Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Utah Weekend Fun

Memorial Day Weekend - practically perfect in every way :)

Friday: Last day of work for teachers! Lucky me to get out two hours earlier than expected; it facilitated an early start to the road trip. We made it from Mesa to Orem in nine hours and enjoyed hanging out with my sister Rachael and her husband Dan that evening.

Steve and me

Saturday: Rach is the best hostess EVER! We had mints on our pillows the first night. Saturday morning she made sourdough pancakes with chokecherry syrup - yum :) (If you haven't had the pleasure, you're really missing out!) Then we spent the day hiking to a place called Silver Lake. It was overcast and cool all weekend - and there were snow-covered mountains for us to hike across...and slide down. Check out Rach's blog for the video. So much fun!!


That night our good friend Sarah was able to join us for dinner and custard.

Miner's Delight - that's a lotta beans! Where's the beef??

Sunday: Church. Naptime. Homemade nachos for dinner. Sunday walk that ended in the rain. I loved every minute of it! Afterwards we had Orange Julius in coconut-shelled cups.


Monday: Coffee cake breakfast. Rach and Dan should open a bed and breakfast :) Parting is such sweet sorrow - it's always hard to end a vacation! Steve and I drove through Provo, visited Y-mountain, drove by where we used to live, visited campus, and relived our "glory days" of BYU :) It was a leisurely drive back. I love a good road trip where you can take your time a bit on the way home. We visited a friend in Flagstaff before finally heading home for good.

Cheers to weekend road trips out of town!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Nebraska Trip

Happy graduation to my baby brother Jake! He graduated from Auburn High School on Sunday. It gave me an excuse to visit home :)

The graduate

The parents - aren't they cute??

The fam - minus Dan (next time Dan!)

My sisters and me - Rach, me, Joni


And a quick recap of the weekend...

Saturday: Jake's graduation open house. Food, friends, and family. LOTS of family. Playing with nieces and nephew. Saturday night, my nieces Maggie and Nora were in a dance recital.

Maggie as Tinkerbell

Nora as a princess (she had a wand and her part required her to say Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo).

Me and the girls - favorite...nieces...ever!

Me and the boy - my nephew Buddy/Henry

Sunday: Church. Graduation. Trip to Iowa for a cousin's graduation open house. More family, food, and fun!

Waiting for graduation to start

Jake - graduated - doesn't he look thrilled

Monday: Shopping. Travel. Back to reality.
My reality is pretty darn terrific! I came back to people who missed me here. And my last week of work until the first of June! Don't be jealous :)

Monday, May 11, 2009

Seven Days

As I have only seven teaching days left with this group of students, I can look back and smile :) It's been a tough year. Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks:

Academic Night - it's a big event for any student who has made honor roll or principal's honor roll for the first three quarters. Let's just say, we didn't have a motivated bunch of 6th graders this year unfortunately. Only four or five students from each class qualified.

Me with my four who qualified

A few of my math students...

Each year we choose a boy and a girl to receive the big award. How lucky to have both from my homeroom class :) They are two phenomenal kids! I'd keep them next year too if I could.


Candid shots:

No, I don't typically sit and text during work...a student of mine was thrilled to be messing around with my camera and get this shot during lunch.

He begged to have a picture taken with me...

Stay tuned for more pictures from the last week and day of school! The countdown is on...

Friday, May 8, 2009

Sound of Music

A friend was telling me about this video. I...loved...it! Oh how I wish things like this happened in real life :) I've often wished life was a musical - imagine how much happier people would be! Now if only there was a video teaching the dance they do...Enjoy!