Proud to be a Wrangler

So my first week of school is officially over.

I have forgotten how tiring and stressful the beginning of the year is. I just got finished teaching almost 6th graders and am now teaching graduated 2nd graders. It's a huge difference in age.

My students are seriously the most social and talkative you can ever imagine. At first I was super stressed out by this, but now I am "training" them and getting really attached to their cute little personalities.

Let me just give you a rundown of my school/neighborhood:

-A kid in my class is named after a gun

-8 year old girls in my class know what the difference between just a bullet shell and an actual bullet

-Writing prompts include hunting deer

-Favorite kids activities include shooting animals

-You can hear horses naying inside my classroom

-There are goats that wander aimlessly on the street my school is on.

To say the least, it is definitely different than good ol' Provo was. But I LOVE it. Everyone I work with is so great, and I love the small town feel.

Here's a tour of my classroom (Mom):

My door on the first day of school:

This is my calendar and job chart--right above my desk.

Bulletin board where students can thumbtack everywhere their books take place.

Book recommendations board:

Behavior board:

Writing board:

Literacy bulletin board and book boxes:

Nice view from my window of a barn and where the horses are:

Our class pet and 3 year old gold fish: Seashark. My students just renamed him today.

View of my classroom from my desk:

I know it is SUPER colorful, but the teacher before me had it all gray and the walls are gray, so I needed something different and fun!

Crowder Fam Vacation

Steve and I just got back from an amazing fun-filled vacation! We flew out early Friday morning a couple of weeks ago to my home in Virginia. That night, we were lucky enough to see Wicked. This was my first time and definitely not my last. It was amazing! I think I smiled the whole time. These pictures are from the roof of the Kennedy Center in DC where we saw it.

Very early the next morning, my family took off to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the week. My mom's side of the family was having a family reunion, so it was fun to be with them and have Steve meet everyone.

Every year my family goes to the beach and just relaxes. However, Steve doesn't know HOW to relax. As you can see, he kept himself busy:

skim boarding

throwing the football

building sandcastles

and digging holes.

He did this all while I read, talked to family, and slept on the beach.

After our super fun trip at the beach, Steve and I left a day earlier than the rest of the family to go to Williamsburg, Virginia. It'd been since elementary school that either of us had been there, so we thought it'd be fun to check it out.

Some highlights of the trip include:

taking an awesome tour of the governor's palace. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson both lived there at one point. The whole thing was decorated with swords and guns.

the gardens behind the palace

eating at a tavern (house made into restaurant) right in Williamsburg. It was like going back to the 1700's. Our waitress was decked out in colonial clothes and even the food was colonial. Like my creeper shot of her?

and touring the capitol.

We had such a fun week, thanks mom and dad!!!

Upgrade

This time of year is bringing many changes to our little family. We have been super busy this past week with moving to our new condo in Eagle Mountain. It's about a half hour drive from our old apartment, and I have no idea how many times we've driven back and forth this week. I am thinking that wherever Steve goes to grad school, we might need to live forever.

Anyway, we both feel really blessed to have found the apartment we did for the price we got it at. After much searching and other apartments falling through, we found this gem for a LOT cheaper than any others. Not only did we get it for a great price, the apartment itself is more than two times bigger than our old apartment. Plus, Steve and I each get our own bathroom and room to do whatever we want with. His will be an office and mine a craft room.

Don't judge the apt too soon, last night was our first real night and not everything is put on the walls.

I will start off with my favorite three rooms in the apartment:

One--the kitchen. For obvious reasons. It is huge. I feel like I am playing house when I'm in it and it's not real.

Like our two chairs and nasty kitchen table? The grossness is muted a little in the picture. I like to call these (and most of our other furniture, the DI special).

Two-the laundry room. This is obviously nothing special, yet it is so special to me because I don't have to die carrying my laundry down 3 flights of stairs anymore.

Three--our new walk-in closet. My side of the closet is shown. But if I showed you Steve's side, you would also see mostly my things.

