Danielle and Matt Walton

President's/Ski Week Break

2012-02-22T16:07:00.003-08:00

First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts. The only excuse that I have is that I have been attempting to keep my 4th grade class from exploding with all that we have been doing and trying to stay on top of it all!

But, now that I have a week off (!!!!) I can catch up! Here is what I have been up too this past week!

I have been reading and laughing at comics like this…

I have been altering a few of my shirts/pants. After looking over Pinterest ideas, I got inspired to "skinny-up" and shorten a pair of jeans that I had been rolling up to wear with sandals during the summer. (Inspired by: http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/2011/02/busy-busy-day.html)

After going fabric shopping with some girls from the ward a while back, I saw a sample dress in the store in a beautiful brown and paisley pattern and a very cute/simple cut. After a little deliberation (about 1 minute), I checked the tag for the pattern number and got ready to run around the store looking for that exact fabric. I found all of the materials and then it sat in a bag in my closet for about 3 months. I figured it was time to pull it out and test my sewing skills on this new project. So far, I have just cut out each of the pieces and the interfacing. I had to grad sharper needles today and soon I will be putting it all together! I will post the final result as soon as it is finished!

And finally, I have been taking advantage of the GREAT weather and soaking up the sun! Today, I read/tanned outside for a while and then I returned outside a little later to get some work done. I am so grateful for this beautiful yard and I am sad to be leaving it in the near future.

San Francisco for a Night

2011-12-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

After tossing the idea around a little bit over the past few weeks, Matt and I decided to spend a night up in San Francisco. We wanted to be close to the lights and shopping at Union Square so we stayed at Taj Campton Place a half a block from the tree and the lights. It was a perfect place to stay and we even had a "view" of the top of the Union Square tree from our room. (Although we had to stand on the windowsill and peek over the railing of another hotel room in order to see just the top of the red star ;) We liked the place and it was in a good central location.

We got up to the city at about 5:00 pm and then walked around the square, did a little Christmas shopping and had really good burgers at The Burger Bar in Macy's. I had a burger with grilled zucchini, caramelized onions and swiss cheese and it was delicious!!! I might have to try this in the summer when I am over run with zucchinis again.

After enjoying the lights and sounds of Union Square, we hopped on a cable car and headed toward the bay where we got the traditional Ghirardelli ice cream sundae.

The next morning we had planned on going to the California Academy of Sciences. I even thought ahead and bought tickets online to save us $10. However, when we arrived a little before opening, there was an enormous line! We were thinking, "Man, we are glad that we got here a little early." and, "This is a TON of people!"After a few minutes of waiting, an employee walked by, welcoming everyone to the free day at the museum and that they would be opening the doors in a few minutes. Did you catch that? That little four letter word that would explain all of the people and make my pre-planning worth nothing? F-R-E-E. (Every 3rd Wednesday of the month is free. So if you go, don't buy tickets beforehand and go early!)

(Me inside the rainforest exhibit. It is a 3-story dome that lets you explore the animals and fauna at each level of the rainforest. Super cool!)

Although we had already purchased tickets, they are good for any day up to a year after purchase (if you would like to go to the Academy in the next year, let me know. I can give you a deal;). It really wasn't too crowded, since they limit the number of people inside at any given time, and we got in with the first rush. The line was just as long when we left the museum at 1:00 pm as it was when we got into it in the morning!

The view from the top, the living roof. It is because of this roof, that we had a hard time finding the Academy on Google. It blended in with the other greenery in Golden Gate Park!

Outside the rainforest exhibit. There are two of these domes. One for the rainforest and the other is the planetarium.

Then we took a little drive through the rest of the park to see the bison (yes, there is a herd of bison in the middle of SF) and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. Since I had never been to this park, it was fun to see it for the first time, with Matt as my tour guide. Then we made our way to Lands End Peak where I got these shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sorry for the bad picture, but it is the only one of the two of us and the Golden Gate. The sun was just too bright and Matt had a hat to help him out. Oh well.

We had a great time and we even are considering making this a tradition for the years to come!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am Thankful for...

2011-11-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for…

- Life

- The opportunity that I have to live and work in this beautiful area in California.

- My family- each and every one of them, no matter how crazy we may be :)

- My education (and all of the family and friends who made it possible).

- My husband, Matt, who knows me best.

- The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

- And for Thanksgiving Day Football Games :)

Not that I love football all that much, but I do appreciate the opportunity to be with family, have some fun and have a descent excuse to pull out my Canon Rebel and take some photos.

Let the game begin!!

Mark was really getting into it :)

Not only did the annual Walton football game have a few Waltons, but we had a few recruits this year as well.

(Adam had a few really good runs)

Chris W. and Brad P. swapped the task of being quarterback.

We had 2 bishops present: Bishop Walton and former Bishop Knudsen!

Van Dusen buddies: Evan and Mark.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Changes Are Afoot

2011-10-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

After teaching for almost 3 months and being out the classroom for various teaching trainings and Professional Development seminars for at least 10 of those days, I can finally get back into a rhythm with my class. (Now, 10 days may not seem like that long, but when they are almost every week and I have to spend at least a day after each one cleaning up the behavioral damage to my classroom, I am glad that I am done with these 10 PD days) I will not have to be out of the classroom until December and then it is for only 1 more day. I have had both great experiences and really (really) bad experiences with substitute teachers over the past few months and I am ready to face the months ahead with no interruptions. Now, don't get me wrong, I have appreciated every training that I have participated in and every day that I have been out of the classroom. This time away has allowed me to take a step back and realize what I love about teaching and reflect on what I can do to make it a better year for me and my class of wonderful students.

This last training that I was out for, was a 4-day observation of teaching strategies, that put all together are called G.L.A.D. or Guided Language Acquisition and Development. The basis for it is that students learn best when they are excited about what they are learning and that the best way to get students excited about something is to make it like a game. Well GLAD is all about doing that in a way that teaches language with a content area such as Science or Social Studies instead of through (sometimes) dry Language Arts lessons and grammar workbook pages. The way that GLAD is set up, is to help students work together and then eventually, help them work on their own to make the learning (and academic language) more permanent.

I won't go into all of the gory details, but through this training, I was able to see that I was having more problems during our Language Arts time because I was making it too "boring" and not about things that my students really care about. I realized that I need to be more cunning in the way that I go about teaching language and grammar to my students. Not only will it be more fun for my students but it will also be more fun for me since I will not have to deal with as many behavior problems! (At least that is my hope) So, I am finally moving my students back into groups today (since the rows really didn't help minimize the talking at all) and getting back on track with why I really went into teaching in the first place… Because it is fun!

Sorry for this long blog post with no pictures, but maybe I can get some photos up of my class at the Tech Museum from this past Friday to keep you interested :)

Room 15!

2011-08-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Room 15!

Here are a few pictures of my new classroom after one week of teaching! There is student work on the walls, and the room looks "lived-in". I am so proud of what my students and I have accomplished over the first week, that I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy a sneak peak into room 15!

The view from the front of the room: my projector and document camera, read aloud books and our trusty timer, Mr. Timer (My kids voted on that very *original* name:)

The front door and our Room 15 Puzzle. Each student got a puzzle piece to represent themselves and then we worked together to put it all together.

The beginning of our Author's Wall and classroom library with our Watermelon Math posters on the wall.

My corner of the room :)

Our Last Trip to Portugal

2011-07-30T11:19:00.001-07:00

Our last trip to Portugal was bitter sweet. This place has been our go-to vacation spot for the past 2 years and now where will we go!? For this trip, we finally made it to the island of Madeira, off the coast of Morocco. This little, rocky island was a part of Chuck and Liz's mission and a beautiful vacation spot for a lot of Europeans. The thing about this island is that there is not a flat spot on the whole thing! We counted 18 tunnels that we had to go through in order to get from the airport to the hotel and we went through many more while we were there for 3 more days.

This is the hike down to one member's home. We parked on the side of the winding mountain road and then walked down for about ¼ mile to get to their home. The new picture at the top of our blog is taken from this home. I think the walk is worth the view!

Monday was P-day and so Chuck and Liz took the missionaries on a hike around the center of the island. This hike follows the lavadas (or aquaducts) that flow from springs high in the mountains of Madeira. Since the lavadas are at a gentle slope, the hike was not all that hard but we did hike a total of 23 miles (possibly more with all of the detours we took, trying to find the actual trail).

Matt hiking along and enjoying the beautiful views.

The group of missionaries that went on the hike with us. These are all of the missionaries that were currently serving on the island of Madeira. I think they all loved spending this time with their mission mom and dad before Chuck and Liz left for the the mainland of Portugal and then back to the US.

This was our second stop, Calderon Inferno. I bet you could guess why this place is named such…. It was very, very, very hot! The angles of the cliff faces are such that it directs the light (and heat) from the sun, directly down on the trail. It was a pretty place but not one where we wanted to stay for very long.

One of the many tunnels that we had to walk, duck and shuffle through along this trail. It was quite an adventure since only a few of us had flashlights that actually worked so we never wanted to be left behind in one of these tunnels. They were so long and windy that you could almost never see the end until it was right in front of you.

Chuck would suggest that you bring a helmet if you ever go on this hike. (He bumped his head quite a few times in the tunnels. In fact, I think most of us bumped our heads at least once on this hike, but not too badly.)

Back on the mainland of Portugal, Matt and I did what we never thought we would do, take a Yellow Bus Tour. We felt strange being on a tourist bus when we had already been to this city two times before but we were tired and wanted to see the city in a different way. It turned out to be well worth the money as we could hop on and hop off as we wished and we go to see a few places that we had never seen before!

Another view of the iconic bridge built by Eiffel (Yes, the same man who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris). The view from up higher on the river bank makes the bridge stand out among the red roofs of Porto.

The hop-on, hop-off capability of the Yellow Bus allowed us to stop and take more pictures or explore side streets as we wished. Here, we just could not pass up the opportunity to take a few photos of this church decorated in the traditional blue painted tiles of Portugal. So stunning, yet simple. I love it!

After we had rested up on the Yellow bus, we walked around the city a bit more. Instead of walking across the Eiffel bridge on the bottom portion of the bridge, we decided to cross back on the upper deck which is shared by the above-ground metro. Such amazing views of the duoro and the river front shops and resturants from up above! We will miss this city.

We hopped off the Yellow Bus for lunch at this famous little place, the Cafe Majestic. I very old, very traditional little cafe where we could get traditional Portuguese food such as…

A francesinha! Basically a ham, sausage, roast beef sandwich covered in melted cheese and drenched in a beer sauce. Simply yummy if you ask me.

I just had to take a picture of the old leather benches that we sat on in the Cafe Majestic. Worn but still holding on to their original delicate design and high fashion.

We celebrated the festival of Sao Joao (Saint John the Baptist) by heading down to the river at about 11:30 PM and then watching an AMAZING fireworks show (which was based on 5 or 6 barges anchored in the middle of the river). The show started at midnight and was the kickoff for the festival which includes hitting people on the head with plastic, squeaky hammers, drinking and eating along the duoro and walking the few miles from the river, where the fireworks show is, to the mouth of the river. The idea is that the party ("mob of people") will end up at the river mouth as the sun rises and then everyone goes home to sleep off the night of partying. We only participated in the fireworks show and then headed back up the hill as the mob of party goers was heading down it! It took a very long time to fight the crowd back to the Metro and it turns out that the best way to make your way through a claustrophobic crowd is to hold hands and let me lead the way :) It was my good looks and determination that got us home safely ;) No. I just held up my hand and with Matt and Chuck hanging on for dear life, I pushed up the crowd to the Metro station. A fun night and a great cultural experience!

