Northwest Vacation Day 2

Let the field trips begin!  I’m really having to focus on being a flexible homeschooler.  I hadn’t planned too much anyways, but no actual “bookwork” has gotten done. 

My dad substitutes at YV Tech (a local vocational high school) and wanted to take us along for their special “Passing of the Key” ceremony for their new facilities.  The kids weren’t overly thrilled about sitting through several speeches, but I think the fruit kabobs, crackers, and ice cream sundaes made up for that part. J

After the formalities were over we got to walk around to all the classrooms/departments as the students gave tours and answered questions. 

Talking to the culinary students

Fire department!

Firefighter knots

Walking the campus with Grandpa Lester

Grandpa Lester's territory - the automotive department

The nursing classroom.  Katie was excited to go in,
but wouldn't let me take a picture of her with the
skeleton unless I took the pink tutu off and she
could wear it!

First year robotics students

The Frisbee thrower

 The highlight came at the very end as we were walking out, when a couple of the fire department students asked the kids if they wanted to sit in the emergency vehicles.

She looks a little too thrilled to be in the
backseat of a trooper car :)

Our second lesson in flexibility was a bigger disappointment to the kiddos.  We planned to go to John Day Dam on our way down to central Oregon to visit the great-grandparents.  Unfortunately we couldn't get very close to it and were on the wrong side of the river to get to the Visitor Center.  My dad did see a barge ready to enter the locks, so he quickly raced the car back up the ridge so that we could at least see it entering and exiting.  You can tell from the picture we weren't very close at all, but we could see it a bit.  The kids played in the dirt while we waited for the water to rise in the lock and then got to watch as the barge exited on the higher side.  Hopefully we'll have more luck in a few weeks when we visit Bonneville Dam.

The barge and locks are on the bottom left part of the river.