Field Trip to Arches

I was asked by Zander's 2nd Grade teacher, Mrs. Wilske to be a chaperone on the Field Trip to Arches National Park on May 9th.  Zander was pretty excited I was asked to go. I was too!  I've never been on a field trip with him before, or to Arches for that matter. :)  The bus was fully loaded with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. We all had to sit 3 to a seat!  My two seat buddies were Zander and Tyler Urqhart. 

This was my little troop: Abby Erwin, Tyler Urqhart, Zander Hughes, Cassidy Alvarado, and Teija Zwahlen.

We checked out the Visitor Center first so the kids could use the bathroom before we went out hiking.  The teachers had a questionnaire to fill out while we were here.  This made sure they looked at everything and learned a little bit along the way.  The kids loved looking through the telescopes at the rocks outside. 

I love this shot I captured of Zander. :) Pretty miraculous I was able to get him by himself with all the kids, teachers, chaperones and other tourists milling about.  I love it!

I think he liked looking through this.  Every time I turned around he was there. :)

Caught this one time and it totally cracked me up.  He had swiveled the telescope around and was looking at the inside of the visitor's center! What a crazy kid!

My group on a big horn sheep statue.

King of the hill, for a minute, anyway.  This was our first hike.  At the head of the trail is this hill that all the kids were climbing on. 

We decided it was a good spot to take class pictures.  This is Zander's 2nd grade class with Mrs. Wilske.  She opted out of climbing the hill--probably a smart idea. She has stage 4 cancer and we are just glad she was able to go!

Abby is holding a paper we were given for the hikes.  We had to see if we could find all these different types of flowers/plants that are native to the area.  The girls were so excited about it.  The boys were more interested in getting to the arches. lol

I believe this is called sandstone arch.  There was lots of sand for the kids to play in, and play they did!  They had a blast while we were here!

The kids were jumping and rolling and building in the sand.  We probably packed out a dump truck load of dirt in their pockets and shoes!  They were in heaven. :)

Zander and Mom self-portrait. :)

Zander decided he wanted to try one.  Pretty good shot, bud!

This made me laugh.  Mr. Brady didn't want to spend hours sweeping the sand off the bus when we got home, so he took matters into his own hands and swept the kids before getting them on the bus. 

The second arch we hiked to was called Double Arch. We had the choice of this one or another one.
(I don't remember the name of the other one.) It was across the road in the opposite direction.

The kids were pretty free to roam once we got there,  It made me smile that my group mostly stuck together.  4 of the 5 of them are in this pic.

Zander playing in a tiny cave--he was just able to get inside.

Zander took my picture several times throughout the day. :) Thanks, bud.  I don't get out from behind the camera often enough.

I'm so glad I was invited to go.  I had a great day with my Zander-bug. :) Sure do love you!