Fireworks off the bridge. Just wonderful!

One of the days we had in Portugal, we went on a little adventure with Liz. She was our driver as we hit some of our favorite spots and then uncovered a few more. This bakery is in Viana de Castello where they make the best bolos in the country! (or at least the northern part) We had to stop for just one more…. :)

Our next stop with mom was Ponte de Lima. A small town with lots of European charm and a Roman Bridge for which it is famous.

This side of the bridge in Ponte de Lima is NOT the Roman side but is a continuation of the Roman bridge just the the right of us. These arches are too symmetrical to be Roman. But it was a pretty view back at towards the town itself.

Then to Lindoso! This is one city which lies inside the Peneda-Geres National Park in Northern Portugal. This castle was closed so we could not walk around inside of it, although Matt found a way in (climbing the outer wall) and walked around in the turrets and on the outer walls. Although these stone things to the right of us in the picture look like ancient stone crypts, they are actually pretty modern granaries. The stone pillars they sit on, keep unwanted rodents and pests from getting inside. They are still used today and are quite neat to look at.

After leaving Lindoso, we drove up through the mountain roads for a while as we searched for the church de Sao Penera. Its backdrop is supposedly awe inspiring, more so than the church itself, with shear volcanic rock walls behind it that have angular surfaces. However, the roads continued to climb and wind and it was getting later and later, so we decided to just enjoy the mountain views around us and head for home. This is one spectacular view that we saw along the way and Matt was trying to take it all in as our trip to Portugal was coming to an end.

Some sort of medieval watchtower that we found along the mountain roads above Lindoso. We could not get in (the current owners had placed a metal door in the entrance) but I did climb onto Matt's shoulders to get a look through a window and since I still could not see inside, I reached over the edge with our camera to take a picture. There was a small stairwell at the bottom that lead to a make-shift platform made from an old millstone. Who knows what it was used for but we had fun exploring this old place just the same.

This is the map that we were following to try and get to the church de Sao Penera. Matt had the idea to take this picture of a sign in the town of Lindoso and then use it as we drove along. But since the map did not have any distances listed, it was a little hard to follow.

Our last stop in the northern most part of Portugal was to the Spain-Portugal border! Since both countries are a part of the EU, there was no passport control and not even a police station! I don't think that I can claim that I have been to Spain but it was fun to cross the border, none the less.

And just like that, it was time to leave. It was a little strange saying goodbye to Chuck and Liz because they would be leaving only a few days after we left, but it was also as if we were saying goodbye to the country that we have grown to love so much too. We can only imagine how it must have been for Chuck and Liz to leave behind, not only the country of Portugal but the people that they have grown to love as well. It was a wonderful "last trip" to Portugal but I think that we will be going back at some point in the future. This country is just too beautiful and peaceful to stay away for long. :)

Classroom Library

2011-07-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

When I found out that I would be teaching 4th grade, I was not only happy but very excited.

This is for a few reasons:

1 - I would be working only one grade level below that which I spent a year interning in and therefore, I feel (although I may be just kidding myself) more prepared to teach 4th as opposed to a Kindergarten class or even 1st and 2nd grade.

2 - I would be working at the same school site and therefore, the same great team members and staff that I worked with and grew to love last year.

3 - I had already begun collecting children's books for my classroom library which were focused on 4th and 5th grade readers.

My third reason is probably not a very good one, but it is a reason to be excited none the less. I began collecting books since the beginning of my student teaching year and I knew then that I loved the 5th graders that I was working with and that I wanted to teach either 4th or 5th grade. I was lucky that things actually worked out and that I did not need to spend any more money on my classroom library to adjust it to fit the reading levels of a 2nd or 3rd grade classroom.

The above picture is my library, which includes the following: Non-Fiction (40 books), Fiction- Realistic Fiction (123), Historical Fiction (31), Fantasy (39), Mystery (25), Newberry Honors (26), Poetry (2) and Picture books (4, so far) and some odds and ends for a grande total of 304 books!

So with my classroom library filling out, I began to think about the layout of my new classroom and how I wanted things to flow and how I wanted to organize things. After getting to see my new room right after signing my contract, I began drawing out various scenarios for desk layouts and where I wanted the library and the teacher's desk and computers to be, etc. (I did this for my own bedroom growing up too. Any time that I wanted to make a change to my room, be it paint or simply moving my bed and nightstand, I had to draw it out so that my dad could see that I had thought things through and that he would not be moving the bed back to its original place only minutes after moving it for me. I guess this skill has paid off in at least one way:)

With some ideas floating around my head day in and day out, I was looking through my emails and found one from the Container Store which displayed their various wares and some ways that other shoppers have used these items. One of the items was a so called indestructible milk crate in various colors. This was used for storage and one idea was for seating. I thought 'why not buy a few of these (which were on sale at the time) for seating in my own classroom library?' The pictures to follow show the progression of an idea, into a reality and hopefully something that will actually work out for my classroom this year and beyond.

Two 13" x 13" squares and one 3" x 52" strip of fabric.

Pinning the edges of the pillow together before sewing the strip all the way around the edge of one of the 13" x 13" squares.

The almost finished product! Just add a square pillow form, hand stitch the open end together and...

You have three lovely little seats for my classroom library. Not only are they cute and comfortable, but they also naturally limit the number of students in the library to 3 at a time (maybe 4 if one student is browsing). Not bad for a little time and some scrap fabric.

Another perk is that they conveniently stack up so that they are out of the way if more floor space is needed (sorry about the sideways picture).

Now that things are beginning to come together (and pile up) in my house, I feel the pressure to get into my new classroom so that I can store all of this stuff elsewhere!

The New Job

2011-06-29T08:48:00.001-07:00

Lets start from the beginning… no, that would take to long. Here is the Reader's Digest version:

I worked my bum off this year as an un-paid intern at an awesome school in the Campbell Union School District and had several people who had my back and the principal's ear who helped get him in the classroom to see me at work and then helped him realize that he wanted me around next school year:) He pulled to get me interviewed and hired by the district. The last week of school before summer vacation, I got a call for an interview with the Assistant Superintendent and head of HR. The Tuesday after school had ended, I had my interview and it went very well:) I was going to be leaving for Portugal the Friday after the interview and hoped (and asked) if I would hear anything before then. She was hopeful (and so was I). Thursday afternoon I was in my parents car on the way to my younger brother's high school graduation when my phone rang…. It was an unknown number but I had a feeling that it was the Campbell District Offices. I had everyone in the car quiet down before answering the call. It was the Assistant Superintendent extending me a job offer!!! Trying to keep my voice at a level tone and my head on straight when I am waving my arms around and silently screaming is very difficult but (I think) I managed. I left for Portugal on Friday morning (post to come) and returned this past Monday night. Tuesday morning I went to the offices to sign my contract and by 10:45 AM yesterday I was a contracted employee with a classroom teaching position for the 2011-2012 school year!

Since I was just too excited about it and couldn't go straight home, I went by the school to let in all soak in and who would you guess was there? None other than the principal and new vice-principal. The principal offered to show me my new classroom (which of course I accepted) and before I knew it, I was standing in the (completely) empty room that would be mine for the next year. He is pulling to get me on the 4th grade team but as a new hire, I am at the mercy of the district until things settle down over the summer. For now, I get to revel in the fact that I have a job, earlier than most new teachers, and begin making lists and plans for my classroom next year!

Mt. Whitney

2011-06-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

So… over Memorial Day Weekend, we set off to the Eastern Sierras in search of an adventure. That adventure had a name and its name was, Mount Whitney! After applying for a hiking permit for the past 5 years, Matt was finally able to secure one this year! Even though it was still early in the season and there was plenty of snow on the mountain, we decided to try it anyways. The pictures never do this mountain or the surrounding areas justice but they sure are beautiful! (You should go and check it out too! Lone Pine, CA is the coolest little town and can boast to being the backdrop for many only, and new, western films).

Matt and I at the rock arch in the Alabama Hills. This area is full of unique rock formations and is a free camping area! Come and park your RV, car and/or tent anywhere you would like and soak in the beauty around you!

At the trail head! Here it was a balmy 75 degrees, but this soon changed as we continued our climb.

We crossed many rivers and streams. This one had a nice log-bridge which made this crossing drier. And beautiful!

Our camp for the night! After climbing for about 5 miles, we stopped at Outpost Camp for the night. This was a strategic choice since the winds at Trail Camp were expected to reach 70MPH that night and we did not want to be out of a tent at 11 PM when the winds were supposed to be highest. So we stayed put and I sat on a rock to soak up some sun.

After a good (not great but good) night's sleep thanks to Matt's fast thinking and a well build rock all to shield us from the wind, we woke up to ½ inch of snow, ate and started up the mountain.

We did not leave early since we did not think that making the summit was possible with all of the wind, but after just a few good hours of hiking, we had made it to the bottom of this snow shoot which is the last big climb before the summit!

Matt looking very rugged and tough on this beautiful mountain!

Although we were so close to the summit, my bad circulation kept me from gripping my ice ax to my liking and thus we enjoyed the view form the bottom of the shoot and then made our way back down.

This photo accurately shows the slopes that we were climbing throughout the morning.

On the way back down, the snow had softened up enough to be able to slide back down some sections! Here is me glissading down one such slope. (Note the impeccable technique with the ice ax angled just so, allowing me to easily control my speed and direction while sliding on my backside:)

After breaking camp, we continued back down the mountain and passed some amazing ice falls while trail finding through the snow.

It looked like the snow did not want us to leave because as were were getting close to the trailhead we continued to see snow flurries. By the time we got completely off the mountain, the summit and surrounding peaks were completely covered by clouds. I guess my cold hands knew something about the weather and wanted us to head down sooner than we would have wanted, and it turned out for the better.

In all it was a great experience! I was able to learn some more technique and use new equipment (crampons, ice ax, etc.) and Matt was able to explore a new mountain. We both want to try and summit Mount Whitney another time, with the snow conditions, and hopefully my hands will cooperate this time! :)

Kauai- North Shore Fun!

2011-05-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

More of our adventures in Kauai:

We spent a total of 2 days on the North Shore of Kauai and loved every second of it:) Matt and I feel more at home there in the slower paced north shore where everything is a little greener and more relaxed. We took my brother Peter around to see the sights that we loved best from our last stay in Kauai. We enjoyed showing him our favorite spots and just spending time with our youngest little brother.

Matt and me at our favorite beach on the north shore, Hideaways.

Rolling waves and coarse sand make this place special.

The steep hike down the volcanic cliffs make it secluded.

The small parking lot at the top makes it exclusive :)

The steep climb back up to the car from Hideaways.

Snorkeling at Queen's Bath, a natural volcanic pool by the coast that is full of tropical fish and coral that can withstand the pounding surf.

Day 2 on the north shore took Matt and me into the town of Hanalei while we were waiting for my family to wrap up at their zip-line excursion in Princeville, just down the road. While we waited, we enjoyed the warm but overcast day and walked the length of the town center. This church stands at one end of the town and is beautifully framed by the lush, towering mountains behind it. Just perfect.

