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.

McPolin Moose at the Jordanelle Triathlon

So in June, 2 days after arriving in Utah, a lady from our school calls us and asks if we would like to do a triathlon on August 23rd. Now, we had never met this lady before and, certainly, had no idea about any staff members at our new school. We didn't even know where the school was located at this point in June. Being the outgoing people we are, we said, "Sure." We thought it would be a great way to get to know the staff better. Our school was doing it as relay teams so Andy signed up to do a biking leg and I said I would do a running leg. So, August 23rd has passed and we successfully completed our legs of the triathlon.

Here is just some of our staff that participated in the triathlon. (I must be trying to take my glasses off before the photo was snapped...too late, though.)


It was SO hot that day. The sun and heat were just pounding down on us. Phew...but I finished!!


What a great way to spend our 2-week anniversary!!!

Pre-Wedding Photos

We had a lot of festivities leading up to the wedding. I just thought I would share a few photos from those events. Fun times! It was so wonderful to have both of our families finally meet. We all had such a wonderful time and have so many wonderful memories to keep and share.

On the Thursday before the wedding, we had a BBQ/frisbee golf outing at the cabin in Brighton.

Claire (Andy's cousin), Andy, Grace (Andy's cousin), and Abbie (Andy's grandmother)


My cousins, Oliver and Frederick, playing frisbee golf. They live in Washington, D.C. so I don't get to see them too much. It was so much fun to go fishing with them, too. I've never seen two kids so attached to fishing poles!

My sister treated the bridesmaids and moms to pedicures and manicures the day before the wedding.

Now I could get used to this kind of treatment!


Here we are eating a delicious lunch at Baja Cantina after our spa treatment.

Back to the Real World

This is our last official weekend of summer. Oh my, the summer went by so quickly. I guess that is what happens, though, when you move from one state to another, find a new place to live, plan a wedding, and start a new job. Oh well...it's all been an adventure, that's for sure.

We've had orientation this past Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but we officially start on Monday, August 18th. Next week we have a lot of trainings, and we also have some time to work in our classrooms. The students start on Monday, August 25th. It's actually a pretty nice schedule. I think school starts at 8:15 (I'm an early person) and we get out around 3:05. That's on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the kids get dismissed at 12:30 and that leaves the afternoon for meetings and additional prep. time. In February we have an entire week off. Guess what for...ski week!!!!

Andy and I both went into school today to get some work done. We took a little detour, though, on the Lost Prospector Loop trail. Beautiful!




Of course, I had to include a photo of Cooper!

Some pictures from the BIG day...

Well, here they are...some pictures from our BIG day. We have not gotten the photos from our photographer yet, but a friend of mine emailed me some that she took at the wedding.

I woke up to sunny skies and thought the entire day would be rain-free. Wrong. The dark clouds gathered around the mountain around 3:15 and it started to sprinkle as I was riding the chair lift up to the meadow. Bummer. When I was up high enough to see the meadow, guests were gathered under the few little gazebo areas and under their umbrellas. Oh no, I thought. I just wanted it to hold off long enough for us to have the ceremony. The rain stopped but the wind picked up. Oh, geez. I turned to my mom and said, "Well, I guess we always like an adventure." We made it through the ceremony but when it came time for the formal pictures, it started to hail for a couple of minutes! Not only that, but the resort does not run the alpine slide in the rain and the chair lift stopped running because of some lightning. They only had 2 vans to transport people back down to the base of the resort so a lot of guests walked down the mountain! (It was not raining at this point.) What troopers! Had people not made the big hike down, it would have taken hours for guests to get to the reception. The ceremony was still very beautiful. The sun even peeked out for a bit while we were saying our vows. :) The reception was TONS of fun!! People danced...and danced...and danced some more. Enjoy!

My parents and me getting ready to walk down the aisle--At this point, I could feel the tears coming so I was doing anything I had to to stop them, including deep breaths! I walked down the aisle to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Caillat.

Andy was so excited about the first kiss that he did so before the minister told him to "kiss your bride" (and he knocked my flower halo off of my head in his excitement)!

Mr. and Mrs. Tullis!!!! During the recessional, we played "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang.

I did have really pretty curls in my hair but, unfortunately, my hair went kind of flat because of the rain and hail.

Here I am with two of my very good college girlfriends, Lisa and Leah.

