Summer

Where has the time gone? It feels like it was just a few weeks ago that I interviewed for the job in Gunnison and now it is almost time for school to start again. It is a different feeling this summer as school grows closer. I am excited to be here in Gunnison and get the opportunity to teach in the school where I learned to love education, but I am getting really nervous. Everything is going to be new and unfamiliar, but I am sure I am going to learn everything and love it just like I learned to love Beaver Dam.

We have spent some time at Yuba and Lake Powell doing this:

We also enjoy going up the mountains and enjoying the outdoors. Mahonri has a big bull permit this year so we have been looking for elk. We don't get up as often as we would like because Mahonri is really busy working, but when we do get up we love it. We went up with Ryan and Dakota one evening and took some cool pictures. Here is the view:

We are trying to purchase a house. I will say that buying a house is not the greatest experience and I will be very happy when things finally come together and we are able to close. Once that happens I will post more about the house. Enjoy the rest of the summer as it is coming to a close quickly.

BIG News

The big news is that Mahonri and I took our first fishing trip of the season and we both caught a fish! Last weekend we decided to drive over to Enterprise Res. and go fishing. We had never been to Enterprise Res so we were excited to go try something new. It was a nice res. and we enjoyed spending time outdoors. Mahonri caught his fish on his second cast and I caught mine on the final cast of the night. It was a fun evening. Here are a few pictures:

Res.

Us at the Res.

His fish got caught on a branch

Success

Finally

Wild Turkey on drive home

Ok but really our fishing trip isn 't the BIG news. The truth is Mahonri and I will be moving back to Gunnison this summer. I got a job teaching PE at GVMS/GVHS and am super excited. This has been my goal since 10th grade when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. It works out really well because Mahonri and I both loved growing up in Gunnison Valley and wanted to move back eventually. It will be an exciting change of venue. Now we just have to figure out where Mahonri will transfer to and finish up school and also find a place to live. We cannot wait to go back!

Jazz Game

Mahonri and I like to try to fit a Jazz game into our schedule and budget each year. We weren't sure if we'd be able to this year because I am working Friday's now and our Spring Breaks were different weeks. However, we found a time at the end of my Spring Break to make it to a game. We went to the game on April 6 against the Golden State Warriors. We asked my parents to go with us and they agreed. We got tickets but didn't tell my parents anything about them. When we got to the arena they asked where we were sitting but we still didn't tell them anything. Here is why:

Our tickets were up close and personal. My parents were very surprised. It was really neat sitting so close to the action. Another cool things was only being a few seats away from Gail Miller, the Jazz owner (she is the gray haired woman on the right of the picture):

All night long we could hear the players talking to each other. They are so big and Al Jefferson would always just hold the ball out with one hand; it looked like a baseball in his hands. Devin Harris had a great game that night and hit some clutch 3 point shots. It was a fun game to attend because it was a close game. The Jazz ended up winning which always makes going to a game that much better.

Winter Break

Our winter break was a lot of fun. It was a much needed break as we both got to have the entire week between Christmas and New Years off. We didn't have to worry about work, school, or basketball. We spent the time with our families in Gunnison. It is always nice to be home and spend time with them.

One of our first activities was sledding with the Frandsen family. All of my family was there, except Cutler who is serving a mission, so it was a lot of fun. The snow has been scarce this year but there was enough on the roads to do a little sledding.

We had a nice Christmas. Mahonri surprised me with a new camera. I was able to surprise him for once and got him a new sight for his bow.

After Christmas we decided to join the grown up world and buy a new car. This is the first major purchase we have made together since getting married 2 1/2 years ago. Our Mazda had a lot of miles on it and was going to need work throughout the next year to keep running at a decent level. We opted to buy a new car rather than to put money into the Mazda. We decided to buy a Kia Optima. Buying a car is quite the experience and something I am glad we don't have to do very often. We have really enjoyed the car thus far and feel good about our purchase.

We did a little ice fishing during our vacation. It was my first time ice fishing and I was scared to go on the ice. I kept imagining myself falling through and getting trapped underneath the ice. It ended up being a lot of fun and I am glad that we went. We were lucky enough to have some success and both Mahonri and I caught a few fish.

Mahonri was able to do a little hunting over the break as well. He went duck hunting one afternoon and came home with a rare duck (in the Gunnison area) called a Canvasback. He was super excited to get this duck as he has been wanting to get one for an extremely long time. He cleaned it up and it planning on getting it mounted. Honestly, I don't love the idea of mounted animals but since it is such a pretty duck and something Mahonri has dreamed of, I don't mind.

Well, we hope everyone has a great new year. We are looking forward to the new adventures the year will bring for us.

Hunting

Last weekend Mahonri went out goose/duck hunting. He convinced me to come along. Although he hasn't convinced me yet that I need to hunt with him, I will admit that he has made me enjoy looking at different wildlife animals and birds. I am fascinated with them now, thanks to him. Anyway, even though he only got one duck this time around, it was a very successful hunt. There were a lot of ducks and geese around but Mahonri wanted to sneak up on one particular duck and get it. He was successful and ended up getting a rare (to our area) Redhead Duck. See the pictures below of the success:

Keep scrolling down because there are 2 new posts below this one!

Halloween

Halloween is such an interesting holiday for me. I really do not like dressing up so I usually so I do not like Halloween. However, I LOVE carving pumpkins so the holiday really isn't so bad. This year my parents brought us some pumpkins when they came down to go see Thriller. We joined them in seeing Thriller. It was a pretty good production. On Sunday, the day before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins my parents gave to us. It was fun. Here are the pictures of our pumpkins:

School/Basketball

Once in a blue moon I get around to actually blogging. Things have been crazy and busy during the past 3 months since the last post. I am going to do three separate posts today so I am going to start with school.

School is almost 1/2 over already. I cannot believe how quickly time is passing by this year. We just sent out our quarter 2 mid-terms. Christmas vacation will be here before I know it. Things in the district with all the changes had a rough start but the kinks are getting worked out. I am lucky enough to have a great principal that is really trying hard to get everything to fall into place. I am enjoying my high school classes that I am teaching for the first time this year. I do miss not having as many middle school classes but I am adjusting.

Basketball season has also started. It have 24 girls this year. I was sure that many of them would quite the first few days of the season because that is the norm, but this year everyone decided to stick with it. Mahonri is helping me coach this year and it has been fun to have him helping me. We decided to not do try-outs and just allow all 24 girls to be on the team. It is probably a few too many but that just means next year we will have more to pick from that have some experience. This year the team has no seniors and only 5 players from last year's team. We are extremely young and inexperienced but Mahonri and I will work hard to get them ready to play. Almost all the girls can make a lay-up now, which is a lot more than the handful that could when we started, so I guess we have accomplished something during the past 3 weeks. Without any background knowledge or experience with basketball for most of the girls we have been going really slow and focusing a lot on the basics. It is challenging but we do like challenges. Wish us luck this season because we are going to need it!

In other news, I decided to cut my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. I am not very sentimental so I did not take before and after pictures. The only picture I have is from my cell phone because my best friend asked me to send her a picture. Here is that picture: