8th Class Trip to Guam: Friday--Horse Whispering

Friday, March 20, at the Rock and Rail ranch on Northern Guam where the kids went horseback riding. From left to right, Charlene (our knowledgable horse whisperer and the owner of Rock and Rail), 8th grade class president "Jennifer", "Tiara", "Takako" (on the horse), one of ranch hands, me, "Kareem Abdul", "Little Steven" (who you may note is not actually little at all), Nicole French, the 8th grade class sponsor (on the horse), and "Jong Won". Other class sponsorJaimie Nickell is not pictured because she took the photo. She also took all of the photos shown here and in all the blogs about our trip to Guam. Thanks for the pics James!

This year our 8th grade class went to Guam for their class trip. We left Saipan Thursday night, March 19 and returned early Wednesday morning, March 25, 2009. The kids were initially disappointed that we weren't going somewhere more glamorous (we'd originally been aiming for Japan) but the price tag for the airfare was just too steep for their parents in these hard times, and Guam turned out to be the most affordable destination.

And in the end, the kids had a really great time and we did too. Turns out most of the students had never been to Guam before, and only one had been there recently enough for it to "count." I think the kids had as much fun as they would have going anywhere else, and the only thing that suffered was the bragging rights that they might have had in going to a more "exotic" location.

This year, for the first time on a class trip, I was not the primary sponsor. That job belonged to the 8th grader's homeroom teacher. I went along as the boys chaperone and "secondary" sponsor. Jaimie Nickell, one of our preschool teachers, came as another secondary sponsor as well. The three of us worked well together and the trip went without a hitch. It actually was a fairly easy trip--we didn't have to deal with a different language and exchanging money and the other challenges that normally attend an 8th grade class trip.

In the upcoming blogs, I'll share a few glimpses of our Guam trip.


The three 8th grade girls on the trip: From L to R, "Tiara", "Jennifer", and "Takako"



"Takako" on horseback.

"Little Steven" strikes a heroic pose astride his noble steed.

Nicole is an experienced rider and she was in horse heaven at Rock and Rail. At the end of our time they let her take one of the horses over a few jumps. It was pretty impressive!


I chose not to ride, to save the class a few bucks, but they did let me clean the horses' hooves, free of charge.

Sunset on Guam, Friday night. We stopped at seaside park for a quick sundown worship Friday night, after an afternoon of shopping at the mall and Coldstone ice cream.