Back to School

I survived the first week of school! Although it has been really tiring and a lot of work it's been fun too. My class is really cute with quite a lot of girls. I have 25 students: 8 boys and 17 girls. They are all really well behaved which is really nice after my bunch I had last year. I only have a few that could even be considered a little bit too talkative and I just walk over and say "give me a buck you're not paying attention" and the entire class quiets down. Or I just give bucks to those that are quite and immediately everyone sits up straight, folds their arms, and shuts up. As mentioned earlier the 4th grade is doing a monetary reward system and the kids really seem to go for it. Although the first day they got really excited thinking it was real money they were getting. I've decided that kids really think the funniest things sometimes. One student turned to me "Mrs. Andersen do you have any kids?" To which I replied, "No" all while thinking "Here we go again" (I had a similar conversation with a student last year). She just simply said, "Well you should totally have kids" and continued to say why I should have kids. Here was her explanation of why I should I have kids: "They poop all the time, they pee when they cry, they cry all the time, they'll keep you up at night, they'll drive you nuts. Yeah you should definitely have kids."

I think we'll have to work on her persuasion skills. :)

Devin also starts school again this next week. He only has two classes and is really excited to be done. Once again this year he is going to be taking the bus and I'll drop him off and pick him up from the bus stop. Too bad he has to get to school so early only to sit around and study until his 1:00 class. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you only have one car.

Happy Back to School Everyone!

Whitewater Rafting in Jackson

Need I say more?

Merry Go Round of Life

Do you every feel like your life is just going in circles? That's what I feel like recently as I get ready to start my second year of teaching. I feel like I'm on a Merry go Round, it all just seems very repetitive. I'm starting to worry and stress about teaching (much like last year), Devin is getting ready to go to school (much like last year), Devin is still looking for a job (much like last year), and we are still trying to get pregnant (much like last year). Don't get me wrong it is a "Merry" go round for a reason -- our life is good, it just seems very much like last year. Not much has changed. I actually hate talking with people you haven't seen in a while and then have to explain that NOTHING has changed in your life since you last talked to them. It just gets a little frustrating sometimes.

Anyway here I go round again...and I'll try to be happy to do it!

Amazing Adventures

The Andersen's have teamed up with the Ferrero's yet again for another amazing adventure. This past adventure took the families to....
Highlights included . . .
*Camping near the Grand Teton National Park at Gros Ventre campground. Although camping is fun both parties were ready for some civilization near the end. *Eating delicious dutch oven dinner and cobbler ridiculously late. Each night it got later and later :) And here is Lynsie anxiously waiting for dinner. She's so excited she just can't contain her emotions.*Shopping and touring downtown Jackson. Man there were a TON of antlers everywhere!!*Canoeing along the Snake River where lots of beautiful scenery and animals were seen. Among the animals were several bald eagles (one who almost pooped on us), hawks, offsprey, otters, pelicans, and a butterfly that let Sarah hold it. There was quite a bit of waiting since the car could only hold one canoe at a time. Here are the Andersen's waiting for the canoe trip.*Whitewater rafting down the Snake River. This was probably the hightlight of the trip for the Andersen's with Big Kahuna being among the favorite rapids. Photo courtesy of davehansenwhitewater.com.*Seeing a wide range of animals all throughout the trip including lots of bison and two moose! Yes it is a moose behind that bush.


Other highlights included . . .

Where the families got to see Old Faithful! Lots of different geysers all with beautiful blue water and orange/yellow rocks. Seeing the Upper and Lower Falls along the Yellowstone River which cuts through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.


The Andersen's got to relive some of their honeymoon memories including posing by the lookout of the Lower Falls. Overall there were some amazing adventures for all involved! Can't wait to see where the next adventures will take them!

