fall in CO

good morning everyone--it is 5:30, and one of my goals this week while i am baching it is to write a blog entry. ruby was jumping on the bed at 4:30 this morning, so i got up and took them out. their internal clocks do not adjust to DLSavings.
david is spending this week in akaska SD again with his 15 work buddies and their clients, shooting pheasant. so he celebrated his 56th birthday in SD.
september and october have been very busy for me at work. i taught a 2 day class with my 3 coutnerparts in special uses in the RO in sept--for about 15 district rangers. it went very well--but we invented it and put together 2 days worth or powerpoints, lectures, and exercises.
then in october we taught a week of special uses 101/202 for about 65 people from the region. again, we updated a national class that was about 4 years old, and spent the last 6 months getting ready for this class. it went very well--and folks were very happy with being there--and learning. we actually have lots of fun doing it. we give them playdo and farm animals and other plastic toys to keep their little hands busy during the week. and we are pretty casual and do lots of joking. since i am basically a ham at heart, i always enjoy telling jokes in front of an audience. that is usually my biggest goal during the week--is to make them laugh at least several times a day!
as soon as we finished that class on friday at noon, we hopped in the camper and drove to akaska for opening day for pheasants. davids 2 brothers were there, and tavis came over from cody. we had a wonderful time, and everyone got their birds. i got to go to the craft fair in selby, and then on sunday the 3 "girls" that were there made pheasant feather wreaths. lori david's neice had brought all the stuff, and even though i am horribly un-crafty, i made 2 and they are actually quite nice. got lots of glue scattered around the kitchen though.
got back here late monday, and i went back to work to recover from about 6 weeks of paying no attention to my real work because we were getting ready to teach.
then on friday, i flew to seattle to meet up with cindy tencick (my old boss from cascade) marianna bilbao, and another of our friends jane cropp from idaho. we met there cuz cindy just got a new staff officer job on the mt. baker snoqualamie NF in everett WA. they have a new house, and lots of new places to explore. she and tim moved from dillon MT--the original cow town-so it is very similar to the switch we made 7 1/2 yrs ago from mccall to denver. we had a great, relaxing time. the reason to meet up was to celebrate 3 out of 4 of our 50th birthdays. jane turns 50 next year--so she was just a bit early!
we went to san juan island on saturday morning, spent the day hiking and relaxing. stayed in a great bed and breakfast (which is for sale, and looked inviting for semi-retirement)! then got up sunday, went to visit the sculpture garden which is beautiful, and took the noon ferry back to seattle. we had 2 clear days to see mt. baker and mt. rainer, and then some clouds on sunday and monday when we all left. i was home safe and sound eating dinner by about 5:30 on monday. we all had a great time and didn't skip a beatt for not having seen all of us together for many years.
i now have to get ready for work--but i'll add a little bit more later.
love--michele, david and link and ruby.