One Month Left in Paradise

After our long weekend, we were ready to be back with the kids.  Monday was the start of Castles, Spells, and Wishing Wells week, so we had a lot of fun activities planned for the whole week. 

My favorite Expectations Poster this summer

Our very feminine Mickey!

We started the day off with a lot of new kids which was great because I love getting to know the new ones.  Also, one of the guys who works at Tilden's brought his 6 year old and we all fell in love with him! His dad and Jon told us how he catches land crabs at Tilden's and I got super excited because I love crabs and I kind of want to take one home, so we always talk about how to catch them.  Then, silly me asks him if they can go in the water and he proceeds to tell me, "No. They are called land crabs, they can't go in the water.  That's why they're called LAND crabs!"   (Oh ya! Stupid me! haha He's a cute kid) S So anyways, Monday started off with an awesome Blitz that Miss Twix programmed.  It had a lot of new songs which was cool because sometimes California counselors don't know as much as the Iowa counselors do. So now, I might have some new ones to share when I get back home.  Next we did the Purple Stew skit which the kids liked a lot and then we headed to small groups to get to know some of the new campers.  After snack we transitioned to clubs where I was in charge of Sports club.  I put together a really fun obstacle course for everyone to complete.  I timed everyone and wrote down their score of a dart sort of game they did, and at the end, we sat down and I gave everyone a praise for one of the things they did.  For example, Gabe, our youngest camper, didn't do too well, but his time was 1 minute 11 seconds, so I gave him a praise for having the coolest score.  It was a lot of fun for the kids.  When we ran out of things to do though, each of them had to race Miss Skittles.  Oh man am I out of shape.  Each of the kids beat me for real.  I was behind on each of the races. haha  After clubs, we played elbow tag which I think the kids really liked.  I even got to play which is always fun! :) At the Church on Monday I played Giants, Wizards, Elves and then I changed it to Rock Paper Scissors, then we watched a helicopter take off across the street at the airport.  The kids didn't believe me that I had never seen a helicopter take off.  Some of them were telling me all about the helicopter and how it works; I think they really enjoy teaching me stuff because most of the time we tell them what to do and why we are doing it, but sometimes they don't get a chance to teach us something.  After Camp was over, we headed home and hung out all night until The Bachelorette came on and we watched the men tell all! :)

Tuesday, once again, was Jacob's Aquatics day in Key Largo, so we made our way up there that morning. (Because I am writing this a whole week later, I don't quite remember all the details), but I do remember that I went off the HIGH DIVE for the first time ever in my life. 

Making a splash in life

I was totally fine going up the ladder and everything; it wasn't until I got up on the board and looked down that my heart jumped into my throat.  Even then wasn't the worst part; when the handle bars ended and I stepped out to where there was nothing around me, I had a mini heart attack and I almost turned around, but I plugged my nose, took a deep breath in, and stepped out into the air.  It was an awesome feeling, but the scariest moment in my life all at the same time haha :)  After we were done at the pool, we headed back home, and from what I remember (which isn't much at the moment) we just headed home.  Also, it had been a week since we planted our plants and mine have really started to sprout which is very exciting.

Wednesday was a very exciting day!!! When I got to Camp, I grabbed some tape, and my last two Skittles wrappers and finsihed my clipboard.  The whole back of my clipboard is covered in Skittles wrappers (obviously) haha I am really glad I did this; it is probably my most favorite souvenier from Florida yet!

Once I was done, one of the little girls, Mia handed me a cute little bunch of flowers. It was so nice of her, and Miss Starburst was a little jealous, and she asked where hers was; Mia ran off and grabbed Miss Starburst a handful of ....Weeds! Poor Miss Starburst :(



Then we did the usual Camp stuff, and as usual the kids were especially crazy.  We started the day off with a four corner version of Capture the Flag, and it was nearly deadly for the kids because they kept running into one another, but for the most part it was pretty fun.  I even got really into the game!!

Boy do I love this outfit!

After that, we split up into our clubs and I played a fun tag game with my boys.  Each of them got to have a tail and they loved trying to protect it and ripping all the other boys' tails off.  About half way through though, one of the boys got kicked pretty hard on accident while playing, so we took a break under the duggout while they named their favorite sports and what team they liked best.  Then, I asked them all what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Gabe, our youngest camper at the age of 5, says, "I don't want to have a job when I grow up, I want to sit around and do nothing." Then my 7 year old friend Alex looks at Gabe and says, "If you don't have a job, how are you going to pay for water, and electricity and your car?" It was so funny to hear such young kids be so concerned about how Gabe was going to pay for all his bills.  Later in the day, Miss Ali invited all of the kids to celebrate Fuzzy(her dog's) birthday.  The kids were so excited to be apart of Fuzzy's special day. Each of them got their own ice cream sundae,and we played in the field for a while. 

