Crazy (and fun) Christmas!

Our Christmas this year meant that everyone came home. Home being Chuck and Liz' home (and our home while they are gone). Beck and Ryan and their 4 children came in from Oregon. Kelly and her 2 girls came in from Utah and Jon flew in from Maryland.

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6 adults, 6 kids. 12 people total.

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Although it was quite a loud and busy house for a few days, it was great to have everyone home for Christmas! We played games, watched come classic Christmas movies, made good dinners together, played a lot of pool and Wii and went to a real fire station to ride in a real fire truck, dress up like real firemen and spray a real hose from the truck! (Thank you Mike!)

Thanksgiving in St. George

Thanksgiving is a time to be with family, so we packed up the car and drove to St. George, UT to be with Grandma and Grandpa Wood, Aunt Lisa, Kelly and her girls and Jon. All of the hype about a blizzard in northern Utah, had us worried that we would not get to see our little nieces but things cleared and they pulled into town just a little before we did.

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Tessa Lee chilling with a movie, mom and Callie before Thanksgiving dinner.

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On a walk after dinner to work off the yummy turkey took us around the golf course in grandma and grandpa's backyard!

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Callie is getting so old! She was so proud of her name that she wrote in the dirt.

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The following day, we went on a hike to the quarry where the black volcanic rock for the temple foundation was cut.

The girls with their great-grandpa!

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Grandpa scouted out these chisel holes from the last time he hiked up here.

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The whole weekend was filled with relaxing at grandma and grandpa's, playing the game and of course, eating good food. We are so grateful for this family that we are a part of and all of their smiles and laughter that make being together fun.

December... Already?!

Man, how the time flies! Last time I posted, it was the end of October, still sunny and in the 70's daily and now it is already December! Not only is December one of my favorite months of the year, but it also means that family is coming into town, we will be eating yummy dinners together, making gingerbread houses, and just enjoying a break!

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We have been pretty busy since Halloween, mostly at work for the both of us and school for me. Matt has been working hard, and traveled to Salt Lake for work/fun with Kelly, her girls and Jon for a weekend. Then he came home only to drive us out to St. George only 4 or 5 days later. The drive was not too painful but this is coming from the one who didn't ever sit behind the steering wheel the entire 22 hours of driving during that Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you Matt! While Matt drove, I had my laptop heating up my lap as I worked on lesson plans, unit outlines, group projects and semester end papers. Again, I thanked Matt over and over as I was so "optimistic" ("productive") during the entire drive and this meant that the week after Thanksgiving was not nearly as busy or stressful at school and work.

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And that brings us right up to today, as I am cranking through more end-of-the-semester assignments and work on lesson plans for work at Capri and Matt is in Las Vegas for a New Senior Managers Training this week.

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I am trying to soak in as much of the Christmas spirit by listening to my eclectic Christmas music playlist while also working on assignments. So, if we don't get another post in until after Christmas, you will know that we are enjoying our Christmas season with family and friends as much as possible!

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

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After a busy week at work and school, we finally were able to get around to carving our pumpkins and pose for some pictures with our glowing creations :)

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My jack-o-lantern was inspired from an idea that I saw in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine last year and I put it on the back burner until this year. I thought that their ideas were a lot cuter but this is what I could come up with. And I felt like I had saved some sad lopsided pumpkin from inevitable pie making or being thrown in a dumpster on November 1st. So you are welcome little lopsided and sad looking pumpkin :)

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Here is Matt's Jack-o-lantern is an ode to the rag-tag bunch of Giants who are playing on Halloween night :) Can you guess what we are doing right now as Trick-or-Treaters come to our door every 5 minutes? :)

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This is for Liz. She always had the cutest decorations for fall and Halloween and so I had to document my attempt at good decor.

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Happy Halloween to all of our Family and Friends all over the country and the world!

So, with Baseball coming to an end and the Giants in the Super Bowl,

I mean World Cup....

no thats not right.... :)

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With the Giants in the World Series and all, Matt and I have been watching baseball almost every night. Which is not too bad... I am actually becoming a bigger Giants fan with every game that comes and goes.

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While the Giants were in the NLDS (National League Division Series), my brother-in-law, Jon, was not able to watch all of the games as they were not covered on the East Coast. So with a little ingenuity, Matt rigged up a platform to prop up his computer at TV level (which is above the fireplace mantel) and called Jon on Skype so that he could watch the game with us!

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What brothers wont do for one another....

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Needless to say, there was a lot of talking about the stats of the players, yelling at the TV, and very little sitting down (on Matt's part). I think Jon appreciated being able to watch the game with his brother and save himself the 10 cents that it costs each of the 80 times that they would usually text one another during a game:)

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GO GIANTS!!!!

