Christmas Parties

So I'm pretty sure every break should begin with back-to-back Christmas parties. On Saturday, Jaymee and Ty hosted a Christmas Who party where everyone dressed up as Whos from Whoville Dr. Seuss style!! It was a lot of fun - we played Catch Phrase, Charades, and had a White Elephant exchange.

I dressed up as Cindy Lou Who!!! Notice the Christmas ornament I am holding for extra effect...

Here is a group picture. We are all so cute. Jake dressed up as Max...see the one antler? I really need to see this movie again.

I had to act out "I want a hippopatumus for Christmas" during our Christmas Song Charades game. Has anyone else never heard this song either?

On Sunday, we had our Family Christmas party! It's a little early, but it was the only time before Christmas that the entire family could be together. We had a really good steak and potato dinner, watched the Eagles game, and opened presents!!

Tanner got a bone for Christmas and even opened the package himself!

Go Eagles!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a much needed break from everything.

It was Dave's birthday on Wednesday and Mike and Jessica made a delicious dinner for us. Tarah's family came to our house for Thanksgiving on Thursday and the dinner was delicious, as usual.
Here are my parents, Jeff, Tanner, and I.

Tan has gotten sooo big.

I decorated our house for Christmas while I was home. Tanner helped me.

On Friday night, Jake and I went to see Eric Church at the Grizzly Rose!!! He was just as good as when we saw him earlier this year. He is my favorite country singer. Now if he would just ditch that Ashley girl that tours with him, it would be the perfect show. She is terrible. Eric makes up for it though. The best part is that we could dance before, after, and in between performers.

Now, it's almost Christmas break!! I can't wait to go up north, go skiing, and then start my student teaching in January!!

Broncos Game

On Sunday, Jake and I went to the Broncos game. We had fun at the game, even though the Chargers killed us and we played terrible.

Thanks Jake's parents for the tickets!

Estes Park

I forgot to mention my Estes Park adventure with Jake. On Friday, the 13th of November, Jake and I decided to head out to Estes Park after class for the day. We wanted to see some elk, so that was our motive and goal for the trip. It started snowing on the way there. Lucky we had our coats, as it wasn't very cold or snowy in Greeley when we left. When we first got there, we walked around downtown and checked out some of the shops. Then we decided to eat some lunch before searching out the elk. We enjoyed some delicious elk burgers at the Wild Roses restaurant that even has a "Desert" menu!


We did end up seeing some elk!! There were four huge bulls hanging out right outside in someone's front yard. They even started fighting using their antlers, however, I think they were just play fighting because it didn't look too intense.

It was a fun trip. On the way home, we also saw some big horn sheep right off the road. We stopped at the famous Dam Store for some jerky, got new windshield wipers for my car (which I really needed), and rented a movie before going home. I crashed on the couch watching the movie after about ten minutes into it. I'm a terrible movie watcher.

Recap of the past month...

So, I've been slacking on posting on my Blog. I could give you some excuse about being a hardworking student teacher/college student who stays up all hours of the night studying and completing assignments and lesson plans, but that would be just that. Some excuse. Instead, I'll fill you in on some of the things I have been doing. (And, believe it or not, some of it really does include teaching and studying!)

On November 7th, I went to the Air Force vs. Army football game. It was a beautiful day and Air Force won big. What was even cooler were the flyovers and parachutists before the game. Lots of people were able to come - Jake and I, Caroline and Matt, Andrew and Kara, Mom and Dad, Mary and Jessica.


Then, on Sunday, the girls all went out to see the play Wicked! It was really great. I hadn't read the book, so I didn't have a lot of background knowledge going into it, but it was still fairly easy to follow. The costumes, sets, and musics was amazing as well. (Thanks Mom for taking us!)

Okay, school stuff. I got my student teaching placement for next semester!! I'm going to be teaching 4th grade at Timnath Elementary. It is another small town just south of Fort Collins. The school itself is a little bigger than Galeton, however, the town is probably about the same size. Earlier today, I met with my cooperating teacher and she seems really nice. She has a lot of experience, 21 years, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot from her. Hopefully by the end of the semester, I'll be ready to take on my very own classroom!! It'll be interesting to see the difference between 2nd grade and 4th grade and how much kids change in just two years. I love my second graders though. I'll miss them.

Last weekend, I went down to get my new computer!! (Thanks Dad!) But I also got to go to the Air Force basketball games at the Air Force Academy. It was tournament weekend. Friday night, they played Dickinson State and won, so they moved on to play the winner of the other game. So, they ended up playing UNC on Saturday night. That game wasn't so good for Air Force...they got killed. But at least my school played well. Finally, we have a good sports team!! Even so, I found myself not being able to cheer against my Air Force boys and was sad when Air Force lost.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving break and then I only have 2 more weeks left in the semester!!

SHARK!!

So I ditched out on my classes and teaching to go to Florida with the rest of the family. It was a really fun weekend, so I try not to make myself feel bad by dwelling on all the things I missed.

