Helena with Uncle Fred

We ate here two mornings - it was that good!

Marly the dog who happens to live with Uncle Fred in Helena, a very nice town in Montana.

Christy and Uncle Fred.

Reeding Alley - preserved buildings in Helena. Pretty cool!

Fred showing Chris how to Fly fish.

Yello Yellowstone !

Ann, Christy and Dom at one of the many Geysers.

Giant Calderas are dangerous!

Old faithful was a little tardy on our visit.

Hot spring - the colors are due to temperature, bacteria and EGGS,EGGS.

A very, very tiny bear.

Excited Christy!

Mammoth hot springs

More Mammoth - a very cool water feature indeed!

300 foot high Lower Falls. Reached via 300 steel grate steps, many of them damaged by falling rocks!

Are you sure Grand Tetons mean big boobies?

So this is our third summer road trip and maybe our longest, Lord willing; 17 days. We will be traversing 5 states and have 5 major stops. A successful road-trip for us contains an equal mix of open road, landmarks, and friendly visits, often of the Rice-family sort.

The first leg took us through the entirety of Nevada via Highway 80. Honestly, there isn't much to see on that route. The salt flats near the Nevada-Utah border, where they break land-speed records, were pretty cool looking, with vast white plains and rock mirages.

We hooked up around the bottom of the Great Salt Lake to get to Layton, Utah in order to see my cousin, Emily and her husband, Michael. That first night after dinner we went on a hike and it was nice to stretch our legs after about a 12-hour drive. It was equally nice to catch up with Emily on all the latest family gossip.

Saturday was jam-packed with breakfast at Sil's Cafe, where we were forced to try their “scones,” a version of pastry that was like a large crispy, soft bready-dough. It reminded me of a sweeter pizza crust. They served it with honey butter, which we used as sort of a syrup. Oh, and cousin Katie and her friend Dani joined us for our adventures that day.

Then there was a patriotic parade we watched until we couldn't bear it any longer and decided to go swimming in the Great Salt Lake! I have always wanted to go swimming in that lake ever since I saw it in my science book with a lady smiling broadly as she seemingly enjoyed how well she floated in its dense waters. I don't remember if my science book told about the brine shrimp, mud and the biting gnats. Michael, Katie and Dani enthusiastically waded out into its murky waters while Emily, Chris and I took our time and talked about how we needed water shoes. Sure-enough, those waters were super easy to float in. Sit back and you were indeed buoyant. In fact floating like a human buoy was almost all you could do because, due to the viscosity, swimming was difficult. While crocodile walking back to shore I couldn't help, but feel like I was skimming for dead gnats, and God-knows-what debris was in those waters, with my swimsuit. We all were covered in a layer of salt and couldn't wait to shower back at Emily's.

That really tired us out, but we still wanted to go out for Indian food. “Taste of India” in Layton was one of the better Indian food establishments in our opinion. Later we would take our stuffed-selves to meet up with Michael's family and watch fireworks. Boy, did we sleep well both Friday and Saturday night.

Right now we are driving through Yellowstone, as suggested by Michael. We were excited at first, but after the 5^th and 6^th hour of driving, nothing is novel anymore (that is until a buffalo passes over the road!). Still we are looking forward to getting to One Horse in West Yellowstone to rest, eat and down a cold one.

Halloween and Emily's Wedding

Emily and Michael got married October 17th and we all got to go out! Loved it! I always love family gatherings. Mike, Christy and Chris.

A sampling of Rice cousins.

Father and mother of the bride! They did a great job.

The happy couple!

Hope you all had a great Halloween! The Wednesday before we had a carving (and eating) party with our neighbors, Liz and Ian. Below are our pumpkins all together.

We took our carved creations to Mom's where we hung out and gave out trick-or-treats to numerous trick-or-treaters. Mom's neighborhood always gets a ton and they are so cute!

Year Numero Dos...

Mid-year is approaching fast and I am in disbelief that I am well-into my second year as a special educator. The year began much more smoothly, as I came up with a stress-free, and hence, better way of arranging service times by way of Post-its. This allowed schedule changes, which happened a lot in the beginning of the year, to be a simple re-positioning of those fantastic sticky-note inventions. Post-its and Expo markers are some of my very favorite, and most-hoarded, office supplies.

I added this picture comparison because look at the left side - that was me at the beginning of last year and then there is this year - I feel like I look way older! It was a stressful first year. I knew the ease that I started the year with would end as soon as SFSU credentialing classes commenced once again. The institution of Level 2's Special Education credentialing proves to be a perpetual thorn in my side; with ever-increasing tuition costs, and a lack of required classes offered. When in one of my two three hour classes after 8 hours of teaching, I fantasize about writing, "These classes are a huge intrusion to the beginning of my teaching career. I would be a better, more sane, teacher without them," on my end of semester evaluation. Rumor has it that SpEd Level Two's will be changing their format to resemble BTSA, which I also have been a part, since I am working on clearing my General Ed credential. I'm hoping and praying that I will have my clear credentials by this next Spring, so that rumor does nothing for me.

Chris is still unemployed, so he's been a great husband and has been taking care of our house more. I come home and everything is done! When he was first out of work, I told one of my fifth graders who said we should have kids now so Chris could stay at home and take care of them. That very student, in whom I poured a lot of effort, never came back this year. Very sad. I was told his father got out of jail and had to be deported. My student was deported with him.

Good morning!

We found a friendly neighborhood black widow near our doorstep this morning - fortunately for us it looked like it had given up the ghost. Smally flicked it around a little to give us the official confirmation of its passing. This is our second run in with the Widow family. When we initially moved to Chico our landlady visited us and smooshed a black widow that was living in our mail box. "I forgot to get that last time I was here" she mentioned in passing, as if it was no big deal. Not scary at all...

Day 12 - Moorpark

Fun with the Burkhardts and Krista!

Day 11 - San Clemente to LA

New Baby at the Hunts!!! Welcome Elijah! We were lucky to score a visit when Wendy just had the little bugger Tuesday.

Next on the ticket was seeing our good friends, the Mehls!

Here's Harper and Addison being adorable as usual.

Addison likes cool shoes - Chris found this particularly picture-worthy.

The Mehls sans Harper.

Harper only wanted to hold Chris' hand on the way to get ice-cream AND on the way back.

Day 10 - San Clemente

We walked from San Clemente Beach to Del Mar and back.

Surfin' Chicken was one of our favorite places to eat.

Here is our hotel - Holiday Inn Express. It was totally renovated and really nice.

We also visited the place we got married: Rancho Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano.