Yellowstone!!

Sadly, I’m posting my Yellowstone trip before I finish the rest of my Sagehen trip…oh well.

Anthony had the PLEASURE of going to Yellowstone with me and my family :) It was his first trip. We had an AMAZING time. (I suggest stop reading now if you’d like the summary, because that was it…the rest is a day by day detail of moose searching and geyser watching.)

Let me back up a few days…We kept looking at the weather and at one point there was a chance of snow while we were going to be there, and highs in the low 50’s. We were not looking forward to being bundled up the entire time, but pack our snow coats, stocking hats and warm clothes.

Fast forward a few days…we had AMAZING weather. It was perfect outside, mid 60’s to low 70’s. If it had been any warmer it would have been too hot!

Day 1: Spelunking…need I say more? Ok, I will. We stopped at Craters of the Moon and went “caving” or spelunking…but we weren’t really as prepared as some of the people we saw…and my phone wouldn’t let me type spelunking…so…we went caving. We also hike up to the top of the “null” which didn’t look so bad, but I decided to race Anthony. He won…by a long shot. I ran about 10 yards and couldn’t breathe.

We drove to the Tetons that afternoon and stayed just outside the park. Day 2, we took a short hike around String Lake and got to see a beautiful view of the Tetons. We drove into Yellowstone and set up camp.

We were so happy to use our brand new tent…boy…what a tent! It’s beautiful, and big, and I can stand up in it :) It’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever bought from Costco…besides our couch. Don’t get me wrong. I love our old tent. It’s perfect for weekend camping, but any more than a couple days and I feel cooped up. I like to be able to stand up while I’m changing and have some space to throw all my junk around (if you’ve seen my bedroom you’d understand what I’m talking about…it’s huge too…and sometimes I still think it’s too small).

So, our entire goal of the week was to find a moose. And thanks to one of my parent’s friends “guaranteeing” we would see a moose…ummm we actually did! I’m not sure how some guy guaranteeing it would happen, made it happen, but apparently it worked. Day 3? I think it was, Anthony told my dad to pull over because down in the VERY bottom of the canyon he was pretty sure there was a moose, sure enough, there she was! Anthony then proceeded to run down the hill further than us to get me a good picture (he really does love me lots) :)

We also had the pleasure of seeing a grizzly and her cub the first morning at Yellowstone, a bison and a bull elk laying together, lots more bison and elk (not together), another grizzly, a couple coyotes, birds (including a bald eagle), and a stump that looked a LOT like a moose until we ran up the hill and figured out it wasn’t…Yes, our wildlife searching finding was top notch. We also asked a lady at the store where to find more moose. She gave us a location (which we quickly forgot) and off we drove outside the park to Cody, Wyoming. There was had lunch and saw a miniature replication of the Old West, well worth the drive, but no moose. On the way home, mom and I began yelling at Anthony simultaneously to pull over we were SURE we saw a moose this time!!!! And yes, we did :) a bull, just across the river. These pictures were much better!

Ok, enough rambling about moose. We also saw lots of geysers and pools. We took a short walk hike to Ferry Falls. I’m going to brag for just a moment, and say how happy I am that I’m in shape enough that 5 miles didn’t faze me, even after the 4 miles of walking around Old Faithful. Ok, moving on…We sat around for…oh…about 2 hours waiting for Grand Geyser to go off. We had bets on who though it would erupt first, Jason won…I didn’t  But, thankfully Warren didn’t win, because we would have been there MUCH longer. And, yes, it was worth the wait…what an amazing show it put off! Much more impressive than Old Faithful! All in all, that was our trip….now if blogger would be nice to me, I’d post this with some pictures :)

Spelunking

Tetons

Bear #1 and cub - so cute!

Bull Elk

Far away moose # 1


David and Anthony - humoring me

Grand Geyser


Ferry Falls


Grizzly Bear # 2 - it did look at us, but this was the best picture I could find.


And behold!!! our beloved moose!

Well - that's it for now! We're home for a few days until our next adventure. And...I'll be posting my new and improved couch soooo soon! A word to the wise, I should never go in to upholstery.

~~Erin~~

PLEASE SOMEONE PLEASE!!!

Ok - I can't stand it anymore - I'm posting this in deperate hope to save this puppy's life...

Yesterday afternoon I left my house and saw this puppy wandering the neighborhood. Later that evening, Anthony and I left the house and he was still there. When we got home we took him some water and put him in our backyard because apparently it's ok to leave dogs on the side of the road.

Anthony took him into a vet this morning to see if he had a chip to scan, no luck. I posted him lost on craigslist, no luck. I know I need to call the city and have them come pick him up, but I'm afriad their going to put him down. I'm fairly positive he's mostly pitbull. The vet said pitt/lab mix, maybe.

