Student Teaching

Just a short post to update those curious about my Student Teaching experience. I just completed my 3rd week in the classroom and I am enjoying getting familiar with my new surroundings. Forest North is a smaller elementary school than I where I worked before so I'm having an easier time learning the campus and the faculty/staff which is nice for me. On Friday my professor visited the classroom to observe. I'm pleased to report that she was very positive and even passed along a compliment from my administrator which apparently is high praise from her.

Next week I will co-teach the Reading lessons and the week after that I'll be solely in charge of the Reading lessons. Each week I'll co-teach and then take over a new subject until I am teaching all of the lessons. My cooperating teacher will still be in the classroom for those lessons, however, there will come a time near the middle/end of my student teaching experience when I am totally solo in the classroom.

I'm a little nervous about writing lesson plans and then actually using them. I've written lesson plans for my coursework but I never used them so this is new for me.

Y-Camp Nature Hike

Dan, Caroline and I signed up for the Emerald Mountain hike but 20 minutes away from the camp my boots fell apart! Literally the treads fell off the bottom because of dry rot. I purchased the boots years ago from REI but I guess I made a bad choice by storing them in the garage with my camping gear. I'll remember that when I eventually replace them. Caroline was able to continue the hike but Dan and I went back down to camp with my treads flopping out in front of my boots.

So, we signed up for a nature hike for the following day. I wore my tennis shoes and was just fine. The name of the group was "Nature Walk" and for the most part it was, indeed, a nice stroll through the woods, however the terrain proved to be challenging toward the end. It really was more of a HIKE than a WALK.

Dan & Caroline toward the end of the hike.

Earlier in the day we crossed a bridge and watched the stream flow beneath us. I liked the remnants of a previous bridge that remain.

Time for my botanical shots. You know how I love taking photos of flower blooms.

The light green banana pepper looking appendages at the top of this pine tree are immature pine cones. I don't know that I've ever seen immature pine cones before so I just had to snap.

Play Day

Eli and John sped around the race track on our play day. Alex was too young for the go-karts and was a little sad by it as you can tell from the next photo. Or maybe he just wanted my camera.


Never fear, he found something fun to do!

Later that day we went to a playground area with a pond. The cousins had a great time running. In the distance of the photo you can see a backhoe...which explains the excited, running boys!
Will was back at the cabin with Steve. He wasn't feeling well.


I LOVE this photo of Eli running back from the fence. It reminds me of the Friends episode where Phoebe runs crazy and Rachel is embarrassed by it but realizes how fun it is to run crazy.

Happy Anniversary!

For our one year anniversary we stayed the night at Black Canyon Inn. This is the view from our front porch! The room was beautiful, the view was beautiful and our evening was beautiful. On the property of the Black Canyon Inn there is a restaurant called the Twin Owl. Some history about the Twin Owl...they used to have beautiful pink napkins ;)

We balanced our camera on rocks to get this shot. I think it looks very 'Stepford Wife' but a photo nonetheless.

Dan's anniversary present to me was the necklace & earring set made of Boulder Opal. Don't be confused by the name as the opal does not originate in Boulder, Co!

For Dan I made a photo book of our first year together. I really enjoyed putting it together. I had it delivered to the Y Camp in Estes Park and picking up my package proved to be more difficult than I anticipated.

Another view from the room. We ate our wedding cake topper with fresh fruit piled on top. It was actually really good for one year old cake!

Driving to Colorado

July's excitement centered around our second-annual trip to Colorado. We loaded up the dogs, packed the camp gear in the trailer, and hit the road!

You can see in this photo just how excited my boys were about traveling. Dora (Dora, Dora the Explorer) is obscuring our new trailer. Right now the trailer is an open utility trailer but we intend to build an enclosure for our camp gear so we can secure items when we are hiking or otherwise away from the site. We got the trailer because we simply don't have the room to take our camp gear, the dogs, and luggage on a long trip...so we now have a trailer to haul it all!

Last year we stopped at the Capulin Volcano on a whim. This year we whipped past the extinct volcano but snapped a photo and remembered.

Drink time! In case you can't discern from the photo...we had stopped for a break and filled a bowl for the boys and they were simultaneously drinking. They were practicing for a little known Olympic event - synchronized slurping...

On our way to Denver we stopped and spent the night in Colorado Springs, Co so we could visit Garden of the Gods. We took the boys for some hiking and while they enjoyed the extended time out of the car, the visit to the Garden was definitely for us people! I visited G. of the Gods as a child and loved it then too! The name says it all.

This photo is of the same mountain! Can you spot the same climbers in the left photo? We saw the climbers and got pretty excited when we zoomed in on them climbing. Pretty good zoom for a point and shoot camera!

A nice couple offered to take our photo. I'm always a little leery of asking people to take our photo. I'm always a little afraid they'll run with the camera. At least it wouldn't have the same twist as European Vacation if the camera did get stolen...! Ah, that Chevy Chase...funny guy.

I took this photo for Dan. He saw an eagle living in the rocks.