Rocky Mountain High

Peter has been looking for a job ever since he started his senior year of college in August 2009.  He spent numerous hours attending conventions and meetings to hopefully get his name and resume out there.  By March we were both feeling very frustrated and dejected because he hadn't found a job yet.  My concerns were steadily growing as I looked at the student loan debt and wondered what we were going to do about it if he didn't have a job when we needed to start making payments on them.

One day out of the blue, Peter received a phonecall from the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest.  They had seen his resume at the Society of American Foresters convention in September and wanted to know if he would be interested in applying for the Lead Forestry Technician position that they had available.  Peter was, of course, interested in the job, and after nearly a month of holding our breath and wondering whether or not he got the position, we finally got word on Thursday.  He got the job, and we've been celebrating ever since!

As most of you have noticed, there has been a poll on my blog for the last few weeks.  Only one person guessed correctly that we would be moving to Colorado, and that was my coworker Jennifer!  I'm so glad her guess was correct, and that we won't be going to the Poor House instead!

Although this job is a career position that comes with benefits, it is what they call a 13/13 which means he is guaranteed work for 13 of the 26 pay periods in a year.  That's only half, but they will most likely keep him working as long as they can.  It all depends on the snow.  It's a step in the right direction, though.  He's required to stay at this position for two years and then he can apply non-competatively to other positions.  The biggest trick to the Forest Service is getting your foot in the door.  Peter has finally accomplished that and hopefully after he has worked for two years we can find a more permanent year-round job.

Now the real work begins.  We have only three more weeks of classes and finals before Peter graduates on May 8th, and then he is supposed to report to his job on May 11th.  Graduation weekend is going to be crazy busy, and all of my free time between now and then is going to be consumed with packing.  Thankfully we don't have to worry about finding a place to live immediately because they have Forest Service housing that we can stay in until we get settled.  We're both very excited about our upcoming adventure, and if any of you ever want to come to Colorado, you'll have a place to stay!

Spring Break

I've been meaning to post the pictures from my spring break trip to Tucson, AZ, but all of my professors decided to have exams this week so I've been a little preoccupied.  Peter and I had a great time in Tucson visiting our friends, Jack and Jaime.  The weather was wonderful.  It was 85 degrees most of the days we were there, and I'm really missing it now since we've had one of our wonderful Utah spring snow storms and the temperature has plummeted to the 30s.  I know some people got to go to exotic locations like Hawaii or Cancun for spring break, but our trip to Tucson was still fun and relaxing.

Our first day in Tucson we had brunch at a little cafe in Tohono Chul Park.  Afterwards we walked around the garden which displayed pretty much every species of cactus in Arizona.

Jack and Jaime

This little guy decided to join us for brunch

This guy also came to visit, but I didn't get

a very good picture of him.  It's called a

Pyrrhuloxia which are a member of the

cardinal family.

The next day we decided to go for a hike on Mt. Lemon which is part of a mountain range just north of Tucson.  From there we got a great view of the city of Tucson and surrounding valley from Windy Point.  It was indeed windy.

Jack and Peter at Windy Point

We drove a little further up the mountain and actually found snow!  Jack and Jaime had a lot of fun playing in it, but Peter and I were less than impressed.  We came to Tucson to get away from the snow, so we drove back down a ways to go for a hike out of the snow.

Jack and Jaime enjoying the snow

My handsome hiker!

Our last day in Tucson we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  I thought that this was going to be some kind of stuffy indoor museum full of stuffed animals and artifacts, but to my surprise it was an outdoor museum full of live animals that are native to Arizona.  Jack, Jaime, and Peter had a good time making fun of me when I said, "You mean they're alive?!"  Apparently this museum is one of the biggest attractions in Arizona.  Second only to the Grand Canyon, of course.  One of the exhibits they had at the museum was a bird show where they had several native species of birds of prey fly around just over our heads.  It was pretty cool.

A Chihuahuan and Common Raven

Ferruginous Hawk

I had a hard time getting more pictures of the birds because they were too busy flying around.  After the show we toodled around the museum and looked at the rest of the animals.  Here are some of my favorites:

This is a Javelina which is a pig-like critter

Coyote

Gila Monster, which are venomous if you didn't know

Screech Owl

Squirrel!!!  He wasn't really part of the museum,

but he thought he should be

Sleeping grey fox

The southern end of a north bound Ocelot

One of my favorite animals in the world...otters!

Bighorn Sheep

Mexican Wolf

A cardinal

Prairie Dog...he's so fat he has a bum roll

I had been saying the entire time we were in Tucson

that I wanted to see a Roadrunner.  I finally saw one,

but it was running around so much I had a hard time

getting a picture of the silly thing!

My favorite exhibit at the museum was the humminbird enclosure.  They're such fascinating, and beautiful little things.  One of my favorite stories about hummingbirds is the one where Peter was out working in the woods one day, and a hummingbird mistook his bright orange hardhat for a flower.  It buzzed around his head and tapped his helmet with its beak making a loud, "TINK, TINK" noise.

This nest actually has a little baby in it if you can see it.

I had a really hard time getting my camera to focus on

this little guy, but you can still make out the beautiful

vibrant colors of its feathers.

That evening Jack and Jaime threw a barbeque for us with some of the other people we know in Tucson.  We had a great time, but the next day we had to pack up and head back to cold, snowy Utah.  It was kind of depressing to leave them and the warm weather, but it's always good to be home.