On my last day of school, as I watched my little students roam about our classroom enjoying their last few minutes of kindergarten, I congratulated myself on being an excellent teacher. No one was spitting, hitting or swearing. Kids were freely writing letters on whiteboards and some were even reading. This was the work of a truly talented teacher. My head was getting quite big until I overheard this little question:

"Did you guys know that Mrs. Denbrook's wife's name is Jacob?"

So much for Teacher of the Year. Next year I better spend a little more time on gender attribution.

Sahalie Falls

If you live in Oregon, and you haven't been to Sahalie Falls, go!






Jake at the nearby Clear Lake. This is a great place to enjoy a bottle of wine...should you choose to stuff it in your Camelback.

"Mrs. Denbrook, wanna see my owie?!"

Of my 21 kindergartners, all but one seemed to have some sort of outside play induced injury from Memorial Day. One poor kiddo broke his elbow but the rest were easily remedied by a bandaid. One of my girls put it perfectly when she said: "When we felled down, we bleed one hundred percent!"

Trust the Guide Book

On Sunday, Jake and I headed down past Cottage Grove to check out Bohemian Mountain. The guidebook said it didn't open until mid-June. We felt that whoever wrote the guidebook didn't quite know what they were talking about, and surely the end of May would be sufficient.

After 7 miles on an un-maintained road (on which Jill numerous times thought we were going to lose our lives, we rounded the corner to find this:

Not ready to give up, Jake ran ahead to scout the road, in hopes this wee patch of snow was just a fluke.

Sadly, it only got worse and after a 17 point turn we were making our way back down the mountain.

Our next stop was Brice Creek Falls and not only was it snow-free, but it was beautiful. We did a shuttle system leaving our bikes at one trailhead and driving down to the lower trailhead to start our hike.


What is it about waterfalls that makes you relive your senior pictures?

Jake and his flashy red shirt at the beginning of our ride back down to the car.

Man, oh man, are we ready for summer!

Broken Picnic Table Makes for Close Call

Saturday was a beautiful day, so Jake and I packed up the car and headed to Lincoln City to hang to meet up with Steph, Andy and the kiddos. The weather was great, and the company was even better.


Andy takes Milo Man on a jumping adventure. Our need to jump in any and all pictures is catching on.


Beautiful Ella

Cool Man Jake


The water was freezing, but Ella was loving it.


Andy promised the picnic table was strong enough to hold all of them, Steph was not so sure.


Turns out, Steph was right. Luckily no one got hurt, and Ella seemed to enjoy the ride down.

Oh, how it used to be...

For the past nine months, after getting up at 5 am and taking a shower, I have consistently sat at our kitchen table and dreamed of what it would be like to win the lottery and thus never commute again. I have enjoyed these 5-10 minutes of wishful thinking while my neighbors peacefully and QUIETLY slept. All of this stopped four days ago when we got new neighbors. They are loud, they are obnoxious and they get up (or perhaps stay up until 5) and ruin my wonderfully silent morning. I dont' know them, but so far I definitely don't like 'em.

I know I shouldn't really be complaining about these neighbors- we once had upstairs neighbors who washed dog pee off onto our porch. I had to get out my "mean teacher" voice for that couple and if our current neighbors keep it up they'll definitely be hearing that voice as well. Don't mock me, I can be quite mean when given the opportunity.

Will we make it?

Only 25 more days of school left! Well, unless you're Jake and then you're up to 28. HA!

In recent Kindergarten news, Mrs. Denbrook's kids have finally discovered what her parents called her as a child- Denbrook. You see, it wasn't until she became a teacher that she was forced to have two first names.