busted

So last night, Todd and I had a much-anticipated, kid-free free evening with our Sunday school class from our church. It was SO much fun. I enjoy our Sunday school classes (partly due to having the best teacher ever), but we have such a fun group that we really enjoy doing things with them all outside of church also. I seriously wish we could do outings like that every weekend. Well, maybe minus the "getting our group activity shut down by the cops" part.... 


Ok, it wasn't really the cops, more like mall security. But we sound much cooler if you're not picturing us getting lectured by a little guy in a hat bigger than he is. So our evening began when we all met at the church and headed to dinner. We had a great time... I haven't laughed that much in a long time! My face literally hurt for most of the evening. After dinner, our fearless leaders told us the plan for the group activity. We were to meet at the mall, split into groups, and have a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt! 


So we headed to the mall, and gathered our nearly 20 people in a group right in front of a few cops. There were some jokes about one of us getting busted for a traffic violation. (Not that one of us committed a traffic violation, of course. Especially not on the way from the restaurant to the mall during our Sunday school class outing. Nope, that would never happen.) So we divided into teams, handed out the checklists, and my team left the other teams in the dust. We sent the guys on our team after an employment application and a disposable toilet seat cover, while we girls headed straight to a favorite store to see if we could score a shopping bag, one of the many items on our list. Well, we hit the jackpot. The manager asked what other items we needed... and she apparently really wanted us to win. After impatiently waiting for our team leader, Mitzi, to read random items off the list, she asked, "Got a minute?" and when we said yes, she took the list from Mitzi, and headed into the stockroom. We scored something in the neighborhood of 15 items from that super awesome lady, and we knew we had the win in the bag. I was disappointed to hear there's no trophy for the winners, but bragging rights go a long way in our class! 


As we waited for our favorite mall employee to gather a few more items from our list, Todd came in and said everyone was waiting outside for us... I told him we were kicking butt in the game, and they can keep waiting. That's when he said those words.... "We've been stopped by mall security. Scavenger hunts aren't allowed in the mall without permission." What??? So I responded the only way I could. "Whatever, they didn't say that. We'll be out in a couple minutes." He told me he was serious, and repeated that everyone was waiting in the hallway for us. "Yeah, right. I don't believe that. Scavenger hunts not allowed without permission? Ha! You're funny. Now go tell them we'll be out in a few minutes. We're busy winning!" Todd reiterated that he was dead serious. Scavenger hunts are not allowed in the mall. I recalled having scavenger hunts in the mall with my church youth group when I lived in California. They were so much fun! Party poopers. 


So we headed back to the group claiming our win as we approached them. We learned that one of the teams were stopped in their tracks before they ever made it out of the gate. We then decided to send our fearless leaders to the information desk to see if they could get said permission to continue our scavenger hunt. When they approached the desk and explained the situation, the information lady asked, "So, how many kids do you have with you?" Ha! But even as a group of mature (ok, so that's debatable) adults, the information lady didn't have the necessary authority to grant us permission to continue. Bummer. We were happy to have the win, and headed back to the church for ice cream social part of the evening. We enjoyed socializing, joking, and getting to know the group better. I really can't wait for the next event!