Cottonwoods

Along the Animas River are hundreds of cottonwood trees. And every spring, they get all fluffy and then for a month or so they shed the seeds and the area looks as if it is snowing.

Growing up, my family had a single cottonwood tree in our back yard, and my parents (and probably my neighbors) hated the mess it made in the spring. 

We eventually got rid of it. I was sad when the tree was removed, because of all the memories I had playing out in its shade in hot hot hot St. George. 

The kids and I decided to learn about cotton wood trees for our homeschool today. We went out and took pictures of them, collected bark, cotton, seeds and leaves from them, and watched videos on YouTube about them. 

It was so fun! I love learning along with my kids!

The only thing we didn't enjoy about it was that Kent had gotten a bee sting two days before on the bottom of his foot. He was doing some better today and thought he could handle an outing, but the poor guy was absolutely miserable the entire time.

I gave each kid my phone and told them to take a picture of a cottonwood tree and we would print it at home and glue it in their homeschool books. I love how they all chose vastly different angles and views.

Rachel's picture

Kent's picture

Elijah's picture

My picture

I chose this shot because if you look close you can see a big branch broken from the tree. Well, its mostly broken anyway, because if you follow the branch down, you can see that it is still growing an green. I loved that despite all odds, it was still growing and thriving. I felt a lot like that branch. A little broken, but doing my best to keep fighting.