Always flipping around

Me and Miss Starburst doing cartwheels!

After Fuzzy's birthday, we headed back to the other side of the park and we did closing and headed home for the night.  That night, there was a Chamber of Commerce celebration sort of thing going on at Sunset Grill.  Miss Ali really wanted us to go, so we were all ready to go, except Robyn because she didn't feel good.  She told us to hurry back though because we had to have a meeting.  We stayed for a little while, swam in the pool a little bit, and ate some delicious appetizers.  I tried bacon wrapped scallops (amazing).  I had never had scallops before and with bacon they were awesome. 

Then Miss Ali said she was tired and wanted to head home, so we agreed because Robyn had said we needed to have a meeting.  So we hop in the car and head home, but when we get there, the outside of the condo was decorated like it was Christmas and I was super confused.  I got even more confused because the day before I had gotten a letter from my Grandma that said Merry Christmas and she sent me a picture of me at Christmas and a Christmas post card.  I was a little worried Grandma had lost her mind while I was gone! :) Luckily enough though, Robyn surprised us with Christmas in July!! She decorated the whole inside complete with a tree, Christmas music, and presents.  Each of our parent's had shipped us Chrstmas presents!! It was so exciting, even though I got a little sad when I opened up all my presents from my wonderful family. 

Xmas Tree, Cali Presents, Candy, Presents, Miss Ali's homemade cake

We continued the night sitting around, eating candy and enjoying each other's company!

Thursday we traveled to the Theatre of the Sea which is like Sea World, but it's Island size.  It is about 45 minutes up the road in Islamorada, just below Key Largo.

A shot from where I sit in the back of the bus!

We first stopped at a park across the street to eat our lunch and then we headed to the Theatre.  Our first stop once with got there was the Parrot show.  It was pretty neat. 

This parrot could roll the barrel down and back without falling off



After the Parrot show, we headed to the much anticipated dolphin show!  It was an amazing show! They had one of the trainers get in the tank with the dolphins and she flipped around with the two dolphins. 

They also had them do some neat tricks, like jump through a hoop and jump really really high.  Also, two of our campers got to get a kiss from the dolphins. 

After the dolphin show, we made our way to see the California Sea Lions.  The first one, Wilbur, was gigantic and so funny! I think the lady said he was over 400 pounds.  Next, we got to see his little brother, only 200 pounds, and play with him a little bit.  Two of our kids, Mia and Finn, got to toss a ring around Tucker, the sea lion's neck!

After our final show, we made our way to a open bottom boat to see the dolphins again.  We waited about 20 minutes in the hot hot sun before we got to board the boat. It was a little stressful keeping the kids in line and maintaining their attention, but we got through it thanks to some shady benches and tables.  Once we got on the boat we sat down and enjoyed the show.  The boat took off and the dolphin jumped through a hula hoop and rang a bell.  We also saw them jump on the side of the boat. 

Before we knew it the ride was over and we made it through the mangroves to the end of our tour! :) We walked through the gift shop and the kids found some souveniers to buy while I said hello to my "cousins". 

I told the kids that all of the Skittles inside the machine were my cousins....they believed me! :)  After the field trip, we boarded the bus and made our way back to the park to do closing and go home.  That night, Nikki and Kristen had soccer practice, so Robyn and I went on a bike ride to The Hurricane where we met up with Jon to say hi.  Afterwards, we went to the grocery store so Robyn could stalk up on some more Cheese Its! From what I remember we stayed in for the rest of the night. 

Friday we started with some blitz and practiced for Camp A Presents before going into clubs.  My sports club got to play some tennis! I was pretty excited because I have never played tennis and I was pretty good compared to the 5-10 year olds that were playing! :) Then we made our way to rotary park where I tried to stay in the shade the whole time because it was so hot outside.  Finn and I mostly swung on the swings with our friend Freddie whose parents are both in the U.S. Army, and they told me where they live and that I can come swim in their pool whenever I want, just as long as I wear my swim trunks! :) Then Finn said I could go to Tilden's and buy whatever I want for $1 and 1 cent.  Those boys are so cute! After we were all done at the park, we went back to Camp for Camp A Presents.  Parents arrived and we showed them our songs, magic tricks, and dances that we learned throughout the week. Once Camp A Presents was over, we made our way over to the soccer field and ampitheatre where we attempted to have a talent show.  Most of the kids just played tag, soccer, or duck duck goose while kids went up as they pleased and sang or told jokes into the microphone.  I played duck duck goose with the kids and Miss Twix.  It was a pretty low key relaxing afternoon.  When the kids got tired, we headed back to the pavilion and the kids got to color and decorate their very own pirate ship.  Once they made a big enough mess with the markers, they headed to the playground while I cleaned up.  Before I knew it, another week of Camp was done and over with and it was time for an extremely relaxing weekend. 

