June amazingly missed the 7th grade one entirely. I smiled to myself and thought maybe we could get through without doing one. Then when Robyn hit 7th, she got one. She was very diligent, caught all her bugs and I didn't have to hound her at all. But it was a fairly easy project with minimal requirements beyond the 10 basic bugs. Good job Robyn.
Then June got to 9th. She is taking Biology which is an amazing class, but first up on the list was a large bug collection with 30 bugs and requirements to get certain bugs in certain families. (Meaning their scientific classification, not bugs that were brothers and sisters.) June knew this assignment was coming all summer, but really didn't do much. Her only collecting was in Texas when I saw a huge millipede and made her catch it. (Which doesn't even count as an insect by the way.)
So with school started she decided to crack down. Robyn was very interested in helping. If she helped collect the bugs, she could also turn the project in and get her points now. (That is crazy cool that Mr. Glassford allows that!) So bright and early on Labor Day, we went down to the Provo River to collect some bugs.
We saw two teachers there. (Mrs. Frost and Mrs. Brooks) And we found some bugs. We even collected some spiders. (Yes, they are also NOT insects, but you can catch five NON-insects for extra credit.) The girls were a good team, with occasional squeals. We got a dragonfly and some other bugs I couldn't classify. It was actually a very fun morning.
One thing about the river trail is that there are a lot of bugs. And where they are lots of bugs, there are lots of spiders. So many spiders!! We caught a couple by the water, but we tried to avoid most of them. Like this huge orb weaver in his web. Look closely. My camera only wanted to focus on the background, but you can see him sitting in the middle.
After our morning foray, we had plans with the Hulse's. It was really the last day to play and their family wanted to go swimming, so we came along too. We all met up at the Provo Rec Center.
I thought the outside slides would still be going, but they weren't. So we contented ourselves with the inside equipment. The kids tried out the climbing wall. See if you can identify people. Remember, Henry and Jane were with us too.
Ivory is still fearless about jumping off the diving boards, or in this case the diving ledge. It is not my favorite, but look at her go.
Hulse's wanted to play games with us later, but we confessed that we had to catch more bugs. (June had checked out a net and she only got it for the weekend.) Jonny had the great idea that if they helped us collect, we would be faster and therefore have more time for games. It seemed like a good idea. So we all packed in our cars and headed into the canyon to South Fork Canyon Park to do some hunting. It was actually an amazing spot. We got tons of bugs. And plenty of unique ones.
We caught this butterfly right away. (Spoiler: We did not know how to preserve it well and Tyler finally put it in the freezer, but its wings stuck when we tried to get it out and it lost most of a wing. So senseless killing of butterflies. I'm sorry.) It was really beautiful.
We caught some cool caterpillars. One was quite fuzzy and yellow. You put them in alcohol to kill them quickly. Although some creepy spiders still don't die very fast in the liquid.
The Hulse's were amazing bug hunters. We spread out and found lots of stuff quickly. Jonny and Henry even helped get some water skaters. Ivory tried to help and ended up taking a dunking in the river. She was really not happy about that, but Beth had some extra clothes she could wear. Seriously, Hulse's....you guys are the best!
Naturally, we went home and celebrated by playing games.
K. Stay with me, I'm going to jump topics, but I promise it will all relate in the end. Next year for Girls' Camp, we are going to Heber. It is a very nice facility. I have not been there before, but they had a preview day where you can go and learn about it and tour the area. Several of us carpooled up there to check it out. It was really cool because we went up to check out one of the ropes courses and there were people running it. They asked if we wanted to try it out. Um...yes!
There were three parts to it. First, the rope ladder. It was a little unstable, you had to watch your footing carefully.
The trickiest transition is to the suspended bridge. (Hahaha, I've been watching too much Beastmaster. I feel like I am commentating.) Once on the bridge, try not to look down too much. Focus on each step and keep moving.
Once you reach the platform, there is a kind lady who will hook you up to a zipline and then it is all thrills and smiles as you go flying down the zipline. Super cool.
I stupidly wore flip flops to this activity, so Jolene loaned me her shoes and socks so I could try it out. That is true love right there to let someone borrow your shoes and socks. I left my camera down below and asked the ladies to take pictures, but I must have been amazing to watch because no one remembered to pick up my camera to take a picture.
It was an awesome facility. I loved the Yurts. They are like circular cabins. They had bunk beds which give a little privacy. They are behind the walls here.
And there is a cool skylight at the top. I really like the yurts. Camping in style.
Amy was on a roll. She was finding wildlife all over the place. She pointed out lots of deer.
We were at another campsite when Amy looked down and spied a strawberry? She stood back to get a better look. Turns out it was a Shamrock Orb Weaver. (And trust me, we had to look that up.) It looked much like this.
It had a bright redish orange body and cool black and white striped legs. I knew that I wanted to catch it for June's bug collection. (Aha, see we have come full circle.) But I was so afraid. Sorry, spiders are not really my thing. I took a little bag out of my purse and Jolene amazingly trapped it inside. I then proceeded to hold it by a corner all the way home.
The best part was that I handed the bag to June and told her she needed to get the spider out. She got out a jar of alcohol and was going to tip it in there, but I suggested she put it in a bowl first. That way the spider legs wouldn't get caught on the lip of the jar. When she unzipped the bag and shook out the spider she was shocked at how big it was. "Mom, you didn't tell me it was huge!"
I'm sorry I didn't get a picture because the alcohol washed out his colors. That actually is a common problem when you leave bugs in alcohol. For a while, we had jars and jars of alcohol floating bugs and the freezer was full of more strange creatures. I was very happy for June to put her collection together. This isn't the finished product, but this is close. (She ended up using Robyn's dragonfly because it was a great looking one. Oh, and Robyn got all the points for this project plus extra credit for turning it in a year early!)
Here is a close up on our non-insect friends. The millipede was really cool. Not to mention the Shamrock spider.
Also, a great catch was this leaf bug. We found him right outside on our window. He looked just like a leaf. June's teacher helped her spread him out.
Although this project was not as bad as I originally thought, I'm glad it is over. And I'm slowly getting to the point where my first thought when I see a bug, isn't...'Must catch it.'