Team FAT

Team FAT (Ferrero, Andersen, Terrazas) had their first - of hopefully many - triathlons this past weekend. It was the Echo triathlon at Echo Reservoir. We went up Friday and camped at "Camper World" with the Ferrero and Terrazas Families. The men were able to be related as they passed off as Adam's Aunt Mary's Nephews -- all of them. That way we could get the camping spot! Thanks "Aunt" Mary!!
Friday night we had some fun with tin foil dinners, games, and of course some sword fighting with Nate. Below is Devin being stabbed by Nate ... who knew someone so small could beat up someone so big?!?
The morning of the event finally came and the guys headed off early to get ready for the race.
We of course had to get a picture of each of them performing their respective events. David is biking -- yes he looks like a little old man without his walker, but he's biking okay. Devin is running with a silly smirk on his face. Adam is swimming -- just out for a peaceful, leisurely swim in the lake ( I love his face in this picture).
Stretching before the first event (swimming). I believe Devin is making up a new stretch "Disco Pose" -- it's said to be really helpful :)
Adam in the water right before he heads off to swim .75 km
About 14 minutes later.... And he's back!
The transition between Adam's swim and David's bike went really smoothly and the girls couldn't get up to the top fast enough before David took off. So in the meantime while David biked 20 Kilometers we lounged out and ate snacks. Nate played peek-a-boo from the camera, but I caught him...


About 40 minutes later we headed back to where David would enter and Devin would take off. I was a little too fast taking the picture of David and as you can see below only got his head in the picture. He was really zooming, but my fingers were faster... a little too fast.
So I made up for it by taking a snapshot after the fact. Good job on the bike David!!Devin took off running his 5K once the chip was passed to him. He had a lot of fun doing it, especially crossing the finish line with his two best friends sprinting with him and cheering him on.
My camera battery of course died and I didn't get a picture of his final sprint and finish. Adam and David met him for the last little stretch and urged him faster; he was sure speeding when he finished. I was so proud of him as he crossed that finish line in 23:57 under his goal of 24 minutes!! GO DEVIN!! I love you!

As we waited in anticipation for the results the guys got massages and the girls ate their fruit and goodies :) Finally the results were in... 2nd Place!! There were only 4 teams in their relay category, but still to get second was amazing and they were happy. Plus, they were only about 30 seconds behind the first place team.

We are so grateful to have such good friends. We have so much fun with all of them and feel that they really have blessed our lives. Team FAT definitely is the BEST!!

Summer fun so far...

This summer has been a special one for Devin and I. I have time off because as a teacher I get a nice summer break. He isn't taking summer classes and is looking for a job. All of this adds up to one great Summer of Fun! We realize that we won't have too many summers like this in the future and so we've been taking advantage of our time together. Here's what we've been up to...

Going up AF canyon with Mom and Dad for breakfast
Mom and I making aebleskivers


Devin and I went camping on the last minute. We were walking to a reception when we noticed it was a really beautiful evening -- with all the rain it really made a difference when it finally wasn't raining. So we decided to go camping -- that night. We hurried through the reception and got everything ready to go camping. When we got up there we realized we didn't have something very important...
Our TENT!!! We didn't let that stop us and we slept on the ground under the stars! Thankfully we were not attacked by bugs or animals.

We also didn't have a pan to heat water up for hot chocolate in the morning -- a must when camping -- so we used an aluminum bread pan instead. It worked great and the breakfast was delicious.



Another one of our summer projects was a birthday present for Mom and Dad. We organized the storage room for them. We took everything out -- What a lot of stuff!!
Then bought some more bins and put it back so it now looks like this.



Who says kiddie pools are for kids? Devin and I pulled out Mom and Dad's kiddie pool and had a great lunch by the pool. (Except the water was FREEZING)
Devin also got to be a superhero in his blue towel. Of course, he's my hero every day.


Devin played in an Ultimate tournament. He played for 5 hours straight. I ran for the first little bit then sat and watched. We both came home pretty burned and he was pretty sore.


We pulled out my brother's legos and built a lego ship. There were so many pieces we had to organize them to find them easier.
Plus, we didn't have the instructions so we looked them up using the itouch.
After several days of working on the ship here's the finished project...
The cannons were especially fun since they could actually shoot cannon balls. We spent one evening just shooting each other with the cannons.
Well, it definitely has been a blast so far and we are excited for the other fun things we have planned this summer!