Maui & the Start of Summer

Let me tell you this- working, doing a master's degree, and playing take up so much time that I rarely blog anymore. My instagram is a better blog of my life than a real blog currently.

We survived a very wet and rainy winter, and rewarded ourselves with a trip to Maui! We had never been, and tickets from Seattle are well-priced, and we couldn't resist the sun, snorkeling, and sunsets in paradise. Ian and I played on Kaanapali Beach for a few days before we met Ian's mom, dad, and brother. With them, we did some hikes on the Road to Hana, went on a snorkel trip to Lanai, and hiked on the north side of the island as well. It was a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing spring break!

Kaanapali Beach

black sand beach!!!

I'ao Needle Valley

The countdown to summer started and the daily routine of work, mastering, church, and trying to make time for family set in. Our lease in Seattle ended and we made the big move to the suburbs of Seattle on the edge of Issaquah and Bellevue. It's been a huge change, but we love how close we are to hiking trails, and I love the 15 minute commute!

New apartment

new mantle and fireplace (below...not pictured)

Scott & Amy invited us to Portland, couldn't make it, but we still decided to go. It was so relaxing and fun! We had a blast eating delicious food, at the Portland Night Market, and we really enjoyed hiking the Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park. All was without Dani, which was convenient because the hike didn't allow dogs (how irritating). Thankfully, Dani loves Kelsey, so she played with her while we were gone.

Portland Rose Garden

Trail of Ten Falls

The weekend following we camped at Tower Rock Campground, which is right between Mt. St. Helen's and Mt. Rainier. It was gorgeous, and we only got rained on the first night we were setting up. Not bad! We went on some beautiful hikes and enjoyed some afternoon naps.

Dani log jumping (and sitting)

Packwood Lake

The real countdown to summer began, and I started packing up my classroom in Portblandia. Yes, I got "promoted" to a classroom inside the building next year! We're on a portable rotation plan, and I am thrilled to finally have running water and not have to endure the elements on a daily basis. I said goodbye to my 5th graders that I loved and those that I learned to love. I always dislike those that say they learn from the kids, but this year that was very true! They were so kind and welcoming and inclusive that it truly warmed my heart and I am sad to see them move on to bigger and better things.More change happened with the 5th grade team splitting up. I have no shame in saying it was the dream team-with lots of laughter, innovation, and collaboration. With Colin moving to Oregon and Liza interning and going on to her dream science job, that leaves only Katie and I. That also means I'm going to be team lead, which I feel not ready for at all...especially with only three years of teaching at Newcastle. Thank goodness the intern and boss are so supportive and know my own concerns. I will also have a student teacher for the first part of next year! Exciting, and I hope I can be the mentor teacher that makes as positive of an impact as my mentor teacher did!

5th Grade Dream Team

Beach Day

I'm SO excited that it's summer. Even though I have two master's classes to finish before I graduate on August 31, we found time for some fun. My mom is coming next week, I'm heading to an ITP retreat (technology training), Girl's Camp, San Diego & LA, and a fun road trip to Big Sur/Phoenix/Utah are all happening in the next eight weeks!

How Did 2015 End?

Time truly just flies, and I have not made time to update this blog. Here's a quick recap of 2015, mostly for my own personal memory:
Fun in the Summer:
-hiking at Mt. Rainier with the Reeds. They always know all the cool places to go and let us share their adventures :)
-Wipeout 5k! This adventure was something we wanted to do, but we were originally going to be in Canada. Injured dog=no Canada=fun running through obstacles.
-rained out camping weekend

One of the best things we did this summer was a spontaneous and mostly unplanned road trip. We went down the Oregon and California Coast. We camped, hung out at beaches, did some hiking, and enjoyed a day exploring Monterey. While it was tiring and sometimes stressful, the experience was irreplaceable and we're even considering finishing the trip this summer! It was great because we turned our phones into hotspots and Ian worked and I mastered during the trip as well! Yay responsibility and fun!

             

We then rushed to play in Utah with family for a week or so:

Fall 2015:

The first day of the school year came...

and left.

We went on a fun hike with the Heath's to Twin Falls!

