Climb on!

For the past couple of weeks, James has been begging Steve to take him rock climbing. Steve has been several times this summer and James has been dying to go. Mostly I think he wanted to use all the cool gear Steve pulls out when he goes. So finally, we organized a "kid friendly" rock climbing trip with several families in our ward. What a success it was! We finally got to use the kid's harness, thanks Jill and Joel! And I got to climb for the first time in over 2 years. Yes, I admit I was a bit skeptical about how it would all play out: making sure the kids were happy and all and not crying or whining. For the most it went very well...except when we first got there and Molly was grumpy, mostly because dad left to go set up an anchor; but she cheered up once we pulled out the snacks.

We climbed at a site about 5 miles from our house called Latern Hill. We have hiked there several times and really enjoy the scenery. It reminds us a bit of Millcreek Canyon. The site has several climbs ranging from a 5.5 (easiest) to a 5.11 (a bit more challenging). Unlike Utah, it's not bolted and there are no anchors so the dads got pretty creative with the webbing and extra rope setting up our own anchors. The kids climbed the 5.5 route and the adults climbed a 5.8 route. We had two ropes going and would have had a third if we had more webbing (I think a field trip to REI is in order). I definitely hope we can go again! I would like a trip with the adults minus the kids...what do you think? Anyone game?

Even Molly got to "climb".

For the past couple of months, Molly has been working on improving her vocabulary. The rest of us have been improving on figuring out what she really means. Here are a few examples:

Dink: "I would like a drink. No, not water or milk, but whatever you are having is fine...oh, and yes, I insist on drinking out of your cup."

Nummy: "What you have looks really good and I need some of that...NOW!"

Doggie: this word applies to any furry four-legged creature....including stuffed animals.

Pease: Molly has learned to use this word to get whatever she wants. She looks up at you with those big brown eyes, gives you her biggest smile that lights up her whole face, and says this word. I have yet to meet anyone who can resist her charm. I certainly can't.

Ames: James of course, her favorite playmate

Natnan: Batman, James's favorite superhero. "Dress me up in a cape too so I can be just like James"

Wacie: Lacy, the dog. As Molly is calling for her, Lacy is usually hiding in the futhermost corner of the house.

Wash: "I see you are doing something with water. That must mean its time for me to play in the water and get it all over everything within a 5 foot radius."

Up: "Hold me...for about 5 seconds then I'll change my mind and squirm around and around until you put me down."

Nuggle: "Hold me some more so I don't have to take a nap/go to sleep." or it could mean, "I'm really tired and ready for my nap, but I would never admit it".

No: "No, nope, nada, not happening, no way, in your wildest dreams, that's not what I want...duh!"

Of course she has a lot more words she uses, but these are some of her favorites. And like every other 17 month old she has a variety of noises that just can't be described in words. But when she uses them, you know EXACTLY what she means. My favorite are her squeals of laughter as James chases her around the house...or as she is running away from you as you are trying to change her diaper/dress her/take something away from her she really shouldn't have.

The Green Lady with the Torch

For my birthday, we took a day trip to New York City. I finally got to see the Statue of Liberty. Woo woo! For anyone planning a trip soon, I HIGHLY recommend buying your tickets online the night before. It seriously saved us 2 to 3 hours of waiting in line (and just in case you're wondering, tickets to go up into the crown are sold out until the middle of November). Because we bought our tickets before hand, we didn't have to wait in line to buy them and we didn't have to wait in line to get on the Ferry either. Steve did it the hard way last time he was in New York and it took him 3 hours to buy tickets and wait in line for the Ferry. It took us 20 minutes and we were on the ferry. NICE!

After Liberty Island we took the subway to uptown Manhatten to see the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. James got to see real dinosaur bones. Then afterwards we took the kids to play in Central Park. Such a peaceful place amidst a crazy city. After dinner, we walked down Broadway to Times Square. That is something everyone has to experience at least once. Somehow we missed the Naked Cowboy... darn it. But as we were walking, we stumbled across the Manhatten Temple. We weren't looking for it, didn't even know where it was, and we would have missed it if I didn't see "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" on the side. At first glance I thought it was a church house. Then I realized what it was and said, "OH! There's the Manhatten Temple". Yeah, I'm a dork. I couldn't decide which pictures to post, so check out the slide show.

