The Walkers: Intensives 2013

This past week I went to Colorado to complete my second year of Intensives for my graduate program (see this post from last summer). Keith and the kids came with me again this year so we made a little family vacation out of it. This year the pressure was a little bit lighter because I am officially accepted in to the program and I didn't have to take any big exams or anything. However I did have to show 4 recorded sessions to the rest of my class and receive feedback (which I was DREADING but it ended up being awesome and everyone was super supportive!). I also had to be evaluated on running a group which was stressful because I have never run a group before. Again, it ended up being fine and I stressed for nothing! My teacher put me very last on the last day to do my group which meant that I was anxious about it up until the very end! Both my teachers were amazing though and gave such great feedback that helped me to develop my counseling skills and to help me become a better counselor and person. I am always amazed at how much I learn about myself at Intensives. I said this before and I'll say it again that I left feeling like I became a better version of myself. Very awesome experience! Also VERY emotionally draining!

The kiddos did great on the drive! I am amazed at how great they travel because I don't travel well (I am cursed with horrible motion sickness!). Keith made these cute little road trip bingo cards on the computer and Malea loved it! She filled one up within the first couple of hours of our trip.

Zonked out (I love taking pictures of them when they fall asleep in the car for some reason!). I don't know how they can sleep like that!

On the way there we were able to split the trip up in to two days because we had stuff going on Saturday morning. We spent the night in Montrose, CO (hotel room pic below). We did the whole drive in one day on the way home though, which wasn't fun because I was nauseous pretty much the whole time! (ugh). We ended up having to switch hotels about 4 times throughout the week because there was a big bike race coming through Alamosa that week.

Really cool park/play ground we stopped at to eat some lunch on the way (I think it was in Gunnison, CO).

Cute pic of Malea and Daddy :)

Welcome to Alamosa!

We did LOTS of swimming during the week!

Kids watching a movie before bed

Keith also took the kids to the sand dunes again this year :) I wasn't able to go with them this time because my schedule was really full! Last year we had more down time it seems like. This year I had straight classes from 8am-5pm and a couple of the nights we had meetings at 5pm too! :P

I had the chance to go out to dinner a couple of the nights with some of the members of my cohort. This pic was from a Chinese restaurant that we ate at and we played a little game where you lick the paper from the fortune cookie, stick it on your forehead, and whoever's falls off last wins (??)....not sure what you won other than bragging rights! We also read our fortune's out loud and added "...in bed" at the end which was hilarious! I wish I would have kept mine so I could remember!

Part way through the week they had a mandatory "Mental Health Day" where we all went up to Creede, CO. You could go river rafting or just walk around and look at the little shops (we opted for shopping :)). Then they had a BBQ for everyone.

Picture of me in a cute hoodie that I got up in Creede :)

That night we had to stay outside of Alamosa in a town called Monte Vista because it was IMPOSSIBLE to find a hotel in Alamosa (due to the bike rally going on). However it was way cool because we stayed at a Best Western called the Movie Manor and it had a drive in theater that you could see from your hotel room window! They even had speakers in the room so you could hear it from your room! We watched part of the movie "Epic" (we didn't make it through the whole thing....the kiddos were TIRED and Malea ended up having a "I'm homesick" meltdown :( Poor girl, she's just like her mama!). Still very cool!

Group picture with my Cohort!! So many awesome people!

(Funny little tidbit...Malea photo bombed this picture, see if you can find her! It's kind of like Where's Waldo :))

The last two nights we stayed at a hotel that had a fun water park inside that was free if you were staying at the hotel. There was a water slide that Malea went down probably 50 times over the course of the two days!