Just keep running

Dory: Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do?

Marlin: No I don't wanna know.

Dory: [singing] Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.

Marlin: Dory, no singing.

Dory: [continuing] Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho. I love to swim. When you want to swim you want to swim.

Marlin: Now I'm stuck with that song... Now it's in my head.

Dory: Sorry.

If Dory (from the movie Finding Nemo) were a land animal, she probably would have said, "Just keep running. Just keep running. Just keep running, running, running.... I love to run. When you want to run you want to run."

This weekend I joined The Big Kahunas team to run all weekend in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. For those of you who have not yet heard of this race, the Wasatch Back is a 188 mile relay race from Logan to Park City. Each team has 12 runners that run around the clock for two days. Each team member runs three legs of the race. Our team mascot was Nemo, who was passed from team member to team member at every exchange during the race. Here is the team before the race with Nemo.



A handoff of Nemo from Alana at one of the exchange points.



Some pictures of the team along the way. Pictured here are members of the Finlay and Crump families and their Grandparents.





My last run was up a mountain leading to Park City otherwise known as "the Ragnar." I don't know if I would have made it were it not for some serious cheering from the team as you can see.



My friend Ian ran the second half of the hill in the pouring rain. We are pictured at the top after completing the run.



The team sporting our medals after completing the race in 31 hours and 17 minutes! Go Big Kahunas!

Jackson Hole

Trip #2 was to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Nine girls and our friend Michael went white water rafting down the Snake River. The weather was about 40 degrees, rainy, and windy. Brrrrrrr! But, not wanting to turn down a great adventure we still went. Our guide said the waves in some places were 10-12 feet high! The best rapid was called the lunch counter. It was a quarter mile of rapids! We were lucky not to loose anyone off the raft that day seeing as it was sooo cold! Here is the group bundled up ready to go.





After rafting we walked around town for a while.



Jessie, Kerri, and I were a little excited to be there!



We had to stop in Swan Valley, Idaho for the famous square ice cream cones!





On the way home from Jackson Hole, I visited my sister Lindsay and brother-in-law Kris in Rexburg, Idaho. No pictures, but we had a great time catching up and helping Lindsay get ready for girls camp. For those who know Kris and Lindsay, they are expecting a new little one in December! I am excited to be an aunt again!

Havasupai

So last week some friends and I went on our long awaited trip to Havasupai. Havasupai is an Indian Reservation in Arizona home to the Havasupai tribe. About 450 people live in the Supai village. However, the tribe opens a portion of the canyon for visitors to enjoy the beautiful waterfalls and scenery. Our adventure started out with an eleven hour drive down to Arizona! After sleeping on a trailer that night, we started the ten mile hike to the campground. Here is the group starting out.

In case you doubted my strength...

Clay, Jessie, and I hiking in.

Last year the campground in Havasupai was flooded so the once green and lush surroundings now look a little like a refugee camp. Jake is commentating on this video.

Havasupai is known for its waterfalls. Here were some of my favorites. The ladies overlooking Mooney Falls (Annie, Cherise, Jessie, Lani).

The hike down to Mooney falls and playing in the water


The next day we tried to hike down the river to Beaver Falls. We never found it, but we had a great time hiking.


Can we all fit on the same rock?

Jumping off the rope swing!

The group in front of Havasu falls.


Exploring an old mining cave.

Stopping for a picture along Route 66.

"Rocky Mountain High, Colorado"

One thing that is as great as John Denver is the Colorado Rocky Mountains he sang about. For Memorial Day I met the rest of the family in Vail, Colorado. These are pictures of the annual bike trip from the top of Vail to Avon (a neighboring city).



Love the scenery!



Our bike ride always ends at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory- my favorite part!





I reunited with an old friend. This bear has been here for as long as our family has been coming to Vail at least 10-12 years.



With school out in 3 days, the traveling bug has got me. Stay tuned for the summer adventures!

