Wow, what a whirlwind!

So Thanksgiving happened and then . . . whew. (This is more fun if you read it as fast as you can) I finished teaching my last unit at school, gave finals, graded finals, finalized grades, talked to parents about grades, bought a new car, went skiing, drove 15.5 hours from Denver to Tyler straight through, almost got killed in Dallas by some yahoo driving on the wrong side of the interstate, hung out in Tyler, went to my brother's and played wii with my sister-in-law, had Christmas with the fam, had breakfast with college roommates, lunch with a college friend, and dinner with a college roomie (all in the same day), drove back to Denver with two friends I picked up in Dallas (no life threatening experiences this time), hung out with them in Boulder, then hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, then sledding in Breck, then Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, then took them to the airport, met a Tyler friend and went skiing in Keystone, then . . . I rested for 3 days!!! The majority of this happened in a two week time period with no breaks in between.

So here are some details: I was grateful to end the first semester. It wasn't bad, but exhausting and challenging. I traded in my front wheel drive Highlander, which I liked quite a bit, for an 06 4WD 4-Runner. I really like it too. It does very well in snow. I went skiing with one of my co-workers the Saturday before Christmas. It was definitely the coldest weather I have ever skied in. At one of the lifts, a guy told us it was -5 degrees! On one side of the mountain, the wind chill had to be -15 because the wind went right through the four layers I had on and completely froze my thumb. I could feel the wind pushing against me while going down the mountain at a descent speed.

The Monday before Christmas I drove home. I fought the wind all the way home plus dodged the guy coming straight at me on the divided highway in Dallas. I spent the first day at home, Christmas Eve at my brother's, Christmas Day at my mom's cousin's, and the day after Christmas catching up with college friends. I had fun in Tyler, and wish I could have spent more time there, but on Saturday, it was back to Denver. I left at about 5 am, picked up Jennifer and Robyn in Dallas, and got in to Denver at 10 pm. I think I'm done driving to Texas! We had fun while they were visiting. Hiking in the snow was fun. Jennifer busted it right off the bat. Robyn managed to make it until the last day until she ate it on a patch of ice. I made until I went skiing on New Year's Day and slipped in the parking lot. Sledding was crazy. It was of course mostly little kids and we were all afraid we were going to hit one. I went down clean, then Robyn, then Jennifer, who last time she went sledding had a run in with a tree and her face, managed to take out a small child! The child was okay and so was Jennifer. We decided she needs bumper sledding. Skiing on New Year's Day was fun. My friend took me up to my first bowl. I tumbled all the way down. Then we skied through trees. It was fun, but I was a little out of control the whole time. After that, I was completely pooped. I had just spent 13 days in a row doing some type of activity that took up the entire day. So I spent my final weekend of break, sleeping, cleaning, and getting ready for school on Monday.

So, semester #2 is underway and is going smoothly so far. This is my light semester, so I am only teaching two block classes that both meet in the morning. So around 11 am, I am done teaching and have the rest of the day to work! It's been really nice so far. I am enjoying my kids. It is nice to have a fresh start.

2009 - Bring it on!

















Levi playing the snow


















Frozen Boulder Falls
















Jennifer at Boulder Falls

Frozen Stream RMNP

The Pool RMNP

Sledding at Breck

Garden of the Gods