Sub at the Zoo!

I got to go to the SF Zoo on Thursday as a substitute teacher for a 1st grade class. It was a pretty easy day and a gorgeous day in the city!

Our bus driver missed the exit to the zoo so the other bus made it about 15 minutes before us. Unfortunately for the other bus, the teacher on our bus had all the paperwork to get into the zoo! Then, our driver decided to drive down to turn the bus around so the kids could see the ocean (maybe that's where they are supposed to turn the bus around) and got stuck behind a MUNI bus parked at the curb. After sitting in the bus with all those anxious 1st graders for 2-3 minutes, I asked the bus driver if she wanted me to go ask the MUNI driver to move her bus forward a little so we could get past. She said sure and I popped off the bus to ask the driver if she could please pull forward. My goodness, you would have thought that I asked her to do something really hard. (You want me to move MY bus?) I got an earful and came back on the bus to admit my defeat. So ... we went four-wheeling over the curb to the delight of the kids and to my nervous worry! Once we made it to the zoo, the zoo staff had a hard time locating our PO. Finally the kids and chaperones made it into the zoo and they were off for a quick 2 hour look at the animals. I looked around and realized that I had no responsibilities for the next two hours!

I sat on a nice bench and watched the giraffes for a while.

I walked around the zoo without having to focus on anyone but myself. I didn't quite know what to do with myself!
I thought this was pretty funny in the monkey's enclosure.

It was such a beautiful day there. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed a quiet day (at least until the bus ride home)!

Here's to our Heroes - Reading Saves the Day!

Here's the book fair for this year. We spent all day Thursday setting up. I had a lot of help again this year and thought that it turned out great!
My mom and I made the wish list board with the cape. I ended up tracing my mom on the black and then we cut it out. She looks good, huh? Look at those muscles!

The sign on the blue background says, "I get kids excited about reading ... what's your superpower?"

It was a fun theme and a successful fair. We sold almost $14,000 worth of books and had a great week. I love it, but I'm always glad when it's over. (My family is too!)

I can't believe that I only have two book fairs left until Calissa is in middle school!

School Pictures

They are growing up way too fast!

Parker - 8th Grade
Conner - 5th Grade

Calissa - 3rd Grade

See Jen Tri

So ... getting back from a cruise and doing a triathlon sprint the next morning probably wasn't my smartest move ever. I was pretty tired from the trip, but excited about doing the triathlon. Trav and I got up at 5:10 in the morning to get packed up and headed out to Pleasanton for the See Jane Run Triathlon. We got lost once, but made it there a little after 6 am. It was still dark and I had no idea what to do, but asked some questions and got things together. Here I am warming up with some of the other 1000 participants.
Angela and I finally found each other. It was nice to see a familiar face!

Here we are again almost ready for the swim.

They wrote your race number on your arm and on your thigh in black sharpie and then wrote your age on the back of your calf. (You can still see mine a little, but it's mostly worn off now.) It was kind of fun to watch everyone as they passed you, or as you passed them to see how old they were.

The family all came to watch. It was nice to have so much support there. Andrew, Tina and their kids came for the finish.

Here is our group "Mom's Tri Hard!" These ladies all did a great job!!

We started off with the swim. I'm in there somewhere. I wasn't worried about the 1/4 mile swim since I had been consistently swimming 1/2 mile twice a week at the pool. I got in the water and then realized that I couldn't really swim and started to panic. There were so many people and you were getting kicked and kicking other people and my heart was beating so fast I couldn't even breathe. I kind of doggy paddled around the first buoy and then decided that I could swim a little. Then, my water shoes that I decided to wear kept falling off and I had to stop and put them back on. I should have just ditched them in the lake! (No shoes next year!) I made it to the end, but I was really glad when I got out of the water. I did the swim in 12:48.

Whew ... I made it!

I ran back to the transition area and found my bike (with just a little difficulty) and managed to get my shirt, shorts, knee brace (tricky) socks, shoes, sunglasses and helmet on and then I was off for the 11 mile bike ride. That was the best part of the race. Lots of people passed me, but that was OK. I was on my mountain bike which is heavy and slow, but I enjoyed it. There was a crazy part on the course where we were heading down a street and then you'd go to the end and turn around. The people that had turned around were all coming toward you and I ran a lady into a tree branch (not on purpose) but it was craziness! Then about mile 8 or 9 we hit a big hill! They said the course was flat ... that was not flat but I managed to get up it (complaining to the lady next to me as we pushed ourselves up that hill)! It was pretty nice riding down it though!

I finished the bike in 47:59.

Then I was off for the 3 mile run. It was pretty hilly and on a dirt path, but was nice. A dog came out of nowhere heading straight at the runners, but other than that it was pretty good. I did the run in 33:53. I walked a few times, but that was OK with me!

I finished the race in 1:39:16. My goal was to finish in 1:45, so I beat my goal. I finshed 82nd out of the 135 in my age group. I was just glad to finish!

Wedding Cruise

My cousin decided to get married on a cruise and Travis and I thought that it would be fun to attend and have a little vacation without the kids! On Monday, September 20th we flew to Seattle with my parents to board the MS Amsterdam.

Here is the view from port right before we took off! The Space Needle.
We ran up all the stairs to get a quick picture before we needed to be down on deck 3 for our safety briefing. We made it!


