Sun, rain and hail

Today I went on a field trip with Quinn to the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center. The day started out a little rocky to begin with. When we went to get in the van to drive to school, it was completely dead. Madison had been in it the night before to retrieve something and left the dome light on!!! (How many times do I have to repeat myself about stuff like that?!). Soooo Karla was "our saviour" as Quinn put it and rushed over to rush us to school so we wouldn't miss the field trip bus. Part of the day it was absolutely beautiful with sunshine ... and then the rain fell... and then the hail pounded... well, we got to observe nature in a variety of different "climates" today. It is a pretty neat center. Quinn and I both really like nature so it was fun to look at stuff together. Here are some of the things I/we learned.

1. Moss on trees is one of the stages of decomposing.

2. It takes 50-100 years for a tin (steel) can to decompose enough to blend in with the dirt.

3. As far as scientists know, plastic does not ever decompose on it's own...so stop filling up the land fill with your plastic bottles and recycle them!!!

4. The Baltimore Orioles are just now arriving back into Northern Indiana and our guide spotted the first one at Merry Lea and thus put her in the lead in their staff contest of bird-watching (she was quite excited).

5. If you turn a log/branch over to look for cool critters under it, you should always turn it back down so that their habitat doesn't have to start all over, looking for new homes.

6. Hot dogs can still be roasted over an open fire in the middle of a rain shower.

7. Adults don't have to have umbrellas, we will survive if we get wet...although it is now confirmed that the hair style does NOT survive.

8. Hail melts quite quickly when the sun comes out and thus our group got to go on the hay ride after all.

9. TV weather people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Surely they must roll a dice to get their forecast each day.

10. Quinn doesn't mind (yet) holding his mama's hand, strolling through the forest, and giving warm hugs to me in front of his friends. He easily turned down his friend's invitation to sit with them on the bus. He chose me because, "I can sit with them anytime, but it's not very often I get to sit with you on the bus."

11. It really was a good day...except for the rain... and the hail....The best part of the day?... tonight Quinn said, "Thanks so much Mom for taking the day off of work and spending it with me." It made this vacation day so worth it.