Ryan's 6th grade field trip!
What a day!! We had fun, but it was a doozy alright 😝 hardest chaperoning gig I've had to date.
The day after Halloween. We left the house at 6am. We drove Cooper up to the school with us - no need leaving the house at 6am if you don't need to, right?! a four hour bus ride to Huntsville, AL. Our bus was a couple of moms, Mrs. Garrison the math teacher, and ALL boys! They were actually pretty well behaved. I wonder if all boys is probably all easier then all girls at this age.
Upon exiting the bus, the adult chaperones were handed a list of all the boys. Craziness. I've never been on a field trip where I didn't have my kid and a couple of friends. Let's just say keeping up with 20-something boys is not easy. Esp when you don't really know them. And the ones you do know are the other chaperones' kids because that's just how it works. All TEN buses unload in front of the Space Museum, and its chaos. Kids going everywhere, adults not knowing/ agreeing on where to go. Only one of the six adults with us had been there before - so five clueless ones, and one kinda bossy. Anyways, we eventually became a sub-group of 12, and that was better and more manageable. Ryan and I split off with Tripp's dad Rand and Miles's dad Nathan. Leigh and Spence went the other direction. Although there was still a lot of texting with Leigh - including a "help have you seen _____" -who fortunately had met up with her and was safe.
Chaos and confusion aside, I think the kiddos had fun. The interactive things are always more fun for Ryan and his active, athletic friends. They rode the G-force, and I don't think anybody puked. They climbed a rock wall. We watched a movie about the moon landing.
And then we topped it off with Cici's for dinner -yumm?! Kudos to the teachers though for letting the chaperones exit the buses first and get food. Brilliant. Then we were done and ready to supervise. We returned to the middle school about 10:15/10:30pm. LONG day!! Oh and yes, there was a home football game. That ended about five mins before our return. So yes it was a cluster. The buses couldn't even get into the bus slots and ended up just letting kids out. So kids are crossing dark, overflowed parking lots looking for parents and rides. Middle school is sooo different then elementary! Fortunately we had offered rides to three of Ryan's buddies since I was going to be with them anyways. Again, silly to come out at that hour if you don't have to and you have sleeping siblings and you don't know exactly when we'll be back. So that was a few less cars. By the time we collected our kids, managed to get out of the parking lot, and dropped off Ryan's buddies, we arrived home at 11pm. But we survived, and I returned all 12 of my kids - as well as locating the four boys I was driving home. Small victories!
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| while we were still trying to keep up with 20-something |
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| my boy! |
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| Tripp and Ryan - my favorite pic of the day! |
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| 11 of the 12 in our sub group |
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| Three Ryans!! with Spence, Dean, and Tripp |
So speaking of that last picture with three Ryans... I was amused by the fact the Ryan is "Ryan Chase." Ryan became Ryan C in 3rd grade when we met Ryan G - they were in Mrs. Dotson's class together and a couple of basketball teams. But now they've added another Ryan C into the mix apparently. And he's Ryan C and our Ryan is Ryan Chase. Obviously this is how they are known in school - when the teacher called role, Ryan didn't answer to "Ryan C," but waited for Ryan Chase, he knew. So Ryan C, Ryan Chase, and Ryan G. goodness!
Also, I observed that Ryan and Tripp have become really good friends. I mean I knew this, but the two of them kept coming back to each other, even over Spence and Grady and some of the others that I thought they were close to. And I'm still extra amused by this since they were good buddies in kindergarten too. Crazy how that came back around, love it.
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