Adventures at Eel Lake

Nick had conferences last week, so I only worked in the mornings due to half-days all week.  Nick carpools with a coworker, but Thursday his conferences ended much earlier than hers did, so I picked him up.  I took the dogs with me so we could play frisbee on the fields at our school.  Some of Nick's students were on the playground while their parents were in conferences.   They came down to the field to play with our dogs.  Fun was had by all!

After we were done playing frisbee, we decided to do some exploring.  We stopped at this little convenience store down the road called the Wagon Wheel.  Nick discovered that they have amazing Beer Dogs for only 99 cents.  He was in heaven!  With a delicious Beer Dog in his tummy, Nick suggested we take the dogs up to Eel Lake.  It was only a few miles north on the highway.  We have kayaked it a couple of times, but wanted to explore the hiking trail.  So, we did!

We didn't hike the entire trail because we were running out of daylight, but we did about 3 miles round trip.  It was a beautiful little hike.  The dogs found an exposed wasp nest along the trail and both dogs were stung a couple of times.  I carry Benadryl with me after Eliot's last encounter with bees.  Both dogs were just fine.

The trail is also open to mountain bikes, so Nick wants to build me one.  The trails were wide and would be good for the first time mountain biker, like myself.  Here are some pictures from our adventure:

 Eel Lake is behind us.

 Nick decided to build us a survival shelter.  I'm not sure the four of us would fit.  Luckily we didn't need it.

 Since the dogs didn't need their leashes, Nick adopted Sticky and is walking her on Eliot's leash.

 Eliot was so happy!

 Nick and Eliot looking at the lake.

 My boys on the trail.

Stevie.

Sticky is on the blue leash.  We then adopted Branchie and she is on the black leash.

After we got back to the park, Nick decided to play with the dogs on the slides.

We had a blast exploring Eel Lake!  We plan to go back again soon to hike the rest of the trail.  

Cheers!

Ashley, Nick, Steve, and Eliot

Weekend Adventures at Bastendorff Beach

We had a beautiful fall weekend on the Coast.  It was sunny and warm, so we took advantage of the amazing weather and took the puppies to the beach.  We went here (Bastendorff Beach):

Nick and Eliot played so much frisbee!

Eliot was EXHAUSTED!  He had to cool off in a nice, calm tide pool.

Unfortunately, he also drank a lot of saltwater...it made him sick when we got home.

We learned two things on this fun family adventure:

1. Steve CAN swim! (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him actually swimming.  The following was right after he climbed out)

2. Eliot will chase a frisbee into water, but he will not put his head under the water to get it.

No amount of coaxing could get him to retrieve his favorite frisbee...

So Nick had to rescue it for him.

Thank you for reading about our adventures!  Stay tuned for more family adventures!

Cheers!

Ashley, Nick, Steve, & Eliot

Not-so-Unemployed Anymore...

So, I guess I'm no longer unemployed, but I don't have a full-time teaching job.  I am working at Nick's school as a teacher's assistant.  It has been really fun and made me realize how much I miss teaching.  I was so close to giving up on the profession and going back to grad. school.  I even had a program picked out and was getting ready to fill out the application.  This job came at just the right moment.  It made me realize that I wasn't frustrated with the profession, it was my school (not the students) and my district.   The politics and lack of respect was making me sick and depressed.  My new school is so different.  I feel appreciated and valued.  There is freedom from curriculum and they trust their teachers.  This week they asked me to substitute for our 4th grade teacher and it has been fantastic!  Some things came up, so I don't know how long I'll be teaching 4th grade, but I hope it's for a while.  The students are amazing!  I really enjoy being back in the classroom.  I hope that I can get a full-time position here in the next year or two.  It is nice being able to drive to work with Nick in the morning and teach in the classroom next door to him.  Things are definitely starting to look up!