Hontoon Island State Park

The girls really wanted to go camping. They begged, so being the awesome YW leaders that we are we made it happen. It turned out that the girl who really, really wanted to go was Lindsey and she moved in December so there is that but they were still excited when we finally got it all arranged. 

We drove about an hour to Delund to the state park and then put all our stuff ( and there was a lot) onto a boat and the Park Ranger ferried us over to the island. 

Here’s all our Beehives: Lilly, Paige and Isabella and Sage.

Unfortunately Rob forgot to pack our tent. Yesterday was his day off and we went to the dmv (for the 3rd time) to get our cars registered and new plates.. When we were done with that we had a couple hours left before we were leaving and I still needed to go to the store. I asked him to pack the tent and the cookstove and his gear. When I got home from the store we made foil dinners, packed our stuff and went to pick up the kids.

 I didn’t check to see that we had everything. 

The last minutes before a trip are always busy. We were dropping off and picking up kids, meeting with everyone, rearranging gear in the various cars and took off for camping. When we got to the campsite he told me he forgot the tent. I guess it’s better that he forgot the tent instead of the cooking stuff but I wasn’t very happy about it. 

All the girls were going to sleep in our giant tent. We were going to sleep in a small one and the other leaders in another small one so now we only had two small tents. 

After we got them set up Lilly said she couldn’t deal with it. I told her, nicely, that the last ferry was gone and we were on the island until morning so there was no other choice but to deal with it. 


We put that aside and had a fun night. We made foil dinners and s’mores. The girls talked and giggled. We sat around the fire. It was beautiful on the island and the company was fun and lively.

Me and my two counselors Shannen and Heather 

We had a devotional and then the girls went to bed around 10.

Nick Zent (our other priesthood holder) had a hammock and he shared the rain fly with us. Rob rigged it up and put our cot and air mattress under it. 

So we all went to bed. 

Here’s what 8 girls squished into a 4 man tent looks like.

The weather was nice. The bugs were not. It was awful. I had to sleep completely covered from head to toe. It was so stifling and hot under my blanket. After a couple hours I went and got our reclining camp chair. I tucked it by the mattress so my legs were on the mattress and my body was in the chair. This let a lot more air flow around me and then when the blanket was over my head it was okay. Sleep was sporadic. To be honest the first night of camping is usually that way though, this was worse.

Off and on through the night I dozed and woke up, dozed and woke up. It got cold, the bugs were fierce, we saw no gators or bears although we saw scat and tracks on our hike the next day. When the sun came up I rejoiced! Yay! The night was done.

We made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Shannen gave a devotional that was super nice.

Then we hiked. It was muddy and slippery and beautiful and fun. The girls felt very adventurous and everyone got along great both days.

After hiking we broke camp and were home by 3.


Do you see the lizard biting into Danika’s ear?!

The girls had a blast. We all got to know each other even better and it was a great outing.

I will never again sleep under the stars though. Next time someone forgets our tent I’m going to take an emergency helovac ride to the other side and sleep in my car!