MOAB!

So Brady and I made this deal that we would take turns updating the blog every month. He did August, so I'm doing October. I'm sure you are wondering what happened to September . . . school started. Its kind of a blur really. October is much more interesting, so I'll start there.

Ever since we bought our road bikes we have been itching to go to Moab. So for Fall Break, we finally made it happen. It was a blast. Here is a quick overview of what we did each day, or you can just enjoy the pics.

Tuesday

Drove there and got to our KOA kamp ground way late. Our kabin we stayed in was so cool! Love, KOA. Brady and I are now planning trips around KOA kamp grounds, it was that good.

Wednesday

Slept in and then grabbed lunch at Milt's. We shared the most amazing Reeces Peanut Butter shake known to man. Then we headed to Arches National Park to check out Balanced Rock and some other famous sites. We decided to start the trip off with a bang, and hiked up to the Delicate Arch just before sunset. I'm not sure what was more impressive, the Arch or the amount of people with cameras and tripods waiting for the perfect shot. Pretty sure there would have been mob violence if someone tried to pose with the Arch right when the sun dipped behind the horizon. Its amazing how the rock literally glows red after a day of the sun beating on it.

Thursday

Mountain biking! We went to the Chili Pepper Bike Shop and rented some full suspension mountain bikes. Then, we hit the Intrepid Trail System at Dead Horse Point. Spectacular views and awesome slick rock. We definitely want to go back and do the full loop! We then headed back towards Moab to do the M&M trail. Lots of sand + first time mountain biking = Stasha going over her handle bars. At least the landing was soft. After my gnarly crash, we called it a day. But we definitely have been bit by the mountain biking bug, we'll be back!

Friday

Canyonlands National Park was the days destination. We enjoyed the spectacular views carved by the Colorado and Green River at Island in the Sky. Some of the sites included the Grand Viewpoint, Green River Overlook, Upheaval Dome, and Mesa Arch. We ended the evening by capturing some photos of Dead Horse Point at sunset. So incredible!

Saturday

We headed back to Arches to tour Fiery Furnace with our ranger guide, Marie. It was a group tour, so there was additional scenery. Lets just say we ran into another group who had some members climbing on an arch, and Ranger Marie was about to arrest them and issue the $500 fine. She had the best teacher voice, she immediately struck fear in her listeners. Awesome! The hike itself was so much fun. We got to climb on, under, through, over all sorts of rock formation. If you go to Arches its absolute must do.

After finishing our tour, we enjoyed a 16 mile bike ride on our road bikes. There was a newly finished road bike trail that connects Arches to the turn off to Canyonlands. Its a beautiful ride.

Sunday

We headed out early to get back to Lewiston, Utah for Brady's grandma's funeral. Her funeral was on Monday. It was a gorgeous day, so I included some photos of the cemetery as well as Brady and his brothers.

Preview for November . . . Seattle!

Summer 2010

Hey Gang,

Here is the summer wrap-up we promised. So I am going to do it is list form, with a picture slideshow, so as to not bore you with all the details.

Wheeler Farm (again)

Long runs with our dog Ava

Our new nephew

Road trip to Denver

-Using their bike share program (awesome!)

-Red Sox vs. Rockies

-Rocky Mountain National Park

-Watching the World Cup at a sports bar by Coors Field

-Keith Urban Concert at the Greeley Stampede

Lewiston 4th of July celebration with the Wheeler Clan

Wildflower Festival at Alta

Trip to San Diego

-Padres Game

-Mormon Batallion Museum

-USS Midway Aircraft Carrier

-Fresh Seafood

-Beautiful Ocean

Real Salt Game vs. Arribe Unido (CONCACAF)

Tractor rides

and lots of Casper's Ice Cream.

Summer Wrapup coming soon

So i have taken a little bit of flack from la gente about not posting anything on our blog for what, 10 months? Not that long in my opinion. Anyway, a summer wrapup will be coming shortly. Like, this week. So if you still check this blog after 10 months of silence, you will be rewarded.

Zions Duex

Over Fall Break, Brady and I headed down to St. George while the weather cooled off to enjoy some fun in the sun. We had a great weekend of sleeping in, hiking in Zions, and enjoying Vegas. After this last trip to Vegas, I think I have successfully hiked every singe hike in Zions Canyon, except two. One of which is the Narrows. I guess that will get added to my to do list, as well as taking Brady on the Subway hike. The main hike we did was Hidden Canyon. You literally hike up a mountain to find this hidden canyon which down a ways has a natural arch twice the size of Brady (12 ft). While we were hiking in the narrow canyon, Brady and I heard theses noises that resembled Native Americans flutes. It was kind of creepy. Then Brady kept mentioning, "This is where they took the infrared photo of the mountain lion." That made me feel much better, no more reading the news letters they give you when you enter the park. As we approached the arch, the sound started to get louder. Then we realized it was some little kid practicing her harmonica while her family was taking photos. It made me laugh that Brady and I freaked ourselves out about the noise.

Vegas was pretty fun. We only went for the night. We had dinner at the buffet at Treasure Island, good but not as good as Rios. We then went to the Palazzo to see Jersey Boys, a musical all about the 4 Seasons. Pretty sure Brady and I were the youngest couple there! It was a really fun show, and now Brady and I have been downloading the "ol' classics" to add to our collection.

Enjoy the pics from Zions!

