Field trip fling

Junie and I had so much fun during her first-grade field trip! She keeps pointing out that it was actually field TRIPS — Museum of Natural History in the morning, then lunch, then Red Butte Gardens. Unfortunately my camera card ran out of room before the gardens (which are gorgeous — visit their Web site at http://www.redbuttegarden.org to check it out), but here is a glimpse of some of the fun stuff we did at the museum:


Kate sports a mantis puppet at the museum's insect display (check out her cute little Field Trip Journal, in which she wrote and drew faithfully everywhere we went) ...


... and tries to leap like a frog at the "Toadally Frogs" exhibit, which is fabulous and full of live frogs and toads, like this ...


... golden tree frog, which was clinging to the acrylic side of its enclosure in just the right spot for Kate to pretend to "hold" it. Moments later, the keeper dumped a bunch of crickets into this enclosure, and this golden frog leaped into action (and off the wall) and gulped down about six of them in less than a minute. Of course this carnage was a huge hit with the first graders (and this mommy, too).


Kate and a couple of her classmates, Nathan and Erica, peek through the mouth of a velociraptor. If you throw change down its throat it says, in this deep growly voice, "Thaaaaaaaank yooooooooou!" Also a big hit. Check out the museum at http://www.umnh.utah.edu .