Spring Field Trips

Baltimore's Museum of Industry - definitely one of the best field trips of elementary school. Unfortunately I didn't get to accompany Noah on this one but thank goodness one of the moms took pictures for me. Just like Xander, Noah had a fabulous time building things...

becoming an actual historical person from the cannery of the early 20th century...

and spending his small earnings at the company store.

For the 5th graders - bring on DC!!! Devin's mom Schineck and I were ready to take it on!!

Although the weather wasn't the best the boys were determined to have a great time. As a group they had discussed what they wanted to see and had even printed out an itinerary of the day. We paused long enough to take a picture in front of the Capitol...

and then it was on to the Museum of Natural History, always a favorite with kids.

Checkin' out the giant squid.

One of our early ancestors. Hmmmm....

Showing off some physical strength with his new friend.

The boys got a kick out of seeing what they would have looked like as early humans.

Love the elephant in the front!

Just as we headed outside it started to rain but we didn't let that slow us down. The Washington Monument was first on the list.

It was a little out of the way to walk down to the White House so we settled for a picture of it way in the background.

Onto the World War II Memorial.

The highlight of my day was shaking hands with a WWII vet!! What a honor!! We just don't have too many of these men and women left and it was so amazing to meet him and talk to him for a few minutes.

He posed for a picture with the boys and shook all of their hands. I hope they remember this moment for the rest of their lives.

He came and found us again a few minutes later because he had failed to get a picture with the boys on his own camera and wanted one. He was such a sweet man.

He was there as part of the Honor Flight so I made sure to get a picture of the whole group.

"Here we mark the price of freedom." I think the boys were a little stunned when I told them each of the stars on the Freedom Wall represents 100 Americans who died in the war. There are 4,048 stars.

Our walk to the Lincoln Memorial was a little slower than desired because the boys kept stopping to look at the baby ducks swimming in the reflecting pool. Finally Devin said, "We can't stop for every duck! Let's get moving!" Hilarious!

My thumbs up boy.

The Korean War Memorial which I think is so cool.

These two are quite the pair and have tremendous goals for themselves. At this point of our walk they were telling Schineck and I all about their plan for Xander to be President of the United States and Devin will be his VP.

The boys had several more places they wanted to visit but since time was running short we decided our last stop would be the National Air and Space Museum. I hadn't been there since my 8th grade visit many moons ago so I was anxious to visit.
The astronaut helmet did NOT fit!

Hangin' with the Wright Brothers.

All the space stuff was fascinating.

I think my favorite was the planes and learning about the Ace pilots from WWI.

What a great day!!

Gettysburg was Savannah's final field trip of 8th grade and apparently she and her friends had a lot of fun!

Alexa, Savannah, Jayna, Abby, and Ryan.

Checking out some of the battle field.

Lots of selfies!

Savannah and Emily enjoying the beautiful view.

Savannah's crew! I hope they actually learned something!

May Pack Meeting

In May the cub scouts had an awesome pack meeting - we checked out helicopters at the nearby Army base! Brother Anderson from the other ward was our guide; he is a helicopter soldier and has flown in all kinds of missions around the world.

One of the lucky scouts got to try on all the gear the soldiers wear.

Noah was in heaven!

We split into three groups and our group headed outside first to check out a Black Hawk. Thank goodness the weather gave us a break from all the rain we'd been having and we had an absolutely gorgeous day for this outing!

Learning the ins and outs of a Black Hawk helicopter.

The boys each got a chance to sit in the driver's seat!

The boys loved it!

Next up was a Chinook which I thought was super cool.

They boys started to ham it up for the pictures!

We got to see a helicopter take off. All I can say is super loud!

The last helicopter of the morning was a Lakota. The boys really liked being able to use the infrared sensor on this one.

More poses for me!

We had such a fun morning! Brother Anderson and the other soldiers who showed us around were awesome and each of the boys received a notebook, lanyard, and a Ravens hat.

I LOVE this picture Noah drew of his fun experience!

A Travelin' Man

From the last week of February to early June David spent most weeks on the road traveling for work. Do I even have to mention how hard that was?
From Vegas...

to Atlantic City...

to Florida...

to Arizona...

to Colorado, and many more places in between, this guy made his way around the USA.

And of course wherever he went he made sure to have fun to balance out all the work stuff. Hockey games...

basketball games...

football...

and baseball!

He even spotted famous soccer player Clint Dempsey at the airport!

He was always telling me about the fun times, including several practical jokes with coworkers.

And then there's the food!

David was always sending me pictures of the incredible meals he was enjoying!

Somehow what I was eating at home just never tasted as good after I got these pictures. I wonder why???

But his favorite place to go for work is Salt Lake City!

He gets to watch the Jazz play...

and hang out with family and friends.

After 4 months of his traveling I was worn out by single mom duties and asked him to please stay home for the summer so he did, thank goodness!