Winter Fun!

We are officially on break!!! It was a last rough week at school, but we made it and no we are home free for 2 weeks! We have already taken advantage of our time by hiking, celebrating the holidays with friends, cleaning and running errands. Tomorrow, we are going to head up to Craig and relax and enjoy family. Vacation... we love you!

Here are some pictures of the Christmas Sweater Party







Girls making Christmas cookies while boys watch the Broncos (and interfere with making Christmas cookies :)).



Hiking Horsetooth

What's new???

Hello world!

Well, here we are with 3 days left before a two week vacation. Being a teacher is a lot of work (more than you might imagine), but we are very thankful that we have a job that lets us take time off to be with family at the holidays. We have 2 weeks of vacation time waiting for us!!!

Here are some updates:

Thanksgiving:
It was awesome! We started the holiday by spending time with Ang's dad in Gypsum. We went hiking, enjoyed a great dinner and played a lot of games. It was great to see everyone! Then, we head to Glenwood to spend Thanksgiving with Ang's mom and family. We had a great dinner, played games, played football in the streets and spent quality time with family.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to the lighting of the Hotel Colorado. We were really happy that Chris's mom and dad could make it down to celebrate! The lighting is a tradition for us... it is beautiful and gets us in the mood for Christmas.









Chris's Grandma:
Sadly, a couple days after Thanksgiving, Chris's grandma Joyce passed away. Her memorial service was a couple of days later and was a great time to get together with family and celebrate Joyce's life. She will be missed!

Getting ready for Christmas:
Would you believe that we are done Christmas shopping and have been for over 2 weeks? We decorated our house and have been doing a lot of baking and listening to Christmas music... love it!!!

Ugly Christmas sweater party:
OF COURSE! We had our second annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. It was a lot of fun to get together with friends and enjoy food and great company. This year we did a white elephant gift exchange which was...uh, er, let's just say very interesting :) Pictures will come soon.

To go to Hawaii or not to go to Hawaii:
Should we go to Hawaii for Christmas??? Chris and I both now have full flight benefits (thanks dad and Amber!!!) and a place to stay in Maui (thanks Jack and Jana). Part of us is asking "why not?" Yet another part of us feels like we should stay here the entire break. Hmmm... I guess we will have to see if there are any seats open on the airplane. We sure do love Maui though.

Well, I guess those are our updates. We are excited for Christmas and to spend the holidays with friends and family. We will be going to Craig for Christmas and can't wait!

Merry Christmas!!!

It's Always Something...

... and tonight it was vomit! Wrigley vomit that is. I was just hanging out in the living room talking with Chris and out of nowhere, Wrigley threw up. This was not just any, ordinary throw-up though. Oh no, this was black, tar-like, carpet-staining throw-up. It looks like someone poured a pint of oil on our carpet.

But, everything is ok. We were thinking that we would have to replace our carpet, but Stanley Steemer came to the rescue. They came over in a jiffy and got rid of the stain and cleaned the whole living room.

Wrigley is ok too. He went to the vet and got a complete check-up. They injected him with a shot that made him throw-up some more. He is back home (a little sad because of the rectal exam:)) and hanging in there.

So, 2 hours, $300, and an emergency vet visit later, we are right back where we started.

Life happens :)

Plenty of time to write a blog!

Well, we have plenty of time to blog right now and that is because we get two snow days (today and tomorrow)! There isn't much that is better than getting a phone call saying that you don't have to go to school!

It is snowing like crazy and has been since last night. We have shoveled the driveway 4 times! Luckily we have 2 shovels and it goes quicker when we both shovel.

Today was full of relaxing, shoveling, taking a walk in the snow and wishing for another snow day (wish granted). Tomorrow will include a trip to the gym, baking, making chicken noodle soup and getting ready for school on Friday (sigh).

Sorry to our family members in Craig (also teachers) who never get snow days; maybe someday :)

Here are some pictures of our snow day!

Dogs playing in the snow while we shovel







Chris shoveling the back porch



Happy Snow Day!

More updates

I am making a pledge to be more assertive about updating this blog. I guess once in a while is better than never... right? So here is my effort at capturing 4 months of life!

July 2009:
- We celebrated Lauren and Joe's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding up at Joe's family's cabin and the reception followed in Craig. There was a lot of celebrating with friends and a lot of dancing :)

Watching Fireworks up at Horsetooth Resevoir


At Lauren and Joe's wedding


Their Married!



