Noah's Class Trip

Noah's school group put together a family Saturday activity.  The entire family was invited, but Lexi had a birthday party that day, so Chad stayed with her.  So, it was just Myra, Noah and I.  The bused us to a nearby city, where we boarded this little barge boat.  The boat trip took us through some of the canals and lakes in the area, before dropping us off to have lunch.  It was wet and rainy, but quite scenic.  Mostly the kids just thought it was so fun being on the boat. 

We ate lunch in the rain and then started walking along a country lane to another area where there was a nice beach and playground.  It was a very pretty area. 

But, along the way, our group was attacked by a swarm of bees.  The kids were just walking along in a group chatting and the adults were a little way off.  When we started hearing the kids screaming.  We ran back to them, only to find ourselves surrounded with a swam of wasps.  Noah's teacher said this particular wasp builds their nests in the ground and are very aggressive.  And indeed, the wasps continued to chase us down the road for quite some time.  It was pandemonium.  Kids screaming and crying and running around.  Amazingly, only 3 of the kids were stung.  I thought for sure it would be way worse, there were wasps everywhere.  As I was trying to get Myra out of the middle of it, I was swatting wasps away and I still can't believe I didn't get stung.  But, poor Myra was stung 5 times!  Twice on the head, twice on the back and once on the leg.  It was obvious they were so painful, she was crying and just wanted to go home.  The bad thing was that when the wasps attacked, Myra was holding a little burr she had found and when the wasp got her in the back of the head, her immediate reaction was to reach back with her hand, so them she had the burr all tangled in her hair.  I was trying to get it out to look at the stings, when I found a wasp still tangled up in her hair.  This was probably 5 minutes after the initial attack.  It was very traumatic.  We got the kids cleaned up best we could and then headed back to the bus.  Unfortunately, one of the girls was stung in the mouth and started having difficulties breathing.  We didn't really think she was having an allergic reaction, but that due to the location and how worked up she was, it was making it hard for her.  But, it was decided to call an ambulance, just to be sure.  They took her to the hospital and I heard later she was just fine, not an allergic reaction, but just the swelling from the actual sting.

I took this picture just moments before the wasp attack.  The hive was off to the right of the path, near that tree.

The ambulance pulling away and a very sad looking Myra.

 

All the excitement wore Noah out.

Anyway, it was quite the dramatic outing. It was fun to begin with, but a real bummer by the end.  Myra was a bit sore for the rest of the day, but just fine after that.  She was a real brave girl.