ingredients- a pound of hamburger, half of a rotisserie chicken, a bag of cheese, a couple cans of refried beans, a can of black beans, a can of corn, three tomatoes, an onion, a green pepper, a half a bunch of cilantro, some lettuce, taco seasoning, a bag of chips, and a package of flour tortillas. Their mystery ingredient that they were required to use and be creative with was a couple of avocados. There challenge was to make a Mexican style meal to feed 12 people and then do one plate for the judge that would be judged on taste, creativity, presentation, etc. They had 45 minutes to cook. They had extra seasonings that both teams could use. It was fun to watch, and they all worked well together. I was worried there wouldn't be enough food for everyone, but it all worked out and was delicious. The youth did so good!

These two kept busy playing with the adults while we waited for the food to be made.

The two dinners for the judge: team one made a burrito with a seven layer dip in the bowl and team two made volcano nachos. It was very close but team two won by a bit mostly because they seasoned their food better than team one.

Then for the evening we drove to Roche Harbor Cemetery and went to the Mausoleum. On the drive we saw a mama deer with her babies and a fox run across the road. The mausoleum was BEAUTIFUL! It is very symbolic and has a sacred feel about it. One of the leaders talked about the history behind it and how it all related to the gospel. Some of the things were that our spiritual path through this life is not always straight forward but ebbs and flows and we won't do everything we want to in this life, but we can try hard now to focus on what is important and also believe in good things to come. The sun was setting, and it was a gorgeous setting and I felt so close to God. 

We ended the evening with smores and then went to bed. Baylor and McCall took a bit to settle down in their new setting. I ended up sitting by the fire for a bit with McCall and she fell asleep in my arms. It was sweet to be out in nature with my sweet little girl sleeping in my arms.

Thursday morning started with breakfast and a spiritual thought by another leader. He shared some insight about the parable of the wheat and the tares from our Come Follow Me studies for the week. Usually, we think of the wheat as righteous people and tares as wicked people, but it says at the beginning of the section that it is the apostle that sow the seed of the wheat. And apostles and prophets share good and positive ideas, thoughts, and truths. So, the wheat could represent good and righteous thoughts and ideas and tares would be negative or wicked ones. This allows you to always see the good in people and that people are children of God but sometimes we have righteous or wicked ideas. It was a different way to look at the parable and I really liked it. 

Then we drove into town to start our kayaking tour. We divided into two groups. I was in the first group and then we drove to a harbor where our kayaks were waiting. Each kayak was a two person kayak and they each paddle but the one if the back controls the rudder with pedals. I was paired up with Paige and it took me a while to get used to turning the kayak with peddles instead of my paddle, but we figured it out and worked together. We were all hoping to see some bigger sea life, but we saw lots of birds, and the highlight was paddling out to watch a whole bunch of salmon jumping out of the water. We went around a harbor and stuck pretty close to the shore. It was a there and back trip and was about three miles. Towards the end of our tour, we met up with our other group, which was fun having us all together for a moment.

My girls were graciously watched by another leader so I could go kayaking. We waited around the second group to come back so I could get some pictures.

We eventually all got back together and had some lunch. Then we all drove the English camp. Back in the day on San Juan Island it was divided who owned it so there was a camp ruled by the British and one ruled by Americans. We learned a little more of the history at the camp and wandered around the property.

Then we made a quick stop at an alpaca farm to pet and feed the alpacas before heading back to camp.

We had about an hour at camp where the youth could do whatever they wanted. The girls pretty much stayed in their tent and played card games and Baylor got to join in the fun. I brought the sand toys out for McCall, and she had so much fun playing in the dirt. It kept her busy the entire time, which allowed me to visit with the adult leaders which was nice. She was DIRTY but oh so cute!

We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and then we made the drive to Lime Kiln Point State Park. I do wish for the last part of the drive that I was a passenger not the driver. The view of the water was incredible. We all got there and made our way to the lighthouse. It is a gorgeous view of the water and on the other side is Canada.

Baylor became buddies with Bella while playing games in the tent and so the rest of the day Bella had a little shadow and was so sweet to Baylor. It was cute to see their friendship!

There is a couple that opens that lighthouse every Thursday evening. It was fun to go to the top and look at the view. Boy is it incredible and we even saw some porpoises swimming while we were up there! We loved watching the sun set and the boys had fun climbing around on all the rocks.

I gave the evening devotional right by the lighthouse. I shared a story about a lighthouse from Elder Uchtdorf and shared how Christ can be a like a lighthouse in our lives. He is constant, He is a light in the darkness, He can guide us, and He can help us through any storm in life. We then all sang as a group, "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and it was coolest thing. Everyone was silent for 2-3 minutes and it was sacred, and I felt such love for these youth and for our Father in Heaven and the beautiful world we live in.

Then we got back to camp pretty late, and my two little girls went right to bed. I was able to join the other young women leader there and do a tuck in with the young women in their tent. We talked about our favorite part of the day, sang a song, had a night prayer together, and then gave hugs. It was the sweetest thing ever! I love these girls so much!

Friday I was up early before the girls and went to the bathroom, and I loved seeing my two sleeping girls in their tent. I also had time just to lay in my warm bed and tears came to my eyes with the knowledge my time as young women president may be coming to an end. This calling has been the most challenging but also the most rewarding calling I have ever had. I have learned more about myself and how I hear the Spirit than I have at any other time in my life. The girls I have here are all younger and I am all they know as a leader and I will miss spending so much time with them. They are amazing!

