Field Trip!

I think I’ve told you before that in Utah, many of the schools are on a year-round schedule. That means we have shorter summers, but we get to have the elementary-aged kids home for a several weeks every 10 weeks.

So we are on A-track and that means that every January I get to have a little playtime with the kids. Thursday was one of those days. For some crazy reason we have had beautiful weather here this week and not a bit of snow anywhere. I piled the little kids into the big van along with Grandpa, Teach, and the Drama Queen and we headed downtown.

Our plan was to earn another Cub Scout patch for Sport. This one required a trip to the Pioneer Museum and the State Capitol. We started at the museum and other than the fact that Curly was totally bored and pulling on my leg every three minutes, almost two hours slipped by before we knew it.

The favorite exhibits were the old-fashioned fire engine, the doll buggies, and the commode. I wish I could have taken pictures for you, but they forced us to lock up the camera and my purse in a little locker before we could enter the museum. It’s a pretty amazing place and it is all free!

After we finally located Grandpa (he was lost somewhere on the second floor), we walked up the hill to the Utah State Capitol. It was rather grueling with the stroller, but Teach did most of the pushing. I told the kids that I thought I had read somewhere that the entrance was on the east side, but they didn’t listen, so we hauled that double-stroller all the way up the front steps! Yeah, we were puffing by the time we got there.

The badge required us to identify three trees and it’s a good thing we had Grandpa with us, because I’m no good (except for pines) when all the leaves are gone. I had also printed out a little Bingo card for each kid to help them find interesting stuff in the capitol. We worked hard to get the blackout so we could earn a special prize from the visitor’s center staff. They were so excited!

When we were finally finished, we took the fancy elevator down to the first floor to claim our rewards. I have to admit to being a little disappointed when the lady brought out a handful of dum-dums (tiny suckers). The kids didn’t mind, in fact, they were happy.

After some outside photo ops and Grandpa chasing off a scary-looking guy in a long trench coat, we hiked back down the hill. We even went four-wheeling out across the grass! We piled back into the van and then braved our way down North Temple to the Wendy’s by my sweetie’s work. He met us there for a quick hamburger before we headed for home. I love off-track time! (And besides, if we aren’t home, they can’t mess up the house…I’m no dum-dum.)