He's soooo sweet! He loves to play, he sits, his listens (sorta...he's a puppy). And so...if anyone, ANYONE wants him, please come get him. We can't keep him. We're not ready for a dog in our crazy life.

yes, I'm aware how happy Anthony looks with this dog....but we can NOT keep him...

Sagehen 2011

The roads opened to Sagehen days before we went up. And I'm glad they did because we had a blast!

I realized 2hours after we got up there I forgot to feed Sirus...yea, what I great pet owner I am! Thanks to cell phone service 10 miles away, and the Lund's, Sirus survived :)

Anthony and I had a fun time with our setting up tent adventure. It's getting much easier (but now we have a new tent...so it's going to get hard again). Last year, Mom and Dad were supervising while we set up our tent, and no joke, the 2nd and 6th step read: "with an adult at each end of the tent..." I look at Anthony and say "Are we 'adult' enough for this?" haha. And the last step reads....the tent should look like the picture. Oh, good, what if it doesn't?

Anthony and Dad spent the mornings fishing while the rest of us slept. Anthony and I went on a 4-wheeler ride (part of that was because we had to go call people remember).

Mom took us mushrooming - which is code for, searching around the hillside for brown Easter eggs that only 1/2 of us enjoy eating... :) It's fun, as long as your find one mushroom every 20 min or so.

I gave David my camera to document us setting up camp. He apologized for any dumb pictures he might take and told me I could delete them. It then turned into a challenge when I told him I don't delete any of my pictures. Boy, did I get some awesome pictures after that...like 5 pictures of moss - and some of them were unfocused.

Sadly, my camera died within the first 2 hours, so this ends the first post. I'll put up more pictures when I steal the pictures from my mom.

Overall, the trip was great. We played lots of card games, wore long sleeves all the time, poor Sara thought she was coming to Idaho to be warmer. Sorry Sara! The first night I couldn't feel me feet, I was so cold!

Round 1 - the first 2 hours...

Setting up camp

Does it look like the picture?

ummm - pine needles

We found this really awesome flipper on the dock...yes, just one. I'm not sure who was using it, the water was COLD!!!


:)

Gardening....

I was so proud of myself for planting my garden on this this year :) I got my radishes and spinach planted in March/April and the rest of it in the ground before June.

I had spinach, radishes (duh, I just said that) tomatoes, peppers, basil, and pumpkin. I have my water set on a timer, I bought all the bug-be-gone stuff, I have my little plants all greenhoused in with walls-of-water. I'm all set...right?!?!

WRONG!!!

I went the check my little plants and what do you know?!?!? My peppers are gone...GONE!!! Apparently bug-be-gone stuff doesn't work on BIRDS! I'm pretty sure the quail thought I planted this garden for them. So, I'm down 2 peppers, and if I'm not careful, my pumpkin is looking very very sad.

The good news is....I had a delicious spinach salad a couple nights ago, and look what DID survive :)


I pulled these delightful things out of my garden today :) By next week the rest of them should be ready!

You know you're an elementary school teacher when....

I woke up this morning and had to tell Anthony how I MUST be an elementary school teacher. My dream last night consisted of a bus tour. It was with me, Anthony, family, friends...and a bunch of old people I didn't know. We were touring space. I remember getting off the bus and being like "hey, we just visited Neptune. Where did you just come from?" And we all took a pit stop on Jupiter, there were porta potties...no worries. Oh, and I believe Sirus came too.

I would just like to say...all the other planets look very similar to Earth, except due to the atmosphere you see differently on all the planets. Thanks to the Magic School Bus, we didn't even need to wear space suits.

Yup...I teach 2nd grade...

B...E...A...utiful!

I have to tell the story of this beautiful couch before I move onto it's purpose in my life.

When Anthony moved into his duplex Jr. year at NNU, it didn't come with a bed...cool. So, his uncle graciously let him have this hide-a-bed couch. Anthony threw a mattress on top of it and slept on it for a year. When we moved into our apartment, it came with us. I really love it as a couch, it's nice and big to lounge in watching TV. And it's a great extra bed...not that we really need anymore beds in our house, but it has been used before...like last night when Anthony fell asleep on it watching a movie and he wouldn't wake up when I went to bed, even though I spoke his name very, very loudly... I think he was out there for a couple hours, while I enjoyed the queen bed to myself :) Alright, moving on...


The only part I don't love...the stuffing is gone from the arms (and ripped) and I'm not COMPLETELY in love with the cream floral.

