Gray Fossil Site Fieldtrip

The whole second grade at Clay's school took a field trip to the Gray Fossil Site this past Monday. I thought it was so neat... interesting and well organized, with a great guide to tell all about the site. It was even so well thought out that they had shoe scrubbers at the back entrance of the museum so people could scrub their shoes after being at the outside portion.

These pictures aren't great. They were taken with my cell phone because I forgot to take the camera.

Clay pans for fossils through some rocks taken from the pit where the original rhinoceros bones were discovered during excavation for a new highway. Highway plans were scrapped once scientists realized the area was a mecca of fossils.

The lady in the back left is Clay's teacher, Mrs. Smith. She's a wonderful teacher, and a Christian to boot! The little dark haired girl second from the left with the white long-sleeved shirt under the blue class t-shirt... that's Skyler, who calls Clay fairly frequently. I mentioned her in a previous post as being one of Clay's crushes. Not that they remotely acknowledged each other on the field trip. Leah, the little girl in pink, goes to our church. She and Clay were in class together last year, as was Whitney, the little girl on the right.

Samantha and Clay listening to some facts about the lab that they were about to enter. Samantha is Clay's other little "girlfriend". I'm told they chase each other on the play ground. Clay says when they catch each other, they just switch who was the chaser and who was the chasee.

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After the field trip, all four classes of second graders ate lunch at McDonald's, while we parents scurried around like rats in a maze getting ketchup, drinks, chicken nuggets, burgers and fries to the appropriate kids. The boy in the middle is Colin and the one on the right is Caleb. They aren't in Clay's class this year, but they were last year. They came for Clay's sleepover on his birthday.

And here's Clay with his buddy Nathan that he was partnered with throughout the fieldtrip. Bruce and I have heard a lot about Nathan since school started, and I've been trying to work out a play date with Nathan's mom, but that hasn't happened yet. When Clay introduced me to Nathan, he simply said, "Nice to meet you," and then he was pretty quiet. I talked to Bruce on the cell phone a bit into the field trip and told him that I'd met Nathan and he seemed like a good kid, but that Clay was obviously the talker in the friendship. Boy did I eat my words! By the time the kids ate lunch, I spent more time listening to Nathan than I heard from Clay. And when they loaded onto the bus to head back to school, Nathan waved goodbye to me far more than Clay did.

I was shocked to hear Clay say later that day that it was the worst field trip he'd ever been on. I thought, "How can this be? This is right up his alley, and he even got partnered with his new buddy Nathan." More talking revealed that he was upset because there was so much to do, but so many kids there that he didn't get to spend enough time on the things that interested him. Needless to say, we'll be going back as a family some time soon.