2018 Summer Field Trips

Long before summer started, I decided to take the kids on a weekly field trip. Each of us, including Cousin Nate, would get to choose two of the field trips. They had to have some educational or physical merit. Or both!

June 14 - Emil and Colin and I went to the junkyard (it has junk, to be sure, but it has a lot of vintage cars waiting to get fixed up too) near our house and Emil took photos of all the old vehicles while Colin wrote the maker and as much as we could tell from looking. We ran into the owner of the place and he was super happy to tell the boys all about his projects. Emil was in heaven! And Colin enjoyed himself a lot, too. After that, the boys looked forward to Thursday Field Trips because they found out how awesome it could be. (Bridget was at girls camp and Nate had a scout thing. It was the perfect field trip for them to miss.)

June 21 - Bridget's choice was visiting Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove. It's a park with wooden castle-looking places to play. We packed a lunch and Bridget told us the history of the park, how it was built in a day by the community and etc. Then we went to North Shore for Hawaiian shave ice. They had Pineapple Dole! We took advantage of that many more times during the summer.

June 28 - Colin chose the FamilySearch Discovery Center for his field trip. We've been to the one in Salt Lake, and that's the one Colin originally asked for. The one in Lehi is THE SAME, and Daddy works there! All the kids loved it! I had Emil log in as Brian and Colin logged in as me, Bridget and Nate could log in as themselves. They went to every docking station and yelled out what they discovered. Nate was so excited about all of it! He knew so much, I was impressed. He remembers names of grandparents and great-grandparents like a pro. When we'd discovered all we cared to for one day, we met Brian in the cafeteria and ate fries.

Colin looking at the great-great-grandpa he was named after.

Nate and Bridget look at their ancestors' timelines.

July 5 - Nate's first field trip was the indoor pool. Brian had the day off, so he joined us. It's always great to have an extra set of eyes at the pool. After swimming, we went back to North Shore for Dole Whip.

July 12 - After the junkyard, Emil had an appetite for old cars. He told me he wanted to go to a car museum for his field trip. What the...?! I looked up car museums and there's a really good one at Union Station in Ogden, Utah. Hmmm. Kind of a drive, but in the name of education we did it anyway. :) I heartily endorse Union Station - it's in a beautiful old train depot, they have actual train engines on display, a fascinating train museum (did you know that people didn't own pocket watches until after the railroad? Who needs to know the time before having to catch a train? No one! That's who.), a gun museum, and a classic car museum. The kids looked at everything and interacted where they could and were so well behaved the whole time. Then we met Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Bob for lunch on 25th Street. Perfect day!

Emil asked the museum docent many, many questions. :)

July 19 - For Bridget's second field trip she chose kayaking at Highland Glen Park. There were perfect moments - watching the kids kayak and have fun in the water was a highlight. However! It was such a hot day and there were a few fights I had to break up. Sigh.

August 2 - The Natural Curiosity Museum was Colin's second field trip. We've been there plenty of times, but I think it was only Nate's second time. It's one of the loudest places on Earth, so I'm glad I knew what I was in for! :) We spent a lot of time at Kidopolis because Colin wanted to practice his bank robbing skills (!). We were there for more than two hours, but it flew by. The kids didn't get to spend much time at the water world (thank goodness), but we did get to try the outdoor playground, which is one of my favorites.

August 9 - Brian and I were at Pioneer Trek in July for one of the field trips, so I only got one field trip. I chose the Imax 3-D movie at the Dinosaur Museum, Incredible Predators. For this one cousin Banks Boney joined us. Banks and Nate were always a fun combination - ha! When we picked Nate up for this field trip and he saw Banks in the van he turned to Grandma and said, "Look who's still here." We walked around the museum after the movie (which is amazing), then I treated the kids to a swallow of ice cream. (Smallest cones I've ever seen!)

August 16 - Nate had the final field trip and he chose Hogle Zoo. I was nervous to take five kids to the zoo by myself. I packed a big lunch, brought lots of water (we drank every drop) and trusted the kids to get along without the empty threat that we'd go home if anyone started fighting. We were there early enough that we got to see animals showing off. Thank goodness my boys look up to Banks because he wanted to stop and observe the animals instead of running by them at top speed. The highlight for all of us was the bird show, which we happened to catch because we were walking by when it started. Owls and doves and hawks and parrots doing tricks and flying so close to us we could feel their feathers?! Awesome. We were all BEAT by the time we headed home. I stopped for a beverage on the way home and treated the kids to a drink too.

Bridget got to feed a giraffe!

Nine field trips! We did it! Having them on Thursdays gave us something to look forward to and helped give structure to the free-for-all feel of summer. I think the kids learned something from each field trip - even if it was only how to behave and get along, as well as appreciate the world around them. I know Emil and Colin are already thinking about their field trips for next summer. :)