We went apple picking, cheered USU in a pathetic game at UW, went to the EMP Museum, enjoyed some Seattle sights and some Mariner's games, made it alive through a corn maze, and visited Leavenworth in the fall. We've become much more boring while I work on my master's degree on the weekends, but we're still loving Seattle!

To end fall, we had our 3rd annual Thanksgiving feast. We really love our friends that have become like family out here. 

Finally, we celebrated Christmas in Seattle, and spent time celebrating two weddings and Christmas in Utah. It was a great year and I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store (even though it's already a month in).

As of Late...

Life gets busy and I haven't updated this since March!

In the recent past, Ian graduated from UW with his Master's of Public Administration degree. Ian's family, my dad and Kathy came out here to celebrate! It was a great weekend full of family time! We loved whale watching (even though we didn't see any orcas), exploring downtown, Salty's, and hiking to Denny Creek and playing in the cold pools of water. We're lucky so many loved ones were able to come and celebrate!

Whale watching in Friday Harbor

Pike's

playing at Denny Creek

Master Ian!

While Ian was graduating and finishing the last of his projects, I started my own master's degree in May. I'm getting a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction online through Grand Canyon University. It's been a good experience so far, and it's been nice to have a little more to do during the summer. Ian makes fun of me because I'm really on top of all the assignments. I also started tutoring a few kiddos in math, which I've also really enjoyed!

Summer started for me mid-June. We went to see Lion King on Broadway in Vancouver, which was really great. We also saw The Illusionists here in Seattle. We've become addicted to Stubhub and Ian looks for deals every day. We've been to two Mariners games together this summer (so far). 

Mariners game! This one they won, in the 11th inning

Scott and his girlfriend, Amy, came out to visit and spend a few days with us as well! We had a blast! We enjoyed Pike's and the ferry to Bainbridge Island, the Fremont Troll, and hiking to Valhalla Lake. It was fun to show Scott the places that we love out here!

Lake Valhalla

playing Quelf

Fremont Troll

A huge bonus this summer was when the Cooper's came to visit! I used to babysit the kids back in Texas, and now they're all grown up! It was fun to explore Seattle with them for a couple of days as well!

Cooper Family!

This past week, Dani somehow hurt her ligaments in her knee, which meant a visit to the vet, who gave her some anti-inflammatory meds and ordered full rest. We had to cancel our camping trip to Banff and Jasper because of it! Good thing she's cute and adorable. The rest is working, and she is ready to run and play, even though her knee isn't quite 100% yet. Because she can't hike, we did Seattle's every so popular Rattlesnake Ledge hike. It was beautiful, but crowded beyond belief. I don't really like hiking if I have to stand in a line to go up and down the trail.

Dani calm at the vet. Definitely knew she wasn't feeling good as she sat instead of sprinted.

Rattlesnake Ledge

With church, Ian and I are in the nursery. I've been there for more than a year and a half, and I am feeling very exhausted. We miss regular church meetings. However, we really love our ward and the people in our ward. We feel like we lucked out being in our congregation! If only we could hang out with adults on Sundays...

We are loving summer over here, more so now that it cooled down to the 80's! We're excited to continue exploring the Pacific Northwest this summer! It passes by too fast!

Week in the Caribbean

My school district/Seattle has something called mid-winter break aka a whole week off in the middle of February. In other words, the temptation is high to run away from everything for a week...so we did. We started looking at flights to Salt Lake or Phoenix, but Ian got distracted and we stayed up til 1 am booking flights and a Caribbean cruise.

Do we regret our spontaneous decision three weeks before break? NOT. AT. ALL.

We took a red-eye to Miami, and enjoyed the warm sunshine and exploring. We played mini-golf. We ate tacos and strawberry frozen yogurt. We I enjoyed the moment when we I put our my phones on airplane mode. Ian accidentally left his phone in the Seattle airport, and when he realized, the door to the gate was already sealed. He got his phone shipped to him from the nice man who found it though!

view of Miami

Our first day was a day at sea. We slept in, ate a late breakfast, and fought for some lounge chairs in the sun facing Cuba. We read for a long time, and it was magnificent. We played bingo...and I won a dollar! I played a slot machine with that lucky dollar and lost it very quickly.

