Field Trips and Fathers & Sons

Lucky Emma got to go on two field trips last month, one for 3rd Grade and the other for ELP. Her 3rd grade class went to the zoo this year. It was great because the boys and I were able to meet her over there and steal her from her group. We spent the whole morning hanging out, seeing as many animals as we could, before sending her back on the school bus with her class. The weather was also gorgeous that day, which is completely worth mentioning.

While we were at the zoo we had to get some photos of Emma with the zebras for her end-of-the-year class project. I love Emma's big, cheesy, "show all of my teeth" grin here. Her braces are coming off on June 1st and I am going to miss this silver smile of hers. She is SO excited!

In ELP, Emma, and her grade level, has been studying simple machines, so, I suppose the logical choice for a field trip was Castles and Coasters. I got to go along with Emma and her friends on this one too, but this time the boys stayed with their aunt. Emma loved the bumper boats and we were able to get on those twice. She had also never been on a roller coaster, and I have to admit, I didn't adequately prepare her for it. For one, I knew she would chicken out and not do it, and also, I believe that everyone should find out for themselves if they are a death-defying thrill-seeker or not. I, personally, am not.

Since I am pregnant I could not go on any of the larger rides, so her ELP teacher rode the roller coaster with her. He told me that halfway through she turned to him and said, "I'm done, I don't want to do this anymore." She later told me the he was so not compassionate and just said, "Well Emma, I think you're stuck in here 'til the end." She came off of the ride completely shaking, but still all smiles. Ask her if she'd do it again though. She'd probably give you some sweet, sarcastic answer that basically meant, "Are you serious?"

The only downside to Emma's Castles and Coasters trip was that half of the park's rides were closed down for the day. It really limited what the kids could do, especially since half of the rides already have height requirements, but I was really proud of my whole group, they didn't let it ruin their day, they just had fun being out there.

Also, last month, the boys got to go with their Dad for the annual Father's & Son's trip, or Priesthood Encampment, or whatever you want to call it. My boys prefer to refer to it as "Boy's Camp". They LOVE it. Mike took them out to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, then let them play video games in the car all the way up. They bought marshmallows to roast, rented a movie from Redbox, ate junk food and slept in the back of the van to the glow of the dvd screens.

This was their first time camping with our new ward, which was different. There are many camping enthusiasts in our current ward who arrived really early, set up a whole living space and came with a myriad of things to do. In our last ward, most people arrived late into the evening, slept in small tents or in the back of their trucks, ate breakfast and took off early the next day.

Either way, they had a great time, and I am glad that Mike makes it a big deal to take them every year.