Ahhh Science!

Earlier this month, students at Dave's elementary school completed a hot air balloon science project. Groups of students worked together to design and build tissue paper hot air balloons, which were then launched using hot air generated from an old wood burning stove. I can't believe how cool they turned out!

A few days later Dave was a chaperone on the students' field trip to the Gallup Hot Air Balloon Festival. It sounds like the kids had a blast (and so did Dave).

Happy Birthday!

Happy 39th Birthday to my Handsome Husband!!!

(ok - so, i'm 15 minutes late)

October, Where did you go part 2!

I know, it is now December, and I am just finishing posts for October.

The "Moab Other Half" 1/2 marathon was October 17th. My brother-in-law (Chris), my co-worker (Terry), my friend (Melissa) and I all ran the race. It was a really really neat race with breathtaking scenery and a fun crowd of racers. (Thanks to Terry for the pics of the race)

(Me and Chris - before the race)

(The back of me! About 4 miles in...)

(along the race course)

I did better than expected given that I was pretty lax on my training for the month between Imogene and "The Other Half". I finished in 1:44:09 and was 6th in my age group (out of 203 females) and 144th overall (out of 1558 racers)!!!!! It was enough to make me wonder what I could do if I trained seriously! It was especially fun having family and friends participate with me :o) I'm hoping I can twist Chris' arm to do more races with me in the coming years.

We stayed in a cabin on top of cougar canyon, about 40 minutes outside of Moab. It was completely solar and wind powered, with hauled water and had an incinerating toilet! It was sweet!

The weekend following the race, Chinle hosted it's first (hopefully annual) Tseyi Triathlon. Patricia dedicated many hours to organizing the event. It was a great success! Dave and I volunteered the day of the event and had a blast. I was very glad to be a volunteer for a change instead of a race participant! It was cool to see so many community members excited about the event. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share :o(

After 3 years of pestering, Michelle and Emily came to Tsaile for a visit. Both of them were content with staying local for a few days instead of driving all over the Rez to sightsee.

Instead we checked out slick rock, White House Trail, Tsaile Lake, Dine College and Roof Butte.

We also took a tour at Acoma Pueblo before sending the ladies off on their way back to Pennsylvania.

The time flew by and as usual, at the end of the visit I felt as though we could spend so many more days catching up.