Enjoying life...

well... that was my thought when I began uploading pics but our router or this computer or something with the network does not like my windows 7 machine or my ipad right now so i won't upload any cute photos or videos of my nephews and niece and Bernnie's little girl until this random problem is resolved. We'll see... and then you'll see some cute pics of mi familia... lets see if I can stay connected enough to upload this short message.

Summer break is over...

I can not believe that tomorrow is the last official day of my summer break... wow! It does not seem like it's been more than 10 weeks since I finished my masters degree. It does seem like it was a long time since Astrocamp in Laramie. Our Canada and grandparent trip was just over a month ago but so much has happened since then. It's been a fun summer though. Exhausting at times, but good. In just a few days, 10 to be exact, it is our 4th wedding anniversary. 4 years goes by so fast. This summer has been a good experience for us in the fact that we chose to work on our garage and house instead of leaving every second we could to go camping or on a short road trip. We've also spent a lot of time with family too and that's been so good. I need to post pics... this is just a short "getting ready to go to sleep before midnight for once in my life, sipping on just a little cup of ice coffee" blog moment I thought I would take in honor of my final day of summer break that I will have tomorrow. There will be more... goodnight!

Road Trip 2010

First stop... Antelope MT for their 100th anniversary. Mom, dad, Nate and three of my uncles enjoyed their little parade. Later that afternoon Nate and I visited my grandparents before heading north to...We stayed at a somewhat 'sketchy' motel for like $60 in Regina and then drove the next day to Edmonton and stayed there for 3 nights. Here's some of what we enjoyed in that part of Canada.
View from our downtown Westin motel (thank you priceline!). We would never stay here on our own since they charge an arm and a leg for everything!!! But it was a very nice hotel room with a nice view of downtown Edmonton. We also stayed at The Fantasyland Hotel that is attached to the huge mall... I don't have pics of that... Nate has them. Will upload some later...
A huge indoor roller coaster... along with a huge indoor water park that we spent a few hours in on Tuesday, for free due to having a room at the Fantasyland Hotel. The pic below shows about half of the water park... the slides were awesome and scary. I think one of them knocked the wind out of me and I decided that much adrenaline is not good for anyone's health... ;)

Anyway... I am blogging from a KOA in the prettiest part of Montana. WiFi at a campsite... gotta love today's technology.
Here's Nate sitting by the fire with his laptop... mine is on the table too. We are nerds. Luv it!!
We drove through Jasper and Banff National Parks on the way back to the states and I can say they were beautiful and I am beginning to grasp just how big the rocky mountains are after seeing a large chunk of the Canadian, MT, WY, and CO Rockies...
These are in Jasper nat'l park... This is a taste of what some of the mountains looked like as we ventured through them. I got to touch a glacier for the first time also... very clear ice. That was my only thought.

I better get busy tending to the fire and getting ready for bed. It's 11:30pm and finally almost dark. Gotta love summer time in the north!!

June...

Some pictures of my June...
Hanging with my mom and Cody and Alissa at The Science Zone

My graduation present... opened and in use within seconds of its purchase.

Wyoming flooded a lot this June.... this is the Laramie river in Laramie near their bike path.


Visiting Walter while in Laramie


The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at UW... all 48 kids, 8 counselors, 4 teachers, 2 directors, an ExxonMobil rep, and Bernard Harris himself... it was the best camp yet!! (Although all of the Astrocamps I have been involved with have been very awesome...)

I will try to post more. It's been a fun, exhausting summer so far. I can tell I am getting older and like my house more than I thought I did. But anyway... life's an adventure and I am enjoying it. Nate and I are in Canada at the moment and I should have some more fun pics to share soon... I really like not having homework. It's awesome!!!

One last pic...
Patherfinder Reservoir is full and this is the natural spillway... we played around in the 'rain' the falls create. It's very cool! A once in every 25ish years thing...

oooo... new designs...

I like when Blogger lets me change the design of our blog and it's fast and looks cool. Anyway... I've been in Laramie for about a week... here are some pics of the week.


Laramie River Flood... I guess this river usually looks more like a big creek. Not this week...

Baby Walter... I get to go hand out with him today too. :)
We had a day of staff teamwork for the camp we are putting on starting tomorrow. Ropes course stuff. I couldn't climb because I hurt my wrist a few weeks ago and it was really bothering me the day we went, but it was still fun taking pictures and watching people do stuff. I would have tried the tight rope and walking across the big log, but I didn't want to do the leap of faith. I would have been too nervous... oh well.
I am exhausted at the moment and so glad it is Saturday! We had a very long week of work and tomorrow it starts all over again. But it will be fun... our 48 campers arrive tomorrow and don't leave for 10 days... say a prayer for us and pray that we all have a great time and stay safe.
Now I must go hangout with Walter and Erika...

Summer Begins!

So the first week of summer has come a gone and I am hoping my allergies have left with it. On Saturday we went to Rawlins to celebrate Christine's graduation from nursing school. We had a blast playing volleyball, ultimate frisbee and eating some good food.
On Sunday we went to the mountain to visit the land Nate's parents bought recently. There were a couple of piles of random bricks on the property and someone had kind of started using them to build a fire pit. This is what it looked like before...
And this is what it looked like a few hours later...
Between frisbee and volleyball on saturday and carrying a bunch of bricks by hand for like 4 hours yesterday, my arms hurt today!! But it was worth it... kind of a neat, impromptu fire pit. Next thing is to clean up the inside of the cabin so we can have fun enjoying the property without working to hard sometime this summer. So that's the beginning of the summer... have lots more to do and look forward to and am hoping that time doesn't rush by too fast so that we can actually shorten our to do list and relax a little too... more to come later.

Life Update

I am done with my masters degree. Crazy! It was a lot of work. I am not ever going to say that it was easy, because it wasn't. I worked a full time job and went to school full time. That's never easy for anyone and I give kudos to anyone who does this and especially people who do this while raising kids!! Go you! (This would be many people I had classes with since last summer).
I am so glad for this guy...


He took on a lot of the normal house work that we would have shared while I did my work, he cooked for me, he knew exactly when I needed to take a break and when I just needed to push through the assignments, and he took me to Hawaii for spring break... cool! I love you Nate! Thanks for all you did/do for me! You're awesome!
I just decided I need to go through a bunch of pics from the last year and do a big post on everything... and now I have the time to do something like that. Woo hoo!
The last day of school was Friday. I got my room all cleaned up, packed up, and it's in our basement now cause my school for next year is remodeling some rooms and they don't know where the tutors will be. So two of us are just kind of waiting around for things to happen. It will work out and I am not too anxious to go set up a room yet... need a break for a bit. ;)
I can't be too lazy though. I have the BHSSC to look forward to and need to type up a couple of lessons today and get them to the directors. This camp used to be called Wyoming Astro Camp but we have ExxonMobil sponsoring the camp this year so it got bigger and we have to publish our lessons which was a goal we all have thought about... it's my 6th year involved in the camp and the 5th year I am a teacher... I think... Anyway... before the curriculum was all typed up and we just had a few lessons done, it was already over 100 pages long... crazy! I'll be in Laramie June 14-29. I always like helping with this camp. I just don't like being away from Nate and this year I am tired and just want to stay home. I think the next week and a half will be refreshing enough for me to be ready to go help with Astro Camp... I mean BHSSC... and it's always a fast 2 weeks...
I think that's all for now... I will try to do a picture post of some fun family, kids, life, etc. that has been going on lately in the next few days.