Youth Campout

Our youth did the first young men and young women campout since I have been in young women's and it was so much fun. The young women and young men were still pretty seperate, but it helped them connect and help each other in such a fun and relaxed way. I would do a combined camp out every year. 

We camped at Onalaska at a property that one of our bishopric members know. It was so nice and had the most amazing outdoor kitchen and a nice bathroom. We got there early on Thursday and set up. It was funny that the young women all shared a tent and the young men all brought their own tents. It was the first time these girls have set up a tent on their own so it was a good experience for them. They had so much fun together with nightly bathroom parties doing hair and brushing their teeth and staying up late into the night playing card games. Since Nate had to work this weekend, I brought Baylor and McCall with me and they love camping too and being with the youth.

After we ate our lunches from home, we walked through the property for awhile and found the stream. A couple of the boys dunked themselves in the water and we found a crawdad.

Then we went to Ike Kinswa State Park for some lake swimming for the afternoon.

Then it was a relaxing evening, enjoying the fire and having a hot dog roast.

Then we did a chopped competition campfire edition. I let them pair up and their mystery ingredients that each team got were 4 marshmallows (so they had a few to work with), a small bag of teddy grahams, a bag of chopped strawberries, and a coookie & cream chocolate bar. I had a few staple ingredients that each team could use (chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, cheerios, and powdered sugar). Each team had to cook at least one item over the fire and were encouraged to be creative. They had lots of fun and a couple that are youth leaders got to try each one and be the judges. After we were done, the youth all got smores to enjoy before calling it a night.

We had an early start with breakfast and made the drive to the ape caves.

This amazing group of youth made it all the way through the caves. There were some challenges but they worked together, encouraged and helped each other, and some had more fun than others, but we did it. I was proud of myself for the fact that I did the whole thing with a baby on my back and lots of people helped me with tight places and getting over the 8 foot climbing wall. The young women were the sweetest with Baylor and helping her out every step of the way. It was a really good experience even with the challenges.

The youth were rewarded with a steak dinner that night! They got to cook their own steak and had lots of delicious sides for a meal fit for a group of youth that spent the day climbing and hiking.

Mikey's birthday was that evening so we enjoyed a little birthday party and then we did a ward family feud which was so fun and it kept the youth engaged for about 2 hours.

These two did so good sleeping in the tent with me. It was sweet seeing them sleeping each morning and McCall's sweet smile every morning when she woke up just melted me. I would go camping again with my little family!

Such a fun weekend with an amazing group of youth!