Friday night after Camp, Miss Ali picked us up and we went to one of my older kids, Anthony's, house for dinner and pool time.  I'm not sure if I told everyone this yet, so I will tell you now.  Anthony is a twelve year old from Stockton, Ca and his family lives here every summer for the last seven years.  He was a great kid to have and I really hope Nikki and I can still keep in contact with him and his wonderful family.  We arrived around 6:15 at their BEAUTIFUL house that overlooked a gorgeous canall.  Denise, Anthony's mom, made a fantastic taco dip that I couldn't get enough of.  (Can't wait to make it for all of you)  After we scarfed down the majority of the dip, Anthony took us around the whole house and told us what every plant was called as we tried to find a starfruit tree.  Once we were done finding it, which happened to be in the back of the house where we started, we went into the house and sat down for dinner.  Denise made 2 amazing taco casserols and a delicious green salad.  I almost went back for seconds, but I had to resist to save room for her incredible homegrown California peach cobbler. It was the first time I have had cobbler and I am so glad I tried it.  It was so yummy! Dinner was so great because we got to sit around, tell stories, and feel apart of a family for the night. I think we all are starting to miss our families, so it was great to be a part of such a wonderful one for the evening.  After dinner, Anthony took us into the office to show us his power point presentation of what he learned at Sea Camp.  It was boring!!! But he was so cute and so excited to show us what he learned, so we sat through it! :)  Once he was done, we headed into the pool for the rest of the night! We all did flips and handstands and played with a frisbee. It was so awesome to just chill and hang out in a beautiful home! After playing for a while, we decided it was time to go home and hit the hay! Kristen's parents came down to Marathon for the weekend, so they took Kristen to Key West for the weekend, so Nikki, Robyn and me headed back home and crashed in our beds hard core!!

On Saturday we couldn't figure out what to do all day, so we just decided to head to the beach for a few hours.  Of course, we all forgot our sunscreen so we got nice and toasty! :) It was so relaxing to just lay on the beach with no worries in the world! Once it got super hot from laying out, we all got in the water and we noticed two of our little boys splashing in the water too. We called them over to say hi and they were so much fun! One of the boys was Freddie with his little brother Sebastian who is three. They were so cute. They both had little squirt guns and were squirting us.  Then they pretended to be sharks and attack us! Adorable!! Anyways, once we got crispy enough, we headed back home for the night.  The rest of the night was spent just hanging out with the girls!

Laughing at who know what!!

Girls Night!

Sunday continued to be a lazy day! Robyn and I went to a cute little diner called The Stuffed Pig and breakfast was AMAZING! For $9, I got biscuits and gravy, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of sausage, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of toast, and potatoes!! Afterwards, we had to head home because the rain was coming down super hard.  It was awful, but it gave us an excuse to stay in, work on posters and be lazy before our busy weekend coming up. 

Well! That wraps up last week! Sorry it took so long.  We have a great weekend planned for this weekend! We are heading up to Orlando to go to Universal Studios! I can't wait! Also, it is crazy that we only have 3 and a half weeks left of Camp. ahhhh haha Well I'm gonna watch some tv and head to bed, so I will talk to everyone later!! :) Love you all!

-Live. Love. Laugh. Janise

Earth Friendly Extravaganaza Part 2 and our 3 Million Dollar Weekend!

I hope I left you all on the edge of your seats with that last post. So let's see where did I end...Wednesday! Ok here we go!
Thursday was one of our roughest days at Camp so far. I think it was because we did our field trips back to back rather than having a day off in between. The kids were mostly just being crazy kids, which is tough for us when all of them are being crazy and there are only four of us, but we made it through the day which is a plus! :) In clubs, we used recycled paper to make mosaics which the kids really liked, as well as me! I made a Skittles tree complete with a rainbow. After lunch we headed to the church and I continued some newspaper crafts with the kids. Instead of making newspaper hats again, we made newspaper animals by scrunching up newspaper and tying it off with string. I made some turtles, some fish, and a monkey!

We headed back to the park after the church and I made some more crafty things called water bombs. I just folded some paper in all sorts of ways and then blew it up and it turned into a ball. It was pretty neat how it worked, and the kids loved them! Once Camp was done, Robyn and I went on a little bike ride to the store and then headed home for a low key night.