A Day in the Life

This past week a friend asked me to write a job description for an elementary school teacher. This job description will be added to an informational book for middle and high school students to explore possible careers. More specifically, this book will be available to first and second generation Latino immigrants through the Mixteca Organization (you can visit their website at www.mixteca.org) aiming to help motivate these students to pursue more education and get started on a career. Truly, it was hard to summarize my job in one page because the daily events are so varied and often unanticipated. However, thinking about my job teaching children and as another school year is coming to a close, it got me thinking about all the reasons I love being a teacher. Here are some of my job highlights along with the top first grader quotes from my three years as an educator.

Top 10 Job Highlights

10. Fun celebrations such as apple day, Halloween, the Thanksgiving feast, school-wide turkey gobbling contest, decorating gingerbread houses, the 100th day of school celebration, magical mitten day, pretending there were leprechauns in the classroom on St. Patrick's Day, Easter egg hunt, etc.
9. The funny things the kids say daily.
8. Unexpected events that keep me on my toes all day long (i.e. lost teeth, bathroom breaks, blood, or visitors).
7. Helping a student that was hard to reach.
6. When students say they love coming to school and learning!
5. Watching students beam after they have been given a compliment and done something great.
4. The kids' hugs, their simple (and sometimes undecipherable) notes, and yes, even the dandelion weeds they bring in thinking they are real flowers.
3. Having students run into the classroom with exciting news from home or funny stories they can hardly wait to divulge.
2. Teaching students to read, watching them enjoy reading and get excited about certain books and authors.
1. Showing parents how much their child has learned and progressed during the school year.


Funniest quotes from 1st graders
(While there is not room to write all the funny things my students have said, here are a few funny quotes.)

- When our class was talking about maps and learning about the equator, a sports enthused boy raised his hand and asked, "Is the equator kind of like the line of scrimmage?"
- One morning we were checking our daily review. A part of it shows a sentence with mistakes that the kids have to find and fix. One boy found the word "we" misspelled. He said, "We is misspelled. It should be wii." (maybe a few too many video games for him!)
- A little girl last year started bringing me small apples to school every day. This continued for a few days before the number of apples started to increase. One morning she came to school and said, "Hi Miss Anderson. I brought you something." She continued to pull apples from her coat pockets until there were ten sitting on my desk!
- A particular boy in my class this year is quite the comedian. One day at recess he ran up to me and said, "Miss Anderson, for a long time I thought fish burgers were made out of chicken. But I just realized that they are made out of fish, and I don't really like fish!"

chocolate and strawberries....need I say more?

Yesterday my friend Amanda who works at a chocolate shop showed me how to make chocolate dipped strawberries. My favorite were topped with cinnamon covered almonds. I will not admit on this blog how many I ate but they were delicious!

"If you build it, they will come"

This week in my first grade class we have been learning about insects. We have made spider webs, listened to "Flight of the Bumblebee," put together ladybugs and other insects, and read lots of books. Because I am a big proponent of hands-on learning I took a little inspiration from "Field of Dreams." The line, "If you build it, they will come" has never been so true! I got out the old bug cage (yes, I made it myself) and the kids have been adding all manner of bugs to it the last couple of days. The cage is pictured below. It doesn't look too full of bugs in the picture, but believe me they are there.



Today was especially comical because we already had several potato bugs, a beetle, and some ladybugs in the cage. When a cricket was added, some of the kids went into hysterics that it would eat the other bugs. Things were going pretty well until the beetle escaped during math later in the day. Luckily, we were able to catch it in time and return it to its cage.

Not to outdo the bug cage, I also decided to bring out the ant farm. Who would have thought a $5.49 tube of ants could bring so much entertainment? The kids are so enthralled by it, it's hard to keep them focused on their work. They would watch the ants all day if they could. Some of their questions about ants were pretty hilarious today. Some of the best were: Do ants eat? If they bite you, will you start bleeding? and Why do ants have to work so hard? This is how much work these little fire ants have accomplished in the last 24 hours!