A view of Hanalei Bay from Blackpot Beach. Blackpot Beach is where the locals drive onto the sand to BBQ, play and watch the sunset. On the other side of the pier is the rest of this "C" shaped bay that is ringed with towering, green mountains.

The perfect walking beach! You can walk on soft sand and in gentle waves forever and never need to turn around.

Just so relaxing!

As the sun began to slide behind the clouds, the boys (left to right- Dad, Matt, Kyle, Jose and Peter) thoughtfully gazed at the beauty around them and contemplated their place among the cosmos.....

Or Not.... ;)

They did have fun jumping for this shot and building sand castles in the sand.

On the east shore of the island there is a turn off that takes you to Wailua Falls. It is not just some small fall (it is 173 feet from the top to where the water crashes in the pool at the bottom) and we caught it at a time where the light was just right to create a clear and vibrant rainbow at the bottom. Since it was on our way to our next location, it was quite nice to stop and gawk at.

Mom, Dad, Pete, Matt and I were were up for another adventure and made the trek to the Wailua River to enjoy some lazy river boat riding up to the Fern Grotto. This natural cave was once a popular place for mainlanders to get hitched but because of the danger of falling rocks, it is not longer used for that purpose.

Although it doesn't look like anything special, the Fern Grotto used to be spectacular. However, a hurricane wiped out all of the ferns that had hung from the cliff faces. (Some ferns were estimated to be up to 10 feet in length!) Conservationists have transplanted in new ferns but it wont be the same for quite a while longer. Still a fun afternoon spent exploring more of this beautiful garden island.

Lastly, we took a short drive from our hotel to this field. Why? Because of the rusty, old mill which stands in the middle of it. I thought that the combination of man-made machinery and natural wonder was just beautiful.

(Thank you Matt for pulling over and helping me get the best shot!)

Kauai- South Shore Adventures

2011-04-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

April means Spring Break and a break from the breakneck pace of work and school ;) I had a break from school as my students had a week off for spring break and for Matt, it was exactly the wrong time to try and leave but we had a good time with my family on the south shore of Kauai. Here are a few photos from our time away.

The boys had fun jumping off of Kipu Falls into the pool below. Although it is blurry, I wanted to post this picture to document the fun that we had at these falls over the week.

We also drove further south along the coast and reached Waimea Canyon. We stopped off at many of the lookouts and took pictures of this amazing red-orange canyon. Although the clouds were dark and low, the light that was cast on the natural features around us was beautiful.

From front to back, Peter, Matt, Kyle and Jose. Enjoying the view of Waimea Canyon.

This photo does not do this coast justice! This is one of the better images of the Kalalau Valley. The only way to enter this valley is by hiking an 11 mile trail beginning on the north coast but we got a good view from the top rim.

This is the view of the trail that we hiked to gain even better views of the Kalalau Valley. The rain on this part of the island has formed the deep ruts on this trail and made it very unique and fun to scramble along.

More to come!

PACT is DONE!

2011-04-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to let you all out there, whoever may spend some time to check in on my sporadic (at best) blog posts, that I am done with PACT. I turned it in and signed it over to the graders this afternoon and I will hear back with my score in 3-4 weeks.

I can tell you that a weight was literally lifted from my shoulders when that packed manilla envelope with all 88 pages and 2 DVD's worth of the last 10 months of my life inside it, finally hit the bottom of the turn-in box. Even the men in the office were joking that they saw smiles return to faces as credential students, of all disciplines, walked in the door and dropped off those envelopes, one-by-one. I am DONE! I am ready to now focus more on my other classes and my students and getting back to focusing on being a better wife, teacher, daughter and friend now that I will have some TIME every night to relax and do those things that I have been neglecting.

So here is to a cleaner house, better meals and more meaningful, well thought-out lessons for my 5th graders!

Hands On Science!

2011-03-11T17:40:00.001-08:00

Hands On Science is so cool! According to our 5th graders. I put together a lesson a few weeks ago where we did some activities that had to do with Ground Water (the topic of our science reading for the week). We discussed impermeable layers, ground water, wells, the water table and much, much more. I thought it might be fun to catalogue some of our recent activities.

We are talking about the impermeable layer and what this means for wells. I had a model made of sand and clay that they just could not get close enough to!

They then had a chance to "dig" for the water table and notice how it is the same depth between two "lakes".

Finally, we talked about pollution and what that can do to our ground water. The blue Koolaid was our "polluted water" and as we pumped water out of our "well" the blue began to come up with it. Even the principal, who walked in to see what all of the ruckus was about, was engaged and excited to see what would happen to the ground water!

We try and have Science Fridays as many Fridays as student behavior permits and when we do have them, they are pretty neat to behold as students engage in their own learning and learn by doing. What a great way to learn and have fun!

A break from the PACT pace...

2011-02-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

I am taking a needed break from working on PACT and think about anything other than child development theorists have to say. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with California Teaching Credential requirements, I will enlighten you :) I am currently in my last semester of student teaching and I am also working on my final "portfolio" which is also called the Performance Assessment for California Teachers. In this compilation of papers are reflections on the demographic of the school I am working in, the students in my particular classroom and their strengths and struggles. In addition to that, I am currently writing up the theoretical support for why I am going to teach the way I am teaching in the lesson plans (that I finished writing this week). I will then need to reflect, after every day of teaching, on what went well, what did not and what I may need to change for the next day to successfully teach my students a concept in Language Arts. After all of this (about 40-50 pages) I will need to do a final reflection of how everything went and how this whole process will impact my future teaching.... did you get all of that?

So this is why I am still in my P.J.'s sitting at my computer since 9:30 am (it is now 2 pm) on a rare day off, working on PACT and making it as perfect as I can. Because if I don't make it perfect, I could end up not having a teaching credential after all is said and done and that would not have been worth it. So I guess I will have to suck it up and just plug along and do what I have to do in order to teach the kids that I love so much!

One more thought, I don't know how I could have done what I have done so far without the support of my amazing husband, Matt. He has kept our house running (inside and out) when I have been glued to the computer for hours on Saturday and Sunday. So a public "Thank You" to you sweety. (Even though I know you hate those kinds of things;)

Monterey Bay Aquarium!

2011-02-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Another post about Christmas Break, even though it is February already :)

We went to the Aquarium with Kelly, Callie, Tess and my brother Peter. It was really nice to have another responsible person who was willing to run around after Callie or Tess as they ran to the next window or tank. Thank you Pete!

Tess loved (can't you tell by her smile :) the tidal wave tunnel and did not want to leave! Peter hung out with her as she looked out the window for at least 20 minutes.

When Tess was tired, staring at the Jellies helped her calm down a bit.

Kelly and the girls looking at the sea turtles (in the kids crawl space).

Matt had fond memories of deep fried artichoke hearts and so we Googled the "Giant Artichoke" (thank goodness for iPhones) and in minutes we were eating piping hot artichoke hearts and posing in front of the Giant Artichoke itself! A yummy way to end a fun and tiring day.

Natural Bridges

2011-01-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since I am still trying to catch up from the Christmas vacation, here are even more photos from our time as a family. Just after Christmas we went to Natural Bridges beach to soak up the sun while it lasted. It was actually quite a nice day and we were not too cold while we were there. The sun was shinning and it made a pretty shade of pink and yellow in the clouds.

Callie was so excited to be at the beach! She tore off her shoes as soon as we hit the sand and grabbed a stick to start drawing. This was her first masterpiece, A Hat. It kind of resembles the Yellow Man's hat from Curious George books.

Tess is more timid and was not quite sure of the water. She would scream and run away from the waves and was more than happy to just sit and play in the sand.

Jon came walking up with a giant kelp strand and Callie decided that she had to carry it all over the beach! Of course what Callie did, Tess had to do too, so they carried that thing around for a little while, up and down the sand hills.

Piggie Pie!

2011-01-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

I had to dedicate a post to the book of the vacation. This was Tessa's favorite book after the second day that they were here and she would ask for it all the time. Since I was the one who pulled it out and read it to her the first time, Tess would only let me read it to her at first. Then when I was getting to tired, she would turn to her mom or any other willing adult.

I first heard of 'Piggie Pie' from a friend in my teaching credential program. She had read the book to her children when they were young and she shared it with us. I loved it and had been looking for it ever since. I found it the week that Kelly and her girls got into town, at the recycled book store in downtown Campbell and I couldn't wait to share it with the girls. I am glad that they loved it so much!

San Francisco- Cable Car Ride

2011-01-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

December brought family but also the annual Walton family cable car ride in San Francisco! I must admit that I had never participated in this tradition before, even though I have been a Walton for over 3 years now, so I was just as excited as our nieces and nephews to get there and get riding!

Fist stop though, was Ghirardelli Square where we broke every diet rule we may have had before and dug in to rich chocolate shakes and triple scoop ice cream sundaes.... It makes my mouth water just thinking about these yummy treats!

Tessa truly enjoyed this tradition and almost drank the entire chocolate shake, had Kelly not stollen a few sips now and then.

Becky, Ryan and their family waiting for their yummy shakes to arrive! These kids don't look the least bit excited... :)

Kevin Harrington was nice enough to use his super nice SLR and capture a picture of Matt and me while we waited to board the cable car.

Is this girl excited or what?! She was looking out the window and singing along with all of the Christmas Carols that we were singing to the full streets of SF. At least on the way there. The ride home was a different story...

Me and my Grandma Karren and Peterson! I had no idea that they would both be there but I was glad to see them!

The tired group after a long night of ice cream, caroling and the SF lights. And even though we were tired, we had a great time. Hopefully we repeat this tradition again some time:)

2011-01-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

With everyone in town for Christmas and a wonderful cousin by the name of Mike, the kids got to go to a real fire station and ride in a real fire truck and shoot water from a real fire hose! They were so excited about it and talked about their trip to the fire station for days afterwards!

Since I can't include all of the 100 sum-odd photos that I took during our trip to the fire station, I am posting some of my favorites below. I hope that you enjoy them too!

Molly and Callie inside the cab of the fire truck. These smiles were plastered on their faces all day!

Can you tell that Seth was excited to be there? :)

This picture shows just how beautiful Callie is!

Seth waving as the fire truck came back into the station after taking the first load of kids around the block.

Callie wanted to be the first to shoot water from the hose. Look at that smile! She was SO excited!

Tessa was the same. She loved getting to ride in the fire truck and spray water from the hose. She was the second kid to step forward and spray water from the hose with Firefighter Mike. And afterwards, she yelled, "I did it! I really did it!"

I just had to put this one up. Sorry Kelly:) Doesn't she look tough shooting the fire hose with her purse and all?

And lastly, I got all of the kids to pose for a shot in the front of the firetruck. They had a blast. Thank you again Mike!

Crazy (and fun) Christmas!

2010-12-26T12:33:00.001-08:00

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.

6 adults, 6 kids. 12 people total.

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

2010-12-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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?!

2010-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

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!

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.

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.

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!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-10-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

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 :)

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 :)

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? :)

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.

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

2010-10-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

I mean World Cup....

no thats not right.... :)

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.

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!

What brothers wont do for one another....

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:)

GO GIANTS!!!!

India and Dubai

2010-09-24T11:58:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

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!

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!

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?

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

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!

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.

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

2010-08-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

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....

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.

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!

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.

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

2010-08-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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

Tahoe!!!