India and Dubai

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in India during August. I led US taxation trainings for a class of about 30 newly hired Deloitte Tax recruits fresh out of college. It was a lot of fun (although I did miss Danielle a ton). While I was gone, Danielle and I discovered how useful Skype can be. With the twelve and a half hour time difference, we would often set up Skype and have video calls while Danielle was eating breakfast and I was eating dinner. It actually almost felt like we were sitting across the table from one another while we ate (except we couldn't play footsie...bummer). So here are a few pictures from my trip:

In the Charminar Marketplace in the "old city" of central Hyderabad. One of the guys I was with was trying to find turbans (as souvenirs) for his little boys. He found them easily in this predominately Muslim part of town.

Here is the class I taught. They were mostly MBAs from some of the best universities in India. They were so much fun to teach. We teased each other and played practical jokes and just had a jolly good time together.

Inside the walls of Golconda Fort, a palace/fortification that was in its heyday sometime in the 15th century. It's fun to walk around and imagine what the place was like back then.

A cool looking archway on the hike up to the top of Golconda fort.

In addition to spending a couple of weeks in India, I got to spend a couple of days in Dubai, U.A.E. Dubai is famous for all of its modern engineering marvels, including several man-made islands in the shape of palm trees, an indoor ski resort and the tallest building in the world. It was a great place to visit and like no other place I've ever been.

The Persian Gulf looked like glass when I went for a morning swim at my hotel (in the shadow of the Burj Al Arab, the world's only 7-star hotel).

After swimming in the 90 degree water of the gulf, I decided it was time to cool off . . . so I went snow skiing at the Ski Dubai indoor ski resort. All equipment and clothing is provided with the lift ticket and the snow wasn't half bad. I had a smile from ear to ear the whole time (except in this picture) and just kept chuckling because I knew it was 110 degrees outside.

In front of my hotel, the Mina A-Salam. My hotel was connected to several other beautiful properties via the waterway behind me and you could ride water taxis to get wherever you needed to go.

This is the view looking up from the first floor of the Burj Al Arab. It is incredibly ornate and gaudy inside, but was actually smaller than I had anticipated.

We had high tea on the 27th floor of the Burj Al Arab in the Skyview Lounge. It was quite pricey, but was excellent. And it had an amazing view of the Palm Jumeirah and The World (two of the famous man-made islands). The service was incredible, but it'd better be incredible to substantiate a 7-star rating.

In front of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It is officially 2,717 feet tall; Taller than anything else ever made by man (or woman) by a margin of almost 1,000 feet.

On the outdoor observation deck in the Burj Khalifa at a height of about 1,500 feet. I think it was probably all in my mind, but I kept feeling the building swaying back and forth.

This was the view from the balcony of my hotel room. It was an incredible stop in Dubai. But as always...the best part of the trip was having Danielle back in my arms when I arrived at home.

First Day of 5th Grade!

So, no, I am not having to repeat the Fifth Grade (although, my teachers might have held me back had I been any worse in Spelling and Math) ....But I did start my student teaching in 5th grade!

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August 23rd came really fast after spending the previous week setting up the classroom with my teacher trainer/master teacher (Stacy). Getting posters up on the walls, organizing desks into groups and sorting through textbooks and planning for the first days of school! Then I was off to Farmington to hang out with Kelly and the girls for a weekend before the first day of school all over again!

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Since Matt was in India at the time, he insisted that I take the traditional "First Day of School" pictures myself. Well, I ended up having my dad take them at the end of the day instead of the beginning but it's all the same in the end anyway, right?

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Super excited to have an 'official' teacher badge with my picture on it and everything!

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And so school begins. The first week and a half have gone really well! By the second day, I had picked up the math that we do every morning! (Well how about that!) I plan and pick problems for 'Board Math' and prep the white board that is set aside just for this task and then teach it the following morning. It is a new idea/program that Stacy was trained in during the summer and she passed on the information to me and so now I have my first little, scheduled teaching time every day and we are not even that far into the school year! I LOVE it! And it doesn't hurt that I think that Board Math is amazing and I wish that my elementary school teachers had used it with me!

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What is Board Math you ask? If you really want to know then keep reading! (can you tell that I am excited about this and want to share it with everyone?!) Basically it is a review and preview of all the 5th grade math concepts that our students will be learning throughout the year. We touch on all of the different subject areas from algebra to geometry and word problems all in a 15 minute period every morning. It makes math seem less scary when the teacher (me:) walks through the problems one at a time, step-by-step. As the week goes on, the students begin to answer some of the questions on their own and by Friday, they love math and feel that they are experts at it! A great confidence builder for all students.

