Jonas' turn

It is field trip season.  I have worked like the dickens arranging babysitting for Elijah and Ryah while I go one field trips with everyone. This week was Jonas'. The "theme" of Jonas' field trip was whether or not Capital Lake (reservoir) should be turned drained back into an estuary.  Apparently this debate/discussion/argument has been going on for a while.  However nothing is being done either way for lack of funds.

We got to glance (literally, we only had 15 minutes) around the Capital building and then around the campus.  I never tire of that place.  So many interesting things to see and take pictures of (because apparently, I'm getting a couple free brain cells to get back into taking pictures).

These "grains" represent the people who died at Pearl Harbor.  Someone had put the flag there for Memorial Day.

Boys being boys.

I had a good group of kids that I was in charge of. They were very active but I didn't have to chase any down.  They pretty much did what I said and made sure they stayed close by me.

I didn't have time here to take the picture I wanted to here. I really want to go back and take more pictures. (Like I haven't been there a million times and taken a BILLION pictures.)

Then we walked around Capital Lake to the dam and listened to the operator talk.  Of course he told his opinion about the lake/estuary thing.  He thinks that it should be left a lake as it is a habitat for all kinds of creatures that wouldn't be there.  It brings tourists in (which helps downtown economy) and is home to the Olympic Harbor Yacht Group (a revenue source).  It also provides a reflecting pool for the Capital.

I guess if you stick out of the landscape like a sore thumb you beg people to take pictures.  I found a few angles that I haven't taken pictures from before.

The kids had fun sitting "behind" the dam house trying to get the cars to honk.  They were pretty successful and even claimed to have gotten the train (which was waaaaayyyy behind them LOL) to honk. 

Then we walked the rest of the way around the lake and down the pier.  I have never seen so many jellyfish there.  You have to look really closely to see the one in the picture (near the top right).  There was even a big red one about 12 inches across. 

We were also able to see a couple otters (too far away for picture) and this egret fishing.  The children would cheer when it caught a fish.

We were supposed to hear from someone from the Harbor Yacht Club about the lake/estuary issue but that fell through.  Apparently, there is also a big issue of silt from the Deschutes River (that feeds Capital Lake).  But apparently that is an issue either way.  I haven't really paid much attention to it as we have no voting rights over there and it is a ways away.

We walked about 5 miles total so everyone was grateful to ride the bus to Tumwater Falls park, eat and just play for an hour.  It was a fun field trip and we couldn't have asked for better weather... especially since it has been raining all week.

One tired Momma (though I'm not sure if it was from the walking, the sun, the wind or chasing boys) came home and crashed trying to make Elijah sleep.

Jonas has had a busy week.  He also had an orchestra concert.  The first song was awful, there was 4 different tempos going on and you couldn't even tell what the tune was.  The conductor (who is fabulous, by the way) stopped them and re-did the song.  After that they played wonderfully!  It never ceases to amaze me how they go from not even knowing how to hold an instrument to playing 2 and 3 part harmonies.