From Jessica: My 6th Grade Class Trip

I had been waiting for this all year! We had our 6th grade class trip on Fri. the 24. Our teachers had been planning this and talking about this and warning us about this and getting us excited about this since...like... FOREVER! It was the best field trip ever! We had to be at school at 5:00 AM or we would miss the bus. The bus wasn't just a normal school bus it was a charter bus! It had a bathroom in it AND a DVD player and it was A LOT more comfortable than a school bus. which was great because we were on that bus for4 hours! which seems a lot longer when kids are screaming all around you. since we were on the bus from 5:00 - 9:00 we got to see the sunrise! Any way when we finally got to our first stop (the Slugger Museum) it felt like we had been on the bus FOREVER! and to make matters worse we had to wait on the bus for about 10 extra minutes because we got there early! Anyway when we FINALLY got in we watched a movie, then they took us out to the museum part of the tour we all just fan around and explored that part. then we split into 3 groups and went through the factory part no pics aloud :( then we got back on the turner bus and headed off to the Ohio river to go on a cruise. We ate lunch and since we were in Kentucky we had REAL Kentucky fried chicken yum-yum. After that we went up to the sky deck (I think that's what it's called) and hung out. Pretty soon the DJ started playing songs like Cotton Eye Joe, Macarania , Electric slide, Cupid shuffle, etc. that we all knew and we started dancing to them! It was quite a sight . If someone didn't know the dance to one of the songs every one else pushed them around untill they got it. It was hillarious!!! After that was all over we docked and got back on the charter bus and rode all of the way to Marango caves. We saw a lot of cool stilagtites and stilagmites. and about 5-7 creepy gross discusting and creepy bats. Can you tell I DO NOT like bats?! At all! Any way after that was over. We went to this thing-of-ma-bobbers that was supposed to be like you were crawling through a cave. The contraption was tiny and the sign on the outside said if you were closterphobic you shouldn't go through it. Well I'm slightly closterphobic and get totaally creeped out if something touches me and I don't know what it is you didn't have to go through it but Mom told me I'd regret it forever if I didn't go through (translation: you have to do it) so I was all like Oh-my-gosh-i-am-gonna-hyoervenilate-and-then-die! Well as you can tell I didn't die but that is something I would NEVER do again! After the caves most kids got back on the bus and went home but some kids rode with their parents. I rode with Mom and we went to Susie and Les's house to see Cassie at Prom but I'll Post about that l8er

Here is the sunrise I took it out of the bus window

This is a pic of the bus from the inside
That is Josie with her Long black hair

we FINALLY got to the Slugger Museum It felt like we were driving
FOREVER this is a pic of all of us in front of "the big bat"

here is me with a few of my friends from left to right :Jessica B. Me, Lindsey,
Nicole we have gloves on because the bats we are holding are some famous
people's bats don't ask me who I'm no baseball fan!

here we all are on board the Belle of Louisville
(by the way no one got sea-sick)

This is the view we had from the boat

yum this was our REAL Kentucky fried chicken

Me and Mother

The cave was dark this was the best picture I took

This is a video of the bus

Watch the pitcher

The Guys Camping

Leanne took off Friday and went on Jessica's big 6th grade field trip. The students rode a chartered bus and went to Louisville to see the Slugger Museum, then they had lunch on a river boat, and finished the day touring Marengo Caves. Leanne and Jessica left straight after the trip and headed to Leanne's sisters to spend the night and Saturday with them (and get to see Cassie before prom)!

So, Kyle and Jack and I loaded up for a quick fishing and camping trip. We went to Hanging Rock, which is a Christian camp that a good friend of mine works at. It has a nice pond and some really good trails.

Cruising up 63!

Unloading


The tent is up!

Looking at our campsite from across the pond.

Ummm ... this was the only fish caught.
And I caught it on my first cast.

Fishing came to an end when Matt & Kara
showed up on their four-wheelers.

One minute Kyle was "posing" on the four-wheeler
and the next he had convinced Matt to let him
take it for a spin! Needless to say, Kyle was thrilled.


Hiking Trails

Jack was our "trail-scout."
He kept ahead of us on the trail except
for the occasional chasing of a squirrel.

See the little white dot? That's Jack.
He would run up ahead and then
he would come back to see where we were.
Then he would run ahead again.

When we left our campsite we heard a tree fall.
When we got back the fallen tree
was pretty close to our campsite.

Matt & Kara joined us for dinner.
Hot dogs, Brats, & Chips.

Later we had S'mores and Matt taught
us how to cook a "biscuit on a stick."

Kyle made his own that was filled with
chocolate syrup, whipped cream,
a Hershey bar, and a marshmallow.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset!
Then Matt, Kyle and I played Frisbee
(with a "light-up" Frisbee)

In the morning, we packed up and then
enjoyed a quick breakfast of chocolate
mini-donuts on the tailgate of the truck
before we headed home.

Flush!

Came home from the office a few days ago and this is what was sitting on my front step! A toilet with a purple seat and purple tank lid. The sign on it says, "Let's Flush Cancer Down the Toilet." The instructions taped to the seat lid told us that for a $10 donation to Relay for Life the toilet would be removed. For $20 we could choose to send the toilet to someone else. For $30 we could send it to someone else and guarantee that it never comes back to us.

By the way we did "lift the lid," just to see ... and neatly place within the bowl was a bouquet of purple flowers.

Creation Museum

Well since it's raining and I have the time I thought I would update the blog. This past spring break we took the kids (and the Sheppard kids) over to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. We stayed with Leanne's Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill and we visited the Creation Museum just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Creation Museum is a museum which promotes the belief that life is more than mere random chance and supports that belief with archeological evidence and intellectual reasoning. It's quite amazing to hear creationism thoughts such as purposeful creation, a young earth, dinosaurs and man coexisting, etc ...

We were told that a tourist package had been created that included tickets to the Creation Museum as well as the Cincinnati Zoo. When the zoo got wind of this they demanded that they be excluded from the package. They did not want any association with the Creation Museum because of the contradictory teachings the museum supports. Wow! I wonder who is more "close-minded?" It's interesting to me that if you are an "animal lover" and support nature wholeheartedly .... why would you be threatened by creationism? What makes an "animal" more special? Would it be that they just happened into existence and are nothing more than a random combination of DNA ... or would it be that God uniquely created them with care, intentionally, and with a purpose? So goes for you and I.

Anyway here are a few pictures.