McPolin Staff Party

Last night, we went to our first McPolin Christmas Party. It was held at Nacho Mama's, which is owned by one of our staff members at school. It was great! It's so fun to see people outside of the working environment. Drinks were ordered, shots were taken, and rapping, yes rapping, occurred. What a blast!


That's Cortney on the left, our speech pathologist, rapping with our school psychologist. Too funny!


That's my friend, Jodi, in the background.



Joanna and Jodi both teach 1st grade.


Tory (on the left) teaches 1st grade and Tina is another 2nd grade teacher. She had just gotten done dancing and this was her impression of CPR. I think those margaritas had kicked in by then.

Initiating the Season Pass...Finally!

We don't have enough snow for the whole Park City Mountain Resort to open but, with the snow they have been making, they opened one run yesterday. Andy has already gone twice (yesterday and today). We got there at about 9:30 a.m. It was really nice because the lines weren't too long. With only one run open, and everybody wanting to get on the slopes, it got pretty busy at about 11:00 a.m. Oh well...at least we got 4 runs in today. That's the beauty of having the season passes and living 1 mile from the resort. We can go back at any time. Andy has already talked about going back, again, today. No photos to post right now. I'll try to get some up soon.

A Picnic in November?

With the sun shining and temperatures in the 50's, it was a great day to venture out. We took a nice Sunday drive up to the Uinta mountains, stopping for a picnic along the way. It was beautiful! The 10 inches of snow we recently received has now all melted. Bummer! It's hard not to wish for snow when your kitchen window faces the ski slopes. Bring on the snow...we're ready for ski season!

Winter Has Arrived...For Now!

I took these photos soon after it started snowing.

Taking a walk to the public library

Ahhhh...we'll get on those slopes soon...

Well, the energy is definitely flowing around Park City! It has been snowing intermittently for the past 2 days. We must have gotten about 10 inches since yesterday. The resorts are scheduled to open around November 22nd so ski season is just around the corner...hopefully!!

I was so glad that most of my students had their snow gear today. However, one of my students had to wear his snow pants all day because he didn't have any pants on underneath. It was too cute when he told me that! Kids...you've got to love em'.

Happy Halloween (Howl-oween)!

Our day started with a fun Halloween parade at our school. There were some really great costumes! Every teacher at our school dressed up, too! Then, after school, we ventured down to Main Street for the Halloween (and Howl-oween) festivities. How fun!

My class getting ready for the Halloween parade


Andy and me at our school's Halloween parade...sorry for the awkward layout...a computer problem


The 2nd grade team at McPolin Elementary


Cooper, showing off his Halloween costume...He was, actually, posing for these photos! He wore a Utah football t-shirt and Wisconsin Badgers shorts.



Halloween on Main Street in Park City


Walking in the Howl-oween parade on Main Street



There were dogs of all sizes in the parade. Some of the costumes were absolutely hilarious!

Pumpkin Carving 2008

We got together with some friends this past weekend for some good ol' fashioned pumpkin carving. We had huge pumpkins, white pumpkins, warty pumpkins, tall pumpkins, short pumpkins and one tiny pumpkin. The tiny pumpkin was for Cooper, or course. It was some good times!

We have a Halloween parade, this Friday, at school. Andy and I are so excited to dress up because we never could at our last school. I am going to be a penguin and Andy is going to be an old fashioned baseball player. I'll be sure to post some photos of us all dressed up.

Happy Halloween everyone!

"Burnin' Down the House..."

Last night, some friends came up from Salt Lake and we all went to the David Byrne concert. Prior to the concert, the only thing I knew about David Byrne was that he was part of Talking Heads. As he sang, I started to recognize a few songs ("Burnin' Down the House"). It was a great concert! The best part--our tickets were only $9 because we get half-price for being Park City School District employees.

