I was a little trepidatious about a Monday morning field trip. We managed to roll out of the house on time and as we made our way the 30+ minutes to the destination, I hoped this was going to be worth it.
It was so worth it.
We went to the county seat of our county to tour the sheriff's office. This includes the sheriff's office along with the county jail.
(There was a note that we would not be touring the actual jail where the inmates were kept, which was fine with all of us.)
I could not believe how kind these people were. There were at least ten officers that took us in groups all over the sheriff's office. They showed us the police cars, transport vehicles, the SWAT truck, the booking section, the holding cells, demonstrated and explained fingerprinting, showed us all of the work stations and let the kids touch and explore nearly the entire office.
I was just amazed.
We ended the tour in the office of the Sheriff, who was such a kind man.
It was well worth the drive on this dreary Monday. Super worth it.
Examining some finger prints.
Fingerprint demonstration
SWAT truck
Office of the Sheriff
Antiques in the Sheriff's office
Explaining the things in the office
There were several displays of patches from all over the country
McGruff, the Crime Dog
Someone is a little terrified of "mascots"
The inside of the back of a police car.
Two thoughts:
1. I need my van to be made like this. I could hose it out every so often. Genius.
2. I made it through the decade of debauchery without seeing the back of a police car. That is God's grace and protection over me. I spent some time thanking Him for that.
Checking out the bullet proof vests.
Sitting in the police car
We couldn't take pictures of the booking section and the holding cells and workstations. The kids explored and sat in jail cells. The padded cell was especially intriguing.
In light of the sermon from the day before, I was on heightened alert about the name of Jesus. In the padded cell was scratched into the wall (by a fingernail, they said) the word "JESUS." I said, "Oh, it's the name of Jesus. How amazing to see that there!"
They laughed and said, "That was probably a man named 'Jesus' (Hay-SOOS)"
Oh. Okay.
Well, I tried.
And at least we talked about Jesus for that minute, right? (and we laughed)
After the field trip we ate at Steak and Shake before we ran our errands. I mean, field trips are celebrations, right? And we had to celebrate with shakes right?
I think we just wanted shakes. And grilled cheeses.
I have always wanted to go to some caverns that aren't too far from our house. Luckily one of our homeschool groups scheduled a field trip there. I was probably a little more excited than the kids were...
It looked like we were driving into the end of the world...
This just made me happy.
This is clear (and gray) quartz. We were deep embedded of our study of Revelation at the time of this field trip, and these just reminded me of Revelation 21.
I was slightly ready to stop seeing Revelation everywhere.
This is your standard postcard shot.
I considered getting one of these for the backyard.
The kids "panned" for gems. It was fun and all the kids enjoyed it. This also reminds me that we were supposed to study out the different gems we got that day.
Um, yeah. Homeschool field trip fail.
The girl kid found some clear glasses in the gift shop and asked me to get them for her. I hesitated, but they were only three dollars and since she was trying to be just like her mother, how could I resist?
That is going to come to a screeching halt soon enough, so why not encourage it for the short time it lasts?
This was the perfect time of year for this field trip. The scenery was breathtaking.
Waiting to go in the caverns. This shot was accidental, but it makes me terrifically happy.
So. Walking down into these caverns was simply an assault on all of my senses. At once. It was amazing. I needed a few minutes to take it all in. It was just surreal. We sat through an informational lecture that was really interesting. They told the history of this particular cavern and a lot of information about the rock formations and things like that. I really liked all of that.
Then. They did this thing called "Total Darkness." I have not in my adult life been scared of much, but when they turned off all of those lights, I was slightly panicked. Part of it was because I also have never experienced dark that all encompassing. You could almost feel it. They kids did fine. I was about twenty seconds away from turning on my cell phone and ruining it for everyone.
I am fine with never doing that again.
I'm afraid of the dark. That dark. Who knew?
And back to Revelation for a second. (I know. I was ready to be done thinking about Revelation too.) When reading and studying the bowls and seals and wrath and destruction, the overthinking planning part of my brain thought (seriously) "Where would I go? Where could the family go?" And I thought of caverns like these. "We'd be safe there! From the fire falling from the sky! From the stinging locust! From the drunk lady on the..." Never mind. Really.
Trust me. I hear the absurdity of that. But it's true. And after the "Total Darkness" debacle, I literally thought, "Well, that won't work." I mean, we wouldn't have cell phones for long, and the flash light batteries wouldn't last long and then what would we do? And this cavern didn't have the water supply that we would need, although all the water is going to dry up anyway...
As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm glad I got to see this fleshed out. I saw how silly it was to try to plan my way out of Revelation.
I'm only typing this all out to (hopefully) remind myself later how ludicrous it is to try to over plan... anything.
So we'll just call this a lesson learned.
Ahem.
Anyway...
We saw a "light show," which was Christmas themed.
We toured the caverns, which was really cool.
After that the kids did a huge maze. I refused to go in. I told one of my friend's husbands that I already knew I wasn't a fan of mazes. I am not a fan of being lost. I sort of do that in real life, literally and metaphorically, enough. I'm sure it's not a control thing at all...
Ahem.
How about a day where you get to face all of your ridiculous fears?
He joked after I confessed my Total Darkness trauma that we could have a high tower that overlooked a pit of snakes and we could just have a cornucopia of realized fears.
That made me laugh. Except I'm not afraid of heights and I'm definitely not afraid of snakes. But dang that darkness nearly did me in.
Anyway, this nice daddy took about 2,962 kids into the maze by himself while the mamas sat outside and had some good conversation. (Insert me being deeply thankful and blessed by the mamas God has so graciously placed in my life.)
Since we had a crazy busy day this day, we headed out shortly after. This was a great trip, and I'm thinking a cavern tour might be in my future. As long as I can figure out this darkness thing. And while I'm not studying Revelation. We can all be thankful that I'm not studying Revelation again for a little while.
