Unforgettable Adventure

I consider myself a hard person to surprise but today I was 'got good'!!! Hats off to my very crafty and sneaky admin people who planned a most fabulous 'secretaries day' for Marci, Val and myself. I can't remember the last time I had this much excitement!

The day started off with a fire drill. Yeah right! It was my first drill and I was concentrating very hard on doing things right. I did notice that it really seemed to be a chaotic drill...not at all organized. Looking back now there were clues it wasn't quite the drill it should have been. I should have clued in first of all when I heard a fire truck arriving on scene. They generally don't attend drills but I didn't really pay much attention. Then the fire truck drove onto the field towards the middle school. Now this was most unusual but again nothing suspicious entered my mind. Then my co-worker shows up and this is her day off....again....nothing! Then all of a sudden the students have all lined up making a path for us to run through and to end up right at the fire truck. Val caught on right away as she has been 'surprised' many times before. I soon figured it out and my heart started to race and I knew that this entire day could be VERY interesting! I had heard legendary stories about these 'secretaries days'!

There I am making my way through the cheering students. As you may well know I don't really like to be the centre of attention...eeekkk!

Next thing I know, there's a waiver being pushed into my hands to sign. What the heck are they going to DO TO US?!?!? Just then I spotted Keith! AHA! The sneaky little imp. Marci's husband is a firefighter too and was there. Ooooohhhh...good planning guys!

We all had to get into the turnout gear and race to spray down the 'fire'. I sadly didn't come in first place but it was very fun all the same. Keith said I ran like a girl in my gear. Of course I did...I am a girl, thank you.

Okay, I was timed getting this on and went as fast as my nervous hand would let me. I had an audience of over 400 people! I was praying that Keith's pants would go over my hips! It was a snug tug but it worked. Phew....spared some massive humiliation there!
And off I ran to put out the fire.
Luckily there is a firefighter with the same last name as Val so we all got to wear personalized gear. Very cool!

All I can say is that this was the most fun surprise ever! I bet Keith never thought he'd get a photo of me dressed like this!

Smooch! Thanks for being able to be a part of this Keith....what a great memory.

After we were done, they loaded us up into the truck and drove off. We were still in our gear and had no idea where we were heading. My first ride in a fire truck too...it was fun!

They dumped us off at Lepp's Farm Market, took our gear and drove off. They left us with a clue in an envelope and a bit of money. We headed inside for a drink and sat down to figure out the clue.

There was a test in the envelope we had to complete and the answers made up a phone number. We figured it out pretty quickly (with a quick call to Val's husband for a bit of sports trivia) and dialled the number. The voice on the other end just said they would pick us up soon. Eventually Heather and Jeff (Principal & VP) showed up and took us for a very loooong drive. We had no idea where we were heading at all but had lots of fun guessing. We ended up in Agassiz at a Tulip Festival. It was beautiful.

We had fun wandering the fields and admiring God's perfect designs. It was great. The rain held off for which we were grateful. After buying us a each a bouquet of tulips we hopped back in the car towards our next adventure. The clue read: Row Row Row your boat IN the Fraser River. Hmmmm....after a bit of discussion we finally figured out it was Rowena's Inn and yes, that's where we headed for lunch. It was very very good food and we all enjoyed having lunch and good conversation. I had smoked chicken quesadillas which were so good and so filling that I didn't eat dinner tonight. The salad was also delicious with a mango vinagrette dressing. Mmmmm! Sadly it was time to head back to school at this point and we arrived five minutes before the bell. We were happy to see that the parents who manned the office for us today had a good time and there weren't any major incidents!

It was a wonderful day and it's been such a huge blessing to work there. I'm so grateful that God put me in that job!!!