Home School Field Trip in Pictures

We began with a stop at our LDS temple in San Antonio so we could pick up Nathan, who had spent the morning serving with the youth inside. It was so nice to let the children explore the temple grounds for a bit and enjoy the beautiful flowers and fountains, especially after being cooped up in the car.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the San Antonio Missions National Park. We visited the San Jose mission, which was built in 1690. I love visiting National Parks. They are such fantastic teaching tools for our children! The Junior Ranger Programs are so educational, but they are also fun. My children love getting the booklet and completing all of the activities. They have so much more fun at parks that offer Junior Ranger programs because the activities require the children to be more observant and think about what they are seeing. I love it! Last summer we had planned our summer vacation around visiting several national Parks in the Southwest, and it was so memorable for our kids. At the Grand Canyon they were asked so sit at the edge of the canyon and write down what they could hear, smell, and see. At Carlsbad Caverns they drew pictures of their favorite stalactite formations. It's so much fun.

On the way home we stopped in South Austin at the Big Top Candy Shop. It's a fun vintage-style candy shop with all sorts of old-fashioned sweets mingled with new trendy treats. It's very fun, and worth the trip. The strangest item we found was candied scorpions and cheese-fried larvae. The bugs are real. Hmmm. We settled on letting everyone select their favorite things from the bulk bins of 'normal' candy- gumballs, chocolates, taffy, etc. All in all, it was a long, but memorable day.