Thanksgiving Weekend

What a RELAXING Thanksgiving weekend we had at our house. Molly and I took a Thanksgiving morning hike up Salmon Creek Dam. It was a pretty quiet hike and only ran into a few other dogs and their owners. Later that day Terry and Gavin joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of making a full turkey I bought a couple of Jenny-O turkey loafs. They're pretty tasty and so much easier than making a whole turkey! 

Adam and I decided to go out and do Black Friday the next day. Our type of Black Friday shopping consists of sleeping in until 9 a.m., getting coffee and then casually strolling around a few stores. We are NOT into fighting the crowds just to save 50 bucks. 

On Saturday, my camera and I headed over to the Love's house for a photoshoot. Baby is super photogenic and we had fun getting into the Christmas spirit with lights and Christmas bulbs! 

We're still waiting on Baby Harris to show up! I leave for Vegas on Wednesday so we're keeping our fingers crossed that she comes before then! If not, then Stephenie better keep her legs crossed until I come home on Saturday! ;-)
Happy Thanksgiving!

November already.....Yikes!

Where is the time going? The school year is flying by and it's hard to believe we are already in November! Adam has been busy getting ready for parent-teacher conferences and will most likely spend each weekend out at the school until Thanksgiving break. My November calendar is filled with inservices and trainings including one that will be held in Las Vegas. :-) 

Last month was all about baby Harris but this month we will actually get to meet her! My Stephenie friend is due at the end of THIS month. Last night I was part of a small group of ladies that held a "baby blessing" for her. We each read a prayer that we had written for Stephenie and decorated cloth that will be turned into a prayer flag. The colored string represents the women that have come before us and the children that will come after us. It will stay on our wrists as a reminder to think positive thoughts for Stephenie until we cut the string as she goes into labor. 

Stephenie has asked me to take photos of the birth. I'm excited, honored, and (I'll be honest here..) just a little nervous to be part of such an intimate experience. I look forward to meeting baby girl!

Bye, Bye October!

Phew, what a whirlwind October has been! This month was all about BABIES!!!! 

I helped host a baby shower for Stephenie. 

 We had it at the Goldbelt hotel and it was packed with her friends, family and coworkers. Everyone had a great time showering baby Harris with love (and TONS of gifts!)

This was one of the funniest gifts Stephenie received. Who knew they made these?!?! Home alcohol test strips for breast feeding! 

I also did a pregnancy photoshoot with Stephie. We included her cousin who is also pregnant (they are only a couple weeks apart!), her sister and of course, the hubby. 

It was a chilly but SUNNY October day in Juneau so we had some fun with shadows!

Of course, the month of October wouldn't be complete without Halloween! Adam and I helped with the Fall Festival at our school. There were a ton of games, lots of food and even a few bouncy houses! It was fun to see all the great costumes the kids were wearing. I dressed as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games but I'm bummed because I forgot to take a picture of my costume! 

While I quietly chaperoned the "movie room" Adam was busy getting shaving cream pies thrown in his face. What a good sport he was!

And we're already in October......

Wow! September FLEW by and now we are half way through October! It's been a busy month and a half but busy in a very good way.
The school year is settling down and we are all finding our groove. Adam has a big class this year and is teaching a mix of 4th and 5th graders. With a class size of 29 there just isn't enough time during the week to address all of the classroom needs so he's been spending the weekends working at the school. However, he loves his students and enjoys the quiet hours he puts in on the weekends.
My year has been going great as well. I've taken on a few new roles at school and am enjoying the energy and enthusiasm that our new principal brings. I've been asked to be one of the mental health professionals on the Community Response Team and will be attending training for that in November. It is a community wide team of first response people who will assist in the event that a major crisis happens in Juneau or an outlying community (think school shooting, terrorist attack, etc.) It'll be a new challenge and I'm looking forward to finding out what the training involves. I've also been asked to attend a conference in Vegas at the end of the month. I'm looking forward to seeing some sunshine and getting away from the rain!
While work has kept us busy we've managed to carve out time to play and have fun. Lots of dinner dates with friends, good workouts, planning a baby shower and evening walks with dog and hubby. The rest of the month is guaranteed to be fun and exciting. Hopefully, I'll be better about taking time to blog!
Happy October!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Hope you have a fantastic day. I wish Adam and I could be there to help you celebrate. 

Love you! 

A Wedding!

Last weekend my wonderful friend, Mindy, called and asked if I would take photos at her stepson's wedding. It sounded like a great opportunity to hone my photography skills so I jumped at the chance. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but it was great to be able to sneak in some quality time with Mindy and her kids. 

On Friday night I attended the rehearsal dinner and took some fun pictures of the wedding party. 

