Atomic Weekend

Justin and I had another great week and another great vacation up to Idaho. Last weekend was the annual Atomic Days celebrated in Arco for being the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power. As my family grows continually larger it gets harder to get together. In the past five years or so we've agreed to get together for my dad's birthday, but this year we met for Atomic Days instead. It was especially great to hang out with my brother Chase and his wife Rachel. They live in Oklahoma and they'll be all over the country for school for the next couple of years so it was great to get together with them since it probably won't happen again until next year! Justin and I flew into Boise because that flight was cheaper than a flight to Idaho Falls and my gracious sister Mitzi took us in that night and woke up super early Friday morning to book it over to Arco (three hour drive). Her kids are champion travelers. Friday was a lot of hanging around my parent's house visiting, dipping in Gabe's inflatable pool, watching all my nieces and nephews play, and eating! That night my brother Hart set up the projector screen and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I've seen parts of it before but it was really funny watching it with my family.

teaching the family how to play "Bang!"

Gabe's kids and Mitzi's kids

pool time!

front yard movie

Granny and her wagon!

Saturday morning Keaton, my niece Hailey, and I woke up early to participate in the annual Atomic Days Fun Run. I trained a little bit for two weeks before the race and ended up getting first of my age group (don't worry, there were only like four people in my age group). Keaton got 2nd in his age group and Hailey also got 2nd in her age group so we all earned medals. Woot! Prizes are always raffled off at this event and Keaton won THE grand prize of $250 worth of propane (only in Idaho...) which my dad will gladly use. I won a water bottle and Hailey won a gift card for free food at a local burger joint. It was a successful morning! I also enjoyed seeing old teachers and friends downtown.

After cleaning up back at the house we all headed back into town for the parade. It was fun to watch all the kids fill their bags with candy. We saw some old high school friends there which was fun. We had a simple lunch and headed to the Mackay Dam to break up the day with a dip in the reservoir. It was fun driving up and back with Chase, Rachel, and Keaton. After our swimming excursion Justin and I headed back into town to pick up a birthday cake I ordered for my sister and her daughter. Trisha had a birthday on the 16th and it was Shae's birthday that day. We don't do a lot of surprises in our family so I was happy to try to make it a special day for them. After dinner we had a fire with s'mores and ice cream cones. Gathering around the fire are by far my favorite Beal tradition. I'm so happy to sit back and laugh at all the stories that are told. It's the best! I stayed up with my brothers and my dad until 1:30 before calling it a night.

At the "beach"

After his race, Keaton decided to clean off in the pool rather than the shower...farm boys...

Parade ready!

Mackay Dam

Sunday Mitzi was - yet again - a super trooper. She woke up at 5:00 with Justin and I to load the van and be on the road by 6:00. Her kids were troopers as well. We had a great ride home - those three hours FLEW by and we caught our plane with plenty of time to spare. We are so grateful to her for making that trip possible! It was certainly a fast two days: I really hope I can make it to Redfish for camping with the Beals in August. Two days just wasn't enough time.

Yesterday Justin and I played for our summer ultimate league. Our team was missing three of our better players but we ended the night winning both our games. We FINALLY beat the team we've lost to every game up to this point and we beat them 11-5 so it was an awesome night of ultimate. I had a huge catch in the end zone but slammed my knee coming down. Luckily there was no twisting for a more serious injury. Earlier I went in to the district office and signed all my paperwork for hire and my contract. It's official: Say hello to the newest teacher in the Clark County school district! I'll be teaching 7th and 8th grade earth-and-physical science at Schofield: the school I student taught at! It could not have worked out better for me. This is a dream come true and I am hoping they bring me on to the girls basketball coaching staff! I start work in August so I have a few weeks of freedom left. I really wish I could get into the classroom I'll be teaching in to set things up the way I won't be able to get in the school until August at the earliest so...that's what's going on with my teaching scene. That's all our news for now.

4th of July

For our 4th of July this year we had the opportunity to be pyrotechnicians in the Boise firework show! Apparently last year the company that did the firework show lit some trees on fire, so they have a new contract with Western Fireworks: the company we worked for. Justin's uncle works as a certified firework person so that's how we have an in with them. Unfortunately, Justin's uncle was doing a different firework show in Portland so we didn't get to see him, but Keaton joined us and we had a lot of fun! 