- Trip to Hawaii: see below.

- Yard work: we used the summer to our advantage by creating a beautiful flagstone patio with a built in fireplace (Thank you to the Bensons for you help)!


August 2009:
- Getting ready for school. This is my (Ang) first year as a full time teacher... woo hoo!

Tucker and Wrigley - Wrigley is growing up!


September 2009:
- We celebrated my birthday and Labor Day by participating in Tour de Fat. It is a bike parade put on by New Belgium Brewery to promote riding bikes instead of driving. It is a fun, crazy event!

- Breakfeast tradition starts- we started a tradition of going out and/or cooking breakfeast every Sunday with friends

Tour de Fat


Note: This video is chopped off on the side in Blogger.
Click on the video screen to view full video on You Tube!




October 2009
- Winter park: We decided to head up to the mountains to check out the leaves. We enjoyed time with friends and a chance to get away. Thanks Jana and Jack for letting us stay in your BEAUTIFUL house!

- Merri's housewarming party in Severance. The highlight of this party was, of course, walking to Bruce's Bar and trying the famous Rocky Mountain Oytsers. They were a little too chewy for my liking... no thank you!

- Raking leaves- enough said

Winter Park Trip




Jack and Jana are sooooo good to us! Thank you!


There is a lot of life that happens in 4 months, but those are the updates. Hopefully we will be more loyal blog authors from now on.

Cheers and until next time...

Update

Hello world,
Once again, it has been a very long time since we've blogged. Part of me thinks that we should just give up and erase the blog. But, then I think that this is a great way to look back on our lives, so I might as well update with the big events. So, even if nobody reads this, we can look back in the years to come and think about the good ol' days.

So, even though it was three months ago, I'm going to blog about our trip to Hawaii. It was a very quick decision and we knew that we were leaving only a week before we were on a plane. We lucked out because Chris's aunt Jana and uncle Jack generously offered us their condo in Maui. And another great thing was that we flew very cheap with my dad's buddy passes. So, we invited our friends (the Bensons) and we hopped on a plane to Maui.

We had such a blast. We relaxed on the beach, went cliff jumping, drove the Road to Hana, snorkeled, hiked, swam with turtles, wondered through town and much more. It was such an adventure and we wouldn't trade it for anything. And an added plus was that we got to celebrate our 3rd anniversary on the beach.


Check Out This Extreme Video! :)


We had such a blast. We relaxed on the beach, went cliff jumping, drove the Road to Hana, snorkeled, hiked, swam with turtles, wondered through town and much more. It was such an adventure and we wouldn't trade it for anything. And an added plus was that we got to celebrate our 3rd anniversary on the beach. Here are a few pictures:

Anyone out there?

Does anyone read this anymore?

I'd rather be by the pool

Well, we just got home from Craig/Steamboat. We were up there to celebrate Lauren's upcoming marriage with a Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party. It is a BEAUTIFUL day, and we have not seen very many of these this summer. I asked Chris to go to the pool with me, but he opted out and is taking a nap instead. And, I don't want to go to the pool by myself because we usually sneak into our old condo complex's pool, and I am too scared to be an outlaw all by myself. So, instead of working on my bridesmaid's tan for my strapless dress, I'm inside. Maybe I will gather the courage and sneak in the pool by myself if Chris doesn't wake up soon. Then again, if I go by myself, there will be no one to put sunscreen on my back... this is quite the dilemma.

The trip to Craig was fun and jam packed. We got there at about 6 on Friday night and had dinner, visited and went to bed. Then we woke up, Chris went fishing with his dad and the girls prepared for the Bridal Shower. The Bridal Shower was a Margaritaville themed shin-dig (thanks to Janie and all of her hard work), complete with margaritas, coronas, cheesburgers in paradise and Jimmy Buffet CD's. It was a fun get-together and Lauren got some great gifts to feather her nest.
Then from there, some girls went up to Steamboat for the bacherlorette party. We stayed in Shannon's condo (a friend of the Bergmanns) and walked downtown. We started at the Rio (as every good party should) and then went to a new bar in Steamboat. At the bar we met a member of the band Rusted Root, which was cool. Then we went back up to the condo and played some games.

All in all, I think it was a fun, memeroable day for Lauren. We will be back up in Craig in a week and a half for the big wedding. Congrats Lauren!

