girl's camp 2011

i have been editing pictures and compiling the stories i want to tell all about this trip for awhile now, and today im finally going to share!!  (for my post about what i hoped this trip would be, just for positive comparison, click HERE)

first a little bit of back story... 
i was invited by my friend Lisa to go with her to girl's camp this year.  Girls Camp started many years ago by a lovely woman and a couple of her friends who rented a cabin at Camp David on Lake Crescent.  they made it a tradition and each year more and more friends wanted to come.  Now she rents out the entire camp for a week and over 80 women come together to enjoy time away, crafts and friendship.  i was soooo excited to be invited along this year. 

we started our 9 hour road trip to get to camp early that morning and crossed the Puget Sound by ferry from Seattle.  I adore ferry rides.  and luckily it was a gorgeous day...

it is gorgeous in the Olympic Peninsula.  heavy moss covers everything and the trees are so tall and majestic.  we had a little bit of snow coming in on the first day.  and we saw some friendly animals.  here is the main lodge, our cabin (fit all 11 of us in our group) and the lake...

i think i split my days pretty evenly between sleeping in our cabin and visiting up at the main lodge.  i took soooo many naps!  and man did it feel good.  its neat to do what you want to do all day and feel no guilt.  i read a lot of my books i brought (including the 2011 Year Book!) and took so many pictures. 

breakfast and dinner each day was provided by the woman who organized the whole thing.  each cabin had a meal they were to prepare.  we made baked potatoes, chili and broccoli for our meal.  it was fun to work together in a huge kitchen and do dishes with the professional washer.  oh the small joys! 

one morning after breakfast our group decided to go hiking up to a waterfall.  the hike was amazing!  i could barely put down my camera.  we had fun visiting and playing along the way. 

one night in the lodge there was karaoke...i was ALL OVER THAT as you can imagine.  its my favorite.  saturday night there were skits and jokes and throughout the day people offered classes on things like watercolor painting and jewelry making for just a donation to cover the cost of materials.  lots of people brought scrapbooking and other crafts.  lisa's mother-in-law brought fleece for all the kids and made those knot together fleece blankets one day.  super fun!

then on sunday we went to the meeting in Forks.  it was interesting to bombard this tiny little Kingdom Hall with all sisters, but we were warmly welcomed.  after the meeting we drove out to LaPush and went to the beach.  It was super windy that day which made for some cool waves and fun pictures. 

and as i had hoped, i made a few new friends...one in particular named Ariel.  we're a few years apart in age, but we had a lot in common and had a lot of fun hanging out together.  we watched movies on her laptop, shared music and stories of our lives.  she lives on Whidbey Island (where chris' grandparents live) so hopefully we'll be able to meet up again soon.  on our last morning there we went down to the lake to take some pictures together.  things got silly really quick!

this was truly one of the best trips i've ever had, and one of my favorite memories.  there was a shift inside of me that came from having a chance to breath, contemplate and share things with people outside my "bubble" if you will.  but it was so hard being away from Husband.  this was the longest we'd ever been apart and i had no cell reception at Camp David.  so the night before i left we each wrote letters to each other to open while i was away...one for each night.  what chris wrote was so sweet and touching and meant so much to me.  helped me get through the time apart.  i will treasure those letters forever. 

so that was my trip!!  i was so exhausted after the long drive home, but i wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  sorry its taken me so long to share, but i wanted to do it just right.  it needed time to percolate, if you will.