2010-07-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

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:)

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

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.

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

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.

Relaxing on the beach :)

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.

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.

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:)

Callie and Kelly on the balcony from our hotel rooms.

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.

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.

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!

The Best Bolo's Around! (and some other places in Portugal :)

2010-07-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

On this day, we traveled around with President Walton as he did his interviews with the missionaries in a few different cities. The first stop was Viana de Castelo, the home of the best bolo's in all of Portugal (according to the missionaries and mom and dad).

Mom and Callie in the Bolo shop buying hot bolos for us :)

Mom, Matt, Kelly, Tess and Callie in the main square of Viana de Castelo eating bolos.

Danielle and Matt in the town square. It was all decorated for a medieval festival with roasting pigs, falconers with their falcons, bread stands, and other medieval wares. It was so fun to enjoy this city with the locals.

Tess (and her pouty face), Kelly and Callie in front of one of the churches in the town. Beautiful architecture.

This is the castle at Guimaraes, and Callie and Matt. She was so excited to see another princess castle!

Mom, Matt, Callie, Tessa and Kelly in front of the castle in Guimaraes. (Beware, this castle is a lot older and much less restored than the last castle we visited.)

Stopping on one of the HUGE boulders from which the castle is built for a goofy picture:)

On the steps of the castle to walk around the interior. We were all a little scared with the littles ones, so Tess was always carried and Callie had to hold someone's hand. It was a long drop to the rocky central area below and we did not take any chances with so many people around. Callie was pulling everyone's arm to go faster!

One of the guard towers where Tess, Danielle, Mom, Kelly and Callie are standing. I like this picture because you get an idea of the size of this castle and get to see the beautiful green mountains of northern Portugal in the background.

Matt and Dani atop the castle keep.

Callie and Matt danced on this boulder before finally posing for a picture. Such a cool old castle! Very different from the first one we visited but I kind of liked the roughness of everything.

Tessa and Callie posing for yet another picture, this time in an alcove in the church where (supposedly) the first king of Portugal, Alfonso I, was Christened in 1109.

Two adorable girls! I couldn't help myself!

One adorable family.

This was hilarious! Once down in the city of Guimaraes and she was finally put down to walk on her own, Tess put her hands behind her back and strolled around the square! She was so serious as she did it too, like she was an old man taking an evening stroll. Such an amazing little girl.

Conimbriga, Coimbra Baixu and Comibra University

2010-07-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Back to Portugal. We traveled south of Porto to visit several pretty neat sites beginning with the Roman ruins at Conimbriga. Here there are very clear and well preserved signs of civilian life during reign of the Roman Empire. There are massive homes (the largest of which was 32,000 square feet) and fountains and the main attraction, mosaic floors.

Beautiful mosaic floors and all very different from room to room. The bright colors were amazing to see as well.

Callie showing off her muscles by some Roman columns.

Callie was running towards Matt and myself in this picture and her face was pure joy. I am so sad that my auto focus ended up focusing on the ramp instead of on her sweet face :( A sad reminder that I need to be more careful when I am taking pictures of the girls but it was adorable anyways so enjoy it:)

Callie and Matt "sword fighting" with our umbrellas in the Roman forum in Conimbriga.

Just the the sword fight came to an end, we began walking back towards the main ruins and the sky opened up with a fury! We all got soaked and Callie had her umbrella flip inside out as she ran! We ran and laughed all the way to the covered ruins to escape the rain.

I will let this picture talk for itself :)

This is the way to travel! Tess knows how to enjoy a walking trip around Coimbra Baixu (historic downtown Coimbra).

Trying out bolos in Coimbra Baixu. The best bolos are sold in another town but we wanted to have something to compare them too. These did not make the cut but were still pretty good and I loved Callie's face, ready to devour that thing!

Tess and Callie exploring the rock collection in the historic Coimbra University courtyard. This university has been in use since around the year 1300 and is one of the oldest universities in the world!

To end the day, Tessa enjoyed chilling in an alcove on the Coimbra University campus. These girls are great travelers and were happy most of the time :)

A day in Porto!

2010-07-10T14:25:00.000-07:00

Matt and I went on a little adventure where we rode the metro into the old town square of Porto and then just got lost as we walked around in the little streets and walkways. It was a lot of fun and we saw some pretty amazing and neat places. Here are photos of just a few...

Aliados, the old town square in Porto and the location of preparations for the World Cup! All of these little white stalls in the center area are book stalls where you could find any book, old or new; novels written by Portuguese authors and children's books by Eric Carle (an American Children's book author, think "The Very Hungary Caterpillar"). It was fun just to mingle with the local people, look over the book selections and enjoy the beautiful old buildings surrounding it all before making our way further into town and away from the river front.

I couldn't help taking pictures of the various cobblestone patterns all throughout the city! So many that were so intricate but this one was my favorite with the wide open space and an old tree in the background.

Where three churches combine into one. Each one was build at a different time but have grown together and now lean on one another to stay stable.

These steps begin down by the river front and go all the way to the top of the hill overlooking the river. We did not start climbing from the bottom but we did climb a LONG ways, all up hill. I was hot and sweaty by the end but we did have a great view of the city from above. Thanks for the idea Matt:)

This is the front entryway into the main train station in Porto. The blue painted tiles depict the history of the country and are very traditional Portuguese paintings.

Once we got back form our walk around the city, Matt took Callie to get Dad from the mission office for dinner. They all looked so cute with their umbrellas up as they walked home.

We also did a little shopping at the nearby mall and Kelly got these cute Portugal jerseys for the girls to sleep in. Super cute!

July 7th

2010-07-07T18:05:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Clint.

Here is to you. You are the big brother that I never had and will always love.

Miss you. Love you.

Portugal Part 3- The Beach and a BBQ!

2010-07-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are on June 7th of our trip to Portugal and what did we do on our parent's P-Day? We went to the beach of course! It was a beautiful day and we went to another area of the beach this time and got to climb on some pretty cool rocks and just enjoy the sunshine!

Tess all ready to go with her sundress and sunglasses!

Matt and Callie scrambling on the big rocks on the beach.

Can you tell that she loves this beach?

Lunch.

Soaking in the sun!

Tess and her glasses again! She liked just sitting in the shade mostly.

Tess, Matt and Callie watching the waves come in.

Tess, Matt, Callie and Dani at the beach in Porto, Portugal!

That night we had the office couple and the office elders over for a BBQ. Tess and Callie were constantly showing off to the elders and wanted them to play!

Callie finally found a playmate and improvised with the hose to make a swing!

Elder and Sister Lyman are the office couple who have helped out Mom and Dad a lot. They will be leaving soon though and they will be missed!

Portugal Part 2- Castelo de Santa Maria da Feira

2010-06-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 5th found us in a little town called Santa Maria da Feira. We came to explore the castle which is popular here and it was only a 30 minute drive from mom and dad's house!

Mom, Callie, Tessa and Dad in front of the Castelo!

Callie and Kelly were the Queens of this castle:) Callie loved running all over the grounds and the walls of this real life princess castle!

Throughout the castle grounds there were actors in period garb who were acting out or describing (in very beautiful Portuguese) the history of the castle and it's people. Callie was entranced with the puppet shows and enthusiastic speakers. Here she is with Kelly, sitting on the castle walls and listening to a speaker as he gives his monologue to his audience below.

Sir Charles and Lady Callie survey their kingdom from a window in their castle tower.

Jon, Knight in Shining Armor, and Kelly. Reminiscing about one of their favorite "Bill and Ted" quotes.

Callie, Mom and Tessa walking along the castle walls. Callie ran from one place to another and could not get enough of this cool place!

Tessa and Kelly with the main keep of the castle behind them.

Tessa and Matt enjoying the view.

Callire with a "real" knight! He even let her hold his sword! She was so excited to see him sword fight in the castle courtyard too.

The classic jumping shot with a castle from the 11th century as the backdrop. Picture perfect:)

Matt and myself in the town of Santa Maria da Feira. We loved the small streets and great view of the castle above.

At the end of the day, Callie just wanted to play at the castle-themed park by the parking lot and eat ice cream with Mom while Tessa played in the fountain and I took a photo of Jon, Kelly, Dad and Matt before we said goodbye to this cool little town and a beautiful castle.

Portugal (Part 1)

2010-06-16T16:32:00.002-07:00

We were all blessed to be able to travel to Portugal for the second time in a year. Matt and I traveled with Kelly, Callie and Tess and after a very long flight to Germany followed by a long layover in Frankfurt and then another flight to Porto, Portugal; we met Mom, Dad and Jon in the airport! The long trip was well worth it to be with our family. After struggling to stay awake until a somewhat normal bedtime hour we began the next day with a tour of the river front in Porto.

Grandma and Callie walking the cobbled streets of Porto.

Enjoying the view of the Douro.

The whole group on a river cruise on the Douro river.

Mom, Dad, Callie, Danielle, Matt, Jon, Kelly and Tess.

Tess exploring the old streets of Porto.

Tess enjoying her pint sized wine glass at dinner that night.

The girls enjoyed the pool in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard after walking around the city.

Day two brought the beach!

An adorable family enjoying the Portuguese sun!

Grandpa and Tess. This is one picture that we all love because dad is truly smiling!

Day three was a relaxing one as we mostly stayed close to home and enjoyed being together. We made a trip down to the mission office to see mom and dad and meet the office elders and the office missionary couple.

Callie getting comfortable in dad's office chair at the mission office.

Jon, Mom, Callie, Dad, Kelly, Danielle, Tessa and Matt at the mission office in Porto!

Children's Discovery Museum

2010-06-09T15:18:00.001-07:00

Kelly and her girls came into town a few days before we left for Portugal (photos of that trip to come) and so we had a few days just with the girls in sunny California. We took Callie and Tessa to the Children's Discovery Museum in Downtown San Jose and spent the afternoon exploring all of the neat things there! So much fun to explore the exhibits all over again with our two cute little nieces!

Bubbles!

Tess is such a silly little girl! She had so much fun making faces in the car windows. Gross but hilarious and she got a kick out of it laughing every time!

Graduation!

2010-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yup. I graduated from College. San Jose State University to be exact. And my Degree? That was in Child and Adolescent Development. What am I going to do with it? Go to more school of course:) I will be starting the Teacher Education Credential Program in June. And after that? I am planning on either finding a full time teaching position in an Elementary School nearby or Substitute Teaching if that doesn't work out. But for the next month... I am a free woman! Done and graduated:) Sweet.

Receiving my diploma from Dr. Campbell the department chair.

This was my slide shown shown before the graduation began. I tried to include a photo all of the people who have made an impact in my life, through every stage of my life.

(I think I got everyone:)

The Grandma's and Me! Grandma Pete and Grandma Karren.

Thank you both for being such great examples and for always believing that I was a good granddaughter.

My Mom and Dad.

They have told me since I was little that I needed to get an education and go to college. Well, I guess all of the bribery paid off ;)

(Just kidding)

Me and my Matt.

Thank you for dealing with my grumpy moods around midterms and finals and for encouraging me to get into an even harder and more stressful credential program for the next year of our lives but knowing that it will all be worth it. For telling me that I am smart and amazing, even when I didn't feels so smart or amazing at the time. And for being such a great support to me, ALWAYS. No matter what. Thank you:)

SJSU Lab Preschool

2010-05-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

This semester at SJSU, one of my classes included working in the Preschool on campus for 8 hours each week. I was fortunate enough to be with a group of exceptional students. They were all so creative and came up with some great activities for the children. I had a great time this semester and will really miss the great kids and my fellow teachers.

