What are Mary, Justin, Grey and Hazel up to?

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Recent new events

Hi again all - not many new pictures to share with you, but we do have a few new things that have occurred that we would like to tell you about!

We have been having such a great time getting to know our new students these past few days. Mary loves her classes, especially since she has two advanced classes and one sheltered class (comprising students who are beginning English Language Learners). The advanced classes are nice because her kids are coming in scoring 5-10% higher than last year's students! The new curriculum they are using in the elementary schools is really working well with our kids! And the ELL students are her favorite; they were and are so scared with everything about the school. But Mary loves helping them. Justin is having a good time with his classes too- he is enjoying doing new takes on past beginning of the year projects. His class sizes are a little high right now since our school came in over the estimated count, but hopefully that will all get worked out sometime soon. We both just spent Friday evening working the back-to-school carnival, which was a ton of fun. We worked the face-painting and temporary tattoo station :). It was interesting when one kid asked for a unicorn. It ended up looking like a cross betwen a dolphin and a unicorn... oops! Justin also just volunteered to do the DJ-ing for the back-to-school dance next week. It is a community dinner and dance that will raise money for the B.L.A.C.K. conference (Building Leadership in the African American Community for Kids). The organization is comprised of Prairie's African American population, and spends much of their time bringing forward issues of the achievement gap and stereotyping of the African American population. It is a great leadership-building club for kids; Prairie also has a white, Asian, and Latino group, and Mary is very involved with the Latino group. Soon enough, Mary will be out by the buses after school selling churros for the H.O.P.E. (Hispanic Opportunities in Public Education) conference in the spring!

We have also been enjoying the crazy world of house-hunting. Today we went for our first official viewings of houses we liked online. We saw four different houses, and we could tell right away which we think would fit into for the next five plus years. It has been kind of weird trying to think and plan for more CCs in the future, given the recent events, but nonetheless we are trying to imagine ourselves in a new place with a new life. Out of the four today, we were really interested in one of them, which was surprisingly a condo. We thought we would rule out condos all together, but this was an end unit with a good-sized front, back and side yard. The main living areas are south and west facing, which will be great for sun. It has two bedroom and one bathroom upstairs plus a basement that can be finished for additional living/creativity room/art room. And the best part is that it is in an awesome neighborhood, which was our top priority. The address is 1236 Krameria St Denver 80220 if you wanted to look it up!

Well, that is all for now. We will post new pics as soon as we do something exciting. We are super excited for football to start, but Justin is more excited to watch football with Tim! Hehe!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Summer Activities!

Below you will find what has been going on during our crazy busy summer! Yes, we know, we should have posted this when they happened...but we didn't, so here they are. ENJOY!

Hiking

Yesterday, Mary & I got together with Tim & Krista (who just married and moved to CO), and did some hiking up near Nederland. The trail was about 3 miles in to a beautiful lake where we ate lunch. The trail is great on the way up, you pass numerous little waterfalls, and follow a stream most of the time. Mary has even claimed this to be her favorite trail in CO!

Eating Lunch at end of trail

Posing for a pic

Justin & Tim

Diamond Lake

With the Puppies

View of Trail

Camping on Lake Dillon

Last week, Mary & I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary (a little late), by camping up on Lake Dillon near Frisco, CO. This was great because it combined everything we love of CO & MI! There were lots of mountains, and we got to do lake activities too. It was very relaxing, we read a lot, ate good food, and had a fire every night. We want to go back already!

View from Tent

We rented a Kayak one day, and took turns going up and down the lake!

Justin on Kayak

Mary on Kayak

Getting the fire ready for dinner

Summer Randoms

We did a lot this summer, here are just a few random events:

In Michigan with Grandpa & Grandma Christensen

In Cheesman Park for Movie Night (It was Jurassic Park...YES!)

One of our favorite Summer Meals, Brussel Sprout & Asparagus!
(We made this a lot, and we have a great recipe if you want it, it involves garlic!)

Mary made lots of Jam, yet again. This time she made Champagne Jelly, Strawberry Jam, Peach Jam, Peach-Raspberry Jam, and Triple Berry Jam.

Tim & Krista's Wedding

2 weeks ago, our friends got married back in MI. We were there for a week to partake in all of the wedding activities: Bar Crawl, Bachelor Party (not allowed to show pics of this), the Ceremony, and reception. Justin was the best man for Tim. We had a great time!

All of us got together in East Lansing for the Bar Crawl

Mmmmm...Chicken Wings

During the day of the Bachelor Party the guys got together for Whirlyball (google it, it's awesome!)

Son & Mother showing the rest how it's done

Mom & Dad cuttin' it up

Justin, Mary, Maria, & Jerry

The gang

All in Colorado now!

Christensen Family Reunion in CO!

During July, all the Christensen's and their families traveled to CO for the family reunion. We had many adventures exploring Colorado and all it has to offer, check out the pics!