Playing Catch Up

Life has been a little crazy recently.  I am loving my new job teaching kindergarten at Freedom Elementary, but being at a new school definitely throws things off a little bit.  There are so many things to learn and figure out.  I think I'm finally about caught up with all the things I need to do so hopefully things will be slowing down a little bit.  Here's summer 2013 for ya.

Anyway, blogging has definitely been one of those things that I kept thinking "I'd get to tomorrow" but it never really happened.  Today it's happening so get ready for the updates.


Cabin Trip... Round 2!

Matt and I love going to his family cabin.  He calls it the happiest place in the world and I don't think I'm quite to that level of devotion yet, but I do really love going there.  Tensleep Wyoming is so pretty and I love taking time away from all the craziness to be in the mountains.  This time around we got to be up there with Matt's parents, his brother Mark's family, his cousin and her husband, and the lovely Sara.  We ended up doing a lot of work on the ditch that brings water to their horse pasture, but we also played hard and ate waaaay too much.  I'm already excited for the next time we get to go.  I just really hope Dirty Sally's isn't closed because I could definitely cry.  Maybe a new manager wouldn't be too bad though because I swear that guy's chest hair gets in my ice cream every time... gross.

Welcome to the cabin.  Take off your shoes and stay a while.  Isn't it gorgeous!  Great picture, Megan.  Thanks for letting me have them!

Matt & Mark comparing neck beards.  Oh brother..s

Corn hole is one of my new favorite things.  I especially love the John Deere sign.  I feel a little proud of it because Matt and I designed it and cut it out on my Silhouette and then we all helped paint it.  

My first bite of a donut burger... and possibly my last but it was surprisingly tasty.  Think greasy goodness with bacon.  

Matt's great at photo-bombing haha.  I hope Mark & Megan aren't too mad though because this would've been a great shot of their little family.

Yep, that's my man in coveralls.  Sometimes I get the impression that he really thinks he belongs in Wyoming.

Splash Pad!

Take care, Wyoming.  We will miss you.
PS- Pictures are by Meg at snaphappymom.com


Lake Tahoe with the Schmidt Clan
The Schmidt vacation this year was set at Lake Tahoe, but Matt and I got really lucky because unlike the majority of our family, we got to fly to California (thanks Mom & Dad!).  It was great because we flew into Oakland and then got to hang out in San Jose for a couple days with my brother Nate, his wife Elisabeth, and their little girl Elena who I absolutely love :).  We went to a crazy butcher shop/sandwich shop that serves a sandwich called the tripple bypass.  Yeah.. pretty crazy.  Matt was in HEAVEN though... he still talks about that sandwich shop all the time.  Anyway, we went there and then we also went to "the artichoke capital of the world", a fun beach, and a really yummy ice cream shop.  OH AND THEN we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory.  I was in heaven :)

  After we hung out with Nate's fam we drove up to Lake Tahoe where all twenty-eight of us stayed in a huge log cabin and basically partied all the time, which was great but of course exhausting.  The main event was the Tough Mudder that my brothers and dad ran in.  All the crazy Schmidt boys cut NASTY facial hair and ran this crazy hard race where they signed their lives away so they could run up a mountain, jump into below freezing water, and get shocked by electrical wires.  Of course there were some cool obstacles too, but that is definitely not my kind of race.  It was great though.  We played all week at the lake and even got to go to "Kearn's Castle" one morning.  My dad has a very wealthy business partner (Kearn) who invited all of the adults over.  We had a great breakfast which was made by his personal chef and then we got to play on all of his toys for a while (boat, jet skis, SWEET blow up trampoline thing, and paddle boards).  It was AWESOME but Matt quickly helped me understand that we are never going to be able to live like that haha.  Too bad... I really wanted an indoor spa, a cleaning crew, and a house with beach front property.  Ok no, but it was nice for a few hours!

TOUGH MUDDER

Tough Mudder boys before the race... with NASTY facial hair and haircuts might I add.

During the Tough Mudder.  Ouch!!!!

And finally... after the crazies were done

KEARN'S CASTLE

Love all of these men

And these girls of course

HIKING

The whole clan

Tough Schmidts

The originals. 

Wish Sarah could've been here.

Finally, as we were traveling back, we got to go to my brother Matt's baby girl's blessing.  She is such a cute little girl.  We love baby Regan.

Coronado 

We ended up having a pretty busy summer because we also got to go to one of my favorite destinations in the world: Coronado, CA!  My family has been going to Coronado every August since I can remember so it truly is one of my favorite places in the world.  This year we got to spend time with my parents, Tim and Brittany's family, and my brother Dave.  It was fun to be up there with just a "few" people this time around, but I missed the rest of the crazy Schmidt clan too.  We did a lot of the normal activities like the bike ride around the island, swimming at the beach, eating at the one and only Miguel's, and taking a little trip to Moo Time for ice cream, but we branched out a little bit too which was great.  We tried out "The Burger Lounge" and let me tell you... it was amazing!  Just thinking about it now is making me super hungry.  I don't know what it was, but seriously, if you're ever in southern CA you should check it out.

Sweet dolphin we made... mostly Tim

Matt never wants to get out of the water.  I swear, we all go out for a good chunk of time and then he's out there by himself for a good hour.  What a cutie.

Matt was soo proud of his creation so I decided everyone on the blog should see it haha.

Well, goodbye Summer.  Hope to see you again soon.  

<3 a true AZ girl.