We started the day with breakfast which was amazing. Some of the leaders made homemade scones with honey butter and homemade jam. They were delicious! Then we had a morning devotional by a leader and youth all about our self-worth and how important we are to God. It was nice for each meal; there were youth assigned for helping cook and clean up and they did so good with this and helping out and it made things run smoothly.

Our first stop for the day was going to the Marine Biology Lab for the Univserty of Washington. It was so interesting and informative. We first learned all about a type of starfish they are working on saving and had some breakthrough research this past week. Then we went into their lab and got to touch all the little sea creatures they had. Then we got to walk on the docks and find and touch more sea creatures and the youth could ask as many questions as they had.

My two younger girls were required to wear life jackets on the dock because of their age. Baylor was not a fan and said that she would not come back on this dock until she was 13 years old. :) McCall was fine with it and had fun on JJ's shoulders for most of it.

Then we went and had lunch at False Bay and Paige gave a quick spiritual thought. It is a huge bay that got its name because the bay only stays about 3 feet deep when the tide is high, so it looks nice to boats, but then is too shallow. We went at low tide, and it was incredible. The tide was all the way out of the bay and the girls could walk way out into the water. (You can barely see them in the top right picture). It was pretty much all sand once you got out a ways which was nice to walk on.

Baylor and McCall had fun sticking with Megan and finding all sorts of crabs, and she enjoyed having a little photo shoot with them.

Then we made our way to the American Camp to see how different it was from the English camp. There was almost a war back in the day all about the killing of a pig, so we got some group shots on the pig.

Then we wandered through the old buildings. The English camp had a better set up, but the American Camp had a better view of the water.

As we were walking back, JJ had McCall on his shoulder, Baylor was on Bella's back, and Paige was on Lizzy's back. We were joking about how all the Santos family were carrying the Smith family and so Megan joked that I should be on her back and so of course we had to get a picture of it.

Then we drove by the Cattle Point Lighthouse and just around the bend we stopped to play on the beach. We were there for a couple of hours and it was so much fun. It ended up being a favorite for most of the youth because of a dip in the ocean.

These two had fun on the beach, playing in the sand and exploring.

It all started with two young men jumping in the water. Most of the young women wanted to but didn't have their swimming suits. I told them just jump in and then they could dry off by laying on the warm driftwood. The water was freezing and so it was a slow process of the girls deciding whether they wanted to jump in or not.

Then it was pure entertainment for me as I watched. It was very unifying for the young women and for the young men that joined in. The girls would go up to top of their legs and scream, then their stomachs and scream, and then they finally went up to their shoulders with lots of screaming and running out. Then they all finally were like we are this wet so we might as well get all the way wet. They all dunked their heads out with screaming and running out and all the leaders were laughing and enjoying the youth having so much fun together. We joked about peer pressure and how it usually is negative but can also be positive in helping us get out of our comfort zones and try new things.

One of the young men sat in the water for 15-20 minutes and we were all worried about him getting too cold or getting hypothermia and he replies with, "Hypothermia is a mindset" which of course had us all laughing.

Drying on the driftwood.

Then we made a quick stop in Friday Harbor so that everyone could get an ice cream cone.

We saw this street sign the night before, and Paige wanted to make a quick stop here before going back to camp to get a picture for Nona. (Nona loves dragonflies!)

Then all the girls took a nice, hot shower and got cleaned up before dinner. We had a delicious dinner of baked ziti, Italian bread, Dutch oven potatoes, and salad. It was so good! Then we all went to Roche Harbor to go "yacht shopping." It was walking through the harbor and admiring all the giant yachts. We got enjoy them do their nightly color ceremony where they take the Canadian, British, and American flags down for the night. They do taps for the USA flag and set off a cannon and it was so cool to watch. Smaller boats drive in to watch and once the ceremony was done, a lot of the yachts in the harbor honk their horns.

Then we made a quick stop to see Sculpture Park. There were some really cool sculptures but SO many mosquitoes. We haven't dealt with any mosquitoes at our camp, but I guess all the mosquitoes on the island were in this spot.

We ended the evening back and camp and enjoyed some smores. The girls had worked on paper plate awards for everyone, and it was so much fun. There were teasing ones that just brought so much laughter and fun and were super unifying for the group. You could see the joy and the glow in everyone, and it was another favorite part of this whole trip. The girls did such a good job. They all wrote sweet notes on the back of mine that were so tender and sweet to me and brought tears to my eyes as I read them. We ended with an evening devotional before it was time to go to bed.

I enjoyed doing the last tuck in with the young women again with the other leader. We talked longer today about our day and our favorite parts. Then we did a song and a prayer and hugs. The girls stayed up a little later this evening as I could hear them from my tent. It was the last night, and they stayed in their tent, so I was fine with it.

Saturday was packing and cleaning up after a quick breakfast of muffins and yogurt. We made it to the ferry line and had some time to wander through the shops in Friday Harbor. It was such a good trip, and I am sad that it was over. It went by so fast, but we did so many amazing things, saw some incredible places, and made so many fun memories. We enjoyed our ferry ride back to the mainland. We all stayed inside the entire time. The young women played card games and McCall fell asleep, so I just help her and visited.

Once we landed in Anacortes, we were getting back in our car and saw these nests with mamas and baby birds and the babies were the cutest little fuzz balls.

We made a stop at Fidalgo Drive-In for hamburgers and ice cream/shakes. It was so good and then it was the long drive home. It was an incredible trip, and I know the youth loved it.