All the Perks: Off Again

We got home from the Grand Canyon late Saturday night. Got up Sunday, went to church, rounded up the kids and by that afternoon we were WHIPED OUT. Needless to say early to bed that night. I had two days to get my act together so I could turn around and leave again with Kiley for 6th Grade Outdoor ED wahooo!
Wednesday morning we loaded charter buses with somewhere around 80 students, maybe 12 chaperon's and the teachers and headed up the hill to Out of Africa in Camp Verde. This is where we were assigned our groups, and I lucked out and got a pretty fun group of 7 girls including Kiley! It was a warm day but we had a great time. Kiley and I hadn't been there before so it was a new experience. I was impressed with the variety of animals. We loved watching the 2 grizzlies running, playing and entertaining everyone and the tiger splash show was awesome! The guys that get in there and play with those tigers have got to have some wicked scars from those big cats! Right before we left we did what they call the predator feed where basically you follow the feed truck around the park while they throw whole turkeys and huge chunks of meat over the fence to all the animals, it was way cool. Around 4pm we loaded up and headed to Prescott to the Prescott Pines Camp. The camp was much better then I had anticipated, the girls had a large dorm and the guys were in another. It was a beautiful and peaceful camp. To say we were WELL fed would be an understatement. In addition to 3 very good meals a day, they provided snacks and drinks 3 times a day. The activities, games, and classes were well organized, fun and VERY entertaining. The first night my group cleaned house. They beat the boys in pictionary, Fear Factor (by a mile),& the dice game. The moms played a violent game of basketball against the kids, not to sure who won though? And later it was Mrs. Aponte, Mrs. Torres, Adam and I against about 12 Kids! The funnest night was the last night, Skit night! It involved, chubby bunny, chubby Chihuahua (I think I tied with Kody on this one, I had maybe 16 peppers in my mouth and Mrs. Slavick made sure they were the biggest ones in tha jar), skits, entertainment by the teachers, & some dancing. After the skits the parents were escorted up to the dinning area where we were given a bunch of pies and told to enjoy ourselvesfor an hour or so, NO PROBLEM.10 adults, over tired with 6 pies, I think it was a whole 10 minutes maybe before I was wearing half a chocolate cream pie (thanks Adam)! We decided it would be funny to hide all the kids snacks and drinks. One of the dads picked a closet lock and we proceeded to drag all the coolers and snacks in there. When the kids were lining up to come up for the nightly snack we hid behind the building so we could see their faces through the window. WE were laughing so hard I thought for sure we would be busted! The nurse was the first one in th room, and the look on her face was priceless. Then a couple more teacers came in and then all the kids! It was so dang funny!
After the kids got their snack it was back to the cabins to get cleaned up, when the girls were finally getting wound down and in bed we heard blood curdling screams coming from their rooms, they said something was knocking and scratching on their windows. I honestly didn't believe them and then I heard it myself. I was alomost positive it was the boys so I took off out a side door to go chase them down and scare them but I couldn't find anybody! A little bit later it happened again, and again I bolted out the door to catch them in the act and guess what I found 5 or 6 of the teachers pinned up against the back of the building with sticks and big spiders! BUSTED!!! The girls didn't even believe us when we told them!

It took a while to get the girls calmed down and back to sleep, and then it was game on. We were running around in the woods till about 1:30 in the morning. We got the boys cabin, the teachers got us once again by hiding under a bridge, they said they waited about 20 minutes for us!! The dads tried to scare us but we caught them first and then all of us got the teachers! It was a good time! The kids, parents and teachers had a great experience and memories that they will never forget! I'm so thankful our kids attend a school that supports these kinds of activities and that we are blessed with such amazing teachers!