Coffee

Every morning, Grey helps Justin make his morning coffee. Justin brought home his work Keurig, so all Grey has to do is push the big blue button (which he loves). The other morning, Justin asked Grey, "Do you want to help me make my coffee?" Grey responds by fake coughing. Justin made some comment about his coughing, then asked again, "Want to make some coffee with me?" hoping for Grey to nod his head. Again, Grey just coughs. After the third time, Justin realized what Grey was doing. Do you get it? (hint: say "coffee" then say "coughing")




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Last Nights episode of Dateline

From Last nights dateline. This is our security guard from our school, and his father who also used to work there last year. So proud to know them both, and know that they are ok and recovering.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Shooting Update

Below is a link to a video on our local news about a security guard who works at our school. His father used to be our building manager last year. Hits pretty close to home...

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/278953/635/Hero-saves-sons-girlfriend-in-theater-shooting

Update

Hi all- we just received notification that one of our security guards was shot twice and is in stable condition. He was there with his family, and I (Mary) taught his daughter two years ago.

Other news is that "a few" high school students (former students from our middle school) have been shot, but all were released from the hospital. No students from our school are known to have been affected.



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Aurora Theater Shooting

For those close to us that are not connected with us on Facebook, I wanted to give you an update on the events happening in Aurora right now.

The Century 16 theater is not at all close to our house, but is two miles from our school. His apartment is not close to our house either, but it is in the neighborhood that feeds into our school. Actually, one of James Holmes neighbor's that was interviewed on the news was one of Justin's old students.

Our students go to that theater all the time. Actually, last year, two of my students decided to make their math research project about movies in general, and one of the research questions was about which theater students prefer to go to. By far, Century 16 was the most frequent answer. Watching movies, and going to the movies, is a huge part of many cultures in the community of our school. You have heard about a lot of children at the movies, which might seem weird to us, but that is very very common where we teach.

We have not heard about any impact on our students, but we are both pretty positive that we had students there. We did hear about a colleague that was there, and he was in theater number 8. He was fine, and that theater only had shrapnel enter it, no gun shots. However, he did ask Justin to go to the movie with him. I encouraged it, but Justin said he would be too tired. I just thank God that he didn't go, and that we are all safe. We will keep you updated on the status of our students.


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Garage Painting

It's been pretty hot here, but decent in the morning time. While Mary was at class today, Grey and I were getting antsy so I decided to paint the garage door. Just the plain white was boring and starting to look dingy. Below are our steps, with a lot of help from Grey!

Before: All white 

Grey helping with the bottom squares 

He did such a good job helping...although this outfit got ruined. 

 His favorite was taking off the painters tape. He kept trying to do this while we were painting, then went crazy afterwards. 

After: Looks much better, and cleaner 

Might still add a tan border/trim to match the rest of the house

After all the hard work, Grey relaxed with Sophie...she loved it.

This was taken yesterday, Grey loves to pull the broccoli that have gone to seed and eat them...actually he likes to pull everything and eat it.

First (Cherry) Tomato!

Grey and I were outside working in the garden and noticed our first tomato was ripe! I kept showing him the tomato to pick and he reached right in and grabbed it! Then immediately squished it in his hands and laughed..good thing we'll have more.









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Sleeping Cheerios

Grey has really been fighting his naps for the past couple of days. Today I tried everything...iPad, Thomas, reading a book, crying it out, playing outside...none of them worked. Apparently I should have tried feeding him.

Favorite Pictures from Alaska OR Alaska: Things I Took Pictures Of

Below are some of my favorite pics from Alaska. I decided to convert a few into black and white but some I kept as is. The sights are truly one of a kind.

View from the Princess Wilderness Village

(that is the Nenana River, and is grey because it is glacier fed)

Our train, as it was turning left we could see the engine and other cars

Our train pulling into the Denali Depot from Fairbanks

Mt. McKinley (not actual size)

After the plane ride (plane is actual size)

Our first view of McKinley. It was cloud capped on one side

Circling around 

Much more clear on the other

Jagged mountains

The path of our flight, McKinley is circled

Beginning of a glacial river

Probably my favorite picture from the whole trip. Not quite sure the name of these, but the tops got just a dusting of fresh powder which made the pic

Mary's favorite were the glacier rivers

As we we dipped down into the valley, at about 14,000 feet we saw hikers attempting to summit. There is a small group at the bottom of the pic, and a single file line of the of them towards the top.