Fish Tales

Summer has been great so far, even though the sun has been hiding!

Sadly, we are working. But we are still finding time to enjoy life. We have been camping, rafting, bbq'd with friends, gone to concerts, gone to festivals and visited family.

We also celebrated Chris's b-day with lots of good friends. We had a bbq with a lot of good food, good drink, good company and good fun.

Chris playing Baggo- Wrigley and Harvey are enjoying it too

BBQ with friends

The guys pretending to cook

Yes, Chris is getting older (a whopping 27 years on this earth), but who says old guys can't have fun? So, for his b-day, all of the families and I pitched in to get Chris a fly-fishing rod and all of the gear. We got him a gift card to Jax, and with the help of Jacob Benson, Chris made some purchases and is now ready to be a great fisherman.

This is the camping trip where Chris got a true taste for fly fishing- before he got his own gear

Camping up the Poudre

Happy as can be- seeing as how it was SNOWING during our camping trip- we did have a lot of fun, even though it was cold

Chris got to try out his new gear this weekend on the Roaring Fork in Glenwood Springs. We went up to visit family and enjoy the Strawberry Days Festival. We had a great time! We watched the parade, visited all the booths, ate gyros, bbq'd and went rafting. And while Chris didn't catch any fish, he is beginning to master the art of fly fishing!

Till next time,
Good night!

Neglect revisited

So, clearly we are not very good and updating our blog. Does anyone even read this anymore?

We started blogging around Thanksgiving break last year. This tells me that at the time, we were on vacation, and did not have stuff to do. Clearly, that is not the case anymore. We are busy people and blogging is not at the top of our priority list.

But alas, we are going to try and get better at blogging again. It is after all, summertime!

Let's see if we can stick to it!

Neglect...

Well, we have been neglecting our blog latley. I guess we are just too busy :) So, let's see if we can catch up since last time. Here is goes, in no particular order

- Chris shaved all of his hair off
- There are only 2 1/2 weeks left or school
- Ang's mom and Doug came to visit- went to New Belgium, made sushi and steak dinner, went shopping
- Chris's parents came to visit- Chris and Pete did a lot of yard work, Ang and Deb did a lot of shopping
- We repainted the wall- for a THIRD time, and we finally nailed the right color
- Ang accepted a full time job at Lesher- woo hoo income :)
- Wrigley is doing great and getting big
- Celebrated Easter with the Bensons
- Enjoying the spring and doing a lot of yard work
- Trying to decide on summer jobs: Ang is going to do grounds and Chris is deciding between 3 jobs... what to do, what to do???

Well, those are the big updates. We will try to be better about keeping our blog updated. Should be easier since summer is just around the corner.

Cheers,
Chris and Ang

Lessons from Catalina...

Here we are at the beginning of the week...again! We only have around 5 more Mondays until the end of school... how exciting!

It has been a few weeks since we returned from Catalina, but the lessons that we learned there are still with us. Perhaps the most important thing that we take from Catalina is a desire to protect our earth. As you read this blog (and I'm sure more like it to come), we know that you may not agree with everything we say. And, we think it is important to let our readers know that we are not tree-hugging hippies who think global warming will doom our planet.

What we do believe is that we (humans) are using our resources at an alarming rate, and if we don't stop, we will run out of these resources. What humans are doing to support their wasteful lifestyles is not a natural part of the Earth's delicate balance. The population of this earth is enormous, and we can't continue to deplete our resources.



An example of the crazy depletion of our resources is given by Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat. According to Friedman, if the next billion people that are born (which will happen in your lifetime) were given just 1 60-watt light bulb (yes just 1 light bulb) to burn for the rest of their lives, it would require us to build 20 more 500 megawatt coal burning plants. And that is just one light bulb. This doesn't even take into consideration things like: computers, washers and dryers, blow dryers, microwaves, TV's and everything else that we plug in.

Think how much of this junk could have been recycled

What is so hard to understand is why people are so stubborn when it comes to having a positive effect on our earth. Why don't people recycle? What is so hard about it? What is so hard about getting reusable bags? What is so hard about hanging your clothes to dry instead of drying them? What is so hard about buying a CFL light bulb? What is so hard about drinking tap water instead of buying bottled water?

I might like you better if you recycled :)

Not only are these things not difficult to do, but they actually help YOU too, not just our earth. CFL light bulbs save you money! Using reusable bags saves YOU money at the grocery store (10 cents per bag... do the math). Drinking tap water is better for you! Recycling costs nothing.