Other features of the apartment include our family room that's actually long enough to be able to use our Kinnect in. Our old one was a little bit too small to move around in.

The balcony. The perfect size for our new camping chairs (well, "new" meaning we got them for our wedding and they were still in the packaging) and our 2 plants.

The bedroom.

And last but not least, a cute light switch cover we got in Seattle last year but have never been able to use.

It is a lot of fun being able to move some place new and a bit nicer than our old apartment. I think we are little spoiled this year and will have to downsize when we move to grad school. In other news, I am busy with setting up my classroom for this school year and we are going to the beach with my family this Friday!

The Big 2-3

Yesterday I turned 23! I finally feel like a real person these days. We are moving out of Provo, I have a real job, and Steve will be applying to graduate school.

Steve did such a great job of planning my birthday this year. He told me on Sunday night when he picked me up from the airport that he reserved a room in Park City for the next night to celebrate my birthday! So Monday around 4:30, we decided to get a head start on our night. We went to La Jolla Groves at the Riverwoods mall for dinner. This place is beautiful and has amazing food! If you haven't been, you really need to try it out! We tried almost everything on the menu, because it was a "special occasion". After eating, we drove up the canyon to Park City and checked in at the hotel. We stayed at Newpark Resort and we LOVED our room. It was small, but super nice and had that Park City cabin-y feel.

I had to take a picture of the presents, because of the way Steve wrapped them. He knows me too well.

After we checked in, we turned the fireplace on and watched the Bachelorette. I know that may seem like a waste of time to some of you, but we don't have TV in our apartment at home. So watching the Bachelorette on a big screen TV instead of Hulu was a treat! After Bachelorette we decided to take a walk around the Hotel and then went on a drive around Park City to look at the nice homes in the area. The coolest/scariest experience of the night was seeing a mother and child moose walking around about 10 feet in front of us. The mother stared us in the eyes for a few minutes and we froze until she walked away.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and walked to Kneaders (because it was right next to our hotel) to celebrate my birthday right with some delicious french toast. Then, we went over the Park City Outlet Mall and did a little shopping.

I came home that day to some beautiful flowers from my parents.

Overall, it was one of my best birthdays yet!

Tidbits

What we've been up to lately...

1. Beards. Steve never shaves anymore now that he's quit the MTC. This picture was after not shaving for a week of vacation.

2. Books. Please recommend books to me!! All I ever want to do lately is read.

3. Studying. Beaver takes the GRE on Thursday!

4. "24". We are obsessed with this show. Netflix has all 7 seasons and we just started season one. We have about 8 hours left of season one and get so excited every time we watch it. When I was at home this past week, we would watch it at the same time then call each other afterwards and discuss theories, etc.

5. Flying. I have now been on 3 cross country trips this summer. We will be leaving for our next one at the end of the month to go to the beach. Can't wait!!!

Vacay #2

A couple of weeks ago, I got to experience my first real Winder family vacation. Steve and I always say that we will get the best of both worlds on vacations with our families because his family loves touring and mine loves relaxing at the beach. Well, lucky for us this summer, we get to do both! Every single person in Steve's family (including parents, all 5 boys and their spouses, and all 7.5 grandchildren) were able to make the Winder trip.

First, we set out for Palmyra, New York. We were able to see a bunch of different sites, but my favorite was the Sacred Grove. There is such a peaceful feeling there that was great to experience with Steven. Good thing we had Steve's mother-in-law, Arliss, with us for part of the time to do a photo shoot.

We were also able to go to Hill Cumorah in NY.

One night, we got to do a temple session at the Palmyra temple with some of Steve's siblings.

After spending a few days in Palmyra, we headed over to Niagra Falls. This was my first time going, and it was beautiful! We were able to do the Maid of the Mist as well.

From Niagra Falls, we drove to Kirtland, Ohio to see the church sites there. I wasn't very good about taking pictures throughout the trip, so this is most of what I have. We had a great time and the best part was being with all of our family!