Travis decided to spike his hair .... just kidding, it was a little windy!

Tuesday, we had a day at sea. We spent time reading, watching a movie and working out in the gym. We did a little eating too.

Travis decided to do a little golf chipping competition that afternoon as well. The goal was to chip the golf balls over the pool and try to hit the bears. If you hit the big bear it was worth 1 point, 2 points for the little bear and if you got it in the blue net (at the mouth of the little bear) the activity director on the cruise would jump in the pool with all his clothes on.

Well someone did, and in he jumped!

The story would be much better if Travis had done it, but it was still funny.

Here is Travis getting his shot!

This was an "older" cruise to say the least. We were a little afraid that some of the folks were going to fall in the pool as they were chipping the ball, but no one did.

One of our many meals.

Wednesday we arrived in Astoria, Oregon. We had booked a bike ride in Fort Stevens State Park. There was only 7 of us from the cruise (out of 1300 guests) who signed up for this excursion. (See previous comment about age of guests ...)

We rode over 7 miles of biking trails and saw some historic military sights as well as the ocean and Columbia River.

Here is a picture of the Peter Iredale Shipwreck that ran aground during a storm in 1906.

Battery Russell

A view from our bike ride. It was so beautiful and lush!

On the Columbia River

We had some interesting experiences with the others on our excursion. Our tour guide was a little crazy. At the start she told us that she was going to be our cycle guide for the trip and we wondered if she said cycle or psycho? We decided that it was definitely psycho! She made us laugh though ... "mount up!" We also had a gum chewing (smacking) know-it-all, two very gay older gentlemen, a woman who needed higher pants at the waist and a few very quiet other women. It was an interesting trip, but we had a fun time!

Once back from our excursion we got back on the ship to have some lunch and I caught a picture of the rug in the elevator. They changed it everyday so you knew what day it was. The next destination for our cruise ship was a 69 day grand voyage and then a 110 day world voyage! Crazy! I guess you would forget what day it was on a cruise that long!

After lunch we decided to explore downtown Astoria on foot (and bus and trolley)!

We caught a bus to go and visit the historic Astoria Column. We ran up all 164 steps to the top and then caught our breath not only on the view but from exhaustion! Once up there, Travis wasn't so sure that it was a good idea since it was so high up!

What a gorgeous view!!

Another shot of the view. Well worth the climb! You can see the 4 mile long Astoria bridge in the background connecting Oregon and Washington.

Windy up there as well, but a gorgeous day!

After our trip to the Column we decided it didn't look like it was that much further down to Pier 39. Well, it was another 2 miles. I told Travis that I wasn't going to walk back since I was supposed to be resting this week for my triathlon! Pier 39 had sea lions just like our Pier 39 in San Francisco. They entertained us for quite a while (while we were killing time waiting for the trolley that only comes along once every hour)!

We got back to the trolley stop and decided we'd wait until 3:15 to see if it was coming back. If not, we were going to start walking the 4+ miles back to the ship. At 3:14 and probably 59 seconds we saw it approaching and climbed on board ... only to find the gum-smacking know-it-all sitting right by where we were standing. I thought Travis was going to get off and walk all the way back to the ship!

This sign above cracked me up. Be careful you don't fall off your bike!

We made it back to the ship!

Thursday, we arrived in Victoria, B.C. around noon. We were in port from noon to midnight. It was chilly and rainy, but we braved getting off the ship. My aunt didn't want us to get off since my cousin was getting married at 4 PM, but we got off and got back on a few hours later and were not late to the wedding!

Once we got a bite to eat, it stopped raining and was a nice afternoon!

Trav and I in front of the Grand Empress Hotel. It was beautiful!

In front of the Legislature Building.

Another view of the Empress Hotel.

We rode a bus downtown and then walked back to the ship and saw the sights along the way. Everything was so green!

The flowers say, "Welcome to Victoria."

I told my mom, dad and Travis that I wanted to see those guys with the big furry black hats that marched. (I guess they are called Beefeaters?) My mom said I wouldn't see them there, but look what we discovered on our way back to the ship!

Very cool tree

Saw a map and there was La Conner ...

Had to take a picture for our Conner.

Once we got back on board the ship, had a quick bite to eat and got dressed it was time for the wedding. It was on the 9th deck of the ship at the front. It was beautiful, even though it started raining again. Here is my cousin, Cameron doing a reading during the ceremony.

My cousin, Courtenay and her new husband Jim.

Travis and I all dressed up. They had a champagne toast and we took the champagne to toast and then were very popular passing it out to guests whose glasses were empty!

Mom and Dad at the reception dinner.

Very delicious 5 course meal!

On the Lido Deck. Courty dancing with her dad. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. We left about 10:45 to head back to our room and get ready to get off the ship early the next morning.

The next morning we got off the ship and my college friend Heather and her husband Tim came and picked us up. They took us by the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle. (Heather took some pictures and I'll add those once she sends them to me). They had beautiful flowers that were so inexpensive!

We walked around, tasting food samples, people watching, seeing the famous fish market and eating some breakfast. Soon it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight back to our real life. We had a wonderful time getting away from it all which we appreciate so much more now that Travis is the Bishop. We were also very thankful to my brother, Drew and his wife Tina who took our kids for the week we were gone!