If this guy can recycle... so can you!

People have gotten so used to their way of life, that it is hard for them to change. It is time to stop being lazy, and to start making decisions that give us a better quality of life.

By no means are we perfect regarding this. We still use our appliances. We still drive our cars, and more. But, we are still learning, and we are willing to try! We hope you'll do the same.

So, as you read our blogs, please note that we may every once in a while post a blog about this subject matter. That is because we think it is important. We would love input and open minds!

Don't blow it; good planets are hard to find- Time Magazine

It's a good thing our house has A LOT of tile!

Hello everyone! Isn't it great that we are blogging at 11:45 a.m. on a Friday? Where should we be? Yes, that is right, we should be at school. Fortunately for us, we had a March blizzard and they called off school early yesterday. Then at about 11:00 last night, we were informed that there was no school today... woo hoo!!!!!! We love snow days!

To be perfectly honest, it is a beautiful day, and we really should be at school, because so much snow has melted already, and it wouldn't have been that hard to get to school. But, we are not complaining about the fact that we get to hang out, go to lunch together and get some projects done.

So, you are probably asking yourself WHY it is a good thing that our house has a lot of tile. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here it is:

Wrigley in the blizzard

Tucker in the blizzard- not quite as "velcroish"

Wrigley loves the snow, but he has a tendency to bring the snow in with him. We have nicknamed him "Velcro," because everything sticks to his fur. And therefore, it is a good thing that most of what he drags in ends up on the tile, rather than on carpet.

Look at all that snow! (Note that picture is taken from inside the glass).

Our snow days have been pretty lazy. Yesterday we watched a lot of news, and we shoveled the walk (by we I mean Chris shoveled and I took pictures from inside), and did some school work. Today, we slept in, picked up house and ran some errands.

The dogs helping Chris shovel

We are debating whether to start painting our orange wall. Right now, the orange wall is quite shiny and bright. We want to tone it down a notch, so that it is not quite at intense. We are also considering finishing the project that we started last week of putting in a dog door. We ran into some glitches with that project, so we may start it up again. Who knows... we'll see.

Welp, that is what our snow days look like so far! I'm sorry for those of you who were not lucky enough to get a snow day... that is sad!

Cheers!

Catalina Video

Hi Folks!

Happy Wednesday, Hump day, hoping for a big blizzard that gives us a snow day day!

Chris made this video for a presentation that he gave today, so we thought we would share it with all of you! The song fits the video really well, and was written by Chris's friend Tyler Ward. The video gives you a quick glimpse of what our trip was like!

Keep on keeping on! Oh, and keep on praying for SNOW! Woo hoo snow day!

Back from Catalina

Well, we are back from Catalina Island and back to work. We had a great time on the island, and now we have summer fever! Only one more quarter left until summer vacation... woo hoo!

2009 Kinard CARES Catalina Crew on the ferry

Here is a quick recap of our trip to Catalina:

We left on Friday morning, bright and early (actually so early that it was still dark... we were up at 4:00 am). We flew out of DIA to LAX and stayed at a great hostel in San Pedro. We got to walk along the coast, had a great lunch and greeted California with open arms.

Our view from the hostel in San Pedro

We left San Pedro via ferry, and headed to the island. We then gathered onto shore boats (which broke down in the middle of the ocean, so we had to switch to a different one), and arrived shortly at camp. Only 1 seasick kiddo... someone's gotta feed the fish :)

Composting... no waste in nature!

We made it to the top... look at that view!

The crew learning about world population and resources with solar baked cookies!

Camp was awesome! We were busy from 7:00 am to 9:00pm. Our activities included:

- Hiking (beautiful)
- A day snorkel (freezing... 55 degrees)
- Ocean kayaking
- Composting and gardening
- Night sky and night hike (starts are beautiful on the island)
- Night snorkel (an amazing experience)
- Service work (the kids transformed a garden/mound)
- Sports
- Sang around a camp fire
- Getting up early for sunrises
- High ropes course
- Much more

The final outcome of the crew's service project

We had a great time. Two Harbors (where Catalina Environmental Leadership Camp is located) is one of our favorite places! It is so inspiring, a great experience and as usual, we learned so much.

What a way to end the trip!

Welcome home to us! We hope that everyone had a great Spring Break.