Fridays are always awesome at Camp Adventure in Marathon, and this one was no different. I got to Camp and one the little boys that I have become pretty close with handed me a share size bag of Sour Skittles so that I could finish decorating my clipboard. He was so happy to show me and I promised I would share them with him. Also, Saturday was Kristen's birthday, so one of the kids brought her a cupcake on Friday to celebrate while Jamie helped decorate the pavilion for her.

Once Camp started, we practiced for Camp A Presents; we lined all the kids up and assigned them roles to do 12 Days of Summer Camp and they were cracking us up, but it was even funnier when they performed it for the parents. 3 of the little boys got to do 3 trash bags and I told them to be really goofy, so they decided to get inside the bags and occasionally change the lyrics (I'll show the video to everyone when I get home). I was dying laughing. Also, during clubs, Art Club made picture frames, but one of the boys wanted to make a fishing pole, so then all the boys wanted to make fishing poles. I was ok with it because they were entertaining themselves and staying out of trouble (and plus they were so darn cute and funny). Before Camp A Presents, all of the kids usually go to the Rotary Park, but the older kids stayed behind with me to work on some programming and make signs. Unfortunately though, I had them make the wrong signs! (WHOOPS!) haha After that, Jimmy ordered some pizza because Eduardo is on vacation and we didn't have anyone to BBQ, and we had Camp A Presents. Afterwards, we boarded the bus and headed to Sombrero Beach to do a Beach Clean Up to help save the turtles.

SIDENOTE: When we went to the Turtle Hospital, they informed us how much trash could damage a turtle's life, so I decided we should help clean up the beach and show the kids how much they could help the turtles.

We split into 4 groups, grabbed some gloves and trash bags and began cleaning up. It was amazing how much trash we found. Each group filled up at least a half a bag of trash (of course my group found the most) :) It was great to just walk around, clean up, and know that we were making our world a little bit cleaner. Even though my older girls HATED doing this, the little ones LOVED it. So that made me feel better about the activity. Afterwards, we let the kids have free play at the volleyball courts, playground, and shade. They seemed to have a lot of fun, and we didn't have any issues (that I can remember). Then, we made HOMEMADE ICE CREAM! Yumm! We put all the ingredients in a baggie, zipped it up, put it in a larger bag full of ice and rock salt and the kids shook it like crazy until it solidified and turned to ice cream. Most of the kids' ice cream turned out really good, but some of the others did not work at all. It was kind of disappointing, but we gave it to them at the end of the day to take home and freeze. Me and Nikki's turned out amazingly though :)

Homemade Ice Cream

Yumm!

Making the world a better place!!

After our day at the beach and camp, we headed home, got ready as quickly as we could, packed our bags and headed up to Miami!! It was only a two hour drive, so nothing too crazy and we listened to some great music on the way up.

Skyline of Downtown Miami

On our way through Miami, we saw a ton of yachts, so Robyn turned to me and said, "Janise, I dare you to find a guy with a yacht tonight". It has become a tradition since being in Florida to dare me to do something, or set a goal for the week or night and it usually happens or comes true. (Keep this in mind) So we find our hostel and go to check in. It seemed like a really cool place with a lot of people hanging out in the lobby that are our age. So they guy hands us our keys and tells us it is just up and over and around the block. We get back in the car, drive around for about 20 minutes in the pouring rain trying to find this apartment hostel thing. We finally find it, I get out to unlock the door and the door won't open!!!! Nikki gets out and tries, and then Robyn. I go ahead and call the hostel and he doesn't know what's going on, so he calls the landlord guy or something, and he tells me he will be there in a few minutes. 45 minutes go by after I had called multiple other times, and we decide to just leave and try to find another place. Luckily the hostel guy was nice enough to give us some information on a cheap hotel that is closer to the beach, so we risk it, and Robyn checked us in. They said we could go upstairs and get ready while the car stayed outside for 20 minutes. So, we ran upstairs, tore open our bags, threw on our cutest outfits, did our hair and threw on some makeup before running back downstairs to hop in the car and park it around the corner. I must say that in 20 minutes we looked pretty darn cute. We proceeded to walk around the street where all the bars were, but couldn't find one that had food and no line to get in. Finally, after almost giving up, we walked past a place called Hogzilla's that seemed to have some cute boys and a full dining room, so we settled for that. We sat down and ordered before the cute boys made their way over to us. I was a little grumpy from our adventurous evening, so I wasn't quite feeling them, and they proceeded to talk to Robyn and the other girls. THEN!! Robyn turned to me and said, "Janise, they have a yacht!!" HOLY CANOLI I could not believe it. So I quickly turned all my attention to the boys and we sang karaoke with them all night until we decided to head in for the evening. Luckily, I got one of their numbers and we planned to meet up the next day.

