Dolphins and Lumberjanes

Fourth graders in these here parts read Island of the Blue Dolphins and to help make the story come alive, Brooke's class had a "Dolphin Days" field trip where they got to travel all the way to the lawn at the front of the school.

They learned how to build a canoe, use yucca leaves to make string and thread, create fire, taste a certain seed that provides protein and energy, and a myriad of other tasks that they can certainly use next time they are stranded on a desert island like Tom Hanks in "Castaway".

It was downright frigid outside this morning and Ashlyn and I were a couple of chilly chicks chaperoning this field trip. Afterwards, we stopped at 7-11 and found out that they serve hot chocolate - we learned something new! It's serve-yourself-from-a-machine and there was a plethora of things to add to it just like you'd find at Starbucks, but for about a third of the price! We had fun adding carmel shots, irish creamer, cinnamon, chocolate, etc. and let me tell you that was about the best cup o'cocoa I ever did have - and it was HUGE for only $1.79.

Oh yeah, we found our splurge. It was seriously better than my new fave Salted Carmel at the 'bucks.

And I thought 7-11 was only good for Slurpees on the way home from school on a very hot day.

Once we were sufficiently warmed up, we took Cole for a walk to our fields. He's really into digging right now (presumably for gophers) so we just stand there and watch until he's had his fill. I figure it's good for him to get his digging out of his system there rather than in our backyard.

She's wearing the new super cute pants that Auntie Dre gave her for Christmas so she was posing for the picture I texted to Dre.

My good friend Becky needed to dispose of her monstrous tree and asked if she could borrow a saw again like she did last year.

Instead I brought over a Sawzall and we cut that beast to pieces!

It was fun playing lumberjanes for the afternoon.

Then we enjoyed grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch with the kiddies.

Good times!