A Week With the Graffs: By Dallin Graff

It's Yuh Boi Dallin checking in here with my first blog. Its about to get weird.  A lot has happened these past 2 weeks in the Graff fam' so get ready for more pictures of us, definitely a lot of pictures of our kids(dogs), and even more pictures of dogs. 

Here's our not so petite daughter Josie playing with one of her toys. Shes weird because she prefers to lay on basically anything other than carpet. But I guess when you think about it, who doesn't enjoy laying on a nice piece of paper, licking out an old peanut butter container. If I had a nickel for every time I've done that...

I have a new favorite song that was probably written just for my life. Its kinda my anthem and I have been told I sound EXACTLY like the singer. Enjoy. 

My little/big brother came back to Utah from my family's trip around the world and he stayed the night with us. So naturally we took the TV from the living room and set it up on Sydneys desk so he could play X-box. 8 hours of gaming later, after 3,000 calories of Doritos and mountain dew and candy, we called it a night and went to bed. Again if I had a penny for every time I've done that...

Here is a picture of a night drive up Provo canyon that Me, Syd, and the kids went on to see the 'Meteor Shower'. Best part of the night was when Sydney realized that a 'Meteor Shower' was another way of saying 'shooting stars'. She was definitely disappointed. She thought she was gonna see some Armageddon equivalent meteors.

Sydney has always said that this picture captures our essence, so I believe she thinks we are creeps. I could be wrong though. 

We had our 1 year birthday of being married and it was not just a trip, but a journey down memory lane. We went through our wedding box with every memory of the wedding day, watched our wedding video, and both put on Sydney wedding dress. Just sydney is pictured below in it. We still want people to enjoy reading the blog. We had a relaxing day of swimming and nice Dinner to cap it all off. Its been an amazing year with an amazing person and we are excited for the future. 

Sir Thomas had his birthday, #35 I believe, so we went and celebrated with them. Happy Birthday Tommy boy. They are so fun to hang out with, and we discovered the VIP lounge while we were there! Those recliner seats are no joke! 

Coming away with only a broken rib and an almost fractured ankle, here are the pictures of my first downhill mountain bike experience. Clearlink took all of the sales managers for a retreat up in Park City and it got real. My biggest take aways from the experience: 1. When you go off a jump, make sure your feet don't come off the pedals when you land. Otherwise bad things happen. Really bad things. 2. Dressing in multiple layers in August to try to pad the falls that were bound to happen was a bad idea. I assume thats how Hot Yoga would feel. 3. I am moving to Sweden. I rode up the ski lift with a kid from Sweden and we talked for a long time and he was the nicest person I've ever met. He came to the US at the beginning of the summer, bought an old mini-van, took out the seats and sleeps in it every night. He has been driving around the country just mountain biking and enjoying life for months. My life is so boring compared to that guy.

Heres some pictures of our kids sleeping (you've probably never seen this before) and doing other things that human kids can do. Jakey holds on and gives hugs and kisses when I get home from work and I dont even have to hold him. The whole thing about animals not being able to do things because of their lack of opposable thumbs is garbage.

Sydney had her last day at Prodigy Promos because she got the perfect teaching job so this is the first day of her sitting down to start creating lesson plans. So much planning that you have to plan time for when you're going to sit down and plan out the lesson plans and create the game plan for the year of teaching. Lots of plans.

RIP Charles Lester III

Sydneys Dog Charlie passed away this week. He was 12. It's been hard for Sydney, and her dad and Shelly this week, I knew him but not as well. He was such an easy-going, loyal guy. Sammy has never been without him so she will probably be very sad for a while. He is definitely missed. They gave him a burial service in Ne under a tree. He lived a long, happy life, and died peacefully in his sleep.
It was fun being out in Nebraska over last Christmas and sledding with him. (See below)

Me and Syd were lucky enough to be able to have all of our friends over to our new house and have a big pool party/BBQ. We are kind of popular and luckily our small/humble home was able to accomodate so many awesome people...One day....This was actually a pool party/BBQ at the owner of Clearlinks house. It was such an amazing day and I'm grateful to work for such an amazing company.

Shelly'nor Roosevelt came to town and stayed with us and helped Syd make posters for the Cross Country sign ups. It was fun eating dinner with her and catching up. Maybe I just got lucky and got some awesome In-laws.

We went to Dinner with Rudy and Brian and Michelle tagged along. Hes so freaking cute. The picture that says "Bjergsens Mother" is incredibly significant so please pay attention. I just hit the #1 player in the world in League of Legends with the champion that I play(Blitzcrank). There are 68 million people that play League of Legends so I think being #1 with a champion is kinda cool. I'm sure I'm gonna be super stoked to tell my grandkids about that one. They will care I'm sure.

Sydney and Michelle went on a Girl's Date while the boys stayed home with the kids. They went and watched Mission Impossible 312 or something. I forget how many Mission Impossible's there are but I think its a lot.

This week was the first week that Sydney started her new teaching job at the middle school. Those little 14 year olds are in for a treat. I swear most of my teachers growing up were like 130 years old. In true Sydney fashion, she was 30 minutes late on her first day lol. But at least we got a picture of it. I am honestly so proud of her though. She has worked so hard to get to where she's at and to prepare her to be a teacher and I have no doubt that she will be the best teacher ever. Those kids are lucky to have her. She's amazing.

She took these pictures of her room when it was still being cleaned and painted.

During training week she met a friend named Melanie who's teaching 4th grade (below). She also went and met up with Jessica the teacher she did the student teaching with to get tips on PE. 

She got her official contract and we went to utah idaho supply and got her posters for the room. She was so excited I wanted to take a picture. But I was happy to get out of there...

  

This is the yearbook staff for both jr. high and high school there. She said that all the other teachers are cool and they got together to plan together. She's overwhelmed about it, but I think she'll be great at it.

Syd complained about how long it took her to make this poster, but it turned out great! The first practice is monday!

She sent me these on the first day of school during prep. She said it went well, except when she taught PE. But I'm sure she'll get better at that, she's just used to being in a classroom and it's different in a gym.

I walked her out to the car on the morning of her first day and took a picture. She was so worried about being late she was rushing, but then ended up being early. I love seeing her so excited about what she's doing now.

 Today Sydney went to see off Emma for college. She left to go to Utah State. I've met her family before too, and they are such cool, inviting people. I hope she loves college life!

Its been a great couple weeks but it's also been a hard couple weeks. Being an adult is hard sometimes. But at the end of the day, I can't help but feeling unbelievably lucky for everything that I have. I am grateful for my family and friends, great jobs that me and Syd have, and for the experiences that we are having right now. Life is great.  

"Life is short. FALSE. Its the longest thing you'll ever do" -Dwight Shrute

Have a good week everybody. Dallin signing off-

Deuces

 

Dallin Graff