Our Awesome Teachers from the Morning Preschool Class.

Most of the kids and teachers.... it is hard to keep these kids all together for more than a few seconds for a picture.

We rotated through jobs in the classroom including preparing snack, watching the kids outdoors, and creating art, science, movement and literacy activities for the preschool children. I know that we all jotted down more than a few notes about each other's activities for future reference.

It was a great semester with a great group of kids and teachers. I will kind of miss coming home dirty on Tuesdays and Thursdays from playing like a kid all morning.

Elizabeth's Wedding Weekend!

2010-05-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago, on May 1st, one of my best friends growing up got married in the Oakland LDS Temple! Lucky for all of us, our group of 4 friends were all able to be there and celebrate this exciting day with Elizabeth. We have all known each other since we were 5 and have stayed in touch and stayed close even as some of us moved away and we all went away to college. I am so grateful that we have stayed so close and have been able to support one another as each of us got married one by one. Congratulations Elizabeth and Dave!

The Happy Newlywed Couple

All of the girls... plus my dad.

We had to stop at In-n-Out Burger on the way home from the wedding for a late lunch/early dinner. Kalisha's family moved to Utah when we were in High School and In-n-Out was the one thing that they really, really missed about California (well now In-n-Outs are all over Utah so we aren't so special anymore... Just Kidding ;)

We had to take a picture in front of the In-n-Out Burger because both of our brother's are serving missions in places were there is no In-N-Out and they both have said in their letters that they miss those yummy burgers, fries and shakes. So we enjoyed some for them :)

Me and my sweet husband, Matt.

(Thank you Kalisha for taking this picture!)

Four Happy Wives.

Thank you for a great weekend Elizabeth and Congratulations!

BYU Graduation and Jake's Wedding

2010-04-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Jon and Becky graduated from BYU last week. After the two days of graduation ceremonies, we headed down to Las Vegas for my cousin, Jake Ruben's, wedding. I'm not going to put too many words in this post. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves pretty much.

Four Siblings after the University-wide commencement ceremony.

Four Hungerford kids after their Mom's graduation.

The Hungerford family with proud graduate, Becky.

Jon in front of the Joseph F. Smith Building.

Two future graduates in the BYU quad by the library.

A celebratory pint at the pub after the ceremonies.

At the college convocation the following day. Becky, the graduate.

Jon W. Walton, Esquire

Where's Becky? Hint: look for her waving hand.

I don't have any pictures at the temple or the barbecue preceding Jake's wedding, but I do have a few on the dance floor. Molly and Callie were kind enough to share the first dance with me to Keith Urban's "Making memories of us."

And pretty much everybody made it out onto the dance floor during a couple of Michael Jackson's songs.

Tessa absolutely loved to dance. She'd go out on the dance floor by herself and spin around in circles while moving her arms up and down. So cute.

Molly and Tessa also danced together.

And Molly had a blast by herself as well.

It was a great trip. I'm so proud of my two siblings and my cousin Jake.

"Senior-itus"

2010-04-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

In High School, all of my older friends would say that some day when I was a Senior in HS, I would experience this well known syndrome of "Senior-itus". Well the day came in early spring of my senior year, just as it was getting warm outside and we could eat our lunches in the quad again, that I began to feel antsy. I just wanted to get out of high school, graduate and go on with my life away from home! I'm not the only one right?! Well, I think it is a combination of things:

First, classes were winding down, senior classes really were not too hard after a crazy Jr. year, and for the most part, we had our final exams earlier so that we could sign yearbooks, practice walking the graduation march into the stadium and just enjoy the last few weeks of HS with our friends.
Second, I had applied to colleges, knew where I was going to go and had applied for housing already! Let me out of here already!!!!!

So now, I am a senior in college and commencement is just around the corner (well 3 weeks of classes and then 1.5 weeks of finals before then but....) and the old feeling of antsy-ness is setting in again, this time for different reasons:

My brother and sister-in-law and two best friends are graduating TODAY from BYU. A whole month before my commencement, which only makes me want to graduate sooner!
I was accepted into the Teaching Credential program about a month ago and start summer classes June 21st. I know what is ahead of me right now and I just would like it to hurry up and get here!
Classes are NOT slowing up but getting more busy as final paper deadlines and exam dates are looming, teasing me with the idea that I have to make it through them before I can make it to graduation!

So as the mayhem of life continues for Matt and me, we look forward to upcoming trips and changes and enjoy every day that we have right now.

June will bring a 2 week trip to Porto, Portugal to visit mom and dad with Kelly and her girls and then I will begin the credential program. July will be busy for me so Matt may get to flex his cooking muscles and cook a few meals for us from time to time. August will be the ending of another summer swim season as I teach swim lessons again, coach and then start school at an elementary school that I do not know quite yet. We may get in a Yosemite trip in there somewhere. Hopefully :)

What we both have learned over the past year is that we can't take any day, anything or anyone for granted. So enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow!

Winter Garden

2010-03-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last September I thought it would cool to grow a winter garden. I had heard that you could grow lettuce, carrots, broccoli and even snap peas at that time of year. So I tried it out. I started the seeds in their own little cups and then transplanted them into the garden beds once they were a little bigger. But if you read the back of seed packets carefully, you will realize that if you want to plant carrots or lettuce or anything that starts from a very small seed, then you will need to sow it right into the ground. I did NOT read the back of the packet passed the information about how deep to plant the seeds so I ended up with no carrot sprouts and little lettuce sprouts that died once they were transplanted. That left me with one meager little broccoli sprout and a couple of snap pea sprouts. After setting the seedlings up with their tomato cages for support to grow, I stepped back and let the peas do their thing.

Nothing happened for a couple of months. In January, I checked on the peas again to find that they had grown above and beyond the tomato cages and were beginning of fall over! Matt saved the day with a makeshift support made out of a scrap section of PVC pipe. A few flowers had also begun to show themselves. February flew by and left us in March. I had not checked the plants for a whole month and when I did, I found the snap pea plants even bigger than before and a few pea pods! I greedily picked the 11 full pods that I could find and helped support the growing plants with some string to keep them from tipping all the way to the ground. A week or so later, I picked a few more peas and made a contribution to my friend's stir fry for Sunday dinner. Then, yesterday, I went outside to my little garden to pick a few more peas.

Although it may not look like much, this is a strainer is full of 41 freshly picked sugar snap peas! Yummy! I used these for a salad for Sunday dinner. I figure that I have saved at least $10 just by growing AND using my snap peas that I grew in the garden! I would call that a success :)

"These Muffins are AWESOME!"

2010-03-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

My boss said the above words after trying one of the Banana Chocolate Chip muffins that I brought to work to share with my co-workers. And after this, another co-worker couldn't stop interrupting me to tell me that the muffins were SO good:) So since they passed the co-worker test, I guess I could try them out on you! Eat and enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 large, very ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

1 egg

Cream the above ingredients then add:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix. Put in muffin tin with either muffin papers or well greased. Sprinkle a little sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 12-18 muffins.

Notes:

- I also made these with the Preschoolers in my SJSU class and placed the peeled bananas in large ziplock bags and then let them mash the bananas by hand. They loved it and stayed pretty clean too.

- Fill the muffin cups about half way with batter. they do rise quite a bit while baking.

- I usually use 2 muffin tins; one 12 muffin tin and one 6 muffin tin. If you do not fill up all of the cups, put a little bit of water in the empty cups when you put them in the oven. My mom has always done this to prevent the pan from being ruined or something like that. I guess I am too scared to not try it to tell you what might happen if you don't...

- Who says you have to use a measuring cup when adding mini chocolate chips? I never do :)

- Make sure to check the muffins regularly when they are baking. They tend to be not done one minute and then too done the next....

- Enjoy!

As Life Moves On

2010-03-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

It has been a while and I don't particularly want to relive it all again so I will let you all know what is going on as of a few days ago and begin to look forward. So, this past October/November I applied for this Teaching Credential Program at SJSU and crossed my fingers. After waiting until the middle of February, I finally heard back letting me know that I had a final interview in one week. Talk about time to prepare... So I threw together my portfolio and was ready when I sat in front of a board of school district representatives who were looking at the possibility of including me in their school district circle. A few, long weeks later, I found received an email informing me that I was accepted into the program but not telling me what school district or specific school I would be placed in. That would come in a letter in the mail a few days later. A week when by and the date for them to hear my acceptance drew closer, until I finally got a letter on Saturday. I will be interning in the Campbell Union Elementary School District! My first choice:) I am so grateful to be accepted and to be in a great school district! Yah!!! Now, I am just hoping beyond hope that my next and final dream will be realized and that is that I will be placed in Marshall Lane Elementary School. That would be absolutely perfect and ideal, since I live literally down the street from the school. And since it is the school that I have been volunteering in for the past couple months AND it is the school that I would LOVE to work at. This is the newest bit of news in our lives and an exciting one. This means that I will be beginning the program classes in June and be a fully certified California teacher by May 2011!

Disneyland with the Layton's!

2010-03-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

So we went to Disneyland. We dropped everything and went for the weekend to spend it with Kelly, Clint, Callie and Tessa. Becky and Ryan and their family drove down, Todd, Rachel and Gabbie flew with Kelly and Clint and Dave and Cathy (Clint's amazing parents) and of course Jon came too :) We went to Disneyland and California Adventure for 3 days and it was an amazing trip with family where we did not have to worry about anything except having fun for a few days. We were apart from reality most of the time and we didn't want it to come to an end on Tuesday morning.

Waiting for the parade to start

Callie and Tessa became pro-Jazzy riders as they rode on dad's lap on some days.

The first night, some of the group went to bed and Jon, Kelly, Matt and I rode a few late night rides. Splash Mountain was one of them:)

Sunday was Princess Makeover Day for Callie. I think Tessa wanted to be a Princess too!

Picking out her dress with mom and dad.

While Callie waited for her princess makeover, she enjoyed another favorite pastime... Sword fighting.

Introducing... Princess Callie!

Tired after two full days of play:)

Before the amazing fireworks show!

On Monday, all of the girls got to meet a few Disney Princesses.

And we all got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Brave-girl Callie went on several "big kid" rides such as Splash Mountain and The Tower of Terror.

One silly girl.

Callie's hands up before Space Mountain! What a brave 4-year old!

All of the Grandkids in their Mickey Mouse ears.

A trip to remember.....

And Just Like That

2010-02-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

And just like that life changes. From everything being OK to having to scramble for time....

Some of you may know already but my brother-in-law, Clint, has been battling Leukemia for the past year. Yesterday, we got some bad news. His bone marrow transplant worked but a little too late. The Leukemia has spread to his soft tissues and they found it in his stomach. There is nothing else that the doctors can do and he was sent home from the hospital yesterday afternoon.

This amazing man and his family have gone through so many trials and hardships and we were so confident that he would make it through. That he would beat the odds and be able to live out the rest of his life to an old age and see his little girls grow up into wonderful and beautiful women and have families of their own. But things don't always turn out like we think. Our Heavenly Father must have other plans than what we thought.

