Catching up...

I can't believe it has been sooo long since I have blogged. The past month and a half have been a whirlwind.

Shortly after my last post Erik and I purchased Kayaks! Within the first two weeks of having them we were on the water for 12 hours. They are a blast! We love taking them on the American River every chance we get! We have decided to start training for the Eppie's Great Race

Since bird watching is a hobby of mine Kayaking also give me an opportunity to see all sorts of birds. So far on the river we've seen:

Mute Swan, Mergansers, Osprey, Red Tailed Hawk, Mallards, Canada Geese, Killdeer, Western Seagull, Blue herons, Belted Kingfishers, Willet, Double crested Cormorant, Green herons, Turkey Vultures, Whimbrel, Anna's Hummingbird, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Domestic Goose, Northern Flicker, CA Quail, Wild Turkeys, Acorn Woodpecker, Black Chinned Hummingbird

Our friends Ed and Amber Blews also came for a visit on their way to wine country for a vacation. We had dinner in our back yard. It was so wonderful to spend the evening with them!

Then we were off to San Diego for Sara Watkin's wedding.

It was great to see Erik's family again. Erik's first dog was a Beagle named Jed. Since then Erik's family has bread Beagles, and when we went down they had a new litter. So cute.

Erik then.... Erik now.....

Then I started in-service for school. On the 18-20th the entire staff was up in Tahoe for a retreat. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know my colleagues.

Erik's birthday was on the 21st and to celebrate we headed out to San Fransisco for the Outside Lands music festival.

We got to see Radiohead, Beck, MWard, Kaki King, Ben Harper, Cake, Tom Petty, Stars, Broken Social Scene, and Jack Johnson. It was pretty fun! But I think we will retire from festivals for a while. We are getting old...

Wilco Regina Spektor

Andrew Bird

And last but not least I just finished my first week of school and I love Middle Schoolers. That was one of my biggest fears going into this year, but they are great! Bradshaw Christian is great! I really like my new job. I meant to take pictures of my classroom, but forgot. I'll try to remember this week.