Girls Camp 2011 in which I toot my own horn.

Dear Love,
     What a week!  Now I know it's not for everyone, but when the following combination occurred, I was completely in my element:

18 teenage girls + 8 leaders + the mountains + Beaver High Adventure Boy Scout Camp= A killer time.

Maybe it was killer because I boozed it up the whole time.

Okay, not really... it's Root Beer.  

The girls were so fun to hang out with and there was surprisingly very little drama.

"High Adventure" they say, and they meant it.  

Shooting wasn't on our list of things to do, but when I saw the shooting range I challenged Sister Nielsen to a shoot-out.  

Once the girls found out about our shooting contest they all wanted to join in so we ended up shooting every night for an hour or so.  Don't judge my form in the next photo.  I know I should have brought my right arm back and up to bring the gun closer to my face.  My bad.

I barely won, but when Brother Fowkes saw I liked to shoot he asked me if I wanted to try out his pistol he had brought from home.  That baby had a kick, but I got a bulls eye dead center!!  You would have been so proud, I totally represented the Foutz clan!

The C.O.P.E (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience) course was an all day activity that involved zip lining, the Flying Squirrel, team building, and the towers.

Zip lining:

The Flying Squirrel:

I took off running in one direction and then a group of (very large) boy scouts went running in the opposite direction and the result was me flying into the air about 30 feet.  It was sooooo fun.

Another part of the course was the team building exercises.  We had to do overcome all kinds of crazy obstacles and the entire time the girls said, "I can't, it's too hard, I don't want to... wah, wah, wah".  Guess what?  They realized they can do hard things and I realized I can too!

I absolutely hated this activity.  Some of the girls refused to go and so I got up there to prove to them that even though I was terrified, I was still doing it.  Here I am making sure they weren't going to drop me.  I was literally shaking.

When it was done I may or may not have shed a few tears.  All the girls eventually did it and I was so proud of them!!

High C.O.P.E. included three different towers that were about 40 feet tall.  It was completely optional for the girls.  There were three towers to climb and then you had to traverse across something to complete the course.

I was the only one in our group that did all three towers and traverses.  Yes, I just tooted my own horn again.  The last tower (not pictured) was by far the hardest of the three.  It had a knotted rope you had to climb and then traverse a swinging beam.  I'm not gonna lie; the rope was a doozey, but the beam was just as hard.  Ugh!  I almost gave up twice, but kept on trucking up the blasted rope.  When it was time to cross the beam I was sure I was going to fall off because there was nothing to hold onto.  Someone yelled at me to just run across... so I did... and I made it!  

Toot, toot!! 

Another activity we did was white water rafting.  It was a BLAST! 

The reason I look so beastly in the next picture was because, well, I'm a beast.  At one point during river rafting we had to dock and then carry the boat over a bridge and set it in the water on the other side.  Our guide was supposed to jump off the raft, grab the rope, and pull us to shore before we got carried away in the current under the extremely low bridge.  

He jumped, he slipped, and we started getting swept away down the river!  I was at the back of the raft but pushed my way through the girls, grabbed the rope, and jumped to shore.  Woot, woot!  Toot, toot!

This was a random game of rat tail chasing.

Girls Camp wasn't all fun and adventure though.  I was in charge of the spiritual experience 

(i.e. devotionals and testimony meeting) and I must say, I think I did a good job.  I'll be writing more about that later, but to our daughters.

On the last night after Testimony Meeting was over (at midnight), four leaders and four of the girls decided to do the "Cat's Eye Honor Trail".  We had to follow a trail through the dark woods by shining flashlights on reflectors.  The path wasn't marked very well and we nearly gave up 50 or so times.  At one point I was trying to find the way so I was ahead of everyone else and Sister Richie said, "This looks like the start to a really bad horror movie."  

She was absolutely right!  I screamed and high-tailed it back to be with everyone else.  I was determined to make it the end of the trail and I wouldn't let anyone give up until we had done so.  I heard brother Lee telling the others, "Wow, I really admire Sister Foutz' determination to finish." (toot, toot).  We were all so tired and laughing hysterically, but we made it!!  My head hit the pillow around 3am.

Yes, I just tooted my own horn numerous times.  I did it to specifically point out that shooting, trust fall, tower climbing, river rafting, Cat's Eye Trail... I was able to do them all because of things you've taught me.  

You're constantly pushing me to be better, challenge myself, go out of my comfort zone, and do hard things.  I know I whine and complain at times, but I'm ready to say... thanks babe!!  Thanks for making me a better me.

xoxo