As some of you know, New York City is a place Steve is considering for his masters. Now that I've been there....twice...I think I could live there for 2 years and survive. So yes Uncle Bob and Uncle Scott, your votes are now in the running. But as fun as it was, it was nice to come home to the quiet and solicitude of Lakeside Drive in Ledyard.

I still miss the mountains.

Artist in Residence

Thus far, I've talked mostly about me with some great pictures of the kids. I'm really not that self centered (lol!). Since Steve is too modest to share his work with everyone, I have taken upon myself to pick out the paintings I like and share them. At the beginning of the summer, Steve made a goal to get a certain amount of portraits done by the time school started again. He has been working hard at nights (when he gets off work) to accomplish this goal. I originally had more posted but Steve found me before I could finish, so I had to take some off. He is going through his portraits right now and picking more out...the ones HE likes. Here's the two he let me post for now. The medium is oil.

These are two portraits he did in school last spring with egg tempura, sorry for the glare. He currently has a silverpoint drawing (a drawing done with real silver) in a show at the school...we think. It was never returned to him so we are assuming its still in the show. But you never know, it might have been stolen and sold on the black market in Egypt or something.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggetty Jig

I made it home safely Friday night. As much as I enjoyed Chicago and some "grown-up" time, it is good to be at home with Steve, James, & Molly. When I got home, there was a big yellow sign, made by Steve and the kids, greeting me as I walked to the door. What a nice welcome home!

Chicago was a lot of fun and I got to do a lot of things I had never done before. And despite my sarcastic tone, the conference was quite informative. I didn't really learn anything "new" per say (besides a new way to take notes), but was more reminded of the techniques I learned in college. I learned different ways to improve what I'm already doing, and I'm almost a little excited to start school and try out these new ideas.

Day Three and more firsts...

Wednesday morning was more of the same, "Blah blah blah...Cornell notes...blah blah blah...Socratic seminar...blah blah blah...philosophical chairs...blah blah blah" (good for me, boring for you). But our afternoon meeting was held on the sun deck and it was nice to sit in the sun for a bit and then relax in the hot tub after we cut our meeting short.

Before I tell you about my firsts, let me tell you about Lisa. Lisa co-teaches with me and knows everyone and everything and is just a phenomenal person. Anywho, she knows the general manager of the Michael Jordan restaurants in CT, so he hooked us up with a dinner at the Michael Jordan restaurant (160 Blue) here in Chicago on Wednesday night.

In order to get to the restaurant, we had to take a cab...my first cab ride! We walked out of the hotel, and just like in the movies, the door man hailed a cab for us, and opened our door, and we were on our way. The restaurant was very fancy schmancy. The waiter asked us if we wanted sparkling, bottled, or tap, and I said, "Water is fine for me." Uh, that's what he was talking about...yeah, I felt stupid and small townish! I had a phenomenal saffron linguine plate but the dessert left something to be desired. Good thing we weren't paying for it because the bill because it was more than I would ever want to spend on food. Anywho, it was fun and a great first experience. Then we took a cab to Navy Pier and watched the fireworks. Then we walked around and listened to a live band that was playing. They were playing 80's songs so we knew and sang along with all the songs.

This morning was more of the same, but all of us were getting tired of meetings and our comments had a sarcastic tint to it. Our "leader" cancelled our afternoon meetings and we walked to "Miracle Mile" on Michigan Ave. It was cool to see all the stores, but overall it wasn't that fascinating to me because all of those stores I can find in Connecticut and I'm not a big shopper, I can never find exactly what I'm looking for. Anywho, needless to see we were literally walking from 12:30 to 5:00. Good thing I'm in shape!

