Wood Chopping!

Yesterday, Nate and I helped out our friends, Mallory and Randall. We left at 8:30 in the morning, picked up a dump trailer and headed toward Dry Fork to help them chop wood. The scenery was gorgeous!

 We're ready to work!

 Randall and Nate took turns slicing the trees with the chainsaw and Mallory and I helped stack the chopped pieces in the trailer.

 Randal cutting down an aspen

 and...timber!!!

 We moved to a different spot on the land and cut up some more fallen logs. I got tree sap on my shirt, with a later addition of sawdust and dirt. (Luckily, I was able to get it out using Mallory's Melaleuca stain remover)

 We took a break for awhile to eat lunch with oreos for dessert. The weirdest part was that for some reason, there were a lot of bees buzzing around. They'd try to crawl on our food and buzz near our ears. It was really annoying. We soon got to work again and out of no where it started to rain and hail. We quickly packed up and started to leave.

 We got to the gate and it let up. So we cut up another tree or two and headed home.

When we got back to their house, Randall backed up the trailer into their backyard and pressed the button. The trailer raised up like a dump truck and the chopped wood came tumbling out. It was kind of cool to watch. We got back home around 2:45 and were pooped. Nothing like friendly service to start off your Saturday. 

Power Outage

Today was quite interesting in my classroom. I started off the morning with good spirits and students were behaving for the most part. Around 9:30ish (maybe...I don't know), I was getting ready to do the blending part of phonics with my computer when BOOM...all of the lights in the school building go out.

We had one emergency light on in the classroom. Teachers with windows were lucky to be able to keep teaching, but first grade classrooms at my school have no such luxury. It was REALLY dark. I had to adjust my lesson plans without technology and easy coordination. 

The power didn't come back on until just before lunch at 11:20. 

Crazy, huh? There truly is a first for everything.

Ladies' Night

September 14

Last spring, Barbara started a tradition to visit City Creek on her birthday each year. Even though it wasn't the spring, she wanted to go to City Creek with Kim in town. I wasn't able to go last year due to student teaching, but I made it this time. We missed Ash with her in NJ and Brittney with a graduate thing she had to do. It was really fun! I had never been to City Creek before, but it is AMAZING!!! Kim was telling me that the roof unfolds in the winter months so it is an enclosed mall. 

We met up at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was great!!! I had never been there before, so choosing something from the menu was a bit of a challenge with the plethora of dishes listed. I finally on a breaded chicken, with lemon butter, mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was SOOO good!

 My plate of food was LITERALLY bigger than my face!

It was great being able to have girl time with Nate's side of the family. After dinner we walked around a little bit and went to H&M for some shopping. Kim and Sara are pretty fun to shop with. They both have very different fashion styles so it was great to see the variety. I got some shirts and cute fall jacket. 

We ended up getting kicked out of the store due to closing time. We walked to Harmon's which was nearby for some delicious gelato (it's better than ice cream!). 

It was getting late, so we headed to our appropriate parking areas and headed in different directions home. I stopped by my parents place to crash on their couch for the night and then went back to Vernal the following morning. 

Labor Day in Vernal

Today was crazy and fun. I woke up early this morning to get some things done before Nate's parents showed up into town. They got here around 11 and came to see my classroom. My mother-in-law approves! Yes! They helped me put together Tuesday Folders for the kids to take home tomorrow. Once that was done, we got into our swim suits and took the newly bought wind riders from the DI (what a steal!) for a test run. 

We drove about 5 miles out to Steinaker Resevoir. Nate and Larry assembled one of the sailboats together, while Barbara and I just talked for awhile. Gotta let the men do their thing.

 Success!!!

 Larry was really excited and volunteered to be the first one to test out the new toy. He was SO excited that when he first got into it, he asked "What do I do now?" LOL 

 We're waiting for him to get back

He was cruisin' pretty well. When he came back, he thought it'd be a good idea to park the boat at the dock. As he pulled in beautifully between two docks, he realized a sailboat doesn't have brakes. So.. as you may have guessed, he ran right into the dock. Hah, that stopped it. :) Course now there is a dent into the front of the boat, but it's not terrible.

Somehow Nate and Larry convinced Barbara to get in and fly solo. She was freaking out and before she knew it, she was in and sailing on her own. Nate and Larry are tricksters. 

When she came back, it way my turn. Sailing was pretty easy, fortunately. You lift a rope to move the sail and push pedals to move the rutter.

Nate had a go too!

 He's a natural and really good at sailing. He knows how to move with the wind.

Then we went together.

 When we got back, we suggested that Larry and Barbara go together. Instead, Larry was just so excited to go out again that he accidentally left her behind. She was of the opinion that she was going with him. He took off quick. 

 But don't worry, he came back for her.

We saw a couple of dead crawdads on the shoreline. Nate and I waited while they took their turn together. The mud was weird, slimey and gross. 

His parents lost the wind a few times and struggled a little to make it back. 

When his parents came in, we packed up the boat and headed back to our apartment. We changed and went to eat at Golden Corral. Very fulfilling!

I still don't know if I'm ready to teach tomorrow, but I had a great Labor Day with Nate and his parents!