Oh Hey!

Me and Nikki singing Jonas Brothers

I apparently couldn't stop singing

Bathroom break!

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to breakfast. The service was terrible, and my omelet wasn't amazing, but I was so hungry that it didn't really matter. After breakfast, we shopped around for a little bit and I bought a souvenir shirt from South Beach! Once we were done shopping, we found the beach and made our way to the sand to soak up the sun.

South Beach

We got pretty comfy and then my phone rang. Josh (from the yacht) called me to see if we wanted to hang out on the yacht he works on. So, of course, we gathered our stuff from the beach and made our way to The Yacht Club! :)

It seemed like a dream. I couldn't believe we were headed to not only a yacht, but a MEGA YACHT. It was a 3 million dollar, 120 foot mega yacht. The boys we met happen to work on the yacht and Josh was the first mate. I don't know what a first mate does, but it sounded pretty important and I was quite impressed. :) He showed us around the yacht and it was beautiful. Granite counter tops, big comfy beds, and fancy decorations everywhere.

THE YACHT!!!

The Dining Room

Bartender on the Yacht!

And sometimes I'm the Captain!!

The First Mate (Josh)

After we saw the whole yacht, Nikki and Kristen jumped off the top of it into the ocean. Me and Robyn were a little more apprehensive and we didn't jump off. Then we all boarded the smaller boat and the boys grabbed the toys.

The Whole Gang!

We headed out to the open sea and tubed for a little bit. I unfortunately only went twice because I got knocked off a little hard and didn't feel like getting hit by another big salty wave again.

Trying to do the Titanic Pose...Again, Nikki made me be the man! :)

My Mane attacking me!

California Girls

After our rocky ride!

Once we were all done with that, we headed back to the yacht to eat some dinner. Robyn ordered some pizza, but after waiting 2 hours, they never showed up!! We were all a little upset because we were so hungry from being in the water all day. Luckily though, Jason, who drove the boat around all day, headed to the grocery store and bought us all some Digorno! :) After we chowed that down, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out to a Miami Club. Because it was a club, the younger girls couldn't go, so they fell fast asleep while me and Robyn went to Club Liv in South Beach. Josh's friend works at the club so he got us in...FOR FREE! It was so cool because he met us in the front, and took us backstage and around some secret pathway into the club! I totally felt like a VIP. Inside, we met up with Josh and walked around and danced a little before these crazy light up ladies on stilts came out. RANDOM! haha Then, they brought out these awesome Styrofoam light up sticks. I stole 4! :)

After we got bored with the randomness of this club, we got in a cab and headed back home. Overall, it was an awesome day, and yet again, full of adventure.

Sunday was a little more low key. We headed back to South Beach and laid out for what seemed like hours because we were so tired from our adventurous weekend. After frying in the sun, we headed to the strip to get some lunch.

You can take the girl out of cheerleading, but you can't take the cheerleading out of the girl!

We had some super delicious pizza and soda before heading to some shops to finish shopping. Nikki and I also went into the Kardashian Store called Dash to take some pictures.

Walking Picture

What time is it? Beach Time!!

Feeling so fancy!

We saw Lamborghini's everywhere!

After sight seeing, we drove into Miami to the Dolphin Mall to do a little shopping. While Nikki and Kristen bought clothes, Robyn and I decided Wetzel's Pretzels were a better investment. :) After finishing up at the mall, we drove the long 2 hours back to Marathon. We were so exhausted, and we realized that our night was far from being over. Once we got home, we had to head to the Park to print our program, and start and finish the signs for this week because I totally messed up! Then...we passed out!!

Now, I totally forgot to tell you guys one of the funniest things that happened last weekend during Scuba class. On our first open water dive with Jon, we were finishing up our lesson in the water when he turns to me and signs that I was out of air and I need to share. So I turn to Nikki, take my regulator out of my mouth, shake her and tell her I am out of air. She freaks out, and gives me her air and asks if I'm ok. I say yep and put my regulator back in my mouth. Jon looks at me confused, as well as Nikki. Then Jon writes down on his little notepad, that HE was out of air. OOPS!! So we finish our dive and head to the surface and Nikki looks at me like What the heck!?! and we just start cracking up. I swear Jon signed that I was out of air, but in fact he was out and if it was a real situation then he coulda died...Whoops!! Luckily it was just practice and it made for a hilarious story.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and I will post about this week as soon as I can. I am a little behind thanks to our Miami weekend, but I hope you enjoyed my stories about my wonderful week and weekend! :)

-Live. Love. Laugh. Janise