Field Trip!

Today I'm showing off a vacation that only ended on Wednesday. Our family and a family/friends from church headed out early Sunday morning for Niagara Falls. Our friends have 6 kids, one of whom is HH - Duck's good friend. In the picture below, you can see the girls never got too far without the little brothers tagging along:We did disguise this vacation as a field trip - we trekked through some rigorous trails down the Niagara Gorge which brought us down to the Niagara River. The boulders that lined these paths were huge! This is Duck using a nice smile to hide how tired she is:Our school part of the trip was to discuss the contrasting views of how the Falls and the Gorge were created. The old tale of evolution (billions of years) vs. the Lord's creation (thousands of years). We collected rocks and examined the layers of soil/rock. The kids have an assignment that each age level can complete to write out what they learned.

Of course, we had to walk down by the Falls themselves. It wasn't raining, but the wind and the mist from the Falls always ensures the path is wet. We wrapped Duck in a blanket because the wind was so cold:What Niagara attractions interest a country-bumpkin and homeschool kid? The escalator! Duck and the other kids rode up and down every escalator we came across - several times! The other big deal was the bus tour we took - on a bus with NO seat belts! The big city is an exciting place: Here's the whole kid pack in front of the giant Hershey bar, right outside of the Hershey store (yes, they had free samples!):And I would be crazy not to show you some of the scenery shots from our hikes. The first shot shows off our vantage point from approximately halfway down our trail into the Gorge. It was a long way down, and an even longer way up:This is a nice picture of the trail right on the river. The rapids are fiercely tumultuous and we had to be diligent about watching the kids. It was such a good time for everyone, we actually stayed an extra day over what was originally planned. The blessings we received from the Lord during this trip were remarkable - and I hope to write about them early next week.

For now - visit Mary for more Show and Tell!