Swamp Field Trip

Today we had a field trip at the Bluebonnet Swamp. We have had some really bad weather including storms that have caused terrible damage around the area. Due to all of the rain, we had to cancel the picnic and park that was going to take place after the trip. We went to the nature center and the children received an animal presentation on snakes. After the presentation, they were able to look around at all of the live animal displays, color and touch things at the touch and feel stations. They have several trails that you can go on and have all kinds of animals that you may see along the way just living in their nature environment. Unfortunately, we were not able to go down most of the trails due to the fact that they were under water. We did go down one trail for a short distance but the rest of it was under water. It turned out to be a great field trip and the children had a fantastic time. By the way, we saw many live snakes so I thought about you, Kristal, when we were experiencing all of the "snake stuff".

These were some turtles swimming around in a little pond outside of the swamp in the parking lot while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

A shot of our group before going in to the nature center. We were missing 6 other people who had not gotten there yet. We ended up with 10 adults and 40 children which is after 5 other families who were not able to make it.


Our group during the animal presentation.


Talking about snakes!


(By the way, I am not a fan of snakes but you will not be able to tell that by the pictures I took.)

The lady went around to let the children touch the snakes but this is what Emma thought about that one.

Someone touching the snake.

Tate touching one of the snakes.

I couldn't believe it but a few of my boys did not touch the snakes.

Below are some pictures of some of the animals that we were able to see:

Front of this snake.

Some of the rest of this boa. By the way, there are some pictures of the boa grabbing and squeezing his lunch later in this post.

Warning: There are some graphic pictures of the snakes having lunch in this post!

Having lunch.

Going down.

Hanging out with my lunch.

Coloring

Sarah and Ladybug

Cai

Bees

Tate holding a snake skin at the touch and feel stations.

Emma looking at the raccoon statue.

Abram

Luke with Tate, Cai, and Abram

Micah

Emma coloring at the coloring table.

Getting sprayed with water.

After his spraying, posing for the camera.

Playing at the fake snake camping area. There was a tent full of snake stuffed animals.

Here is that boa snatching his lunch.

Wrapping his lunch.

Squeezing his lunch.

I didn't wait to watch him eat it. I'm sure your happy about that right!

Ian putting a puzzle together. Not sure what Cade is looking at.

Cai showing me his paper.

Luke with his picture.

Cameron wanted me to see his picture, too.

Going down the trail.

The kids looking out in the water for snakes.

We saw a lot of snakes swimming around in the little bit of time that we stood there.

Cade, Fireman, Tate, and Ian looking out off of the deck.

This was as far as we could walk on the trail. This bridge or boardwalk had water right beside it and these two snakes decided to love on each other right in the middle of the boardwalk.

This snake came swimming right beside the boardwalk.

Then it decided to climb up on the boardwalk.

That was enough for me because these snakes were not behind a glass.

I saw this skink on our way back up the trail.

Here is a barn owl looking out for something.

Sarah decided to take a nap in the stroller while we went out on the trail. She was tired!

Miriam

Candi, Me and Tracy

We thought we would take this group shot for our 365 friends.

We had a great time and saw a lot of interesting things. Hope it was not too much for you. I had a lot of pictures but I couldn't help putting them on because Tracy put the correct settings on my camera for each situation. Thank you so much Tracy for helping me out with my camera today. The pictures turned out great.

Check out Candi and Tracy's blogs for more pictures from our field trip.