The plan was to take his young family to Disneyland in October when he would be cleared for travel but now that is being moved up so that his girls can have one more happy trip with their dad. This weekend will be a trip to Disneyland with the whole family. Clint's parents, his brothers and their families, his best friend and his family, Becky and Ryan and their family, and Matt and me. I will try to be the best reporter ever and make sure that everything possible is caught on camera.

I still have this nagging feeling that something good will happen. That some miracle will happen this weekend while we are at "the happiest place in earth" and that he will pull through. Is it blind hope? I don't know. We have turned everything over to Heavenly Father and know that He loves each of us and knows how we each feel right now. That He knows what He is doing and it will all be ok.

We are all grateful that he has a few weeks to spend with his family here on this earth. We are all grateful for the time that we have had with him and will enjoy every minute that we have left. Just think about that the next time you see your parents, husband, wife, children and other family members and those who are close to you. Don't forget to say goodbye and tell them how you feel about them. Don't leave anything un-said.

So here is to you Clint. We love you and always will. We will pray until the very end.

(Floating down the Truckee River in Tahoe, CA Summer 2008)

(Matt and Clint during a bike ride in Tahoe)

(Clint and the love of his life, Kelly)

(Kelly, Clint and Callie in Tahoe, 2008. I don't have an updated family photo so this is before Tessa Lee came along a few months later)

Porto, Portugal- November 2009

2010-01-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Portugal was the next stop on our trip to Europe. We went to Porto, Portugal to see Matt's parents, Chuck and Liz, or as their missionaries call them, President and Sister Walton. They will be serving as Mission President and missionary for the next 2 and a half more years in this area and we hope that we can go back again this year.

After a good nights rest, we traveled south to Coimbra were we visited the sister missionaries that were serving in the city there and then went to see the University which was established in 1290! It is actually the school which J.K. Rowling based Hogwarts school after and many of the details on the buildings were similar. We explored the rooms were students meet before the professors and take their final test before graduating and even saw some students wearing their traditional school attire with black robes, white shirts and ties.

Liz, Me and Matt in the main square. These buildings are the oldest ones with the newer facilities closer to the city. In front of us was a view of the river and the city below.

We were told by one of the sister missionaries in Coimbra that we had to go see the old school library because it looked like the library from Beauty and the Beast. We knew, once we walked in, that she was right. Old books lined the walls and a second floor with ladders which slide out from between the intricately carved bookcases. Beautiful marble floors and gold trimmings on everything! No pictures were allowed, but Matt was able to take one without a flash from his jacket pocket. We had to have a picture of this beautiful and ancient room! The walls of this library are 3 meters thick of stone to keep the room at a consistent temperature and the doors and shelves are made of a particular wood which actually is toxic to bugs to protect the books dating back to the 16th century.

The next stop of the day was Coimbriga, close by Coimbra which is known for their Roman Ruins! I have never seen any Roman ruins before and was quite excited to see what Coimbriga had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to find rooms and rooms of old homes with different intricate mosaics on all of the floors! The patterns and colors were amazing! Here, Chuck is on a call with a missionary, even though they were on a little break from their weekly duties, they were still on call and got quite a few of them over the next few days.

Chuck trying to lift part of an ancient Roman pillar. I don' think that it would move that easily:) For being such an amazing place, the ruins are not very well protected and we saw only one other group while we were there. It is a beautiful place and one that we would recommend to anyone traveling to Portugal.

A Roman aqueduct, still standing and beautiful in the sunset. This was a very fun first day in Portugal.

The next day was rainy but that was ok because we spent it walking around Porto. We walked down to the river and rode on the world's only above ground subway and did some souvenir shopping.

This is Douro River and one of the many small boats which, in the past, carried wine from inland, to the coast. Another cool thing that we got to do on this trip was to see two structures built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The first in Paris in the form of the Eiffel tower (did you guess that one?) and the second is in Porto, Portugal in the form of a bridge! Kind of cool, hu?

That night, we got to go to the FC Porto futbol game as they played against Chelsea. (A super good soccer team from England if anyone is like me and has no idea about world soccer) Although FC Porto did not win the game, the only goal scored in the game was scored right in front of us!

Since this was a big game, they had large plastic sheets of blue and white that went down all of the rows in the lower bowl of the stadium for fans to wave above their heads as the team came out onto the field. One very different thing about this futbol game was that instead of "boo-ing" when the refs or players did something bad, the fans whistled. I would have to say that it is a lot nicer sounding than a bunch of "boo-ing".

The 3rd day in Portugal was Thanksgiving, and so we had to have our traditional American football game that morning! The elders got the ok to play on this day only so they found any scrap of grass (or in our case, sand) to play on. Matt and Chuck were pretty sore at the end of this game.

This is a picture of our football field on the beach in Porto, you can kind of see the outline of lots of overturned sand where we played and no other markings in sight.

The 4th day we visited several different beautiful cities. The first was Guimaraes, were we visited some elders there and then went to the castle on a hill in the middle of the city. The views from the top of the surrounding hills were beautiful! And we could see dark storm clouds heading our way.

Chuck, Liz and I in the streets of Guimaraes.

Our "Engagement Photo" at Viana Do Castello ;) Sadly the beautiful ocean view is washed out but I liked it anyway.

This is Santa Luzia, the church on the hill overlooking the city of Viana do Castelo. There are stairs all the way from the city to the top but we chose to drive up instead:) Nothing special inside but very pretty stained glass on the outside.

The word in the Porto Mission is that the Bolo's in Viana do Castelo are the BEST, so we had to try them. :) Liz said that they were like a cream filled doughnut covered in cinnamon and sugar so I was skeptical (I hate cream filled doughnuts) but once I had the first bite, I almost didn't let Matt have it back! It was SO good and sweet, but not too sweet and still warm (we got there just as a batch was coming out.)

Then we sat in the town square and waited for the Christmas lights to go on which was well worth it. This concluded our 9 day trip around Europe visiting Paris, France and Porto, Portugal and stopping over in Amsterdam along the way. And a special bonus was that we got to see Mom and Dad serving the people and missionaries of Portugal and doing what they will be doing for the next 2 and a half years. We can't wait to visit them again!

Paris and Amsterdam- November 2009

2010-01-23T10:12:00.001-08:00

On a river cruse tour of Amsterdam during our 10 hour layover here before continuing on to Paris. I loved looking at the old row houses and seeing the warehouse where Anne Frank and her family were in hiding during World War II and as well as going through the special collections at the Rijksmuseum.

Matt didn't want to waste any of our time in Paris once we got there, so even though were were exhausted after traveling for over 24 hours, we walked from our hotel to the Louvre just to see it all lit up at night.

Exploring Paris the next day was a blast. We loved walking in the streets and looking up at all of the old buildings! Matt said that he hated to ever look down at his feet because he didn't want to miss anything of this beautiful city. Here is a view of the Notre Dame Cathedral from the river. Since we walked "off the beaten path" most of the time, we saw few tourists and mostly locals going about their normal day.

I Spy.... Matt! Soaking in the beauty of Notre Dame.

Versailles Palace! The grounds of this palace are HUGE! We spent most of the morning walking through the tree lined paths and around the giant, man-made canal in the middle of it all. Beautiful even in the fall.

Matt above the gardens of Versailles. Windy and cold but beautiful! This is the view of only part of the expansive gardens and part of where we walked.

The Arc de Triomphe! We had to see this huge arch at the end of Champs Elysees after seeing it on TV during the Tour de France. The street itself is a lot longer than it looks and at the other end was a park with little booths set up on the side of the paths. We got some delicious crepes with warm chocolate to warm us up:)

After going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we sat along the river bank away from the noise of the street, and enjoyed the beauty of Paris and the tower at night. Again, we were alone except for a few locals who were giving their dog a walk and it was just nice to enjoy the calm of a night in Paris.

In the main entrance of the Louvre after walking through its many hallways and rooms all day long. I never knew there could be so many paintings in one place! One of my favorite exhibits was the Egyptian areas where we saw several replicas of Egyptian engineering and statues, as well as all of the Roman and Greek statues. Matt's favorite part was seeing Caravaggio's paintings in person. This half of the trip was not a relaxing one but it was memorable.

Then we left Paris behind and traveled to the airport to catch our flight to see Matt's parents, Chuck and Liz, in Portugal.

Another Missionary has Joined the Force

2010-01-14T17:02:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update on my family's comings and goings:

My little brother, Jens, (who is 6 inches taller than me but none the less my little brother) just reported to the Provo Missionary Training Center yesterday (Wednesday) to begin his 2 year mission. Since he is going to Curitiba, Brasil, he would have usually gone to the MTC in Brasil but because of visa delays, he went to Provo MTC first. Matt and I wanted to wave him goodbye at the airport so we met at my parent's home at 4:30 AM so that we could get him there with enough time to make his 6:00 AM flight. That morning came so early. My mother flew with him (she could not bare to just send him off on his own just yet) and so we all piled into the car all DARK and early and went to the deserted San Jose Airport. After finding a open spot on the curb we pulled over and gave him our last hugs. Then we sent him off toting 2 large rolling suitcases and one carry on bag as he headed toward the check in counter. All of his life for the next 2 years packed into those three bags.

I was expecting to be a crying mess as I saw him walk away but surprisingly, I only got wet eyes and no tears fell. Maybe it was the way that he just gave us all hugs, turned around and started walking, confidently and with a slight spring in his step, toward the doors. He was excited and happy and so I felt the same for him.

Jens has been such a great example to me and my family as well as all of his friends over the years and I know that he will be a great missionary for the next 2 years of his life as he serves the people of Curitiba, Brasil. Love you Jens-y Babe!

Utah and Spaghetti

2009-12-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

Why is spaghetti so good? Maybe because it is so fun to eat! we just loved watching Tessa eat her spaghetti and get half of it all over herself! She is such a sweety pie! Here are some of our favorites!

Tessa's goofy face when she is mid-laugh.

Last time we were in Uath, Matt tried to teach Tessa how to high five and on the last day of our stay, she did give him a high five! I was expecting her to have forgotten his previous lessons but to my surprise, when Matt put up his hand for a high five, Tessa copied him and was ecstatic to have her hand shaken by Matt. Such a silly thing but it made her (and Matt) so happy :)

Kelly does this thing with Tessa where she says, "How big is Tessa?" and then says "So Big!" and Tessa puts up her arms up high as Kelly says "So big!" This was so cute to watch her break into laughter every time!

The Walton Siblings! Kelly, Matt, Jon, and Becky. Merry Christmas Everyone! We love and miss you all! Can't wait to see you (hopefully) soon!

Utah Trip- July 30th- August 3rd

2009-12-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

At the end of July, we were able to go to Utah to spend some time with Kelly, Clint and the rest of the family. We all went up to Grandpa and Grandma Wood's cabin in Brighton and did some little hikes to keep the kids from going too stir crazy. It was beautiful in the late summer with some wild flowers still in bloom! And the kids were adorable as well:)

Setting out on the hike! Megan, Matt with Seth in the backpack, Reed and Clint. Clint was able to go on a short walk with us and then went back with Tessa in the stroller.

Doesn't Matt look like a model father? ;) Seth loved riding high and not having to walk on this hike.

The kids picked wild flowers along the way and gave one to Seth. I thought that this was such a cute picture of him! He is a sweet little boy.

Molly with her flowers. She lost some of them along the way because she picked them so close to the top of the flower that she had no stems to hold on to. She was so excited to give flowers to Grandma and Grandpa!

