In March, I had the opportunity to go with Ricky and the other fifth graders to the Environmental Center. This is a lodge in the mountains where the school district sponsors field trips. The students learn all sorts of science topics and do adventures. Some years the winter field trips include cross-country skiing. There wasn’t enough snow for that this year, but there was enough to snow shoe.
The students were told to wear lots of layers and snow pant, hats, gloves, etc. Ricky wanted to obey, but I was hesitant. It was supposed to be 60 plus degrees there that day – I didn’t think we needed so many layers. I was right. Ricky’s hat was quickly ditched. This is Ricky’s friend Hyrum. He’s just a little bit taller than Ricky!
In addition to snow shoeing, the students got to practice archery and learned about inherited traits. Ricky was very pleased that he can roll his tongue like I can and was surprised to find out he has dimples – he didn’t think he had any!
The archery was fun to watch and Ricky had a good time with it. We might need to practice a bit more, though.
The snow shoeing was the best part. We did a pretty decent hike that climbed to this avalanche flow. I was towards the back of the pack because I had to help students get their snow shoes on and Ricky stayed close to me. But we kept going. He kept going. As we got towards the top, I had to strip off another layer due to some heat exhaustion that I was careless about and rest a bit, but I could see the top (see above picture). I realized Ricky was no longer with me and asked one of his friends if they had seen him. The friend said, “Ricky said he was going to the top.” One of those little people in my picture is Ricky. He kept going. He made it to the end point, somewhere on that avalanche flow. Out of the 50 or so kids who were in our group, only 13 made it to the top. Ricky was one of those. He didn’t complain. He didn’t brag. He just kept going. It was awesome to witness.
My boy who doesn’t like team sports and doesn’t think he is “popular” because he doesn’t play sports was one of just 25% of the kids who pressed on to the end. I think that is pretty, darn cool.
This momma was proud!
It was such a fun day and I had such a wonderful time with my Ricky! Love you, bud!