Congrats to Clayton

This is a picture of Clayton spinning for luck on a bowl in Milan. It worked because...

Many of you probably already know this, but Clayton GRADUATED this week! (From College...) I am very proud of him. He did it in three years. Probably because I am a slave driver.
ALSO, he was offered and accepted a great job with Zions Bank. He will be in their Officer Development Program. They will train him in just about every department and allow him to work in each department for 18 months and then will have a job in one of those departments.
He is such a smart guy and I am extremely proud of how hard he works and how much he tries. We all know how great he his, but I'm sure he'd like to hear it, so post a comment!
Good job, Clayton!

Picture Tag

The rule is I'm suppose to find the 6th folder in my pictures folder and then select the 6th picture in that folder and post about it. Here is the interesting part, alot of people were part of this picture and lets see how truly memorable it was for all of you who were there. Take a guess as to what is going on and where we were at. I'll be very sad if Rachel and Ethan can't guess correctly. Now take a guess and look at the comments I've posted to get the correct answer. Be sure to look at the post before this about the FIRE.

What Teachers Do After School

THEY EVACUATE THE BUILDING!

Today, after school at like 4:05, I was walking back to my classroom when the fire alarm went off! I looked at my friend Aleesha and thought, "Really? They wouldn't be having a drill with no students..." Once we had both realized what was going on, we ran back to our rooms, grabbed our purses and ran.
Among my many hats at work, one of them is group fire drill leader. I completely failed this time. I just ran out of the builing instead of grabbing my walkie talkie, my snazzy yellow vest and completing my sweep of several rooms. WHOOPS! Good thing there weren't any students there.

Anyway, after being stranded outside for 45 minutes and many, many jokes about what it could have been, we were let back in to finish our work because it was a FAlSE alarm.
We have a lot of fun taking pictures of the firemen and checking to see if they were married...We were only looking for our friend Bailey though because she wanted some mouth to mouth if they were single.

No luck though...

Visiting Work

Clayton came to visit me at work today! He even brought Village Baker! What a nice guy!

And the oscar goes to????

This past weekend Michelle, Candace, Eli, Paul & Tamara Morton and myself of course went to HSM 3. For those of you who aren't hip enough to know what HSM 3 means it is High School Musical 3.

Michelle is extremely embarrassed by me for wanting to go see this movie, she thinks it is meant for 13 year old girls. Well I may not be 13 and I don't think I'm a girl but this movie was pretty good. Who wouldn't want to go to a high school where everyone is singing and dancing and having fun. I know, you will all make fun of me for liking this movie but you will all be fools when they win the oscar for movie of the year. In such crappy times everyone should go see this movie and enjoy it. And picture yourself as Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez. (I was Troy Michelle was Gabriella). Michelle don't delete this post.

Family Pictures

Last Saturday, Michelle's family had their pictures done. As you can see they are awesome. They were done by Emily from Winkfotos. (Check out her website, she is really good...www.winkfotos.com) It was a lot of fun. The last time Michelle's family had pictures done, Michelle was in fifth grade! She was even wear Girbeau jeans! Not this time though!

Saturday Drive

We went for a drive through the Alpine Loop, stopped at Cascade Springs, then went into Midway and then back over Guardsman pass into Big Cottonwood canyon to our home in Sandy. It was really pretty and all of it was done in the little Corolla. My sister Candace was kind enough to grace us with her presence. Here are some of the pictures from our ride.

Clayton Michelle Candace

Temple in Italy

I know many people were suprised by the announcement of the temple in Italy. I'm not too suprised by it because of the changes that have been made in the past couple of years. Italy has added 3 stakes in the past 4 years, and they're continually growing. The temple will be awesome for all the saints there and Michelle and I have already decided to go back for the open house. We're excited for the temple and the blessings it will bring to the saints over there. If you want to watch the video of President Monson again here it is.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4436980
I hope it works.

San Fran

I went to San Fran with my buddy Justin this weekend. It was enjoyable except that I had to leave my wonderful wife at home alone. I missed her.
Justin and I were lucky enough to get an amazing deal on a great hotel in downtown San Fran this is the hotel.

We had a great time while we were there. We walked the whole town of San Francisco and did it in style. We were carrying pink sweatshirts we had bought for our wives and shook our hips as if we owned the "gay" town. Notice the pink sack in my hand in China Town.

We also wanted to eat some of these Chickens but we were too chicken.

We also went to the pier and the Chocolate square of the world. San Fran is beautiful.