Doesn't this look like a cute little family? except that Seth is our nephew and not our son but it could work:)

Becky thought that all of the kids looked like they could be from a scene in The Sound of Music the way they were all following Matt around in the field of wild flowers. Can't you hear the music now? :) "The hills are alive, with the sound of music!"

This picture of Tessa was too cute to pass up. She had just been held in the shower spray for a few minutes to give her a quick bath before heading home and I think she was still in shock. Poor little girl!

On the hike, the kids found a "cool" gravel pile which they played on for a good half hour. Jumping down it, sliding down it on their bottoms and then they found this cool old sled behind the gravel hill.. They had a blast sliding down the hill again and again and again. We finally had to pull them away so that we could finish the hike before it got dark. Kids are the best in that they can take something as simple as a pile of gravel and make it into the best play thing in the world!

Summer Job

2009-12-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

I know that this is late and it is already the end of the year but I had to catch up sometime...

During this past summer, I worked at a Lifeguard/ Swim instructor/ Assistant Swim Coach for the Campbell Community Center. (This was my second year working for them). Since the demand for swim lessons is so high, the community center also uses the Westmont High School pool during the summer swim season. I was lucky enough to be a pool manager (which basically means that I am in charge of anything that goes wrong, scheduling the lifeguards and running first aid drills) and this meant that I was able to pick which pool I wanted to work at. Westmont is just down the street from our house so the choice was obvious. I got a good little workout by riding my bike to work every day.

Saying Good Bye to Japan

2009-12-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, after all of these months, we are going to finish our Japan posts! Yah! Sorry that we have been stuck on this for a while. We promise that photos from our Portugal and Paris trip for Thanksgiving will be up soon!

On Sunday, we decided to catch a train and walk to the embassy area of Tokyo. This is also the area where the Tokyo Temple is located so we got to take some pictures in front of it. Hard as we tried we could not take a self portrait which included all of our faces as well as the top of the temple spire. Oh well, this is the best one we got. No matter where you are, the electrical wires are all over the city of Tokyo, obstructing every view but it is still a pretty building.

Next we walked and rode the train to the same area where Ryan and his family picked us up the day we climbed Mt. Fuji. Just around the corner is this beautiful park with wide walking paths and tall trees. I almost forgot that we were in the middle of the city! The street noise was almost completely gone by the time we arrived at the center of the park and Meiji Shrine.

We were lucky enough to see a traditional Japanese wedding party walk through the center of the shrine courtyard (through all of the crowds of tourists and Japanese people enjoying a nice Sunday morning) into the private shrine rooms beyond. Matt got this great picture of the bride (with the white "hat" and golden kimono) and the groom (in black and grey). I would have loved to sit in on that wedding and stare at all of the beautifully made kimonos.

Matt and I at the Meiji shrine. Then we were off to our hotel to shower (again... during the summer in Japan, you need to shower at least twice daily so that your clothing is not soaked through with sweat) and then head for the airport. Sadly, our Japan trip had come to an end, but it is one that we will remember for a long time to come.

The Final Days of Japan

2009-12-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

After climbing Mount Fuji for over 10 hours, we made it back to our hotel exhausted, sweaty and sore. My knees had taken a beating on the steep climb up Fuji and again on the switchbacks on the way down so sleep was a nice break from the pain. The next morning, Saturday, we slept in late and then did some sight seeing in Tokyo.

First up was the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan. Although the Emperor holds no governmental power, it was still cool to see (at least a part of) this figurehead's home.

Then we went to Asakusa which is also well known for the Thunder Gate (Kaminari-mon) which hangs in the entrance to the street which leads to the Senso-ji Temple itself. If you can't tell, this lantern is HUGE! Behind this gate is a long line of shops which is were we found one of our prints of Fuji (which now hangs in our home). Here is also were I first tried Ramune, a sugar-y soda in a hourglass shaped bottle with a marble as a cap. The marble is pushed into the bottle by the vender and then you can enjoy the yummy soda inside. This was one of my favorite treats in Japan (besides the yummy warm bread).

A train station on the way to Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants baseball game! You can see how crowded the stations can get during rush hour! At least we never had to be pushed onto a train by the Japanese Train Pushers (Google it ;).

Here we are at the Yomiuri Giants game! So much fun to go to such a popular sporting event in Japan! We saw baseball fields and stadiums almost everywhere we passed on the trains. After not being able to talk to anyone around me or understand what people were saying, I wanted to try my hand at getting by on my own with no Japanese language. So I got up the guts to go and get some food at the game all by myself. I just wanted to order some ice cream. And my mission was a success! I even was able to order one Chocolate ice cream and one swirl! Yay for me:)

The cheering section of the stadium. even though I did not understand what I was cheering, it was fun to sing along with the crowd.

Matt and I in front of the Tokyo Dome where the Giants play. Sadly, we did not get to see them win but it was fun none the less. Thank you to Ryan and his brother Matt for getting us tickets and coming with us to the game!

Climbing Fuji- Friday June 25th 2009

2009-12-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with the Japan posts... The Friday before we left Japan, we climbed Mount Fuji with Matt's friend Ryan, and Ryan's father, sister and brother-in-law. We rode the earliest train (5:30 AM) and met them at a train station close to Ryan's house and we headed out towards the base of Mount Fuji!

Once we got to the head of the hiking trail, at 7,500 feet in elevation, we see this map of the trail. If you look closely, you can see that the trail is basically switchbacks all the way up to the summit.

What a beautiful view we had as we came around the hills surrounding the mountain! We had had fog the whole way and then we caught a glimpse of this iconic mountain! Then the doubts set in... with all of the snow, would we be able to make it to the top? it looks a lot taller in person...

This is Matt and me as we are setting out on our hiking adventure! Little did we know at this point that we would be climbing these same switchbacks forever and then have to hike down them on the way back down. Don't we look so optimistic?

Then we looked UP and this is what we saw. Clouds and more switchbacks on the ridge we were climbing and then more mountain covered with clouds behind it. The little huts along the trail are places where you can stay during the climbing season to make the hike a two day hike. Of course we were climbing in the off season so they were mostly closed but we passed many people hiking up with food, water and blankets to stock the huts for the following week when the official climbing season would begin and hundreds of people would begin their climb of Mt. Fuji.

At this point, we had passed the switchbacks and begun to climb in the patchy snow and rocks. You can see just how steep this mountain is in this picture as well! Also in the background on the left is the rope and steal rods that held them in place (in other words, the trail) which we followed to the top, if we could find them buried in the snow.

Climbing through the snow. We had to forge our own trail part of the way up and thought about turning back several times when we kept slipping and falling on the loose snow and rocks.

Almost there!!! Matt and I were so happy to be at this point! We had hiked though some deep snow and thought about turing back, more than once, but were met on our way up by workers digging out the trial on their way down! Lucky us:)

Me at the summit of Mount Fuji at 12,388 feet! The first mountain that I had ever climbed and hopefully not the last!

Matt standing by the crater rim on the top of Mt. Fuji. And yes, Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano.

This was our hiking group resting on our descent of Mt. Fuji. From left to right, Monte (Ryan's Father-in-law), Lynne (Ryan's sister-in-law), Me, Matt, Ryan and Jeff (Ryan's brother-in-law).

Japan Continued!

2009-11-30T06:26:00.001-08:00

I am determined to get all of our Japan travels down in our Blog before we post pictures from our Paris and Portugal trip (Which we just got home from yesterday afternoon, thus, the 6:00 AM posting).

We left off when we were in Kyoto, exploring the various temples and shrines there including impressive Golden Pavillion. The next day we went to Nara by train to visit The Largest Wooden Building in The Entire World! This building is called, Todai-ji Temple or the Great Buddha Hall, and it houses a HUGE Buddha but the main reason for us going to this place was not for the Buddha. We wanted to see this huge wood building! The coolest thing about it though is that it was originally much wider but when it was rebuilt twice since the original was erected between 710 and 794 AD after it burned down. The one we saw is 33% smaller and was built between 1615 and 1860. No small feat even then!

Nara is known for its gardens and small, little "messengers of the gods" (aka: miniature deer). These deer roam free through all of Nara Park and are very friendly. Almost too friendly because they will come right up to you and steal your snack out of your pocket if you are too close! (These guys that I am hanging out with were too tired to be interested in me)

The gardens surrounding the Todai-ji Temple were very impressive as well. From one, Nanzen-in, were were able to catch a glimpse of Todai-ji. (Or what we thought was the Great Buddha Hall but what was actually one of the massive gates leading up to it)

Sometime before we left Kyoto for good, we also visited Sanjusangendo, the LONGEST wooden building in the world! (I guess we were interested in the wooden buildings for a while:). This building is also famous for what it houses as well (1,001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy) but again, we were more interested in its length.

On June 24th, we headed back to Tokyo and had dinner with one of Matt's friends, Ryan, who was working in Tokyo. We went to dinner with him, since his wife was with her parents who had come to visit, and we ate at the Ginza District, which is the high end shopping area in Tokyo.

The next day, we went to Nagano by train to see Matsumoto Palace, which really wasn't as spectacular as Himeji Castle but we still had to go see it. This was also the area in which Matt spent some of his time while on his mission in Japan and one of his favorite areas.

2009-11-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is Matt Blogging again. Danielle and I had the opportunity to go to Utah and spend time with Kelly, Clint and the girls. It was a great trip. I'll just pretty much let the photos speak for themselves, with short captions.

We got to take Callie ice skating at the South Davis Rec Center. Callie and Danielle both did great. Callie really enjoyed being pulled around and jumping up and down.

On Clint's last night in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit, Danielle and I got to spend a few hours with him. He was more than ready to get home.

Clint waving goodbye to his hospital bed on the 17th day after the transplant. The day that he got to go home after almost six weeks in the hospital.

As we walked out of the University Hospital it was already raining pretty hard. As Clint got up to move from the wheelchair to the car, it started hailing really hard. None of us cared, it was just great to be taking Clint home after a successful transplant.

Danielle and the girls on the front porch waiting to see Clint. Callie made a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign. It was such an amazing feeling to drive around the corner and to see the girls waiting to see their Dad. I can't even describe the emotion and excitement that I felt in that moment. Clint is home where he belongs.

Tessa wasn't sure about the mask her Daddy had to wear.

Callie was so excited to have her Daddy home that she didn't stop talking for a couple of hours. She wanted to tell Clint about everything she had done and show him everything new that she had or had made. When she ran out of new things to tell him or show him, she simply would lean her head against his shoulder and say "I missed you Daddy. I love you Daddy. Daddy, you went to the hospital and now you're better," over and over again. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I loved Tessa's face in this picture and so had to post it. Being in Utah for over a week, I got really close to the girls. It was so hard to leave them and head home to California. I miss them so much everyday.

Danielle and I stopped for a photo on the Salt Flats on our way home.

A Missionary in the Family!!!

2009-10-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

We have some exciting news! My little brother, Jens Karren, just got called to serve a LDS mission in Curitiba, Brasil!!! He will be reporting to the Sao Paulo, Brasil Missionary Training Center on January 13th 2010!

(Jens' Mission picture, with his new missionary haircut! This big step of cutting his hair made the whole process real to me. My little brother was going on a mission!)

Several things make this an especially exciting announcement. First off, Jens will be the first son in my family to serve a mission. Way to set the example for the younger two, Jens! Second, Jens is going to be going to the same mission area that Matt's dad served in for a portion of his mission. How cool is that?