Caroline, Matt, Jake and I were all on the same flight from Denver to Miami to Key West. It was a long day made even longer by our delay in Miami. So we hit the bar at the Miami airport to pass the time.

The first night we got there, Thursday, we went shark fishing! That was quite the adventure. The procedure is pretty involved: First, Jeff and Frank paddled wayyy out there in the canoe with the hook and bait. Meanwhile, Tim has the pole, Mike is setting up the fire, and Jake and Tarah are on beer cooler duty. Once we got the tunes set up and the "party song" on, the pole, that is propped up on the rocks, tugs and we all yell "Shark!" Everyone who is not already down by the water comes running down to join in all the action. A few of the guys take a turn reeling in the shark, but Tony does most of the work. The shark was wayyy out there, as I mentioned before, so it was after reels and reels of anticipation before we actually saw the big fish at the end of our line. I was surprised that the baseball bat that Dave used to help stun the shark enough to bring it on shore, kill it, and, eventually, eat it, didn't seem to affect the shark too much. He just kind of looks at you thinking, "Well, what did you do that for? That wasn't very nice."

The next day, before we cleaned the shark, we took some more pictures. I almost wish I could take my 2nd graders on a shark fishing field trip... I learned a lot about sharks this weekend. Did you know sharks have no bones; they just have cartilage, muscle, and vital organs? Sharks feed only at night, so that's why we did our fishing at night. Also, did you know that sharks have to be constantly swimming in order to stay alive? Only the Nurse Shark can sit still. I also learned that if a shark loses it tooth, another one will grow back in its place. And sharks taste pretty good too.

Also, on Friday we went out fishing for fish other than shark. We caught a pretty decent size Barracuda. This picture is of the one that was caught before I got here, but I don't have a picture of our's, so this will have to do.

Then, on Saturday, we went scuba diving and snorkeling. Dad, Jeff, Tarah, Matt, Frank, Dave, Mary, Mike, Jessica, Tim, Diana, and Tony all went scuba diving. Paul, Sheryl, Jake, and I went snorkeling. The mask line in the picture is proof. It was pretty neat. I saw a shark, lots of barracuda, a couple sting rays, an eel, and lots of pretty fish and coral. I guess there were quite a few jellyfish around too, but I must have missed them. All I was missing was my turtle.

The last day, before we went to the airport, Mom, Mary, Caroline, Matt, Jake, and I spent the afternoon in Key West. We visited the southernmost point of the continental U.S., walked Duval Street, ate a tasty lunch at Jack's Shack, and washed it down with a Key Lime Colada.

It was a fun weekend. I'm glad I was able to miss school to make the trip. It was totally worth it and many thanks to everyone who organized it.

Corn Maze, Fishing & Golfing

I had a pretty exciting weekend.

I went on a Field Trip with my 2nd Graders on Thursday to Eaton Elementary to see a Raptor Program. It was pretty neat - they showed us a falcon, a hawk, and an owl that were all injured in some way that would prevent them from ever being able to join the wild again. When we got back to Galeton, I was able to give my Pumpkin Life Cycle lesson plan and sit in on some Parent/Teacher Conferences after school. They gave all the teachers these "Kraut Burgers," which were really good.

On Friday, after learning some Sign Language, Jake and I decided to go down to LaSalle to the Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. It turns out that most of their pumpkins froze because of the cold weather we've had lately, but we managed to find 2 that were pretty decent.

Then we went through the Corn Maze. It's actually pretty difficult. I guess the guy didn't have much confidence in us because he gave us his cell phone number in case we got lost...

Then, on Saturday we drove down to Larkpur to the lake to try and catch some of the fish Dad kept talking about. We bought some bait and fish food. It turns out there are some HUGE fish in that lake!

This one just shows how big the fish really were. They didn't eat the food we threw them though.

We hung out in Larkspur Saturday night to play some board games and watch some football. On our way back up to Denver Sunday morning, we stopped by Park Meadows and walked around the mall for a bit. Then we played some putt-putt before stopping by Jake's parent's house for dinner.

I got 2 hole in ones...

And Jake got one.

It was a gorgeous day in Denver... in the 80s. A nice change from the past week. So we enjoyed the sunshine and played on the rocks.

Volleyball

Since we have a Bye week this week for Volleyball, our team decided to go out to dinner on Monday to get to know eachother better. We went to Old Chicago's and it was very nice.

Last week, we lost 0-3, but since we played the same team as the week before, the loss doesn't "officially" count. So, I guess we're still undefeated...

Minnesota

On Friday, I flew to Minnesota for Girls' Weekend. Allison, Elizabeth and I came in on Friday, while Caroline flew in on Saturday. (Caroline flew in a day late because of the exciting engagement of Mike and Jessica!) All four of us flew Delta/Northwest and all four of our flights were delayed. Just saying. It was fun filled weekend, even though it was very, very cold. Seriously, we could see our breath and it's only October!! It's going to be a long winter...

