Journal Jar Question: Did you belong to Scouting or 4-H? Tell about your experience.

I didn't do either of those but every summer our church has a week long girls camp. We had a camp manual and we had to complete and pass-off outdoor, emergency, and spiritual goals. First year is 12 year olds and the 4th year is called Pack-in. It's called Pack-in because we would be required to complete a long hike wearing a heavy back-pack. I had to miss one year because of my surgery for scoliosis. But I think my first year was the funnest because I had waited to be old enough to go because I had envied watching my sister's go. I always made new friends each year that I would later see at other church activities. There was always a good spirit and even though most the time was spent learning outdoor skills. I think it helped me to develop a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. An added bonus was being taught and surrounded by adult women who also had high standards.

I fortunately have had a lot of experiences going camping with my family but so many of the girls that went then and it seems like even more now never went camping before or after their girls camp experience. We who had camping experience liked to secretly make fun of these girls who did not. Some of the girls hated camping and sometimes they had to go home early because they couldn't stand it. Other girls thought it was the funnest thing they had ever done and were determined to make their family go camping afterwards. For pack-in we camped in tents away from the main camp. My parent's and my aunt and uncle were the pack-in leaders. For the hike my Dad would load each girls pack and unpack any unnecessary items, such as makeup. Girls would see if somehow they could sneak it past him which they later figured out only made their packs heavier. And most, except for the truly vain girls gave up on makeup by the 2nd day.

It's hard to camp with little children because of the whole running off thing. But I still enjoy it. We hope to someday go more often when Ballerina is past the wondering off stage. Actually right now she is in the running off on purpose and no sense of danger stage.

My husband gets irritated that I bring makeup when we camp but I am not a fifteen year old girl and I guess I am vain, even when camping.