Health 101

  This semester I've often been left feeling quite overwhelmed. It's weird to think that in just 2 short weeks I will be out at Spring Creek Elementary teaching cute little 1st graders. Weird... and scary. Classes are trying their best to prepare us with every detail of lesson planning, how to's, and everything you need to know to teach...in just a month in a half. Needless to say its a lot in a little time. However, I would like to say something about my health class.
   My teacher is Cougar Hall. Funny right? He claims it has nothing to do with BYU though. The first day of class we walked in and he told us he'd try to memorize our names, but that before that, we'd all be "girlfriend",  or "sister". Of course he said he didn't mean anything by this because his wife is his favorite and she is "Sister Hottypants" :).
  Mr. Hall's goal for the class is to help us see how to implement health in a REALISTIC way. He teaches us to teach the functional knowledge that kids need to know. (For instance - do 1st graders really need to know that smoking kills? NO, then they're going to go home thinking their mom is going to die because she smokes. Also, do 10th graders really need to learn the food pyramid for the 8th time? As he stated what are they going to do with it? Flip it, twist it? Teach them how to implement it! )  Most teachers in the elementary level do not implement health because they feel they don't have the time. He teaches us how to implement health with simple ideas like having the kids get up and stretch for 30 seconds, giving a 10 minute lesson every Friday, etc.
  The most important thing he does though is that he teaches us not just about health, not just about teaching, but about life. I have learned so many valuable lessons from him. He takes the time to tell stories about his experiences and teaches us what we can learn from them. Some of my favorite things he's said are :
  "Don't focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can do"
  "You don't need to be THE best, you need to be YOUR best."
Last week, we talked about how sometimes we can't make everything right for students, and we need to give them a new perspective instead. Helping them gain resiliance and a new perspective helps them do that. If you've never seen Boundin from Pixar, you should watch it. It's a great clip we watched in class. We also talked about a boy named  Patrick Henry Hughes who sees his disabilities as abilities, and his teacher who told him what needed to happen and then made it happen.
  So here's a shout out to Mr. Hall, for not only teaching me how to teach health, but way more than that, teaching me the important lessons of life. Thank you!

Knoebels!

Another thing we ended up getting to do as a family was go to Knoebels Amusement Park. We used to go every year when I was little because my dad's work had a day there. I haven't been back though since I was 12 or so. So we decided that if we could go somewhere this summer it would be to Knoebels. We had a lot of fun. Here are my favorite pictures of the day! 

This is where Scott is telling me "I'm a better driver than Emily!" The truth actually though is that Scott caused a 4 boat pile up by swerving back and forth :)

Emily and I on the sky ride 

a great picture of Dad, Mom, and Scott after the skloosh ride

another great one of Scott's excitement after the flume 

Bushkill Falls!

This past weekend my family decided to do something fun for the summer. My dad has been getting flyers from all across Pennsylvania about things to do. We talked about all different options but we decided on going to Bushkill Falls. It's this beautiful trail in the Poconos in Pennsylvania that takes you to see 8 different waterfalls. It took us about 2 hours to drive up there because of 4th of July traffic but it was worth it once we made it. We chose the longest path- the red trail, which allowed us to see all 8 waterfalls. It was really beautiful. The trail had a stream next to it almost the entire time, with beautiful wood bridges and a canopy of trees overhead. In the end it took us 3 hours to hike the whole way but it didn't seem that long at all. It was so pretty and the waterfalls were amazing. At the end of the hike, we even saw a live monkey! This guy was just sitting there and had a pet monkey. He told us we could pet it and so we did. Here are just a few pictures from the hike! 

Ashley's Wedding!

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to attend my good friend Ashley's wedding. Ashley and I met on the first day of 6th grade and were best friends all through middle school. I spent a lot of time at her house eating pancakes with peanut butter, maple syrup and applesauce, playing life, watching movies, and spending time with her family. I have a lot of good memories from time spent with her.

I am really glad I was able to go to the wedding. The ceremony was really sweet and Ashley looked so beautiful. The reception was really nice. I loved the decorations. Of course they had Ashley throw her bouquet, and I stood in the back row not expecting or really trying to catch it.  Then of course what happened was the bouquet ended up about landing in my hands. I caught it! I thought it was pretty funny and sat down. They threw the garter and someone I didn't know caught it. What I didn't know would happen was that they would have me sit in a chair and have the total stranger who caught the garter reenact the scenario, by placing the garter up my leg. Can you say embarrassing? But I'm still here so I survived :) Now I can laugh about it.  It was pretty great day. I'm so glad I could be there for my friend on her special day!

Pictures from Mark's Half Marathon

I know I previously posted about Mark's half marathon when it occurred. I wanted to post some pictures of the event though. These were all taken by Emily. Enjoy!

Mark at the end of the race, receiving his trophy.
He placed third in his age group.

Mark at the very end of the race. 

Mark at the beginning of the race.

Here's Mark after the race with his medal. 

Mark with his trophy!

Mark before the race, ready to go.

Mark at the finish line.

Close up of Mark after the race.

close up of Mark's medal he received

Trip to Bellefonte!

After Mark's half-marathon, we were only an hour from Bellefonte, PA so we decided to continue on. This is where we lived for 9 years and I grew up there. We haven't been back all together as a family since we moved. We left 7 years ago. We only stayed Saturday night and Sunday but it was so nice to see everything and everyone. We were able to go look at our old neighborhood, see some neighbors, visit the park and the penny candy store, go to our old ward at church, and see a lot of people. I'm really glad we got to go.  Here's a video of us driving into town. Sorry its upside down. 

The exit into Bellefonte.

My old house!

Mark's Half Marathon

This last Saturday was Mark's half marathon. He was so excited and has been training all year. He started out at 5 miles or so a day and worked up to running 13 on the weekends. Mark has been in cross-country for years, but the past couple of years he has been running all the time to get faster and better. The half-marathon was in Danville, PA, about 2 hours from our home. We traveled there and then walked to the start line with Mark. While we were waiting, there was a festival going on and so we walked the festival. Then we came back and watched Mark come in at the finish line. Here's a video I took of him finishing. Sorry it's sideways, I don't know how to fix it.

Here's a video of all of us with Mark after he came in from the race. We are all so proud of him. Mark ended up with a time of 1:48 and came in 3rd in his age group (16-20). Congratulations Mark!