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So there you have it. From the first day to the first week and a half. I will probably rant more about the awesome tactics and programs that we use later on and I am sorry, but it is nice to tell them to anyone who will listen:)

The Tree Catastrophe

So Matt is out of town for work, I am home after a morning of swim lessons and lifeguarding and enjoying a quiet moment while reading the newspaper when I hear a "pop, pop, pop, POP" in the front yard. I think it could be some kids playing with firecrackers or something but it turns out that it was much bigger than that....

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The tree in our front yard decided to lighten its load and shade off a branch or two (but more like six) and then drop them right on our mailbox. Lovely.

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The carnage. Luckily Becky and Ryan had left on Sunday night or their van would have been a part of this mess. And luckily no one else had decided to park there that day either!

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I pulled the poor mailbox from the beneath the branches but knew it was too late to save it when I saw a portion of the base of the mailbox still attached to the post on which it stands. Oh well.

Now, three days later, the branches are chopped up (thanks to Mark and Jeremy) and hauled away (thanks to Kyle, Peter and Jose). And a new mailbox is on its way and will be here Monday.

A nice little adventure in homeownership for me.

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And as my grandma said, "The bad things always happened when Dale was out of town." Well I guess I know what she means now :)

The end of our stay in Portugal

So the trip came and went (almost 2 months ago) and I am finally finishing what I started. Here are the final days in Portugal. We had so much fun traveling all over Northern Portugal that it was fun to see what the city of Porto had to offer us. Matt, Callie and I went on a walk to this old park which used to be the gardens of a large estate. It was fun to play in the shrub maze and fountains with Callie for a while.

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Then we all went on a little trip to have McDonalds for dinner to celebrate Callie's 5th birthday and to see more of the main square in old Porto. Here we are at the subway stop by mom and dad's house.

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We did a little bit of walking and saw some older buildings in the town center. Tessa just liked to have a good ride on Matt's shoulders more than looking at the old buildings, churches and architecture. And Matt was more than happy to play with her outside while the others were taking it all in.

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Mom and Kelly with a view of the city below. We started our walk at the top of the hill instead of climbing up it like Matt and I did earlier in the week. Such a beautiful view with all of the red tile rooftops!

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We took this photo on our way down the stairs from the top of the city. Another great view and a great group of girls!

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In the old Porto town center, this man playing the saxophone and he began playing a fun song for Callie and Tess. Callie danced a little but Tess just watched, mesmerized by the sound of it. It was so cute! And he got a kick out of her too.

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And thus ended our european adventure! Hopefully I keep up better next time :)

Tahoe!!!

Over the weekend we went to Tahoe and met Kelly and her girls as well as Rachel and her daughter and Heather. We had so much fun... as you can tell from the pictures below. Matt and I were only able to stay for 2 days but we had fun anyways. We stayed on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe but spent our time on the East Shore (Sand Harbor) and a day on the North Shore too. Tahoe wouldn't be Tahoe without spending time in the places that we love with people that we love even more:)

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Matt and the girls. I guess they couldn't decide who got to sit on his lap so they both did!

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Sand Harbor! I love this beach (even though I have really only been there twice now) with its huge boulders and great views. The water was also a lot warmer this trip since it was late July and it was fun just to swim and float in the water! All of the adults took a turn on the inflatable chair to simply float out in the water and soak up the sun.

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Matt and Tess having a little chat. Either that or she is mesmerized by her reflection in his sun glasses. I don't know.

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Chillin' on the beach. Tess enjoyed sitting and eating pretzels some of the time but also ventured out into the water a ways. Such a cutie.

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Relaxing on the beach :)

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Matt and I enjoyed the short break from work and school for a quick summer trip. It was totally worth it to be away for even two short days.

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Peek-a-boo!

Tess hung out under Matt's legs to catch a break from the sun, watch the sand slip through her fingers and fill his pant pockets full of sand! Silly girl.

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Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

Aunt Heather taught Tess and Gabbie how to jump on the hotel beads and then we couldn't keep them from jumping on the couches after that! But they had fun at least:)

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Callie and Kelly on the balcony from our hotel rooms.

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What mother (or aunt, uncle, cousin, friend, distant relative, anyone...) wouldn't love this face?

Tess had fun at the park on the North Shore for a while on Sunday.

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Right before we left on Sunday night, the girls held still long enough for Matt and me to get a picture with them. These girls are the greatest ever. Love them to death.

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What a great, short, fun, but too quick trip to Tahoe to see these cute little girls and Kelly, Rachel and Heather. Thank you for letting us come and hang out for a few days of your vacation!