Brighton

We are loving our temporary home up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's about 10 degrees cooler up the canyon than in the valley. Every time we go back down to the valley, the first thoughts that come to mind are associated with the sweat dripping off my body and the urgent need for air conditioning.

We've been having fun being the maintenance couple up here. Doing maintenance basically means we fix things up around camp when they're broken or find projects to do to make camp better. Matt is pretty clever about finding ways to improve the quality of camp for people. He and the other maintenance man (Cash- we all have nick names, Matt is actually called "Burley" up here.) came up with this new idea for benches at the already establish ampitheatre. Unfortunately I do not have pictures, but take my word for it, it's pretty awesome and so much more comfortable to sit at.

A bunch of us also pitched in to help sand down the benches to create a super smooth surface, stain the benches for the pretty-ness, and other odds and ends. It took about 3 weeks to finish. It's pretty sweet.

Matt also is running around cutting wood for fire pits and finding ways to make getting around easier for campers. He's pretty inventive. There is only one other guy up here, so the odds are pretty much 36 to 2. Lucky for them they're both married. :)

We have a lot of fun bonding with the staff and campers. It's like a little Zion up here. Everyone does their part and everything gets done. Everyone is also watching out for each other. The best place to have a bad day is up here because everyone gots your back and wants to help. Carrying anything around, you're bound to run into someone who wants to help. People are sincerly intersted in you and want to help. It's a nice feeling to feel that others are watching out for you.

A week ago they had this HUGE reunion of everyone who had worked here since whenever. The Girls Camp was established by the LDS church in 1921, it was the first girls camp ever. There was this huge log cabin here that burnt down in the early 60's. So many people talked about it's beauty. Funny enough, we were meeting people that actually remembered what it looked like. There were some old folks up here that worked in the late 50s.

It was fun for me to see people I had worked with in the past. It's fun to catch up! However, it was more fun to talk with people who had worked here in the lat 50s and early 60s. It was fun to see how much they loved this place and to hear about all their memories. I'll tell you, a lot of them are just crazy. :)

It honestly seemed so magical to hear their stories about what they remember about life in the old days. They were all campers here too so they were able to share about what they remember about being here as 12 year old girls. It made me feel like I too was living a legacy. Some of them told me they would paint fences or babysit so they could save 15 dollars to come up here.

This one lady called Glow worked here with her husband in 1953-54. The two of them were pretty cute. They always wore matching shirts. This women was about 78 and her husband was 80. She climbed up a 15 foot ladder and went down the zipline that's about 150 feet long or so. FEARLESS. We put her in the harness and she climbed right up. I was a bit nervous and I think I checked all the hook ups a 1000 times. I didn't want to be the cause of her 'early' death.

I didn't mean to say it like this but before she was about to go down I said, "Are you ready to take your last picture?" She said, "MY LAST PICTURE?!" What I meant was that I was going to take one last picture before she went down. I felt like this women was going to be my hero. She was so cute I felt her as an example of how life should be lived. Someone asked her what the secret was to a long marriage and her husband Joe said, "In the temple they told us to put each other first." Glow then chimed in and said, "yeah if anyone says anything bad to him, I flip them off!"

She also said she calls Elder Uchtdorf Elder HUNKdorf because he was so good looking. *eye roll*


The picture I posted is of her and I on top of the zip line platform. I wanted to capture this moment. She is FEARLESS and what if we all lived life this way? Will I be able to do the zip line when I'm even 50? Well let's be honest, there is a weight limit, let's hope I still meet that. :)

There are so many stories and so many more things to say about Brighton Girls Camp. It's awesome. The campe does so many things to help 12 year old girls have the strength and courage to be the people they should be. They do challenging rope courses to have the girls reflect on themselves, they go hikking, and go on cook outs. The activities up here are centered on empowering them. I went on this crazy all day 7 peak hike on Thursday. When were at the base of peak 1 there was 1 girl that was crying because it was too hard. I really felt bad for her because it was only peak 1 and there was no turning back. I gave my renforcement, told her I knew she could do it, etc. Essentially I pushed her up the entire mountain, but we made it safely. Later on, on about peak 3 she came up to me and hugged me and said, thank you. I was like, "yeah! We can do hard things." She smiled and said, "I know." I just thought about what an awesome experience this girl had pushing herself up the mountain and realizing, "Hey, I can do hard things." What a feeling of power.

Matt once said to me before we started, "Why would you not want your daughter to come up here?"