 

Our 2nd day, we ported on the island of Cozumel! We got right off the ship, and onto the ferry to Playa del Carmen. We did an amazing tour exploring a ceynotes (underwater/underground cave). We did Rio Secreto. It was beautiful, and the water was cold! We had wetsuits, life vests, helmets, and headlights. It was hilarious to walk through the jungle to the entrance of the ceynotes. We mostly walked through knee-high water, but got to swim in some parts! The cave formations were beautiful! We some some neat cave life as well-shrimp, fish, and bats! We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside so that they could charge us for some later.

near the entrance

because this is hilarious.

Afterwards, we got to spend some time in Playa del Carmen, which we loved and thought was beautiful! Ian bought himself a Mexican hat.

back on Cozumel

Day 3? Isla, Roatan, Honduras.
This day was unforgettable. We got off the cruise-made port (so ridiculous) and went outside the port gates to a herd of locals holding signs. We found our man, Quincy, and he told us that the boat the use wasn't working and they had contacted and cancelled the others on our tour. Since he couldn't get a hold of us beforehand, he didn't cancel it, so we pretty much had a private snorkeling tour. http://roatancruiseexcursions.com/ It was amazing! We drove around the island to the West End, and we go to learn about the culture, economy, and life on the island. It was fascinating to hear! We got to the boat, got on, and oh my-the ride in the ocean and through mangroves was breathtaking! Our first stop was the Spooky Channel. It was so neat! The coral fans were large and so purple! The drop off from the reef and the ocean was drastic, and a little terrifying. We saw a huge lionfish as well!

spooky channel

spooky channel

Roatan

Our next stop was a shipwreck from 1901, which was so neat to see how to sea had overtaken the boat. Afterwards, we had some extra time, so we hung out at the cruise's private beach area. We ate stew chicken and plaintain fries. Mmmm. It was also nice to lay out in the sun. Little did we realize that we were being brutally burned by the sun. Should have been in the shade...

at the shipwreck

the water was so clear!

my favorite picture of coral that I took

Day 4...BELIZE!
The biggest reason we went on the cruise was to go to Belize. We loved it. The tour guides kept saying it was "unbelizeable" and that is true! We did another snorkeling adventure, and this time our group was much bigger. We took a 45 minute boat ride through the different cayes and learned a little bit about each one we passed. One was a man-made island made entirely of conch shells! We got to Coral Gardens, and snorkeled! Belize has a stupid water law that makes you wear a flotation device at all times in the water and I hated it. It was awkward. Bleh. BUT the coral was gorgeous and the fish were fun to see. We then went over to Shark/Sting Ray Alley, and got in the water with them. Ian loved it. I was nervous. I didn't touch a shark, but touched a slimy giant sting ray. Ian got very comfortable with all of them. One of the guys lifted a sting ray up and put it on Ian's back. Hilarious! Afterwards, we headed to Caye Caulker, were we ate stew chicken, rice and beans, fries and some Belize coke! Once we finished eating, Ian and I walked around the island, found some art, loved all the bikes and golf carts, bought a coke and a banana, and planned our return in the future. On the way back to the port, Ian spotted dolphins, and they all came up to the boat! It was an amazing day in Belize!

leaky snorkel masks. :(

Ian with the sharks.

Caye Caulker

sun loving people.

Day 5-our last stop, was in a port called "Costa Maya" by the cruiseline, but is actually a city called Mahahual. We used a company called Native Choice to go see some mayan ruins! It was nice to ride out for an hour and see the swamps around. We went through a town that is famous for pineapple, and we got to stop and eat some. Yummy! The Chacchoben ruins were the first Mayan ruins I have ever seen and I thought it was so neat! Ian has seen more and said Chacchoben was much smaller. I was still impressed. We also saw some monkeys in a tree over the ruins! It was such a fun day! We topped it off with some tacos and then headed back.

Chacchoben ruin with Mayan and Aztec work

Chacchoben ruin

Chacchoben ruin

 

Our last day at sea, we were both sunburned and it wasn't too warm, so we went to some of the shows they had. Ian was surprised with all the entertainment-live music, comedy club, and some of the other activities.

Once we got back to Miami, we did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. It was interesting to see some of the different areas in Miami. We got off in Little Havana for lunch, and enjoyed some Cuban sandwiches.

Litlle Havana

Little Havana

It was a wonderful vacation, and spurred my desire to travel even more!! Better watch out world...