Thanks to everyone who helped us get to the airport today - and by that I especially mean parents and entities and everyone who helped plan and fundraise to make this trip possible!

The flight in went smoothly and although the kids were excited, they were well behaved.
After picking up Ashley and her mom, we hit McDonalds for some dinner and then split forces.
Some of us went back to the hotel and hit the pool, the other half hit the store and got swim suits - racing to get back before the pool closed, but alas...
That half of us will have to wait til tomorrow to get wet.

Tomorrow we head to the Imaginarium Science Center, the Russian Orthodox Church Museum, and then H2Oasis!

Enjoy the photos - the kids were excited to see Mt. Redoubt smoking after hearing so much about it since we recently studied about volcanoes and even investigated some of the ash in class!

Mrs. Kushin and the fifth graders may 4th

We started off today with a quick trip to the Alaska Vital Statistics Office, and now we are ALL set!

It's hard to believe, but we were early for our next appointment - the Imaginarium. It was some great hands on learning about science! Learning about how airplanes work, making bubbles big enough to stand in, rocket launching experiments, and then a trip to the Planetarium to talk about the planets and see some constellations shining over our heads right in the middle of the day. The kids got to show off their knowledge of what we'd studied back in Feb/March - I was impressed that they knew so much!

Then we walked a few blocks to the Russian Orthodox Museum downtown. We arrived at the museum, and it was beautiful, the kids were able to purchase some icons and crosses too. I was saddend to learn that they may be closing the museum due to funding.

The kids learned what a small town even Anchorage can be when Believe it or not, the kids recognized Ms. Sharon's son Germaine coming out of the mall we were passing. Then on the walk back we ran into Monica - Leann was excited.

After that we rushed to the H2Oasis only to find out that in the last week since we confirmed our reservation, someone had scribbled us out! So we rescheduled that for the Saturday we return and hit the hotel pool and had a blast anyway.

After a great energy burning time, some of us went shopping for necessities, some went with Anchorage family members, and some went bowling. On the way home to the hotel, we stopped at the Northwood school playground and jealously played on the playground equipment, played some basketball against Tone and Martin, and had a "swinging" good time. I got to use my first cell phone to take pictures since naturally Ms. Grego and I'd forgotten our cameras - so we used Martin's cell. Those pics tomorrow.

We calmed down over some journal writing, then went to hit the sack.

Now after multiple "get to beds", I type this to the sweet sound of sleeping kids. Actually, I think a few of them were asleep before they fully got their heads on the pillow :)

'till tomorrow,
Mrs. Kushin, Ms. Grego, and the kids