Busy Thursday...Salem

Salem had his field trip. He wanted me to come along, yeah! Of course I sign up, next year I'm sure I'll be a nobody to him in school, he won't want mom around! We headed down to Iowa City and the Iowa campus. Stopped by the Old Capital and got a tour, really neat in there! They have a freestanding 3 story staircase! Way freaky to climb up and down! We got to see the bell that was burned when the dome caught fire. Got to see the Senate and House of Reps rooms and learn some history of the place. Although the kids did seem kind of bored.

We also headed to the Hall of Mammals. The kids all did projects on an animal so they had to find their animal in here. His teacher forgot the camera and I had mine, so I took pics of all the kids by their animal.





We saw the Hall of Birds (or some other name) and wow, there are lots of birds! In each place we visited the kids had printed sheets of things to find and search for, so they weren't just wandering and causing trouble.
We also went to a...I can't recall the halls name, but it was about long long long ago! We saw Indians and how they lived, we saw how Iowa was part of the ocean at one time and the super weird fish that lived here. Coralville was named that way because it was a big bead of coral way back when. Lots of artifacts to check out. The kids also got to touch and hold REAL bones from a sloth. If you've seen Ice Age, you know the sloth in there is quite small. In real life it is HUGE! I'm talking elephant size almost! The toe knuckle bone is bigger than my fist! Surprised me there!! The sloth was dressed up for the election still.

Day was pretty nice and we got to eat lunch sitting on the steps of the one hall and then back to more museum looking. The kids seemed generally interested in looking at all the animals and birds and such. And they behaved very well. Salem even wants to go back so Kaden can see and so he can look more in dept at some things. We can do that!!

Oh another cool thing, the teacher gave the kids an "I Spy" sheet to do on the bus ride. She's so smart!! Kept the kids busy looking for semis' cows, road kill, restaurants and such. Very good list!