For those of you who know me, I love a good meal. Michelles aunt was kind enough to treat me to an incredible lunch at the hotel and while I tried to decide what I wanted to eat I saw a Kobe burger. It probably had 1/2 LB of hamburger and then a 1/4 of ribs and cheese. I took a picture to show how good it was and just want to let you know I finished the whole thing. Yeah I'm fat but it was worth it and the company with Aunt Connie was really nice. Thanks Aunt Connie for your help and lunch it was fun to chat with you. Thanks for inviting me to go with you justin.

Speechless

How can this picture not be everyones dream. Look at how awesome the golf course looks and how much I would love to play on a course like that with that many people watching. The Ryder Cup is a whole new world.

Quack, Quack GGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE

If you can guess where we went on Tuesday night I will be impressed. Here is a hint.

We went and played with the ducks and geese. It was fun, we met a lady there who had names for all of the birds. She was pretty hilarious to talk to and give us the geneology of who had stepped out on who and who's now mating with that other bird. One bird was dropped off there a while ago and isn't afraid of humans. Rumor has it a couple of weeks ago she walked into the barn of Wheeler Farm during a wedding. Anyway, it started biting Claytons shoe, Clayton of course screamed like a girl and had the goose do it again.




They have one duck that looks like Michael Jackson too!

Storage Queen

My (Michelle) mom is the storage queen! She has an entire wall of toilet paper in the basement bathroom. Clayton and I have never bought toilet paper for ourselves in our two and a half years of marriage. I decided the other day that I would pull from the older side of the shelf, just to see what I could find.



Yes, that is an advertisement on the package to get a t-shirt for the 1992 Olympics! I couldn't believe it. (We'll see if it falls apart as we use it...)
At least we know who to go to when that big earthquake comes!
I love my mom and thanks to her for setting the example of storage and being prepared. (and thanks for buying all my toilet paper!)

Handyman

Isn't it just great! I never thought that one of the things I would be most grateful for is indoor plumbing and not having dirt/concrete floors! I guess I have always taken that for granted.

Clayton is such a hard worker, he got all of the tile done in less than a week. Thanks to Tyler, Ryan, Justin and Nick. But I'm pretty proud of my handyman.

It looks great and I'm so glad to be done!

Update, Update, Update

Oh the joys of tile. I feel like I'm getting high, maybe it is the beautiful pink stuff I put down on the floor this evening. Oh well, If Michelle and I die in our sleep someone please sue the company that makes this pink stuff. That will most likely me the cause of death. Anyways, a couple of points of advice I've learned since we started this project.
1. If the man is doing the most of the job he should send his wife on a nice vacation with friends or family so as to not drive her crazy.
2. if the woman is doing the job she should just hire someone out so that it is done properly, because the husband is too stupid to do it correctly.
3. Don't sniff too much of the pink stuff.
4. Make sure your family/friends are ready to help. (Luckily I'm good in that area.)
5. Dont sniff too much of that pink stuff.
5. Don't sniff too much of tat pink stuff.
Anyways no one is allowed over until were done,(unless you are helping ofcourse) but we hope to have it done and finished by Saturday. (now that will be a holy day for me.
) Anyways peace out.
Sorry no pictures for now because I'm too stupid to figure out how to do it.
Bye!

Relaxing Summer?? Not!!!!!!!!!!!! Linolium SUCKS.

Michelle and I got a little excited this week and decided to rip our house apart. For anyone who has ripped up linolium from concrete you need not read on, because you feel my pain. We have decided to tile the laundry room and 2 bathrooms. On Friday night for our date night we went to our lovely home depot and purchased this tile.
As mentioned before we bought it at Home Depot, we don't own a truck of any kind so you guessed it we brought all that tile home in the Corolla!!!!!!!!!

Now we won't be done with this job for a while because our good friends that are kind enough to help us lay the tile are getting a tile saw from Richfield this weekend and then we can start laying down some tile. We are excited for that day because it has only been 2 days and we are sick of living in this type of place.


So don't expect to be invited to our house any time soon. Good news though Michelle is off track in a week and I go back to school in 2 weeks. Also I pulled a G.P.A. of 3.3 this last semester. Have fun.

Long Vacation

We went to St. George with our friends Justin, Erika, Lars and Kelli and had a blast. We went to Zion, Tuachan and played golf at the Ledges. We will have more pictures up when Justin and Erika send us some of the pictures they took. Needless to say Justin and Erika were really really tired by the end of the trip, in the great and spacious Avalon they decided to have a nap and I think Erika got the better end of the deal. Anways thanks for letting us come down there and it was a blast. Also go play the Ledges if you can, it was awesome. Go to the Banks blog on the right hand side to see more pics and info on what we did.

Class Project Fun

Answer one question under the comment page. It's an idea I think I have for class.
Which brand of phone would you rather have for a cell phone?
1. Motorola
2. Samsung
3. Palm
4. RIM (Blackberry)
5. Nokia
6. LG
7. Why are you asking me Clayton? I hate you.
Thanks!!!!!!!