Citizenship

So with all the recent hysteria over President Obama's upcoming speech to school children, I have felt compelled to express my thoughts somewhat publicly. I consider myself a relatively rational person, so I educated myself on the opinions of those both for and against President Obama's speech. Upon completing my research, I felt that I least understood where those who were opposing the president were coming from. I do believe that the Obama administration made some mistakes in the timing of this speech, as well as how it was originally intended to be given. However, some ideas are so extreme, it causes me to wonder where our country has gone wrong. Well, I do have an idea, but that is another post for another day. All I have to say is two words, Rush Limbaugh. If you want a more specific explanation, this Wall Street article does a good job pointing out both the positive and negative, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574389590915908388.html.

Now I must confess my own bias, I am an Obama supporter. And given that he was handed the presidency in arguably one of the most difficult periods of our nations history, I think he is doing quite well. However, my opinion on this issue has absolutely nothing to do with Obama himself, instead it has everything to do with citizenship. The nature and structure of our REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY requires its citizens to be educated and active. Without this we get corrupted officials, bad policy, and an inefficient system. Sound familiar? Part of becoming educated is listening to government officials, whether you support or agree with them or not. Actually, if you do not support your leaders it is imperative that you do listen to them. For it is in their rhetoric that you can prove that they should be removed from office or at least not re-elected. It is also vital to listen to our leaders in order to show respect for the office they hold. If you support the Constitution, you should in turn respect the offices it lays forth. And what better place to teach this important aspect of citizenship than in the schools. Inviting the students to listen to the president allows them to start establishing good habits of citizenship. Now if your one of those people who believes that Obama is going to send subliminal messages to students through his "stay in school" speech, take the opportunity to discuss the speech over dinner. What a civic thing to do, discuss politics. That is if staying in school is a political issue.

My opinion on allowing students to watch this presidential address in order to help establish good habits of citizenship was reinforced after a conversation with one of my students Friday morning.

Me: "Remember, if you would like to watch President Obama's speech you need to have a permission slip signed by your parent to excuse you from class."

Student: "Wait, you mean Obama is a real guy?"

Me: "Yes. He is a real guy and he is the president of this country. He is your president."

Student: "So he is coming to our school, just to speak to us?!"

Me: "No. He is giving an Internet address which you will watch in the auditorium."

Student: "Oh, okay."

Yup, you did read that right. I have a 7th grade student who didn't even realize until 24 hours ago that Barack Obama was a real person. Nor does he have any understanding of the office of the presidency. So, I really do not think this student is going to be harmed by President Obama's speech. He is going to spend the entire speech grasping the concept that this guy is real, so he'll miss the whole subliminal message thing. Although, if President Obama can brainwash our kids into staying in school, I'm glad I voted for him.

Jr. High

So I really do love my job, but today I was reminded why most people gasp when I inform them I am junior high teacher. The scene begins in my sauna of a room - yup no air conditioning, I think I sweat off like 5 pounds at the beginning of the year. I am slaving over my computer trying to furiously finish my lesson plans for the next day when a couple 9th graders decide to throw a stick and a pacifier (how old are we?) into my open window. Why, my only guess, because the window is open and 9th grade boys don't have a brain that functions correctly. Or they just don't have a brain, period. With my blood boiling, I yell at the kids from window and ask the question I want the answer to , "Why are you throwing stuff in my window?" The two boys look at me, guilty as kid caught with their hand is in the cookie jar, "It wasn't us." Really?Really?! I only watched them do it. I threatened to send the school detective after them, and they ran. The funny thing is, I just might do it. Don't mess with Mrs. Wheeler.

Despite this rather annoying scene, returning to school has been rather delightful. Second year already much better than the first. Although, I still think I am more excited for weekends and holidays than my students.

The Bees

Yesterday, Brady and I went with our friends Brian and Whitney to a Bees game. While the Bees may have lost, it was fun to be at the ballpark with friends. It was especially great since it was mascot night and we got our picture with Big Blue! We also came pretty close to carrying a crazy foul ball, but no such luck. We did however end the night with Leatherby's ice-cream, always a good choice!

Seattle

To fulfill Brady's yearly need of flying on an airplane, we headed to Seattle, WA. I had never visited Seattle and we had a way fun trip! We stayed with our friends, Ryan and Carly (thank you sooo much), and enjoyed our long weekend in Seattle sunshine. That's right, we only had a half day of the usual Seattle rain, and the it was a sunny weekend. It was gorgeous!

We packed in as much as we could. Here is a list of things we did:

• Pikes Market (famous fish flying)
• Seattle Aquarium
• Harbor Boat Tour (best way to start your trip to Seattle)
• Museum of Scienc of Science
• Pacific Science Center
  
• Underground city tour (so cool!)
• Space Needle (of course)
• Fremont Troll
• Hiked around Mt. Rainier
• And of course two Mariners games

The highlight was probably the Mariner games since they were playing the Red Sox. Brady was ecstatic to see Ken Griffey Jr. and I was happy Papelbon got to pitch. Seattle is such a fun city, and it was a fun trip to share with friends. Enjoy the pics!

Ava

A couple of weeks ago, we added a new family member to the Wheeler Farm. Brady and I successfully talked Mom and Pop Wheeler into getting a dog. What's a farm without a dog? So Regan put in a dog run/kennel, and we provided the dog. She is a 5th month old Black Labloodhound (Lab and Bloodhound mix). She has a ton of energy, but is very friendly. She has huge floppy ears that bounce when she runs and get in her way when she drinks out of her water bowl, so she prefers to drink from the hose. Brady and I are patiently working on getting her trained to sit and stay(she likes to jump on people when she sees them - kind of a problem). She is quite a handful, but fun. I guess you could say it is good training for a kid!