This is my happy place! I have loved every Surf with Amigas trip I have been on! I contemplate traveling other places, but can’t bring myself to switch it up because of how great my experiences have been with Surf with Amigas. I have now been on 3 trips with Surf with Amigas, twice to Nicaragua and this year I was able to go to Costa Rica. (Unfortunately Nica is not in a good place right now.) I have wanted to try one of the trips to Costa Rica, but it never worked for my schedule until now. Costa Rica did not let me down!! I always question whether my experience will be just as good becasue it is really kudos to the awesome staff and other ladies who come on these trips. Every group has been different, but totally awesome, nonetheless!! I still think there is something about Nica that just draws me in, and makes me keep wanting to go back, but my experience in Costa Rica was equally as epic, and I feel that the waves were definitely better in Costa Rica! Here is a short video I made of clips from the 3 surfing trips I have taken. The surfing instruction I have received has been truly AMAZING! Watch the video to see for yourself. On this trip we surfed everyday and had an hour long yoga session. The surfing was crazy good!! I rode a few waves that were over 30 seconds. I could never dream of this happening, but somehow the waves were gentle enough to slowly push me to the shore. We even got to take a boat trip to surf some rights, all other surf was lefts, and have cocktails and nachos at a resort. Yin yoga is a great complement to the surfing. Reesie knew exactly what we needed in each class, and made it “hurt so good.” With the surfing and yoga we also had a few other scheduled activities. One night we made chocolate, another night we watched surfers at Pavones and had dinner there, we went on a jungle hike and played in a waterfall, and finally we had a bonfire/dance party on our last night! Here are some pics below. (Thanks to all the ladies on the trip for sharing, as I did not take many pics. So the majority of the pics are not my own.) To top it all off I got to experience this all with 2 of my best friends. If anyone is contemplating a similar trip I highly recommend you check out Surf With Amigas. As far as similar trips go their trips are on the cheaper end but they do not lack in the quality of service!! Thats a win in my book! Now I am back in Alaska! I head to Denali this weekend for an Alaska Geographic course titled the Geology of Denali! This will be my last trip of the summer. Hopefully then I will have some time to rest my foot and let the stress fracture heal. Here is the video that Surf With Amigas made about the trip.
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I am also playing softball when I am here in Kenai. It is a really big deal here for adults. I must say that it is not increasing my like for the game but I am enjoying having something to do and meeting new people. Kelsey got to come watch the first games and took a few pics of me. I don't think I made it to a base the first 2 games as I either missed the ball completely or hit a foul ball (fouls are counted as out).
Dad even stood up too!! Super proud of him for giving it a try! (Mom you're next!!) Now I am back in Kenai, but only for another day before my next adventure to Costa Rica. I got in last Thursday for our local Hockey Tournament. I am so happy I came back for it as it was a blast!! I was lucky to have such great women on my team! We may have lost, but we definitely had fun. The theme for our team was golf. For whatever reason hockey tourneys always have themes and there is a costume contest at the party. We went as characters from Happy Gilmore. I was the alligator. I think my teammates and I nailed our characters.
This past weekend I flew to Juneau to attend commecement at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). I graduated with my Master's in Learning Design and technology. It took me 3 years to complete the degree, but I am so happy that I chose the program that I did. All of my work is stored on teachinginak.weebly.com, if you are interested in viewing it. It was definitely a whirlwind of a trip but totally worth it. I flew in Saturday. I left Kenai at 7 am and arrived in Juneau around 12:30 pm. Once I arrived in Juneau, I drove around a bit as I was a little early to check into my hotel. Unfortunately Saturday was very rainy (no pictures from Saturday for this reason). Sunday on the other hand, was gorgeous! Graduation lasted 3 hours and was very long! I was hoping for more time to hike after the ceremony but did not have any time. I left Juneau at 8 pm on Sunday and arrived in Anchorage a little before 10. By the time I got to the hotel, checked in, and showered it was after 11. I then proceeded to get up at 2:45 am so that I could catch the 5 am flight with RAVN. This way I was able to teach Monday. I arrived at school around 5:40 am and didn't leave until about 10 pm. We had track boroughs in Homer and I had to prepare for a sub for part of the day. I am still exhausted but slowly catching up. Can't wait for the weekend, and even better my parents are flying in to visit!
So I have opened this post and been ready to type it for a couple of weeks. It just hasn't happened. So today here it goes. We got into Fairbanks just after 8 pm and headed for our Airbnb. It was tucked up in the woods and was a great little escape. The next morning we headed to Chena hot springs where we were able to have lunch, go on a tour of the ice museum, and hang out in the hot springs. We jam packed this day by also signing up for an aurora snow machine trip back in Fairbanks. So when we got back we had a few hours to rest up before heading for our tour at 10pm. We lasted until about 1:30 am. Unfortunately the auroras were not very active but we did see a few white bands. It was a great experience but again I probably would not do it again. Even with temperatures above freezing we were both a little cold. On Monday we slept in and then hopped on a flight back to Anchorage. We took a taxi to get to our car at the train station and then headed off to Alyeska. We spent the night there and got up to ski the next morning before heading back to Kenai. In 6 years of living here I have never been to Alyeska in the winter. It was a blast! Both of us wished we had planned a few nights there instead of just one. We both agreed that it was the best skiing we had ever experienced. Nothing is better than having a fresh layer of powder to start the day of skiing. After getting back to Kenai we rested up with Nali. We took a day to try out cross country skiing at Tsalteshi Trails. We were not very good but definitely got a good workout. Enough so that we could have a great dinner at St. Elias Brewing Company. We most definitely cleaned out plates that night. The next day Rachel was supposed to leave out of Kenai at 10 pm after watching me play hockey. We thought the end of Rachel's trip was perfect as we had some visitors to the house. Nali was really excited!! Unfortunately RAVN had some technical difficulties that night and her flight was cancelled. So she got a whole extra 24 hours in Kenai. (There is only one flight from Seattle to Indy and if you miss it you have to wait for the the next one.) We both got some time to get work done and I had a few appointments that I had scheduled before she got stuck. So it was a relaxing and work filled day. It was a great trip and I am so happy she was able to come visit!