Just another Fall day

It was a pretty rainy weekend. Our first plan was to get in one more weekend of camping up in the Uintas. That plan changed when we heard that a foot of snow was expected up there. Plan B: On Saturday we drove up to Sundance (about 45 minutes from Park City). They were having a harvest festival and we also thought it would be a great place to take Cooper hiking. Well, the rain decided to start falling pretty hard, so our hike turned into a quick walk around the parking lot. Cooper stayed in the car for a bit while we walked around the festival. Thank goodness for big tents. I felt so bad for the vendors. We took a short stroll through the general store before making our way back to Park City. Even with the rain, it is such a beautiful area. We'll definitely have to go back some day. We had packed a picnic lunch but ended up eating in the car as we drove home. We couldn't stop at the picnic area because it was a watershed so dogs aren't allowed. It ended up being a very relaxing, rainy day.

I went into work for a few hours today while Andy and Cooper went for a longer than planned hike. At this point, the rain had passed through and the sun was coming out. It turned out to be a beautiful, yet chilly, afternoon. Here are some photos from their hike.




Yes, we have moose around Park City. As you can see, they aren't quite as big as they are up in Alaska. They are a lot darker, too.




Even a dog enjoys a nice view.

Homecoming

Yesterday, we went down to Salt Lake City for the University of Utah homecoming football game. What a great day for a football game! Our first stop was the Sigma Nu fraternity house, followed by the tailgating lot, followed by the football game.


Larry, Jeff and Andy at the Sigma Nu fraternity house. Andy was commander for one year. Let's just say I've never seen a stronger bond between friends. "Brotherhood" will always hold true to them.


At the tailgating lot


We even had a Flat McKenna at the game with us. Here is Jeff holding Flat McKenna. (McKenna is Jeff's daughter.)


At the game...check out the haircut! Four inches chopped off...it feels so good!!


Courtney, Sloan and Antonio

Fall in Park City

I just wanted to post some photos of Park City in the Fall. The trees are so beautiful! The temperature has been in the 70's lately, too. It sure does get chilly at night, though, up here in the mountains.

Apple Picking

Back in Wisconsin, my 3 favorite things to do in the fall were pick apples, pick pumpkins and go to the cheese factory. Well, the leaves are changing colors and that only means one thing--it's apple picking time! One of my students recommended an orchard in the Wasatch Mountain State Park. We packed a picnic and had a great time.

Miner's Day

Not only is today Labor Day but, in Park City, it's also Miner's Day. Miner's Day is a day to celebrate the history of, well, mining in Park City, which is, basically, how this town got started. In fact, still today, each night around 10:05 p.m. a siren goes off downtown. It was meant to be a signal to the miners, back in the day, that they should be in bed or heading in that direction.

We ventured down to Main Street to check out all of the festivities. The parade started around 11:00 a.m. and our intention was just to watch the parade from the sidewalk; however, we really got into the heart of the festivities. Andy's uncle, Rick, has been playing frisbee golf at the cabin since about 1974, so Rick and some buddies were walking in the parade with frisbees. When they got to where we were watching the parade, we joined them! Cooper even made is parade debut!

Cousins, Claire and Grace



Robin and Jim (Andy's aunt and uncle)



The Park City Frisbee Golf Club of Brighton (or something like that)

Bob Dylan Concert...Well, Kind Of

One of the fabulous perks about living in "old town" Park City is that we're close to just about everything-markets, restaurants, biking/hiking trails, skiing, and CONCERTS. Last night, Bob Dylan was playing up at the Deer Valley Resort. We didn't splurge and buy tickets but we still wanted to "see" some of the concert. So...around 8:30 p.m. we made the 1-mile walk to the resort (with Cooper, of course). Did I mention it was raining? It was also really dark, so we had no problem going through a side gate and walking a bit up the mountain. At this point, a lot of the spectators were standing with their umbrellas so we couldn't see a thing, except the top of the stage. The sound, however, was awesome. We heard 2 songs and his encore. It was well worth the walk in the pouring rain. :) I couldn't get a whole lot of photos because of the rain, but I did manage to snap a couple of them.


Bob Dylan is down there somewhere.