Utah Olympic Park

I had a lot of family in town for the wedding this past week so, one day, we went to the Utah Olympic Park here in Park City. It's the venue where ski jumping, bobsledding, the luge, and the skeleton took place for the 2002 winter Olympics. During the summer time, ski jumping clubs continue to practice there, only they land in a giant pool instead of on snow. They also have zip lines and an alpine slide for people to ride. If you're really brave, you can take a ride down the bobsled track (with a professional driver, of course) at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. I haven't done it yet, but I will some day. It was also fun to look at all of the memorabilia from the Olympics.


Wheeeeee...

It looks like fun, but I don't think I could ever do that!

My sister and I getting ready to go down the world's steepest zipline

Taking a Trip Down Memory Lane

Andy is at the cabin for his bachelor's party tonight, so I decided to take a trip down memory lane. Andy and I have shared so many wonderful times together, it was hard to pick the ones to post on here. I tried to pick photos I have not posted before. In just 7 days, we will exchange our vows (I guess I better get working on that!) in front of our many friends and family members. It will be such a special time for us. We look forward to sharing our future adventures with you all.


Ahhh...Chicago...riding Segways in the rain


Cooper misses you, Sarah (that's the blood hound on the right)!


I can't remember which concert this was, but it was one of the many concerts we went to at the Moose's Tooth. Leftover Salmon, maybe?


Andy, me, Jeff, and Ben at the Eagle River Yurt. I think it rained the entire time. Oh well, that's what good gear is for!


My very good friend, Angie, and me...I miss you girls!

Backpacking in the Uintas

One of the differences between the mountains in Utah and the mountains in Alaska is that you can drive up and into the mountains in Utah. We went on a 14-mile backpacking trip in the Uinta mountains with some friends (and 4 dogs). What an amazing place! On the first day, we only hiked in about 2 miles and camped next to Scudder Lake. The next morning, we packed up our tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and gathered our food from a far away tree, and headed off on the dusty trail. About a mile later, we hid our packs in the bushes and went on a 3-mile hike around some lakes. Beautiful! The dogs absolutely loved it. Cooper didn't want to get out of the water. After a quick lunch, we picked up our packs and hiked another 3 miles to our campsite for the night. We heard thunder and it rained on and off so we wanted to set up our tents as soon as we could. We got there just in time because 20 minutes after setting up tents, the rain came. Then, the grape-sized hail came. We didn't think it would last more than 15-20 minutes so we waited it out in the trees. Sooner or later, we all retreated to our tents until the storm passed. About 30 minutes later, we emerged to cloudy skies (but no rain). We cooked our dinner right away, just in case it started to rain again. I was really tired so I went to bed pretty early that night. Hiking at the 10,000 feet elevation level can really take a toll on you. I was sleeping well when we awoke to some strange noise off in the distance. I can't even explain the noise but it was like a screeching/howling/fighting for your life animal sound. The echo made it just that much louder. The next morning, we all agreed that it must have been a coyote. What it was doing and why it was making such a weird noise, we don't know. We thought that maybe it was just the sound coyotes made but it just sounded louder from the echo. The sun was out but so were the mosquitoes. They must have multiplied during the storm! After a quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (while fighting off the mosquitoes), we started off on our 6-mile trek back to the parking lot. It was a great trip...these photos just can't do it justice. Enjoy!

Cooper carries his own food, treats and bowls. He even carried our garbage. A dog that size should carry something!


The dogs loved all of the lakes we hiked around. They couldn't get enough of the water.


What a view! It was a bit scary if you got too close to the edge. That's a long way down.


11 more days and we'll be a married couple!!


We had to filter our water along the way.

Mid-Mountain Madness

So Andy picked up a trail map of some bike trails around Park City, and I think he's worn a hole through it from looking at it every night. :) (Needless to say, he's pretty excited about getting out on his bike each day.) We've been on two pretty big bike rides this week. With 325 miles of bike trails in Park City alone, we've got a lot of options for riding. Yesterday was a crazy ride! We started at Deer Valley Resort and rode the Mid-Mountain trail (you're basically midway up the mountain--about the 8000 ft. elevation level) to the Park City Mountain Resort. It was a 13-mile ride on a single track dirt trail, meaning you were pretty close to the trees and bushes on either side of you. It was hard to look around at the scenery because you really had to watch where you were going. Some parts of the trails crossed over ski runs, so that was nice to get a sneak peek at those for the upcoming winter. We didn't see any wildlife on this particular ride, but on Monday's ride we saw a dead snake and a mama moose with her calf. Enjoy!

This was a view from Monday's bike ride.


This was a view from Tuesday's ride.


We are standing in front of an old mining building.