That Time of Year again....

And so it goes....Its that time of year again when school activities start winding down...or just go in fast forward?! I dont know but it tends to be a bit hectic. The kids are fastly approaching the final weeks of school, so what does that bring.....Yeah...Field Trips. Oh how we all look forward to the day we can all sit together on a bright yellow bus and just listen to each other sing over the lovely sounds of our fellow friends. And when you are in this bright yellow bus you see the world from a different view, and all the things you pass every day now seems soo much cooler and much more exciting. Oh the fun exciting adventures of field trips...how can one not enjoy this cozy time with 50 fellow school mates.....I know I enjoyed it tremendously.

So this year Ethan gets to go first. With him we get to go on a very educational trip. We head across the river and venture down to the swamp lands. Hmmm who would of thunk we had swamp lands here in IA/IL. Oh wait thats right...quite common when the Mississippi banks are just a tad bit full and spill over just a weeeee bit LOL.

Oh how did we all fit inside that bright yellow bus???? Oh thats right...3 to a seat, so we all could snuggle and grow closer to each other. Yes the love of friends is one of the blessings we endure.

Here we sit waiting for our directions and anticipating all the fun and exciting adventures that lay ahead of us. One can only wonder what new and exciting things we may see today that we've never seen before.

Our first adventure was a very nature filled hike that took us to a bird look out. Along the way we got to listen to the pretty music that all the different kinds of birds loved to sing to us. It was quite hip and current. Maybe they should try out for the next season of American Idol...you never know who will get through these days.

In this hike we got to see some awesome swamp stuff. Quite captivating in all its natural glory. Yet the thoughts of what it would be like once the sun went down brought on quite disturbing visions. Shudder!!!! To top it...the wonderful tour guide had this handy dandy pocket sized thingy that let you hear all the different sounds that different frogs make. Some quite charming others rather frightening...if your still invisioning what it would be like with the lights out there....ugh!!!

Once we arrived at the bird look out, the tour guide set up his handy dandy telescope for all to view through. The anticipation of what we were about to see was almost too much for some to bear.

Look up in the sky.....is it a plane or superman? No its a bird...not just any bird tho...A Pelican!!!!! Once again..who would of thunk that Pelicans would inhibit the great Midwest?! But yes indeed....we saw Pelicans. Not just this one....it had a few friends with him as well.

Once we were done oooohhhing and ahhhhing at the birds, we headed back to the next step of our adventure. Along the way we got stopped by a most frightening creature. *gasp* It was a slithering, slimmy ssssscarey gardner snake. Oh my...I almost wasnt sure I could handle much more.

Our next adventure was quite fun and amazing. We were taught about the marsh and were given these wonderful nets. Not butterfly nets...no! These nets were to scoop up mucky, muddy water to find snails, and tadpoles, and beetles and such. Yumm!!!

Right around the area we were working in and observing our finds....we got to also see what a muskrats house looks like. A bit too sheek for my liking...but hey what ever floats their boat right?!

We saw all kinds of neat things there, and found it all mesmorizing.

We finished up our adventure by learning about the water and what is safe water for the fish and wildlife to live in. What causes water to become polluted and unhealthy. It opened our eyes to what we must do to help these wonderful creatures live longer and live in beautiful enviroments.

We had a fun filled picnic lunch there and got to run around and play with all of our fellow classmates. All in all we had an awesome day filled with lots of sun, fun and laughter. With many memories we will cherish forever!!!!