Utah State Amatuer

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Clayton played in the Utah State Amatuer. He is such an awesome golfer that it was very easy to qualify in American Fork for this tournament. Clayton's dad, Randy was his Caddie for the two days of play and I think they had a lot of fun up there. Clayton's mom, Judy and I had fun following them around and then sitting in the clubhouse...it was really hot that day! Although Clayton did not win this tournament and refers to it as his worst golf ever, it was an honor for him to be there and anyone who has ever seen this kid golf knows that he is great. We all have our days, right Clayton? Anyway, we are proud of him and think he is the best around. Life goes on, right? RIGHT!

It's Over!

I am so happy to report that it is now officially my summer! I am so happy to be done with school. As many of you already know, I am no longer a first grade teacher! I get to move up to second grade! I was not excited about this at first, but the more I think about it, the more excited I get. The kids will know their lunch number! They can tie their shoes! There will be less pant-wetting! They'll even know where the bathroom is, plus they'll probably already know how to read! WOO-HOO! Anyway, I'm going to enjoy my summer at the pool!

Trunky, Trunky, Trunky,

Michelle and I are getting trunkier by the minute. Michelle's last day of school is Tuesday! Try and imagine how excited a little kid would be finding 100 lbs of chocolate and that's how excited Michelle is. The picture of all the books is showing how done Clayton is with school. On Saturday we decided to collect all the books and put them on Amazon, and as of today, Sunday the 29th, Clayton has made a profit of $53. He can't wait to be done with school. F.Y.I. if you add up all the books together they cost him about $800-$1000 dollars is what he figures. Also some good news is that Clayton qualified to play in the Utah State amateur golf tournament. He played at Fox Hollow (formerly Tri City) and shot a 75 to qualify for the worlds longest continueously held tournament. We're excited for him. GO BUY OUR BOOKS FROM US.

2 Years

So Michelle and I have been married for 2 years now. Wow, who would've thought she could stand me for this long. I don't know how my mom and dad have done it but my mom must be pretty awesome. (JK dad) It's funny to think about all the things we've done, we usually think of ourselves as a lazy couple that never does anything except sit at friends houses and watch T.V. or talk with them about random stuff. In reality we have done alot in these two years. Michelle continues to put me through school and doesn't hate me for going golfing all the time with my friends. We bought a condo and have refinished alot of it (of course with the help of many people). And the favorite is we've gone on many vacations, Italy being the favorite (and most expensive). But all and all we've had an awesome time. If the next 20 years are just as good I can't wait to have them. Happy Father's Day to our cool dads that rock. It's funny Michelle is more like her dad than her mom, and if anyone has met my dad it's almost like a mirror image, it's very scary to Michelle.
Happy Anniversary to us!
Ciao

Cinque Terre, Piacenza and Milan

Unfortunately, this is the end of our trip. We had such a good time. We hope you enjoy this last slide show.

Florence and Pisa

Hey! Sorry I haven't done this sooner...
After this slide show comes Cinque Terre and Milan, so keep looking!
Enjoy!

Segonzano/Trento and Venice

I loved these cities...Hope you enjoy...

Gorizia and Pordenone

Okay, so we are going to take this slow. I am a picture freak and came back from Italy with way to many pictures. I have picked the best for the first two cities, Gorizia and Pordenone. So here is our first slide show for our Italy trip.
First I must explain the slides.(Scroll down to read about it...)

After the longest plane rides, train ride, and car ride of my life, we arrived in Gorizia. It is a beautiful, small city. But, before we got there we had to pick up the cute little car we had. It was a Fiat Panda. It was so small. We had a big fiasco getting the car. Once we finally got it, we couldn't figure out how to get it into reverse! It was a stick shift, but it would not move into reverse. We were in such a rush that I (Michelle) pushed it out of the parking stall so we could go. Then the next problem...how do your roll down the window to put the ticket in to get out the lot? We couldn't figure it out so we just opened the door and got out on the crazy Italian road. Later, we met up with the cute, cute Bressan Family. They helped us get our car in reverse and even fed us dinner. The were so nice to us and I was so grateful to see friendly faces.
The next day we went to Pordenone, another city where Clayton served. There were several sweet, sweet members who remembered him like Dennis and the DeMartines. Clayton baptized Dennis and Dennis could not stop telling me how much he loved Clayton. The DeMartines were like Clayton's Ma and Pa on the mission. They took us to their house and gave us good directions the next destination and Arancia Rossa, which is blood orange juice...awesome!
Hope you enjoy these pictures and look for the rest to come soon!