Adult summer camp.

In early June, I was lucky to be able to spend a week in McCall, Idaho at the McCall Outdoor Science School summer teacher institute.  It was so much fun.  I bunked with my two teammates from Koelsch (my school) and one of my oldest and dearest friends, Katie.  We attended the institute during the day, and partied it up at night.  Just kidding.  We usually just went out to a bar for a bit, and then snuck beer into the cabin and played Farkle until all hours of the night.  Like I said, so much fun!

The institute was targeted toward middle and high school teachers.  So we were the wildcards there as first grade teachers.  We became more literate in biofuels science, especially woody biomass biofuel (after all, we live in the northwest and have a surplus of woody biomass).  Going into it, I was clueless.  And after the intense week of exploration and instruction, I am happy to say I feel quite a bit more literate.  But in no way am I an expert.

Here's my sweet bunk

And the lovely Payette Lake

The weather was seriously cold and crummy for the first half of the week, (I'm talking jeans, boots, and down jackets and SNOW in June) but by Thursday, we were able to get out and walk through Ponderosa State Park and enjoy the amazing setting that was our home for the week.

And here we all are in front of our home away from home.

I'd love to take part in another summer institute in the future.  Especially because they paid us for our time with some grant money, and I got two credits through the University of Idaho toward recertification!  Woohoo!