Today was one of those days in which I find it nearly impossible to choose just one photo. But, that's part of the point in this blog for me. I can only have one. I have to make a choice. So, this is it.
It was a good day. In fact, a great day. It started out cold and foggy, but the afternoon was filled with this glorious sunshine that spoke comfort to my soul. Dominic was grouchy and dragging his feet about going on our planned geology field trip in the afternoon. I even decided to add a little stop on the way at our favorite Corvallis candy store, Burst's Candies. Even that didn't soothe him...until we got there. The boys each got one dollar to spend...which ended up to be way more candy than I had anticipated. Then, on our drive, Dominic started complaining again about how he wanted to go home. I took away his candy and tried to keep my cheery attitude.
After the sugar stop, we headed out to Coffin Butte near Adair Village. We had some learning and investigating to do there. And what a day to do it! Most people think of the landfill when they think about Coffin Butte, but if you're a geologist (or if you know one who guides you in the right direction), you know about a rock face that's just to the north of the landfill. Here, you can see layers of pillow basalt and turbidites (a sandstone/mudstone mixture), and you can (if you have a geologist who has guided you and told you a bit of the story), tell your kids about how this rock came from the sea floor. Say what? Yes...that's right.
I'll go back. I run usually twice a week with a man named Roy Haggerty. He's a great guy (and very, very smart) and offered to guide me and the boys through some more in-depth studies about rocks. His specialty is water, but he knows a little bit about rocks and minerals. Okay, compared to me, he's a walking encyclopedia of science. But I digress. He told me the story of this particular rock face, pointed out some things to look for, and helped me help my boys understand a bit more about it.
We spent almost three hours there. Three hours of rocks, dirt, grass, bark, mud, wildlife and sunshine. Aidan deemed it our "new spot" and is planning our next family outing there. They climbed up the rocks, threw them, pounded them into powder, scraped them, created landslides, slid down them, got a few bruises, licked them (Simeon), and overall we just had a rockin' time. Oh yes, I did.
It was a success and the hesitant Dominic who never wants to admit defeat said, "Thank you for bringing us here. I didn't think it was going to be fun, but it WAS fun!" We ended the time with a little game of shadow tag.
But it gets better! After the said field/rock face trip, we got to meet Dr. Haggerty on the OSU campus and he led us through the Geology building, let the boys in the lab, showed them lots of cool rocks and minerals, gave them very, very old rock salt (more things to lick) and taught them about the movement of the earth's plates, mountains, earthquakes, Oregon history, the ice age, volcanoes....we touched on a lot. The Yoders joined us, which was very fun.
Cheers to getting out and learning!