After we picked Caroline up from the airport, we all went to the Mall of America. The place is HUGE and it was very busy. But we enjoyed Nickolodeon Universe, which should still be Camp Snoopy, and rode the roller coaster and ferris wheel.

We also toured around the American Girl store, which consisted of every imaginable thing you could ever want for your doll. It was fun, although they're retiring Samantha and Kirsten!

After a long day of the mall, we had dinner at Cowboy Jack's and went home to watch the movie Away We Go.

On Saturday, we went to Minnetonka Orchards!! There, they had a hay ride that took you to a little gift shop where we bought apple donuts and hot apple cider to warm ourselves up.

Then we got back on the hay ride and it took us through a "haunted" trail to the rest of the activities. We went though a corn maze, looked at the goats and pigs, and picked out a couple pumpkins. Once we got home, we had lunch, carved the pumpkins, watched some football (Go Broncos!), ate the apple pie we had made earlier, and played Phase 10 (Caroline won).

Caroline's pumpkin:

It was a great weekend, thanks Laura! We'll have to plan another Girls' Weekend soon!

Intermural Volleyball

I joined an Intermural Volleyball team for fun. My team had our first volleyball game on Wednesday and we WON!! We won 3-2 in a tiebreaker. It was really fun and our next game is next Wednesday for our chance to stay undefeated. Go Team Draft B!!

My First Drive In Experience

On Saturday, I had class all day. It was a workshop for my science education class where we learned new ways to teach science to elementary school students. It was interesting, but it was still Saturday. So to reward myself...

we went to the DRIVE IN movie theater in Ft. Collins!

http://www.holidaytwindrive-in.com/index.html

The movies playing were Inglorious Bastards and The Hangover. Inglorious Bastards was in German and therefore I have no idea what it was about except that they were killing the Nazis. (I don't like to read when I watch movies) We got there a few minutes into the movie and enjoyed a beer, a hot dog, and Hot Tamales while we were waiting for that to end. I was slightly looking forward to The Hangover since I had heard good reviews about it from friends, but it was disappointing. And I fell asleep. But it was a fun experience, and next time I'll definitely have to try it out in a pick up truck!!

Since I totally forgot to document my very first Drive In experience, this picture will have to do. It was taken on Sunday when we went for a walk before checking out the hot tub at Jake's apartment.

Weekend Parts Two and Three

Jake and I had baked a cake for his dad's 50th birthday party on Saturday.

It was Funfetti!! And it says "Happy 5oth Birthday Jake's Dad" in fewer words.

It was a really nice day for a party - we played Ladder ball, Bocce ball, ate lots of good food and drank some excellent margaritas.

On Sunday, the Broncos played the Cleveland Browns and won 27 to 6!! I have a really cute picture of us at the game, but I'm not sure how to get it off my phone. The game was awesome minus the obnoxious guy next to us and I even had a churro!

We got our picture taken by the Broncos Fan Photographer!!! We must be cute...

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=Broncos&gallery_id=1766066&image_id=0&pos=1

Weekend Part One

On Friday, Jake and I played tennis again. And again he kicked my butt. But it was fun and the school has some really nice tennis courts so its good to take advantage of them.

Later that night we drove down to Denver to have dinner with Jake's parents for his dad's birthday. We had some really good steak, twice baked potatoes and zucchini stuff. Then we (Jake and I) joined my family, my parents, Caroline, and Matt at Fiddler's Green for the concert!! It was Brad Paisley's American Saturday Night tour. Jimmy Wayne performed first and then Dierks Bentley before Brad came on. It was a very awesome show. And I love country.

And here's a picture of the stage from where we were sitting. Well, standing mostly. We were 13 rows from the front.
During Jimmy Wayne's performance, he held up signs reading... Scream if you love Dierks.... Scream if you love Brad.... Scream if you even remotely know who I am... lol it was cute. But I'll just say that I'm a long time fan and actually bought a Jimmy Wayne cd like 5 years ago. Whoa.

Friday Adventure

On Friday, Jake and I played tennis where pretty much Jake kicked my butt. But it was fun anyway and I even got a little tan.

On Friday Night, we wanted to go dancing at the Grizzly Rose in Denver. But when we drove down there, there was a concert playing that night. So we decided to go downtown instead. They lit up one of the really tall buildings, for September 11th I think.

And then we decided to walk up 39 flights of stairs. Well okay, it was 9 until we realized there was another elevator on the other side of the building. You could see all of Denver from up there, it seemed.

But then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake!

Ski School

On August 28th, I went down to Matt and Caroline's Ski School in Larkspur. It was a really nice weekend to learn how to ski the course. I got the mini course down and up to 2 ball in the official course, so as you can see I have a long way to go. Oh well, good excuse to keep skiing!

Matt, Caroline, Curly, Chris, Laura, Tim, and I

The boys showed off their trick skills...

After a couple long days of skiing, the hot tub felt really good.

On Sunday, we weren't quite as motivated to ski because of the cold weather, so we hiked up the hill behind the lake. It was quite the nature hike with snakes, spiders, and hawks.