Salute to our Health Care Workers

I hate COVID-19, but I love that because of Coronavirus our health care workers have been seen as the heroes they are. We were able to go celebrate the heroes at Daddy's hospital on May 22nd. 

There was a fly-over salute by WW2 fighter planes and it was awesome! We were able to view it from the top of the parking garage at Baylor Regional Hospital in Plano. 

It was a very special honor and so cool to watch!! 

The COVID-19 virus has certainly kept Byron busy in the hospital lab. At the beginning procedures and regulations were changing almost by the hour. Hard decisions had to be made constantly. There are a lot of opinions gong around about the virus. It is real. It does have a death rate. Positive test results continue. But life continues as well. Be smart, be safe. 

Thank you, health care workers for all you do for us and especially for taking care of us all during this pandemic. 

Last Day of Homeschool 2019-2020!

We completed the weirdest homeschool year yet on May 21st. 

Who would have ever thought that the world would start schooling from home, we would be doing all of our meetings on Zoom, or that we would spend the last six weeks of school quarantined? 

Although quarantine didn't affect us as much as it did our public/private school friends, it still made for an odd end of year. We had no spring concerts to mark the end of choir, no AWANA awards ceremony, no end of school association parties. 

Gabe's class did get together one final time at a local park. 

We put up our end of year art gallery and prepared our end of year presentations. 

Our group project this year was on the dinosaurs.

Faith gave a presentation about germination and plant growth. 

Mig researched sharks. 

Selah wrote a riveting paper on Queen Esther, complete with an entertaining puppet show.

Gabe presented his final paper for his World View class - which he ended up making a grade of 102!!

Principal Daddy presented the certificates of promotion.

And said some sweet words about me as their teacher.

This year was unique because GiGi and PopPop joined us for the first time - virtually!

Though weird, it was an excellent school year. We had a few bumps and bruises along the way, but learned and grew from them. Gabe excelled in his first class outside of home and loved it! 

Masks off to School Year 2020-2021!!

Dinosaur Valley State Park

On Mother's Day weekend we took a day trip to Dinosaur Valley State Park.

The park is just outside of Glen Rose, TX. We first had to go visit the dinosaur models. 

These statues were originally on display at the  1964-65 New York’s World’s Fair. They were donated to the park in 1970. T-Rex stands 45 feet tall! 

The Apatosaurus is 70 feet tall! 

After visiting the statues, we started our hike. 

The park is absolutely lovely and the weather that day was perfect!!

The coolest thing about the park, of course, is the dinosaur tracks! There are both sauropod and theropod tracks along the Paluxy River.

The sauropod tracks come from Sauroposiedon or Paluxysaurus. He was a giant plant eating dinosaur. 

The kids were thrilled when we told them they could wade in the river to search for more tracks. 

They call this area the ballroom because the tracks look like the dinosaurs are dancing.

Most of the tracks in the ballroom belong to the theropod, Acrocanthosaurus. They were carnivores and very similar in size to T-Rex. 

This is how the kids looked in real life as they were splashing in the river. 

This is how they looked in my imagination:

I was reminded of how awesome God is the entire hike. From the dinosaurs, to the dragonfly and caterpillar, God made it all! 

After playing in the river, we took a long, beautiful hike. 

They even found and explored a cave.

Finally it was time to cross back over the river. That proved easier said than done. The river bed was extremely slippery! 

Before leaving the park, Gabe and I stopped to find a geocache! 

Acrocanthosaurus tracks:

Sauroposeidon tracks:

It was such a fun day!! Memories were made, for sure!