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:

Slacker

It's a good thing I don't slack off on other things the way I do about blogging. You'd think that I would find time to blog during the summer when I am not working, but obviously I didn't. I think it's because things don't change much and so there are not too many exciting things to blog about.

Mahonri spent the summer going to school and I spent it being lazy. I did take one class this summer to keep my teaching license current. It was nice to get that class out of the way so I won't have to worry about any classes for the next few years. Although the class was pretty boring and more busy work than anything, I did learn a few strategies that can be useful in helping me be a better teacher.

This summer has been a summer of learning. Even though things don't always turn out as planned, I am grateful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The knowledge of the gospel can help make trails and tribulations bearable. The Atonement is the greatest gift we have been given. Lessons can be learned that make us stronger and ready to handle other things that may come our way. Even though the past couple of weeks have been hard, we have managed to overcome and grow closer to our Savior.

Recently Mahonri and I went to Gunnison and headed up the mountains for a nice, relaxing day before school starts again. We first went to Shinglemill and went fishing. Other than the cows that are up on the mountain, we were the only ones there. Both of use were able to be successful this fishing trip and caught one fish each. We had a few other bites that we didn't catch.





After our fishing, we decided to drive around and look for wildlife. It was a pretty successful drive. We saw some deer, 24 in total. There were 4 bucks and 20 does that we saw. We also spotted a huge herd of elk. I would guess that there were about 200 elk with this herd on the side of the mountain. We were able to spot a few bulls in this herd. It was really cool because I have never seen so many elk at one time. We also decided to go on a little hike. While hiking, we spotted two elk, a spike and a cow. We laid down in the road and just watched them as they got closer to us. They got within 20 yards of where we were laying. We watched them for about 10 minutes before they spotted us and ran off. We were able to capture this on film. It was a really neat experience.

School starts for me on Monday (Aug 15). I cannot believe how quickly the summer went by this year. The middle school will be housed in the high school this year, but we have claimed one of the hallways as the middle school hallway. Unfortunately, I do not have a classroom this year. I have on office that is located inside the locker room. When I teach my health class I will be using the science teachers classroom because she will be in the home-ec room teaching that period. I will be teaching a few different classes this year. I have one middle school PE class, 7th grade Health, 2 high school PE classes, and 2 elementary PE classes. I have never taught high school so it may be interesting. I am ready to get going again though because it will be a change of pace from the summer. It may take a few weeks to get adjusted to the new classes and to being up in the high school but I know we can make the adjustment. I am sad that I won't be able to have the same lunch schedule as my other middle school teachers. I may just have to go hang out in one of their rooms during my lunch. We shall see.