We all made guesses as to where he would be going when the family was together over General Conference Weekend. We had guesses for all over the world, including Russia, Samoa, Africa, "Anywhere south of Mexico", and lots of guesses State side. Out of the 16 guesses made, only my grandmother guessed Brasil. Maybe it was a grandmother's intuition:)

So we will be saying good bye to Jens-y Babe at the airport as he takes off on a new life adventure. We are all so excited and proud of him!

In his own words; "I just got my mission call to Curitiba, Brasil!!!!!" (He is so excited, can you tell?) I think he will be a great missionary.

(Jens' Pre-missionary haircut picture, so cute;)

XTERRA Utah Off-Road Triathlon

2009-09-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is Matt blogging, instead of Danielle. This past weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with my siblings and to help watch the kids while they all participated in the XTERRA Utah Off-Road Triathlon. Ryan ran the whole race by himself and Jon (swimming), Becky (mountain biking), and Kelly (running) ran the race as a relay. They all did really well and it was so fun to watch them compete.

The relay team before the Race. Jon's shirt is off because he had already gone for his warm up swim, not because he loves showing off his amazing abs :)

Cute couple before the race. Ryan put in a great effort and got a great time.

Tessa and I hung around together and watched everybody race. She was a great sport and had a lot of fun too. Jon coming out of the water. At the top of the boat ramp, he'll high 5 Becky and she'll start the bike ride. Tessa and I ran with him to try to get a good picture of the transition, but alas, there wasn't a good vantage point to get a shot. Ryan starting the run. Callie climbed up on this fence all by herself. As each biker came by she would clap her hands and cheer with the other spectators. It was quite cute. Becky finishing her leg of the race. And Kelly starting her leg of the race. And finally across the finish line. Our relay team finished ahead of at least one other relay team. The team after the race, sporting their Livestrong shirts. Throughout the day, all of us thought of Clint and the race he's running right now. And with Clint as her inspiration, Kelly exceeded her goal in the run by at least 10 minutes. Callie talking to her Grandma Walton in Portugal after the race. And this one has nothing to do with the race, but I couldn't resist posting it. Tessa in her Daddy's hospital room at the Huntsman. We love you Clint.

Cute little birdie outside my window...

2009-09-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at the kitchen table, minding my own business and doing homework (like a good college student) when I saw little birds of unknown species flying up from the bushes outside. I see this all out the corner of my eye as I am trying to stay focused on the computer screen in front of me and then... 'Bonk' a bird hits the window, scaring me half to death and leaving a mark to prove he was there! How dare he disturb my concentration! ;)

I thought it was hilarious and had to take a picture. You can even see where his wings hit and a white spot (a stuck on feather) where his beak was! That must have hurt!

I hope you got a laugh at this poor bird's expense. And kids, what can we learn from this? Don't run into windows!

Youth Etiquette Dinner

2009-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

So as some of you know, I was called to be the Young Women's Secretary and Personal Progress Advisor this past February and I have had so much fun with the other women in the presidency and the girls in our ward! They are just so much fun! So we wanted to do a fun activity that was also educational after a long summer of not having everyone in town and what other way to eat and mingle than to have a diner! We sent out formal invitations to each one of the young men and young women and enclosed RSVP cards that they had to send back so that we would know exactly how many kids to plan for. We even code named the event so that more kids would come and not be scared of the name 'Etiquette Dinner.' We are sneaky leaders after all:) After lots of planning and preparation the night went off without a hitch and better yet... the youth LOVED IT! We got (and continue to get, 2 weeks later) complements on the food, the games, just the whole thing! We were so happy that so many youth came and that they had fun and hopefully a little etiquette knowledge slipped in there too. So here are the pictures from the event!

Table #1- eating yummy biscotti and sherbet for desert:)

Table #1 (from the other side)

Table #2

Table #3 (have you noticed the boy-girl pattern yet?)

Rebecca and JR in the kitchen. They were the hands behind the scene that made sure we had enough silverware for desert and that my kitchen wasn't an overwhelming mess at the end of the night. Thank you!

We had Pictionary in one room after dinner where the youth had to draw the table manner/ rule and their team would have to guess what it was.

There was a Jepordy type etiquette game in the other room. (Thanks to Candy's whit and cunning:)

Fall is in the air...

2009-09-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day that it really felt like fall was on it's way (at least for me). Matt has said that it has felt like fall for a few days now but today with the overcast skies, wind and a few small water drops on the back porch, it feels like fall to me. Matt also took out the dead zucchini and cucumber plants on Saturday and cut the dry corn stalks from their roots for some fall decoration for the porch (pictures to come with the 9 pumpkins that are still growing). So with the garden slowing down and the clouds in the sky, I feel like cuddling up with Matt and watching a good movie or reading a good book. We are both looking forward to wearing long pants and sweatshirts again and I am looking forward to wearing sweaters and jackets to school and not worrying about having to carry it all home with me when it is 80 degrees outside after I get out of classes in the afternoon. Fall makes me think of Pumpkin Spice bread (Matt's contribution to dinner tonight), slippers, watching the wind and rain outside our windows as we are warm inside. Crinkly leaves and red, orange trees (just before all of the leaves fall off in winter). I love fall:) and I am glad that it is finally in it's way.

Beginning of a new School Year

2009-08-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day back to school since the beginning of the summer! It feels nice to back on SJSU's campus again and walk into buildings that I have come to know. This is also the first fall semester where I have attended the same college as the spring semester before it. For the past 3 years I have attended 3 different colleges beginning with Southern Utah University, West Valley College and now, San Jose State University. 3 Colleges in 3 years. After all of the hassle of transferring credits, requesting too many copies of transcripts, and arguing with counselors, I am finally able to settle into a routine on a familiar campus beginning on the first day of fall classes. For once, I was the one who was directing a new student to a classroom building instead of the other way around. It is a strange feeling being at the same University after so many years of jumping around. I feel as if I am missing something because I have not had to walk into the advisement office yet today. Now I get to settle down for a while.

So to all of those readers who are going back to school this week or the next, from Elementary school to Masters programs, Good Luck this Year!

My First Day of School Picture (thanks to Matt:)

The Japan Travels continued...

2009-08-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Kyoto was a fun but busy part of the trip. We visited countless shrines and temples (most which we walked to) including the one shown below, Kiyomizu Temple. This one is famous for its high wooden stilts that the temple rests upon and the pure water spring for which the temple is named. I dont know exactly how high the stilts are but they are at least 40 to 50 feet tall of old wooden beams and holding up a platform that 1,000's of tourists walk upon day after day.

An attempt at a self portrait in front of Kiyomizu-dera. Matt drinking from the pure water spring.

Hand washing is a task done before entering each temple or shrine. We were not required to do it but Matt and I felt it was a way to completely soak up the culture we were experiencing.

Me with 4 women in Kimonos! Matt saw these women at Kiyomizu-dera and couldn't help but ask if I could have my picture taken with them. They were more than happy to pose and smile for a blonde haired, blue eyed man who spoke almost perfect Japanese and his 'gaijin' wife.

A better view of Kiyomizu Temple. The trees block the view of the stilts but you can get the idea that they are tall considering the temple is above the tall trees.

Matt and I then traveled through the small streets of the old capital city of Kyoto to Nanzen-ji, a Zen Buddhist park which included several gates. The one we were standing on was originally built in 1296 but burned down and was rebuilt in 1628. Still pretty old! And we would not have even gotten this arial picture of the park if we had not seen a camera flash above our heads as we were leaving under the gate's massive doorway.

This is Matt and I and our Japanese friends in front of Kinkaku-ji or the Golden Pavilion. And if the walls seem gold like, it is because they are. All of the walls of Kinkaku-ji are covered in gold-leaf! This picture is of one of two groups of Japanese school children who were required to conduct an interview with English speaking tourists for their field trip assignment. They asked us simple questions, mostly about how much we liked Japan, how long we were staying and if we liked Japanese food. Matt was able to tease these kids in Japanese and give them hints as to what to ask in English when they were confused with the language. It was fun to see their faces light up and the nervousness fade as they realized they could cheat/fib on their assignment and get some help with Matt's language skills.

Japan!!!

2009-07-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know but, Matt and I went to Japan for 8 days back at the end of June. June is also known as Monsoon Season in Japan so we expected to be wet most of our time there. We were happily surprised when it only rained on our way from the airport to our hotel on the first night and then when we were on the same bus back to the airport at the end of the trip. Travelers luck if you ask me but it was so nice to not have to worry about the rain and bringing an umbrella everywhere. We spent the first night of the trip in Tokyo where we visited Shubuya, the biggest street intersection in the world! The mixture of jet lag and all of the people made this stop pretty dizzying. Sadly this also ment that we didn't get a good picture of all the people criss-crossing the intersection in every direction. The next morning we woke up early to catch a bullet train headed west. We rode for 5 hours total to reach our first destinations, Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Visiting the peace park in Hiroshima was a neat experience for me especially because I am so interested in World War II history. In this photo is the A-Bomb dome (the only remaining building close to the epicenter of the bomb) and the Peace Flame (or some name to the nature). We also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to see artifacts left over from the atom bomb explosion, including several watches which all stopped at the same time, 8:15 am, the time that the first A-bomb exploded.

We then caught a train to the ferry dock to ride over to the island of Miyajima. This island is known for the red Shinto gate which seams to float in the shallow bay during high tide.

Matt found a great hotel on the island which had traditional Japanese style rooms and an amazing view of the red gate. This is the view from our outdoor bath. Relaxing Huh?

Of course a traditional Japanese style room comes with a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast. The dinner included 10 courses of sashimi, raw eel, various pickled veggies, miso soup, yakiniku, shabu shabu, and other foods that I can't pronounce and mostly didn't eat:) I did try at least a bite of most of it. Here is a picture of Matt with this traditional breakfast, fish and eggs! Yummy! I opted for a Western style breakfast which included bread and rolls and yogurt and more yummy breads:) I was happy and so was Matt.

Since we stayed the night on the Island of Miyajima we were able to see it when it was less crowded with the daily tourists. This is a self portrait from the morning we left Miyajima. I think you can even see the first ferry pulling in behind the gate.

The day we left Miyajima, we hopped on another bullet train in Hiroshima and headed to Kyoto but stopped in Himeji on the way to see this World Cultural Heritage site. The castle/fort was first built on this site in 1333 and the current buildings, walls and moats were completed 1618. Thats pretty old if you ask me! Obviously the castle has been rebuilt over time so that people can continue to visit it. (Most of the restoration was done in the 50's and 60's). The temperature on this particular day was not in the 60's however, but rather the 90's with about 90% humidity. We were dripping from head to toe, grumpy from not drinking enough water and from walking the "short" distance from the train station to the castle itself, but this was one of the most amazing castles that we have ever seen, or will ever see! Not only the castle was amazing but the grounds were green and beautiful and filled with subtle details on everything from the eves of the roof to the hinges on the heavy doors. I loved taking pictures here and enjoying the shade that the castle tour brought:) We were happy to finally get back on an air conditioned train and continue our journey on to Kyoto.

Blogging

2009-07-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is our first (good) blog and we hope to continue it for a while. Might as well since everyone around us has one:) So here is to us, Matt and Danielle, and our new Blog!