We’ll be flying to PA on Thursday so I thought I’d do a Thankful Tuesday instead.

Today, I’m thankful for 6 glorious years with this guy:

We celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on Saturday and had a really awesome, kid-free night.  Shaun’s cycling buddies had given us a very generous gift certificate to Chandlers Steakhouse A YEAR AGO and we just used it for this dinner.  It was amazing and a once in a lifetime dinner-we can’t afford that ourselves! Especially with my new gig! We even ordered a bottle of Prosecco!

If you would have told me that day 6 years ago  in Jamaica that I would love this man more today than I did that day, I would have told you that you were crazy.

If you would have told me 2 and 3/4 years ago that I would love my husband more today than I did that day, I would have told you that you were crazy.

Guess what?  I love my husband more and more every day.  Sure we don’t always agree but I know, without a doubt, that he has my back and that he loves me no matter what.  He is amazing and WE are amazing.  Here’s to another 60!

(I toasted to 60 more years on Saturday and he laughed.  I (jokingly) told him that I was going to divorce him when I was 90-yeah right!)

Our 6 year anniversary also marked our 1 year moving to Boise anniversary!  Wow, what an amazing and life changing year!

Monday-Beef Kofta, Tofu Kofta, Grilled Broccoli, Rice, Watermelon
Tuesday-Local Ham Steaks, Grilled Tofu, Stir Fry veggies from the garden, rice
Wednesday-Leftovers
Thursday and beyond-VACATION!

The courage I was talking about yesterday? Well I got the courage to make a HUGE life change back in April and I FINALLY get to tell you about it .

I got to send this email out at work:

Hi all,

I wanted to let everyone know that after 7+ really wonderful years on the design team that my last day at Microsoft Tellme will be July 19^th.  I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to teach at Challenger School, where Lucy will be attending this fall. 

As a little background, all throughout college I had plans to be a special education teacher but took a much needed break after graduation.  When I applied at Tellme, I also applied at a private school in the D.C. area but Tellme snatched me up first. I am very excited to be getting back to my roots and to get to go to school with Lucy every day!  Thankfully, I will NOT be teaching her class but instead a class of pre-K kiddos-no need to worry about standardized tests-thank you very much!

While I’ll miss you all terribly and can’t think of a better team of people to work with, I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life.

Thanks,

Chelsea

I’m going to chase my dreams and be a teacher!!!!  I can’t tell you how excited I am.  As part of the interview process I had to teach a group of 15 4 year olds about the short vowel rule: When there is one vowel in a word or syllable, it is usually short.  When there are 2 or more vowels in a word or syllable, the vowel is long.  Well that was old hat for these Challenger 4 year olds BUT the experience was so incredibly amazing and just felt so right.  I’ll be teaching 4 year olds and we’ll have phonics, math, science, and “imagination play” everyday. Most of the kids I teach will already know how to read and do simple math when they get to me!  I really believe in Challenger and their methods.  I actually had Lucy signed up to start there in the fall before I had even thought of applying to work there.

It’s going to be a huge shift for me but one that I am incredibly excited about!!!

Today I’m thankful for courage to do what my heart tells me is right.

More on this tomorrow

Monday-Dinner at my sister’s
Tuesday-Salmon Tacos
Wednesday-BBQ Chicken, Tofu, rice, veggies
Thursday-Leftovers
Friday-Homemade Pizza Night
Saturday-Anniversary Dinner
Sunday-Friend Dinner

I’m thankful for this:

(That is not a double stroller-ha!)

(Lucy decided that clothes were overrated when we met up with Josh and Parish)

WONDERFUL FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!

For a few days on our trip we stayed with my brother Jake and his wife Amy.  They live in Studio City in the hills above LA and have a really awesome house that I love.  My budding photographer came out and I took some really great shots. These are all straight out of the camera and have had no editing done to them.

I want to frame this picture for my bathroom or something:

Requisite Lucy pictures:

I love all the details in their house:

(I’m so mad this didn’t turn out):

Super Why!

DOF!

And later that day, after meeting Lynn, I snapped this picture out of the sunroof just for fun!

That’s the Hollywood sign

Monday: Grilled Lamb Kabobs (for Shaun and Lu), Roasted Garbanzos (for me), Rice, Okra

Tuesday: Roasted Chicken (S & L), BBQ Tofu (for me), Roasted Potatoes, Kale Chips, and Green Beans

Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Pizza (S & L), GF Veggie Pizza (for me)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Camping!

Today I’m thankful for BIRTHDAYS!  I love, love, love birthdays.  Every birthday should be celebrated and I love helping people celebrate theirs.  One of the reasons we went to visit my ‘rents was because it was my Mom’s birthday and she wanted to go to Disneyland.  Go to Disneyland we did!

We started on my Mom’s favorite ride, the Carousel!

I hate that this one is blurry

Cousin Luke got in on the action too.  As did Mimi (my Mom) but all of my pictures of her did not turn out.

Next up was Dumbo!

Lu waiting to get on (one of my favorite pictures from the trip):

Luke and Papa were behind us:

Lu loved it!

Next up was my Mom’s other favorite ride “Small World”.  My Mom and Lu putting a penny in the water:

Then we went to Toontown to meet Mickey and Minnie!

I will spare you the pictures of Minnie since Lu got sunscreen in her eyes moments before meeting her and was in tears

Lu also REALLY wanted to drive a car!

Then it was the train all the way around the park!

Last was the Jungle Cruise but I didn’t get any pictures of that unfortunately.

Before leaving the park, Lu got a balloon, ears, and ice cream! She was a happy girl!

And TIRED girl!

Luke had a blast too.  He and Papa went on some of the more age appropriate rides and then when Papa needed a rest, his Mom (Aunt Sheri) went on others.  He had quite the day and got to do basically all he wanted to do.  Something that the youngest of 3 boys doesn’t get to do very often!

Luke and Sheri:

Mimi, Luke, and Papa:

I think Lucy has had it:

Love this picture though:

These too:

It was a blast!  Happy birthday Mom/Mimi!

The weekend before Lucy and I left for California we went on our first Idaho camping trip.  We went about 67 miles away but it took a good 3 hours to get there because 50 miles of that looked like this:

Dirt road!!!

On the way up we saw a heard of deer!

Shaun thinks that big one is an elk.  I have no clue.

Our camp site was right by the river and incredibly remote.  We saw 4 other cars on the main road all weekend!

On Saturday we went on a beautiful hike.  I was 100% sure that I would die on the drive to get to the hike but thankfully we didn’t.  That road was scary!!!

I did get some beautiful pictures of flowers!

There was still a lot of snow!

The river was the focal point of our trip!

Doesn’t Lucy look jazzed?!?!?!  (she had just woken up from a nap)

The whole family

Sawtooth hiking!

Awesome sights!

River crossings!

Our destination was a big, beautiful meadow.

Lucy loves camping!

Mommy loves camp cooking-cobbler!!!

Men playing dominoes.  Aren’t they manly?

Lucy and one of her favorites-Miss Sarah!

Lucy got over her fear of dogs this trip (there were 5!).  It was great.  Here she is hand feeding Mateo:

Her first s’more!

It was an awesome trip!  Numerous times while we were in CA, Lu asked to go camping-she loved it.  We’re off for another one in a few weeks!!!

Tomorrow? Disneyland!