The Essence of Sisterhood...

FULL CIRCLE!

A decade later, I was back at Camp Ritchie this week. It was surreal to be climbing the same rocks I climbed for SO many years! I had to scramble when they told me they needed a last-minute counselor for 1st years (ya, I thought, "What? No hike? I LOVE the hikes. So you mean we're in CAMP ALL WEEK???")

But we had THE BEST group of 1st yrs EVER.

I snapped this shot at the climbing wall where ALL the girls had to silently help each other get over a 12 foot wall.

This is the last girl being hoisted up by her tiny friend. I fell in love with this shot.

I just loved everything- from her standing on her HEAD, to her focus on giving EVERYthing she has to get her friend up, while standing there as the last one.

This is the essence of sisterhood...

Okay, I remember being nervous about this at 15 - let alone..cough cough...now! But they shot me up there!
We have the best camp ever. Here is our YCL rappelling down with our 1st year in total tears.
Can't forget the skiing and boarding at camp. We had incredible water - sorry about the squatting - that's weird.
And I missed my family. I was totally exhausted!

How cute is this shot? The night before I left I walked in and saw this - snuggling her scriptures. PRECIOUS!

I seriously missed my camp girls! Jenny I totally laughed out loud as I passed the rock we hid behind the night we snuck out of the cabins (full-on decked out in camou gear - hats, pants, shirts, face paint) and scared the late-night bathroom trippers to death! Didn't we even use waterguns? Jacquie, I totally remember taking all our crazy pictures behind the cabin!

They've since banned pranks but I did manage to throw a few FREAKY plastic spiders on people during campfire... ha!

The one part that caught me off guard was being a counselor with Becky's little sister. She's SO much like Becky that I was totally thrown off. Even though I've seen Becky several times since we had babies, etc, she still remains forever in my mind, the long-legged 15-yr-old with huge beautiful eyes there at camp with us. As everyone who completed 6+ yrs at camp stood up to sing As Sisters in Zion, I choked back thinking that she should have been standing up there with us.

It was a good week.