We took two trips with The Bear's class in April. During the first we traveled to Manatee Park, and took a war canoe ride. It's a 16 person canoe that the native Americans apparently used to ride the rivers. I was tasked to steer our canoe, and boy was that fun! One side of the boat refused to row, at least when they weren't trying to stop the canoe all together. Another Mom was repeatedly arguing with me about how to steer the canoe, and how we were falling behind the other group. Boy was that entertaining! Even the Bear was turning around to me and making faces - it was hilarious. We got back to shore and all the kids in the other boat asked me if I had fallen in the water. They confused my shirt was soaked from the river and not from sweat from rowing. No doubt the toughest field trip I've taken. But it actually was a lot of fun, and I wouldn't miss going with them for anything.
A couple weeks later we took another trip to see the movie Chimpanzee. We arrived at the theater an hour early, and we all sat in the theater just chatting. After a little while, one of the teachers split up my group and another group to save space for the "general public". The Bear and I thought that was kind of funny, because it was 10am on a Wednesday, not a lot of people go to the movies then. The movie started, of course no other people showed up, and we settled in. It was a fantastic movie about a young chimp trying to find his way in his family. Of course I thought about my kids, and Bear in particular, who always seems to have the hardest time doing just that. A line in the movie says "Independence happens one step at a time", and when I thought about it, I thought Bear tries to get there with big leaps.
This is the last year they really go on field trips, so I'm glad I've been able to attend so many with her over the years. She is gaining her independence, and it's been a joy to be there watching Bear as she has taken those steps.
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