(I have no idea why the picture turned this way...technology hates me)

So, I got an e-mail from Joann's this week about how they were giving 50% off their home decor fabric. SCORE!! I browsed for a couple of hours, narrow down the results to about 3 patterns and had Anthony help me on the final decision. I was very happy that he picked the same one I liked. I got my debit card out last night...AND!!!!..... Stupid Joann's lied. Apparently, 50% off until Friday...means Thursday night. By the time I got on to order it, they had lowered the discount to 40%. I was annoyed. Oh well...I bought it anyway.

I was debating on whether I wanted to do the whole thing, or just the outside and have the cushions be a solid color. Well, the lack of discount made my decision for me. I'm going with a solid (blue?) color for the cushions. I'm hoping it'll cost less that the upholstery fabric does. So, now I'm going to need some serious patience. (I'd like to add in here, my inspiration came from Betsy...yea, look what you've done...) I'm not sure if I want to rip the whole thing apart, or just put some extra fluff around the arms and cover what's already been done (I'm leaning towards the 2nd option). I'm not really as picky as I should be...so this is a great project for me, and not for Anthony, who will probably insist on measuring things and lining things up. pshhh...so not me.

Well, I'm sure you're dying to know which fabric won...so here is the one we picked out for our beautiful couch. We'll see how this works out...wish me luck!

Premature

My last post was a bit premature. Hours after posting it, I received a phone call letting me know I will be teaching 24 darling 1st and 2nd graders in August. I could not be more ecstatic! I am still wrapping my mind around the fact all my teaching belongings will finally have a home and not need to be packed up every few months to move to a new home.

More than anything, at this point, I'm happy to know I'll be somewhere this year. I'm sure the excitement of WHAT I'll be doing will come shortly after visiting my new room.

So...I would like to introduce all of you to my new home. Idaho Arts Charter School.

June!!!!

How I LOVE the month of June! I really do take it to full advantage, maybe I go a bit overboard…

First, it’s summer. Officially. It’s also my birthday, which I turn into a whole month J And, at the end of the month, Anthony and I get to celebrate our anniversary! The month of June is packed full of….well…let’s be honest, me!

Those of you complaining about the weather, you need to realize you’re in Idaho. I have lived many, many birthdays of both hot, hot days, and rain. This weather MAY be colder than usual, but not totally uncommon. There are no expectations for June weather.

I just text Anthony, and sadly, my camera is sitting in the car at his work, so no pictures today. But, I must go into my first week of summer. It started like crap. For those of you who don’t know, I didn’t get to keep my job at Owyhee due to lack of staff needed at our school. I was the last hire, and so I was the first out of a job. I’m not upset at the school at all, just at the situation. I really love the staff there, and most of all, the students. I’m going to miss the family that has taken me in and helped me grow SO much in my teaching the last 2 years. Thank you Owyhee Staff for ALL you have done for me J We’ll keep in touch!

So, due to a lack of a job, I started applying. I had an interview at Idaho Arts Charter School (thanks to Jen) on Friday. I think it went pretty well, but I’ll find out at the end of the week. I’m not so afraid of NOT having a job by the time school starts. I’m afraid of having no idea what I’ll be teaching. I just want to go into the summer knowing WHAT I’ll be doing, so I can prepare myself for all the fun adventures headed my way. I’m trying to stay optimistic and keep all my options open. I’m trying to look at this as a blessing in disguise. Maybe I’ll find something I never would have looked for before. And my experience and Owyhee just makes me that stronger of a teacher.

Ok, moving on from my job issues…

I was so lucky to have David and Rachel here for 2 whole days with us! Yay family! I love them so much!

We started by deserting David…yea, we’re that cool. Monday evening we all went to the Lund’s for hot dogs over the fire and many, many hours of Rock Band. I tried really hard to stay awake this time, but for some reason, by the time 2:30 am rolls around, I get tired.

Yesterday we set badminton back up and I think we determined Anthony’s the winner and Rachel lost both games. But honestly, I should have been the loser, I have zero coordination. Poor Rachel just got stuck on the wrong side of the net.

I then took Rachel on a shopping adventure to the grocery store, I know, how boring is that? But I hadn’t been in a month, and it needed to be done. The fun part came when I took her to Cash and Carry and showed her how I make my coffee cabinet the most amazing coffee cabinet you’ve ever seen. I believe I now have about 10 flavors of coffee. My reason for buying an espresso machine was to save money and calories. But, in order to do this, I need options. I can’t drink the same coffee over and over, so I figure…$3.50 a flavor x 10 flavors…that’s $35. But, that will last me at LEAST 6 months. Instead of $4.00 a coffee every day. It pays off J

So, this is a long post with zero pictures. And that being said, I’ll leave all of you alone to blog stalk someone else. Enjoy your month of June! And check back, now that I’m out of school, I’ll have lots of time to keep this updated J