 Saturday morning Mindy and her son picked me up and we headed to Twin Lakes for a 5K before the wedding that afternoon! It was her son's first 5K and he did GREAT! Mindy reminded me that I was with her for her first 5K as well. :-)
Later that afternoon I headed to the JACC to photograph the wedding. Here are some pictures of the beautiful couple.

Matisyahu Concert

After Grandma's birthday party we spent the night in Seattle and went to a Matisyahu concert. It was a great concert! 

Grandma's 90th birthday!

 Last Thursday we headed South to help Grandma celebrate her 90th birthday! It was a whirlwind trip but everything worked out perfectly and we had such a great time. Thursday morning we flew into Colorado where we picked up our rental car and headed to my sister's house for the night. We spent some quality time with her family before heading to bed for our 6 hour drive to Nebraska the next morning.


Friday morning we woke up and loaded up with coffee and snacks before heading towards Nebraska. It was an easy and relaxing drive into Lexington. We arrived in Lexington around 4:30 where we went to Grandma's house to get ready for her Polka dance that evening.

The Polka dance took place at the Generation Center and there were over 100 people who came! I busied myself with taking pictures while Adam welcomed the guests and asked them to sign the guest book. While we don't know how to Polka we did get out on the floor for the Flying Dutchman (I doubt we were doing it right but we sure did have fun!).

 Grandma danced every dance that night and didn't sit down ONCE!!! 

We had great food and delicious birthday cake! 

 All three of Grandma's kids were able to be at her birthday party! 

 There were lots of Grandkids and Great-grand children at the party. 

 We had fun meeting our second cousins and I just couldn't stop taking pictures of them! My cousins sure do make cute babies! 

After the party we followed my Uncle out to the farm where we would be spending the night. He took us on a little detour through the cornfields and around the bails of hay but we finally arrived at the extra guest house where we would be staying for the evening. 

The next morning we woke up and watched my Uncle load cattle. He took full advantage of having so many guests on the farm and put us to work covering the corn pile. 

 After we covered the huge pile of corn feed with a plastic tarp we threw tires on it to keep the tarp down. It was hard work but everyone got into it and we had a lot of fun.

 There were smiles all around after we finished covering our huge pile of corn! 

We had just enough time to eat some lunch and shower before heading to Grandma's Open House at the First Presbyterian Church. 

 Once again there were over 100 guests that arrived to wish her Happy Birthday! 

 The grandkids were busy serving cake, coffee and punch. 

 Grandma had a lot of fun with all of her family and friends.

 She was constantly up and moving and welcoming her guests with a huge smile. At the end of the party she took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot on the big truck one of her guests drove to the party. 

Unfortunately, we had to head out right after the Open House. We said our goodbyes and hit up Dairy Queen before getting on the freeway. Once again it was a perfect drive back to Colorado. 

We spent another night with my sister before jumping on the plane to Seattle. We took the LiteRail from the airport to our hotel downtown. Our room was still being cleaned so we dropped off our bags and walked two blocks to Pike's Market for a little shopping. Once we were able to get into our room we showered and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner before our concert. 

We went to a Matisyahu concert that night and had an amazing time. Dirty Heads opened for him and while we hadn't heard of Dirty Heads before we ended up really liking them as well. The next day we checked out of our hotel and headed back to Pike's for coffee and some final shopping before catching the LiteRail back to the airport. 

We had fun filled 5 days and are so happy we were able to join the family for Grandma's birthday celebration. I hope I look and act that young and healthy when I'm 90! 

The Countdown is on!

Only 5 more days until we leave for Nebraska to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday! It will be a weekend filled with family fun and I can't wait! I'm excited to show Adam the farm and share some of my childhood memories with him. Almost every summer we would go visit family in Nebraska and spend time with the cousins  playing in the hay barn, sliding down the corn piles and catching fireflies at night.
It's going to be a FAST 5 day trip. We will be flying into Colorado and spending the night with my sister before we make the 6 hour drive to Nebraska. We'll arrive just in time for Grandma's Polka dance (Yippeee!!!!) and will join everyone for the Open House on Saturday. We'll have to turn around and drive back to Colorado Saturday night where we will spend another night with my sister before flying out in the morning. We're going to stop over in Seattle for the night and go to a Matisyahu concert before coming back home. I'm sure I'll be posting little blurbs about the trip along the way!

Goodbye Summer...

Labor Day weekend is here and so is the end of another wonderful summer. It was my first summer of not having to work and all my fears about becoming restless and feeling lazy were unsubstantiated. Adam and I had a wonderful summer hanging out and relaxing. 

I took a quick trip to Wasilla to see my brother and his goofy family.... 

 Stopped off in Anchorage for a girls weekend with Danielle....

 Adam and I helped with the church lunch program....

 Rosco went to Tenakee for the first time....

We went out for lots of sunny kayaking adventures.....

and paddled to secret islands for picnics.....

Let the busy, crazy, always exciting school year begin!