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.

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.