If you look at the tip of the wing you can see a red plane, our pilot was talking with the other plane over the radio and the red plane had just dropped of a group at Denali Base Camp. Notice the glacier water...SO blue!

The beginning of another glacier river, from behind the mountain.

More hikers (might have been the same group). In the bottom right hand are their tents, and you can see the gray line which is their trail.

I zoomed out. If you follow the trail you can see the hikers.

Heading back down. The main difference from Alaskan mountains and ours in CO is not only the intense vegetation at the base, but you can see the mountain in it's entirety, from bottom to top. 

If you ever read or watched "Into the Wild", at the base of these mountains is where it took place. The bus is still down there somewhere.

Cloud capped McKinley

I like the lighting on this one

Entrance to Denali

Light through the trees during one of our hikes

Scenery from the train

About 2 hours south of the park, Mckinley came into view from our train. Can't quite see the top.

Mary and Train

Panoramic view at our Lodge

Denali National Park Day 3: Last Day :(

On our last day we had to be at the train depot by 11:30am, so we had very little time in the morning to do much. We got up, went to a rustic breakfast buffet at the lodge. They had reindeer sausage, Justin said that Rudolph was tasty. Afterwards, we walked to the official entrance of the park because the lodge shuttles bypass it when driving in. It was just over a mile walk, and got some good pics at the entrance signs. Before the walk we met a worker at the lodge who graduated from State in 1969 and wanted to reminisce about his glory days at college..haha. Then on the walk we met a guy who was born and raised in Alpena! Small world for sure. Once we walked back it was time to hop on the shuttle back to the train depot. We were excited for the train ride back because the train car had a full bar, and a dining hall underneath! Also we would be seeing different scenery that on the way up! We got some good pics of the train coming in from Fairbanks and boarding it. The train took just over 7 hours to get into Anchorage. After our extremely scenic train ride, some friends we met on the train drove us to a local brewery so we could try some Anchorage brews. Then we cabbed it to the airport and that was that! It really was a whirlwind of a trip since we had two red eye flights, but the time there was amazing! The sights are unforgettable, and we really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you to Granny Nanny again for flying out to Denver for us! Very appreciated! We are happy to be back with our little man now in Denver. 1 more posts to come about our trip, Justin will be selecting his favorite photos from the trip...they turned out really good!

Panoramic of our lodge area, is Mary in there twice?

Taking a walk to the park entrance

Mary "climbing" sign

Entrance

Train arriving at the park

Before we leave the depot...the top of the train was amazing!

Passing over a gulch

We were at the end of the train

The bright white spot to the right of the tall trees is the summit of Mt. McKinley sticking out of the clouds.

Hipster trendy hipstamatic photo

Enjoying an IPA in Anchorage @ Moose's Tooth Brewery

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Denali National Park Day 2: Afternoon hikes

After our exhilarating morning plane ride, we ate a nice lunch and ventured out to some afternoon hikes near the entrance of the park (we didn't want to pay the entrance fee! And you can't see much in the park unless you take a guided tour waaaay into the park).
The hikes were beautiful, similar to, and yet very different from Colorado hikes. There were a lot of bugs on the trails, but the views were worth it.
After the hikes, we enjoyed a nice dinner, then drinks in the hot tub until they kicked us out at midnight. We were so confused, because it was as bright at midnight as it was at 3pm! Good thing our room had blackout shades!
Pics of the second half of day 2-




Denali NP visitor's center




















Fireweed: a very common Alaskan wildflower that grows in areas destroyed by wildfire (or, more recently, in disturbed areas, such as along roadsides where the dirt has been turned up). Apparently, locals make honey and jam from the nectar of the flowers. They also told us that locals use the flowers as a barometer of the summer. When the last flowers bloom at the top of the stalk, summer is over.




Our resort!




Horseshoe Lake (bugggssss!!!!)




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