Field Trip

Today I had the pleasure of being one of six chaperones on the Kindergarten field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We got on the bus and traveled half an hour to Aurora to Fir Point Farms. After getting off the bus we met with our group leader, Kim and she went over her rules. Rule #1 - stay together so you don't get lost and we get to see everything the farm has to offer. Rule #2 - Don't chase the chickens if you should see some roaming around! Rule #3 - HAVE FUN!! The last was the easiest to follow although we didn't see any chickens running around loose, so we didn't have to worry about rule #2. :) Our first stop was at the "corn maze" that was actually just bails of straw set out in the pattern. The boys and one of the girls in my group took off running through the maze and left the other girl and I in the dust. Then I had to squeeze through a kid sized door to get out!! Yeah, that was fun! After the maze we headed over to feed their goats. The kids lined up along the pen and recieved a handful of food each to feed. Even my son fed them without getting scared and throwing the food at the poor goats. After we fed goats we headed for the tractor and wagon for a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Once there they each picked out their own little pumpkin and it was was put on the back of a John Deere gator and taken back to our bus to wait for us. Once everyone had their pumpkins they gathered for a group picture. I had to tell my son to stop bouncing around and one of the other mothers laughed and said that was impossible for him to do because of all his energy. She's a mom that volunteers in class a lot so she knows what he's like!! I told her I knew that, but it was just something that I have to say from time to time. :) Next we visited the "nut house" where we all climbed into a house filled with empty filbert shells. The kids had a blast jumping around in shells practically up to their knees (me to my ankles). Amazingly enough, no shoes were lost in the shells. Next to the nut house were the rabbits and the pigs. The pigs were playing around and started play fighting and the kids errupted into giggles of laughter and chanted "fight! fight! fight!" This of course sent the adults into uproarious laughter as well. Our next stop on our tour of the farm was the house with a slide. Each kid got to go down the slide once before we headed to a little cabin that had pumpkins painted with each of the presidents of the United States. Not such an interesting room for the kids, so we headed off to our last stop.....the chicken coop. Finally at the end of the tour I was able to get my kids wrangled together in one single spot long enough to take a picture of them. For the most part all five of them were good. One of the little girls had a hard time staying with me because she was always wanting to see what was next and be the first to get there. I do think it's safe to say though that all of the kids that got to go today had an absolutely fun time. And I'm just about betting that they're all falling into bed about now exhausted from all that fun!!

Jordan Valley

We have been back from Jordan Valley for a week now and have finally gotten the laundry caught up and somewhat back to a normal routine. Matt goes back to school tomorrow after having 2 weeks off. He should have some stories to tell....the cowboy that showed up in camp, Great Grandma's deer, splashing in puddles on the side of the roads with the truck, watching the Gammett boys rounding up cattle with their 4 wheelers, the snow that fell on us on one of our drives, "driving" Will Gammett's 4 wheeler (it was parked in the driveway), the frog that I found on some steps near the Owyhee River. I took tons of pictures, as usual. Five hundred to be exact. (Good thing I got a bigger memory card before we left!!) We had a fun time as usual. Did a lot of sight seeing when Grandma wasn't out hunting. After she did get her deer that's all we did was explore the countryside. Both in Idaho and Oregon. The weather was a bit chilled and windy most days, but it also rained, hailed and snowed on us some. The last day we were there was the best one and it was perfect since we'd already decided to stay in camp and be lazy people. I sat under the awning with my legs in the sun and read most of the day, picked up the few things we had out and got the trailer ready to head back home. That evening we went down to Gammett's ranch and chatted with them a while before heading back to camp and packing it in for the night.