Maiden Voyage

Woo Hoo! Dan built up a bicycle for me. We picked my beautiful, new, glossy black and red bicycle on Thursday. Mom and I had driven downtown to go to lunch with Dan and after a lovely "le pot pie" from La Madelines we stopped past the bike shop and picked up my new toy! I got a red, black and white helmet to keep my noggen protected. Dan helped me pick it out since I know little or nothing about cycling or the gear involved. The helmet itself has bug netting to keep flying insects out of my hair! Clever...

It's a "starter bike" just in case I don't get the "itch". When we were in AustinBikes the guy kept showing me a beautiful bike for only $2300. I just giggled.

Friday I rode a bike for the first time in over 20 years... I was, of course, nervous about balance, etc. We started out in our cul-de-sac and Dan gave me directions on starting with me push-off foot up. It took two stops (stop signs within the neighborhood) for me to catch on to pedaling for a bit before flipping over the second pedal cage and slipping my foot in. After that my starts and stops were much smoother. I didn't know what to do with the gears but Dan gave me nice simple instructions for when and how to switch gears.

At one point, going down hill, we were up to 18mph! I started to brake after that because it just felt a little fast for me... I could just imagine someone backing out of a driveway and me spazzing just before colliding. Dan says that I have great pedaling form (I keep my knees in) and is/was impressed with my balance. I had fun and we took three laps up and down the main road in our neighborhood for a total of 3.5 miles. My hiney is sore but I'm looking forward to taking more laps the next time we ride (later today perhaps?)

I'm now a believer that being on a bike fitted for a person is much more comfortable than a spin bike at a gym. I was, reasonably, nervous about getting on a bike because I have historically experienced such hip discomfort when on recumbent bikes.

Dan took a goofy photo of me with his camera phone but I don't have it to post here. However, I do have a photo that Dan took of the bike with our camera.

Hello from Niagara Falls!

My niece Erin graduated from high school at the end of June so Mom and I traveled to New York to be a part of the celebration. We decided to make the trip our summer vacation as well so not only did we get to visit Wendy's family we also visited with Missy's family and spent two days being blown away by the majestic power that is Niagara Falls.



Mom caught me playing 'photographer'.


To be a bird gliding over the edge of Niagara would be exhilarating! I can only imagine the freedom the gull in this photo is experiencing.



I wish the photos we took could begin to truely represent Niagara. These simply do not do the falls justice. The falls in the forefront of the photo are the Amerian Falls.

I had a lot of fun capturing little creatures with my camera. I'm sure the photo is fairly pixilated because I had my camera on maximum zoom and the squirrel was still pretty far away.




Mom took this photo of me at the International Boundry Line. My fear of heights was starting to kick in...fortunately she snapped the photo and we were on the move again.

The observation deck is also the elevator shaft down to the Maid of the Mist boat ride. Mom and I visited both locations on Day 2 of our Niagara visit. We got mixed in with the most obnoxious tour group.

While in Canada we walked around a lot and visited the formal gardens. I liked the formality and linear aspects of the gardens. I'd never have such a formal garden but it was neat to see.

Bracelet Day

The week before school ended my class planned a little surprise for me. I knew something was up because I'm usually not called to all ends of the earth at the same time on my campus! The morning started off with my paper machie project. Nikita and I were planning a "Fiesta Friday" for the last day of school and we wanted Pinatas but knew we would need more than one since some of our students don't wait for very long. Anyway, the students really got into the paper machie process and we covered 5 balloons! I was very pleased with the way they listened to directions and stuck with the project.




So, on to the surprise! When I finally got back to the classroom after the "goose wild" chase the kids were all waiting for me in the room.


Nikita coordinated the idea of giving me a charm bracelet and each student put a charm on it. Andrew got me a tiny blue flip-flop because he loves shoes so much. Each charm represents a student, something they loved doing with me. I was so touched.

Here is my little "Tigger." He bounces everywhere he goes! I'm trying to show off my bracelet...not put him in a headlock.

Will and I worked together for two of the three years I worked at CRE. He has grown in so many ways and it really has been a joy to be a part of that growth. Nikita took photos of each of the students with me and the bracelet and I've GOT to get photos printed out and thank you notes written and sent. There are several families that I intend to keep in touch with. I've invested too much in their children to just not see how things continue to progress!

I'm excited and scared about moving on. I'm sad about leaving CRE and my classroom because I finally found my voice on that campus. But hey, I've learned a little more about myself and can use that new perspective in the next chapter of my education experience and I'm really looking forward to that.

Rock Climbing with Dan

On Mother's day Dan and I hiked Enchanted Rock. Mom and the boys stayed back at the camp, the granite trail from the day before was just too much for AJ & Reese's paws. The hike itself was a little more than one mile, but in that mile hike climbs 425ft in elevation which is pretty darned steep!

Dan and I took photos at the trail-head before taking off on our hike. I started off with the wide-brimmed had to shade the back of my neck, as I got a little too much sun on Saturday, but the wind kept stealing it so I had to give in and stuff it in Dan's backpack.

Here we are at the summit.

"WOO-HOO!"

With as tired as my legs were from the four mile hike the day before, I felt quite the accomplishment for summitting Enchanted Rock. After climbing 425ft in elevation, in a very short time, I revised my earlier thoughts on what tired legs feel like.