Our flight left Wednesday from Las Vegas at about 5:30. The company paid and arranged our flights, so we had no control over the three hour layover in Salt Lake. Lame! Funny, though: Justin had trouble with security both in Las Vegas AND in Salt Lake. In Salt Lake they found my water bottle full of water (we had filled it in the Vegas airport after security) so he had to walk back to the other side of security, dump it out, and go through again. Ha! I took pictures, naturally:

Mitzi graciously let us crash at her home that night when we pulled in around 1:30. We rented a car and we had a Trains, Planes, and Automobiles moment when we were told our car was in L37 spot and L37 upon arrival L37 was empty...but when I hit the unlock key a car's lights flashed a few rows down so we weren't stranded. Thursday morning we thought we'd have work to do but when we got to the park there was nothing to do so we hung out with Mitzi until she and her family took off for Utah. I got to hang with Corbin, Gabby, and Piper: we picked raspberries and played with chalk. After Mitzi left we hung out the rest of the afternoon and waited for Keaton to get into town. We went to The Village, returned our rental car, and then met Keaton for dinner back at The Village. The fountains and lights there are really beautiful. 

Soaking in the glory of an Idaho sunset: blue skies, green grass and trees...heaven!

Fountains at The Village

Picking raspberries

Burgers and shakes with Keaton

These kids were so much fun!

Friday we met at Ann Morrison park to set up fireworks. Our lead pyrotec was impressed with our work ethic. He kept saying things like, "You're done with that already?" Ha! We were able to load and wire all fireworks in just a few hours. They paid for our lunch and we hit Chick-fil-A. It was amazing! Keaton got a peach milkshake that was out of this world. We all took naps and watched a movie that afternoon before it was time to head back to the launch site for the show. It was fun driving through the park when nobody else was allowed to and to go through security. I bet all the people were like, "Why do they get to go through?" Sucka! We tossed the frisbee around waiting for 10:15. The firework show was 20 minutes and it was AMAZING! We LOVE being that close to the fireworks! Some of the shrapnel was falling on us at one point. We were smart and brought ear plugs this time. Clean up was WAY BETTER THAN LAST YEAR! Oh my word...last  year was a nightmare. This year we cleaned up in an hour and a half with not dust like last year. In a lot of ways it was a lot better than our previous experience: smaller crew, better lunch, easy clean up...it was great!

Excellent Mammatus Clouds over Boise

Our flight didn't leave until Sunday so we had all day Saturday to hang out with family. Hart and Mitzi were out of town, but when we called Gabe he invited us to hang out with him and his in-laws in Garden Valley. We accepted! We drove up for lunch and then floated the river. Justin and I were diligent about sunscreen except Justin missed one random spot on his arm and it is acutally a seond-degree burn! It makes me cringe looking at it...poor guy. We had homemade Cafe Rio for dinner and a birthday celebration for the July birthdays in the family: Grace, Brigitte, and Tyler. We stayed for cupcakes and then took off for Boise once more. We watched Spider Man 2 that night at the cheap theater at Keaton's suggestion and then had Sonic half-off shakes afterward. It was a successful day!! We loved it so much. 

Sunday Keaton drove us to the airport and then made his way back home. We got home in time to go to church...blarg. Ha I'm only somewhat kidding...we loved our little stay in Idaho. The air is so clean and fresh! The water doesn't taste like sewer! There are no cockroaches! And the spiders and reasonably sized! (I killed a spider today that was HUGE...the biggest I've ever seen and it took all the courage I could muster to kill it...I may have hyperventalated a bit). We are looking forward to Atomic Days at my parent's house next week where we'll see the entire Beal clan!

In other news: my brother-in-law James got engaged to his girlfriend Bonnie. They are planning a September wedding in the Twin Falls temple...sound familiar? ;) Ha! They won't make the mistake of changing their temple location twice, I'm sure . Thank you family for rolling with all those punches nearly two years ago! We didn't know what we were doing. Thankfully my sister did because we had the cutest reception EVA! I watch our wedding video all the time and relish in its cuteness. So we are looking forward to yet ANOTHER Idaho trip for our anniversary/brother's wedding in September!

This week it's been raining almost every day and it's been heavenly! Monsoon season doesn't normally start until August but I'm fine with it coming early. It got down to 82 degrees the other day! We were in heaven! I've been running a little this week to try to get ready for the fun run next week: it's pretty pathetic. I'm going to get smoked by all my nieces and nephews! Justin had a job interview earlier this week and he has a second interview next week. We don't know how we feel about it yet; we're just exploring our options. I got an official offer to teach at Schofield (with a salary and everything!) for 7th and 8th grade science. I accepted and I'll be signing my contract in the near future. That's all our news for now. We'll keep you posted as to what we decide to do with everything. See you all next week!