Field Trip Follies

This past Wednesday, Jen and I took both of our classes on a year end field trip to town.  We had been told much earlier in the year that there was not going to be money this year for field trips, so we put it out of our minds.  Then everyone started planning field trips.  With the plans came a carnival like atmosphere of junk food sales at lunch and recess.  Classes were selling freezes, ice cream, pizza, popcorn, cookies and almost every other kind of crap you can think of.  I decided I wasn't going to make like a used car salesman to get my kids to town.  However, at the 11th hour, the PAC came through with some busing money and we were forced to admit that we would look like a couple of ogres if we didn't take the kids to town.

Luckily for me, my wife is a super organizer and planned the whole day for both our classes.  She did a great job.  We were going to the North Peace Credit Union, then walking to the RCMP station.  For lunch we would have a picnic in our back yard because we live so close to the police station.  Then in the afternoon, we would go to the public library for a tour and some programming they had a available.  The plan was perfect...until it started to rain.

Let's be clear.  It didn't just rain while we were in town.  It was a bloody monsoon.  It rained all day.  At times, it rained so hard it hurt to be out of doors.  Luckily, my class missed the worst of the downpours during our walk between venues.  When it was time to go for lunch, it was absolutely pouring, so we were lucky enough to catch the bus back to our house.  When we pulled up out front, Jen's kids were already there.  It looked like we were pulling up to the monkey house in the zoo.  There were kids piled up with their faces plastered to the picture window.  They were climbing over each other to get a peek.

When I entered the house, the first thing I noticed was the smell.  It smelled like wet dogs and stinky feet.  It turns out the Jen's class had been hiking home when the downpour started.  They were in no man's land and had to tough it out the rest of the way.  Everyone was soaked to the bone.  Jen's class was eating upstairs and I took my kids to the basement to eat.  We had 40 kids in our 1800 sq. ft. house.  It was tight, especially when the kids finished eating and got a little wild. We were fortunate enough to have the bus driver offer to take us to the library after lunch because it was still pouring.

I must tell you, that I was pretty ragged by the time that day was done.  I have to thank the officers at the police station and Sheryl at the credit union for great tours.  The kids had great a great time and talked about it for the rest of the week.