girls camp part 2

I want you to know that I'm leaving out a tremendous amount of detail because there was just so much that it would take me a week to write it down and share it with you. So - you are just getting a taste of our week. I wish that I could bottle up the emotions, fun, and sisterhood into a bottle so that any time you're having a bad day, I could just uncork it and let you take a big whiff - to lift you up and help you along your way. When I say that the week was AWESOME, I'm not kidding!

Every morning we got up to do ZUMBA at 7am. This was totally optional and since the instructor was from our ward, our girls felt like they really needed to be supportive - and they were. Zumba is fun... it's sort of like Latin dancing meets aerobics. It was a great way to get the day started! On Thursday the moms of all the girls joined us for a day focused on Family and Mother/Daughter relationships. We had 3 wonderful speakers on this day.

The first was Sister Barry (not pictured) and she spoke about eating disorders, loving the body that God gave you, and so on. Her words were empowering and tender. She talked about not letting the ideals of the media take over your thoughts of who you are and what you look like.

Then after Sister Barry we had the moms and daughters eat lunch together (Chicken Salad, homemade croissants, and fruit - DELICIOUS!). After lunch we were privileged to get to hear from Kathleen Hinkley Barnes Walker, her daughter, and her grand daughter. Sister Walker is the daughter of President Gordan B. Hinkley. She spoke about mother/daughter relationships - about her relationship with her mother - and 3 things she thought we should remember. 1- to relax and laugh, 2 - to praise more than you correct (and praise specific things) and 3 - be an example. There is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says "What you do is so loud that I cannot hear what you say". Sister Walker went on to say that one lesson she learned from her mother was to do whatever it took to "save the relationship" - and that all relationships are a 2 way street. OH, I just loved her talk!

After we got to hear from them, we took the girls and their moms to work on a generational picture. This was a picture of the young lady, her mother, and her mother's mother. K choose to also add Tim's mother to her frame - because she wanted to have the example of 3 women to look upon. (SWEET!) After the craft was over, we were again blessed to hear from Sister Bonnie Parkin, former General Relief Society President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. K and I got our picture with her before we even heard her speak. I recognized her during lunch - and we snapped a quick photo!

In Sister Parkin's talk she said many things but the one that really stuck out to me was that she encouraged the girls to find out "who you are and WHOSE you are". As I thought of that, I thought how powerful those answers can be to anyone.

OH - what a GREAT DAY it was with the moms - and I got to be there to spend it with my own daughter. There was so much more, skits, silly games, and so on - but too much to tell you about. The girls all seemed to have a great time and when it was time for the moms to go - there were tears, of course. It was so special for these gals to get to share that moment with their mothers, to share those emotions, and to have that memory between just the two of them.