Matthew's ONSC Camp

July 22-26: Matthew went back to the Ozark Natural Science Center for a 4-night camp as a "Shiner"- he was selected by the counselors/staff from the 5th grade field trip he did back in April and was awarded for his knowledge of the outdoors, responsibility and leadership by getting to come back (for FREE!) this summer! He was SO excited- I don't think he slept much the night before he went! He had a great time... they went caving, hiking, swimming, and learned a lot about nature, science, ecology, and even radio-telemetry! He got to participate in one of the instructors research-grant on box turtles by tracking them with the telemetry equipment. He has talked non-stop about different things he saw and learned. I can truly see him doing something in this field when he is older- after he serves in the military, of course! Here are a few of the pictures he took during the week...

This is Dr. Joanie- one of the field instructors. Matthew said to me, "Mom! She has a degree from college on birds!" (She acutally has several degrees that end in 'ology' as well as a PhD!) For those who don't know, Matthew and I have been doing a lot of bird watching. We have a book that was given to us from Dandy (my grandmother who passed away last December- a very avid bird watcher) and some other books that we bought, and we look up the birds we see in our yard and places we go. At ONSC, he learned how to recognize several birds by their calls. Dr. Joanie came up to me when we picked Matthew up and said that she was so impressed by Matthew and his knowledge of birds and other animals, that he was always asking her questions and was able to answer almost all the questions that she asked them! I was so proud... and I know that Dandy was smiling down on him from Heaven, too!