Kelsey first joined me at the end of February for her spring break. She was able to come out and relax while I taught during the day. We were able to do a couple of things while she was here. The first important task was getting a haircut. I had not done that since moving out here and Kelsey has no access to a salon. Here are the results. For anybody in the Kenai area Rainy at True Colors in Soldotna is AMAZING!
We also spent some time at Soldotna Creek Park to try out the ice skating path. This is a path that the park maintains and is free to use when the park is open. It was a lot of fun practicing our skating skills.
Kelsey also got to witness my hockey skills, or lack thereof. She came to our league night on Thursday to round out her week in Kenai. She also got these AWESOME pics and videos.
Finally at the end of the week she drove my car up to Anchorage on Friday to meet my sister who came in that morning. I unfortunately had to work, so I flew up that evening to meet them. We were lucky that it was the start of the Iditarod. We went to the city to watch the ceremonial start and be typical tourists getting our pictures.
After this fun filled weekend I headed back to Kenai for a week of school and Rachel was left in Anchorage for her internship there. We were able to meet up last weekend to start off both of our spring breaks together. I will do another post on that later. I will let you know that we have had a blast!
I am trying to get funding for a couple more chromebooks for my classroom. Any donations or shares are greatly appreciated!! I am hoping to use these computers to add more blended resources and differentiated activities to help support student learning.
Again life has gotten in the way of me posting. I was trying to think of what's new that I could post about and then realized my last post was before Christmas break. Usually when I look back I wonder what was keeping me so busy until I list out my accomplishments. Anyway, on to what's new in my life:
For Christmas break we decided it would be fun to go to an Indy Fuel game. It was bitterly cold out, but we braved the walk from the car to get to the game. We had a lot of fun and Dad brought over some drinks. Let's just say you got your money's worth on the drinks. When I got back to Kenai I had one week of classes before heading to my first hockey tournament ever, the Homer Women's Jamboree. You get split up into teams based on ability and you can request one person to be on your team with you. After watching the first game I felt a little intimidated, but in the end I had a blast. I was on the Ballroom Bardownskis. A great bunch. We placed 4th out of the 8 teams. No matter what place it was a blast and I would totally do it again! Since hockey has started to consume my life instead of watching the super bowl like most people I went to hockey practice. Let's just say that even with a combined practice only 6 showed up. We had a blast and learned a lot even with the low turnout. So that's what's up in my life at the moment. I did get some computers and robots from donor's choose and I will have an update on that soon. Stay tuned. I will leave you with my creative way of drying out my hockey gear. I do spray it down as well with a homemade oil spray: onguard, lemon, and melaleuca.
It feels like forever since I posted. Sorry for the delay but I have been busy with robotics. Our competition was Saturday and it was a blast. We did not win an award but we definitely had fun!! We only get to see everyone's scores for the robot competition. In that we placed 4th.The students were sad when I told them that we were done and there would not be practice anymore. After seeing the disappointment I knew we needed to continue. I promised them to try to get some more robots and to hold some club meetings to advance our knowledge of coding after Christmas break.
So with that being said I am seeking out more funding on Donorschoose.org. Overdeck Family Foundation and Simons Foundation is matching all donations 5x automatically, no code necessary. So if you donate $10 that would turn into $50. So in KPBSD the district is pushing for more personalized learning. In my own philosophy of teaching I am an advocate for technology in the classroom. I believe that when students can leverage technology to advance their learning this promotes the ability to be lifelong learners. They learn to use technology that is around them constantly in a productive way. I believe this is where real learning occurs. If you have any extra money and would like to donate to my classroom click the link below. Give to my classroom by November 19 and your donation will be doubled thanks to DonorsChoose.org. Just enter the code LIFTOFF on the payment page and you'll be matched dollar for dollar (up to $50).
So this past Friday was activity night at Kenai Middle School. I volunteered to help with face painting. Going into this I was just hoping for the best. Turns out I may have a new side job or a backup plan if for some reason teaching doesn't work out. lol. Here are few pics I took at the end. My first attempts were a little rough. Activity night is 2 hours of fun for students. There is war ball, a cake walk, a soda pop ring toss, and much more. There is also a concession stand selling all of the sugar a middle schooler could ever need and then some. I started helping with the ring toss, however I was quickly relieved from that duty. Good thing too because that was a workout. Face painting on the other hand was a nice relief. I was able to sit back and take my time, which is not something that usually happens as a teacher. Nali is still as good as ever and making herself as comfortable as possible. She sure does like her pillows. In other news I was enticed to join a women's hockey team. So this should be interesting. Our first practice was Sunday and I survived. I will have to get some pictures next time. But for now I will leave you with the team logo. |