Our most recent field trip took us to an animal preserve. I was excited since several of our friends had gone and said such wonderful things about it. This place is a sanctuary for wild life that was rescued from dangerous and harmful situations. Each animal had a story-some were rescued from people who foolishly tried to keep these animals as pets, some rescued from closets where they were left to starve to death, some rescued from the back of semi-trucks where they lived, some rescued from the circus, some just dropped off by former owners.
I can't stop singing this song...
"Like a Lion"
It was easy to feel sorry for these animals, but they cannot easily or possibly be reintroduced to the wild since they were born into captivity. Some were born at this preserve since the owners would state that the animals had been spade or neutered and they actually hadn't been. They are well cared for and fed and loved, as much as you can love a still wild beast. These animals can't be fully domesticated, which the former owners found out, mostly too late, but they did show affection for these people that care for them and obeyed them too. That was reassuring. Slightly...
They day before we went on this field trip, we were reading in this book, which I love, by the way:
We were reading about David Livingstone. As a missionary to Africa, he had a harrowing experience where he was attacked by a lion, and the Lord spared his life, thankfully. But how amazing that we read this story just before we went to stare a lion in the face? I love how God schools us all!
One of the guides walked along behind our group. She and I chatted a good bit, and I was able to ask her questions about the sanctuary, and especially about the animals. I asked her if they ever fought, especially since some weren't in cages by themselves. She said they did, but they were able to yell at them, bang a stick on the fence, spray them with water, or at a last resort, spray a fire extinguisher near them, not on them, which scares them badly. I was glad they had ways of stopping them if they started fighting.
I was absolutely amazed to be this close to these animals. I was mesmerized by them. Just to be this close to them was almost overwhelming. I was struck by God and this majestic creation. To be so close that you could see the individual hairs on their heads, hear them breathing, see the absolutely mammoth size of their paws. I could have stood there all day, just looking... and worshiping God, their Creator.
I was crouched down on the ground, taking pictures of the animals. I was so close to them. I was totally absorbed in watching them and studying them feeling so awed by them.
Suddenly these two tigers started fighting, growling, snapping, rolling against the fence fur flying.
I jumped back, feeling the power of their growls and the strength of their bodies slamming into the fence. The guide that I had been talking to yelled and they reluctantly separated, growling at each other as the parted.
My heart pounded in my chest as I struggled to control my breaths. I cannot describe what it was like to be close close to them as they fought. It was indescribable.
I felt a little uneasy as we walked on to the next animal.
If it weren't for those fences, we would be lunch.
Exactly how strong are chain link fences? Super strong, I hoped, seeing how much faith we were putting into them to protect us.
When this not yet fully grown bear stood on his hind legs, he towered nearly 7 feet tall. He'll be almost 9 feet tall when he finished growing.
No camping in the mountains for me any time soon, I'm thinking.
The lion was my favorite. He was so beautiful. And so seemingly docile. He wasn't too interested in us, and pretty much ignored us the whole time. It felt a little hard to reconcile the lion that attacked David Livingstone with this same beast.
His roar can be hear for four miles, if I recall correctly the information the guide gave.
I really wanted to hear that roar.
The verse
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them..
kept ringing in my head.
It almost seemed like a malformation to see him so peaceful and still.
What about the lions that waited to devour Daniel, but the angel kept their mouths closed? And then, when the men who had accused Daniel were cast into the den, along with their children and wives, the Bible says that "...they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones."
I could see that. His paws were enormous. You could hear his weight when he slumped against the fence. Even his head was just huge.
His beauty was incredible. I could have studied him all day.
Gosh, I love that kid. And his hair kills me.
The next animals were cougars. They were almost mocking in the way they looked at us from their houses. The guide called to them, and they literally looked away. I thought, "Wow. They really could not care less about us."
Well, that wasn't exactly true.
As soon as we all walked to the next exhibit, they came out of their houses alright.
The guide next to me looked at me and smiled.
I gulped and asked, "Um, they are stalking the babies, aren't they?"
She nodded "yes."
To say it made me uncomfortable is an understatement.
I wasn't used to being the prey, and not the predator. Not that I am usually the predator, but I do eat animals, so I guess in a way that makes me the predator. But these animals were the predators, and they knew it. Had those fences not been there, we would have been the prey.
It wasn't that I didn't feel safe. I did. But to see humans as the prey was unsettling to me. It was surreal to think that unless we had weapons, we wouldn't have stood a chance against these animals.
And they were stalking the babies. The little kids. The especially defenseless ones.
Not that I would have had any luck against them. Or even the man that was with us. They would have ripped us limb from limb.
Can you tell by this how the baby walked from my right to behind me?
It's chilling.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
This guy was beautiful also. Want to know what he was looking so intently at?
Yep. He even crouched down at one point, ready to pounce. Thankful for the fences, again.
This creature was stunning.
He also reached out to our guide and missed her by inches. She scolded him and told us that he could have pulled her into the fence. Their strength is mind boggling.
He seems rather disappointed that he didn't get a paw in her.
He didn't feel badly enough to keep from stalking the little kids. Again with the stalking.
I happened to glance up and notice that across a patch of land we were being studied by a rather large wolf. He looked as though he also might like to have us for lunch.
I was getting a little tired of feeling like someone's dinner.
This just made me happy. I love that kid.
This is proof I was there - me and the middle kid.
I really love this kid.
Did I already say that?
I love all of them, actually.
This made me enormously happy. I am going to try to find a way to incorporate it into my blog somehow.
We got home late, and I collapsed on the couch. Zane pulled out his "How to Draw" book and proceeded to draw a lion. We all loved the day. I am still thinking about those animals! I hope to go back again...
