Field Trips and Field Day fun?!?

I have so much to catch up on. With summer vacation hitting me square in the head, I have spent less time on the computer so I can spend more time with my children exploring "The Motherland". Which means that I have more to blog about, but no time to actually write.

Just before summer began, I was able to accompany three of my children on adventures with their classmates. I intended longer, more detailed (i.e. whiny) posts about each trip. But lucky for you, I want to get this posted. You will have to make due with the Reader's Digest version.
In late April, Ellie's preschool planned to end their farm animals unit with a trip to Thanksgiving point. The day started out cool but sunny. As soon as we got out of the car, the ever-present wind at the point of the mountain hit us with full force. As you can see, we were miserable. The children sought shelter under the blankets Miss Lisa brought for our picnic. My girls took shelter with 'Duncan's Mom'. She did her best to protect the children from the elements and ended up looking like Mother Ginger from the Nutcracker ballet.

Miss Lisa, being a sensible teacher, rescheduled the trip. (We went back the next week - April 28 - on a lovely day. and had a wonderful time. )

The day after we opted not to have a field trip to Thanksgiving Point(April 24), the entire 3rd and 4th grade planned a trip to This Is The Place State Park Even though the day was colder than the day before (with snow in the forecast), we couldn't reschedule this adventure. Originally, Bill was supposed to go, but he had to be out of town on business. (Un)lucky for me, Grandma agreed to watch the girls so I could go with Caious.

It was cold. Very cold. My charges and I huddled together as we learned about native animals and native people (I think that is what they talked about. My teeth were chattering so loud, it couldn't hear very well). The children ground corn, examined animal skins, assembled a tee pee and looked at various animals. The entire time we experienced 30 degree weather, wind, rain and snow. One of the girls in my group said "This day can't get any worse." She was wrong. It started yo hail. (Caious is catching it in his hands in the photo.) I found myself thinking about the pioneers who settled this state. It reminded me that one of my friends from Boston commented that had she been a pioneer, she would have been a headstone. With the nasty weather and limited shelter, I have a deep respect for those who survived and thrived in the harsh climate. When the trip was over, I was convinced I would never be warm again.

Even though the weather was miserable, I am glad I got to go with Caious and meet a few of his classmates. I had a great time seeing how much This Is The Place has changed since I was in elementary school.

Continuing the trip down memory lane, I accompanied Ellie's preschool to Hogle Zoo. It has really changed in the past 25 years. It was very nice and oh so crowded. I counted no less than 17 school groups there. Our biggest challenge was keeping everyone together. The children loved looking at the animals. Sometimes too much ("Has anyone seen Luke?!?") they often wandered off to get a closer look.

But with animals like this, just feet away can you blame them?

The final adventure was the 1st grade mini field day with Andrew's class. The weather was beautiful (73 degrees, no wind) and my job was to escort the class from one event to the next and hand out popsicles. It was a great day. And so cute to see the children hula-hooping, tricycle racing, going through an obstacle course and playing with a parachute. They were so adoreable. I also got to give popsicles to several children in my Priamry class. I got a kick out of how they were very surprised to see me outside of church.