Meanwhile, Steve took the kids to New York City today. Lately, James has been highly interested in mummies and Egyptians. So Steve took them to the Met to see their Egyptian exhibit. James LOVED it. He loved seeing the mummies and the sarcophaguses. After the Met, he took the kids to Central Park to play. They enjoyed it immensely, and have really enjoyed spending time with Dad. As much as I have enjoyed my trip, I am ready to go home and see my love and my kids. I miss them lots and lots. Thank goodness I'll be home tomorrow (Friday) night.

A day full of firsts

So yesterday was our FIRST real day of the conference. For me it was an informative, idea provoking, and good day. But rather than bore you with what went on in the conference ("Blah blah blah...notetaking skills....blah blah blah...reading for information...blah blah blah...higher order questioning...blah blah blah...hands on activities...blah blah blah") I will tell you about my day of "Firsts".

First, I just wanted to say how clean Chicago is...well, at least the part I've been in. Yesterday morning, tired of running around the micro track in the hotel gym 100 times, I ventured out into the city. So very nice. It was a cool morning, with a slight breeze and there were other runners out, so I wasn't scared about running in the big city. I know some of you are thinking, "How could you be scared running in a big city? You run on Shewville road." I'm more scared of the ticks in the woods along Shewville road than I am of the drivers. Anywho, I digress, great experience, didn't have much time to explore as I had to get back and get to my morning meetings (to which I was late (it was mostly Lisa's fault), shocker I know). Tomorrow, I'll have to go the other way and see if I can find all the shopping that Michigan ave is so famous for. So the point of this post...

My day of firsts: yesterday, I got to ride on an elevated train for the first time, wahoo! Yes, yes, I know, don't they have the light rail in utah? Yes, but it doesn't count. It's too clean and is too new. This was a big city train, that went underground and had weird people on it, just like you see in the movies! It was great. I did get a little movie and pictures, BUT I left the cord at home so I'll have to wait till I get home.
My second first: I went to my first professional baseball game! Normally, I find baseball quite boring and slow moving, almost as bad as golf. But most of my experiences have been watching it on TV...LAME! This was live and in person. We went and watched the White Sox play the Los Angeles Angels in US Cellular field. It was also neat because they honored their pitcher, Mark Beurhle, who pitched a perfect game their last home game (July 23rd). That was pretty neat. The game was fun to watch, the weather was perfect, then we root root rooted for home team and they won. I did not enjoy a real ballpark hot dog like the rest of my group (I get heartburn just thinking about a hot dog) and they enjoyed other things I did not care to enjoy, but together as a whole, we had a blast!

PS I figured out how to add a slideshow! yeah me! Ok, the four pictures added are ones from Lisa's camera, so they are not that good, sorry! When I get home, I'll add more pictures, but I was just experimenting with those 4.

Chicago - The Windy City

So about two months ago, I got an email from the assistant superintendent about a conference in Chicago. Like every other email from central office, I scanned through it and deleted it. A couple of days later, Lisa, the teacher I co-teach with asked me if I was going to go to Chicago. "Um, no, didn't really think about it. Why?" Well, she talked me into going: only 8 teachers were invited, it was all expenses paid, a $65 a day food allowance, we'd be staying in a hotel on Michigan Ave, and oh yeah, training on better teaching strategies. I talked to Steve, worked it out, and here I am! It's been quite an experience so far.

We flew out yesterday from Hartford. When we got to the O'Hara airport, there was no shuttle to the hotel, so we took a limosine. I was kinda hoping for a cab (I've never been in cab). Anywho, we are staying in this fancy shmancy Hilton Hotel on Michigan ave. The lobby is so fancy, I feel like I should dress up just to go downstairs! Oh yeah, so the conference...the whole reason I'm here. We registered this morning, and like true teachers skipped the morning sessions to find breakfast, they weren't required anyway. And now the couple of hours we do have to ourselves, its raining. So, now we are just waiting to see what the rest of the day brings...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Molly has learned a new game: Molly polo. No matter where she is, she'll call out "Momma/daddy". And we answer, "Molly". Then she smiles big and repeats the process, "Momma/daddy". This game is especially fun for her when we are driving. James loves to join in when we don't asnwer soon enough, "Momma/daddy, Molly is calling for you." Lots of fun at the Duncan house!