Field trip and parade

I went on the California mission field trip with Dallin a couple weeks ago. I didn't get my camera out in time to get the class picture before they started to scatter. Oops. Dallin is in the middle, behind the boy in the red jacket.

  

He really liked this olive tree - apparently it's quite old.

The 4th graders here usually go to the San Miguel mission, which is just a few miles away. But a bunch of the kids (including Dallin) went to it last year when they were in the 3rd/4th split class. So this year they went to Mission San Antonio instead. It took a full hour to get there.

I've been to the San Miguel mission lots of times, so it was fun to see something different. They're very similar, though. It was the third California mission, built in 1771.

This is one of the other moms who went. At first they didn't think they had enough parents going, but then it turned out they had more than enough, so we shared a group.

Here's our group. One of the boys kept wandering off, so it's good there were two of us. Everyone else did great. It's always fun to get to know the other kids from school.

The only problem with the trip was that I lost a contact on the way there (I rubbed my eye), so I was half blind the whole time. I felt a little out of it, and I could never tell if the pictures I was taking were turning out. Driving home was challenging, too. I need to remember to keep a spare pair and saline in the car! Dallin especially liked all the ruins outside. We'll have to go back sometime because we didn't have time to see everything. We had to hurry back for a parade.

Our town celebrated its 125th birthday, and they wanted all the schools to be in it. It was in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, which seemed like a strange time to have a parade.

Dallin and Eric are halfway back. That's Mrs. Young waving in the front - she's Teacher Of The Year this year, and we love her! I hope Brennan gets her next year.  

Spencer held the banner because he's been playing the oboe for concert band, and the oboe isn't a marching instrument. He could have played his saxophone, but he chose not to because his allergies were horrendous at the time.

It was a very short parade, ending in the downtown park for a whole program. We couldn't hear anything in the back, but that's okay because I just visited with Kristen and friends from church while the kids played at the park. Apparently they buried a time capsule. At the end we all sang Happy Birthday and ate cupcakes. They had enough for everyone there, hundreds and hundred of them! What a fun but exhausting day!!