Dan ran ahead to check out some HUGE boulders. Dan looks absolutely tiny standing in front of them. You can't really see but a little kid ran into the shot and sat down at the edge of the rock.

Then Dan and I tried our hand at "bouldering". Man-o-man my hands hurt after scrambling up those rocks. I almost lost my grip a few times but was able to regain my finger hold.

Dan was quite adept at grabbing onto the granite chunks. All this and no lessons! Ah, well we had fun pretending to rock-climb...it's probably a good idea we were never more than two feet off the ground!

Surprisingly there was quite a bit of shade on top of Enchanted Rock. It's amazing to me to see how adaptive life is. Flowers, grasses, cactus, and trees clung on to every grain of soil and every drop of water on the solid surface of the Rock.

I really enjoyed our day on Enchanted Rock. Everything was so beautiful and the weather was oh so cooperative. On Saturday night, around 3am, many of the campers packed up and left because the wind picked up and sounded really scary even though it never rained. I actually got out of the sleeping bag to put away everything that we had left out on the table earlier in the evening. Of course that was after I laid there, wide-eyed, staring at the ceiling of the tent wondering if things were going to get rough and rainy or if the bad weather would quickly blow though. AJ was nervous because of the bad weather and burrowed in with me. He actually curled up under the blankets with me. He is such a snuggler!

I'm still not sure how I photographed this pretty little bird. She had been on a tree much further away but by the time I got my focus she took off. Next thing I knew she was in the tree above me and she sang a few notes while I snapped the photo and promptly flew off! I was so excited that I caught her!

It's a good thing Dan was along. He used his super-human strength to hold two massive boulders up. I am married to the strongest man in the universe!

Flora & Fauna of Enchanted Rock

I took entirely too many photos of little flowers and plants on our hike on Saturday. I've included some of my favorites.

The gnarly hole in this tree was rather deep. I tried taking a photo down into the hole but didn't want to get my hand in there!

Out on the granite flats little plants managed to scrape out an existance. This formation looks like a hard boiled egg to me. Green eggs and ham anyone?

Lovely lavender blooms with a bee in the left flower.

Most of the cactus blooms were solid yellow but this bloom had a delicious pop of orange-red at the base. It really jumped out at me.


The new cactus pads are almost soft to the touch.

Ferns curled out from under the rocks at every twist and turn of the path. A minature forest exploded in the most unlikely of places.

Just something pretty...

Isn't it amazing how life will perservere? How in the world did the tree make it on the flat of one boulder crushed up against another boulder? Looks like this shot should be on an inspirational poster about making the best of what you've got.

I should have put my hand or foot into the photo so you could really see just how tiny this cactus plant is. The cactus wasn't much bigger than the pad of my index finger.

I hope you enjoyed my plant photos. I know I had fun poking around on the trail taking them.

Hiking With Mom & the Boys

On Saturday of our visit to Enchanted Rock, Mom and I took the boys for a hike on the "scenic loop" that was described as a light hike by one of the park rangers. Well, the distance wasn't daunting but the terrain proved otherwise.

There were lots of puddles and streams for the boys to cool off in which they appreciated greatly! I carried water for them in a hand held dog dish but they weren't very interesetd in the water bowl...they wanted their agua au natural.

AJ was the adventuresome hiker. You can't really tell from this shot but this must have been a 20 foot drop that AJ and I peeked over. Some of the trail was "developed" but much of the trail was granite gravel that eventually tore up the pads of the dogs' paws. We had to scramble over boulders and through streams on the "scenic loop" and the dogs were so excited to be out on their adventure for the day that they didn't even complain about their feet.

We were pretty close to the end of the hike at this point. The dogs were obviously pooped so we rested for a while. I couldn't get a signal on my phone so I couldn't let Dan know where we were. He had gone out for a ride earlier in the day and Mom and I anticipated being back at camp long before the 4 hours that expired while we were out for the day.

We both got too much sun on our necks in spite of the reapplications of sunblock. When I was loading the backpacks with bottled water I felt a little silly packing so much H2O but we used it all! It was exhilariating! Mom is the one who taught me to camp as a child. We always had so much fun camping as a family when I was little. It was a joy to me to take mom out for the weekend and show her how much I can do!

Leave it to Reese to smile for the camera. Mom and I felt awful about having to push the dogs further but there wasn't much we could do to complete the hike. The boys didn't move once we got them back to camp but by Monday afternoon they were both back up on their feet and I got a warm welcome home from school for the day.

Dan and I have promised ourselves and each other to walk the boys more often so they don't have such delicate feet.

The Birdies are here!

Ok, so you remember the bird nest that I found in our Grapevine. Well, when we returned from Enchanted Rock on Mother's Day I discovered that the eggs had hatched but I didn't get a photo on that first visit. I feel a little guilty about poking my big nose into their nursery but I just can't help it! I'm so curious about them!

So, I couldn't wait any longer for an update. There are three fuzzy little birdies in the nest. I'm so glad that horrible storm didn't knock them out of their cozy little home last week. I know this isn't a very good photo but I was trying to be quick. At least in the photo you can make out a beak and some wings.