Saturday, May 28, 2011

Jack's first field trip!

I took this past Thursday off to go with Jack and his class to the Long Beach Aquarium. The kids were very excited to go to the aquarium, but I think they were most excited to ride on the bus.

This is Jack and his friend Sky, who also went to Maria's with him. Bell went with me on the field trip, so they asked us if we could watch Jack and Sky and another one of Jack's classmates named Lily. We were a little nervous about the two boys, but we figured Lily would be a piece of cake.

Wrong! We quickly discovered that Lily is a wriggler and a darter. While I followed Jack and Sky walking hand in hand through the aquarium, poor Bell ran ragged trying to keep track of Ms. Lily.

The magic bus.

One of the few times we managed to get all three kids together.

There was a lot of cool stuff to see. The kids were watching a playful group of sea lions when this shot was taken. There were also a lot of divers cleaning out the aquariums while we were there, which the kids thought was very exciting. They squealed like a rock star had just jumped in the tank.

Jack and Sky pretending they were about to be swept out to sea. (A cranky employee scolded us for letting them up there two seconds after I shot this. Who puts a bunch of rocks up in a place swarming with kids unless you expect them to climb on them a little bit?)

The kids all lined up for their picture. Except Lily. Her teacher had to chase her down and beg her to join the group. I was trying to get Jack to smile, so I stuck my tongue out at him. I did catch this...

...but it quickly turned into this.

There were a couple of cool things about this trip that I've never seen on our other trips to the aquarium. There is a giant model of a momma and a baby whale suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the aquarium. We stopped for a big, long potty break right below the whales and all of a sudden they shuttered all the windows and started playing whale sounds and then a movie appeared all around us. That was pretty cool, but it was also cool to go into the back of the aquarium for a special educational show.

Lily, miraculously holding still for a moment.

Sky entranced.

Two fingers! Finn taught Jack well.

Go ahead, everybody's doing it.

That's Jack's friend Roan next to him. She was the other poor kid in her pajamas at their Christmas performance.

Bell and I were a little tired by the end of it, but all in all, it was a pretty great first field trip for the Jack man. We just wish Finn (and Julie and Scarlett!) could have been there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So sweet to see Jack and Skye all grown up together.

Amy