Brandon and the Rockies trip

So in my last blog I said that Brandon wasn't going to get to go on the special trip to the Rockies baseball game. Well the teachers decided to make an exception for him because it wasn't lack of trying on his part. So he got to go after all. It was an interesting trip. Here is how it was supposed to go: They leave the school at 8:15 for the two hour ride to Denver. They eat lunch at 10:30 at a park and then head to Coors field around 11:30 to find their seats and watch batting practice. The game started at 1:00 and they were planning on leaving around 4:00 so they could get back to the school around 6:30. The first part went as planned. The batting practice was a washout because Brandon said that they hardly did anything except toss a few balls around and completely ignored the fans. They were in the nosebleed section so they couldn't even see what was going on except on the screen. Their biggest thrill was there was a swarm of bees in the stadium that some guy sucked up with a vacuum. They played it on the big screen and all the kids thought it was great. It even made the news.  Brandon forgot his money on the bus so luckily a few of his friends' parents that were there bought him some food and he will pay them back on Monday. I guess that is better than him losing the money. I can't believe how expensive the concession stands are. For $16 he got a drink, popcorn, an air head candy and sunflower seeds. They left during the seventh inning so they could get home by 6:30 or so. It didn't bother the kids to leave early because by that time they were probably getting pretty bored and tired. The bus Brandon was on blew a tire on the way home right outside Fountain, which is about 30 minutes from Pueblo. The other bus had to drive all the way back, drop off the kids, and go back up to get the rest of them. We were at the store and Scott was waiting at the school for Brandon and we picked up food for dinner and figured it would work out about right that everyone would get home at the same time.  Scott called and said they just told him about the tire and were hoping to get another bus going up to save time so we brought Scott's food to the school and took BJ home because he went with Scott.  On the way home Scott called and said they just told him that the other bus, who just got to the school, was going to have to go back for the rest of the kids so it was going to be another 45 to 60 minutes. He came home to eat and then went back. Brandon finally got home about 8:45. I think the bus incident was more exciting to the kids than the game. Two state patrol cars stayed with the bus because they were on the interstate. When the kids transferred buses one of the state patrolman used a snake stick to make sure there were no snakes in the grass when they walked through. Oh, he said to say that he got a big foam finger and purple sprayed hair and a t-shirt so he's happy. All in all I am not sure it was worth all the hassle for them just for making a reading goal but they got a good adventure out of the deal anyway. Next year maybe they will stick to something closer to home and not so long of a trip for a bunch of elementary students. Now he is bugging us about getting a cell phone so he can call if something like this happens again. This coming from the boy who forgets his wallet on the bus. I told him if he shows more responsibility we will consider one for Christmas. A nice cheap prepaid phone that won't be a big deal if he loses it. Now we only have to get through two more field trips, graduation, field day and the last day of school. All next week.