The little sister had her first field trip today with her new school. The big sister came along since she's not in school right now. The class was one of three invited to the grand opening of the new water feature at the Phoenix zoo. Since temps are still in the 100's here it was definitely time to add some splash to this place. The resident macaw at the zoo did the ribbon cutting and then the water pumps were fired up and swoosh! the kids were off. The one slide was crazy fast and the kids were all flying out it. onto a skid proof, padded surface. Us parents with our cameras were having as much fun as the kids capturing the hilarity.
That was the first half an hour. The zoo people were all feeling good watching the kids having fun and it seemed as though it were all a success.
Then the regulators showed up. The second class from another school with all of its teachers. Need I say more. They felt it necessary to monitor the slide, started yelling at all the kids, "ONE AT A TIME!" They told the zoo people that the slide was too fast and needed to be fixed because it was way too DANGEROUS. Next thing you know the guys have lost their smiles, the water was shut off and they 'took charge.'
The funny thing was that turning off the water barely slowed down the slide, so the teachers lovingly 'caught' all the kids coming down. yup, felt it necessary to catch 6 yr old boys coming down a slide onto a padded surface! sigh. and kept up their yelling. for safety's sake.
Still a good fun day was had. We'll definitely be back.