21 events in 6 hours covering 44 miles & 4 cities by 13 teams.

last saturday we ran the Amazing Race with our 8th graders. this is their “last hoorah” so to speak in the jr. high ministry. it’s a great time to have some last minute quality time with the kids and to have some fun and friendly competition while doing so. this year i was blessed to have 3 amazing girls who were willing to do (almost) anything to win. i say almost because when it came time to do the fast forward and it was drinking a mixture of cat food and a bunch of other nasty stuff, we had to say no. BUT we worked so hard that we still caught up and BEAT the teams who did take the gross concoction. that was the worst event there was. here’s a list of a few of the events.

• put puzzle together and flip over for clue
• grab 7 goldfish with our hands out of play pool into bucket.
• jump street (a place filled with trampolines) and do multiple tasks on the trampolines
• drink medium cream slush from sonic
• hike small hill to cross at another church & take communion
• water balloon launch and catch in trash bags (had to do with another team)
• put on sumo gear and make a ball in a basket against opponent (one person from team)
• dig hands in big jars of goo for small beads
• build paper boat to float down gutter filled with water. make is move by blowing through a straw.
• go to arrowhead mall and basically do a scavenger hunt in the mall.
• skeeball at peter piper pizza….had to score 25,000 points
• had to put a hole in one at a country club (my golfing in-laws would be proud!)
• flip over buckets with pictures on the inside and find specific ones that matched the events they listed. there were about 50 buckets or so and it was hard to remember what you did.
• get a balloon filled with stuff popped over your head

i think that was the list of items. i am probably missing a few and we had about 12 things to find/do in the mall. it lasted about 5 hours in reality. WE GOT 2ND PLACE!!! but then we realized we didn’t have clue #4 and dropped down to 3rd. here’s a pic of my girls. the day was hot but we were blessed to be in the mall for a while AND the clouds started rolling in part way and kept the sun to a minimum. here are my amazing girls. i forgot to get a pic with brady and his boys.

my ballerinas!

so camp was the 14th – 19th. can i just say i’m getting old and camp reminds me of that. seriously. but enough of that…..

it was a great camp. the weather at green valley lake, ca was amazing. sunny days and chilly nights, can’t beat it. the kids, or at least the girls, were way beyond well behaved from last year. the leaders, on the other hand, were accident prone. 4 visits to the ER! no one was seriously injured but i have never experienced that, PLUS, the kids forget to drink water throughout the day and by wednesday they were dropping like flies out of the evening chapel. i heard one leader say they felt like they had a sick ward in the back because there were about 25 kids complaining of nausea, dizziness, and blah blah blah. so it was eventful but it was great!

i had a group of 6 girls. started at 5 but once we got there i had an added bonus. i knew none of these girls prior but was blessed with an outgoing group who were ready to talk and learn and laugh. we had some great times and i’m so glad they are just going into 8th grade and i have one more year to lead them.

i can only post a few pictures because i’m just not patient enough to do more. in the end the camp was awesome. the food so so. the games were fun. the variety night was hilarious. and God is awesome.

Breezy and me

Calvary Surprise leaders and good friends: Tony and Melissa

Leaders + a student
My girls