Christmas Craftiness

Tara and I got crafty today and made some blocks for Christmas. She made super cute presents and I made the Grinch. It has been a very long time since we have done anything and it was fun to finish a project together. The foot print happens to be in a pile of rogue glitter that escaped the container as Tara bedazzled her presents, everything was quite sparkly by the time we were done, but the finished products are very cute.

X-Ray

JD and I attended a health informatics dinner tonight that was held at Ogden Regional Medical Center. After the forum I ran up to imaging to get a case study for school from one of the girls I used to work with there. It was so fun catching up with the two techs there and see how they were doing. I slaved away 1,500 hours for free at that place with the group pictured left over the course of 2 years. Since then, I have gotten married and will have my Masters degree soon, Megan has had a baby, Ser moved to Korea, Melissa is now in Washington, and Nick is an adjunct professor at Weber State. We had a lot of fun and were an amazing group because we were all smart, all worked really hard both at the hospital and for school, and we weren't afraid to use things like pizzas as object lessons when studying physics or radiobiology. Who could ask for better memories than all nighters, learning how to make oragami frogs and cranes, ab work out routines using your basic office chair, experiencing the taste of barium, CSI marathons on holidays, learning what it means to be 'like a banshee' and the list goes on.

Witch Pharmacy

I work with pretty much the coolest girls ever on Mondays. At the beginning of the month we all bought the same scrub top and have worn it every single Monday since to celebrate Halloween. We get lots of compliments from the clinic staff and patients, and I feel we deserve them judging by how cute we look in this picture. So ya, our pharmacy rocks.

We were given a treat bucket one year for Halloween that says Witch Pharmacy on it with a witch cut out underneath the title-hence our unofficial name during the month of October.

Moab Part 3

After church this morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed back into Arches. We drove straight to the trailhead for Delicate Arch and hiked our way up to the famous landmark. I have always been too chicken to go around the bowl and stand under the arch but I did today and it felt great. I love the ray of sunshine on me in my moment of triumph that JD was able to capture. The upper right corner pick was taken from behind the arch on a sandstone outcropping, I had to be extra brave to get that, the skinny part of the arch is closest to me (then you feel dumb when people are running over there and not even thinking twice about it or hugging the cliff wall to be able to get that angle, curse my fear of heights). The last picture is of my feet right next to Sand Dune Arch, we went back there before heading home because we were close and I love the slots you go through to get to it.
This has been one of our funnest adventures yet. We had a great time and did a lot in just a few days. National Parks pretty much rock!

Moab Part 2

Day 2 of our adventure was incredibly busy and spontaneous (in other words we had no plans and I wanted to do everything). We headed out to Dead Horse Point State Park, followed by Canyonlands National Park. Mesa Arch was beautiful but it was freaking me out because people were letting their kids run along the top of the arch=dumb. We also did several arches at Arches National Park: Skyline, Landscape, Pine Tree, Tunnel, Broken, Sand Dune, as well as hiking through the fins at Devils Garden. The slots were awesome and the temperature was great. I think my favorite arch of the day was Sand Dune, kids were playing in the sand, burying each other in the sand, and running through the slots. One creative kid had made a replica of the sand dune arch out of the sand below it and it was pretty accurate too. One more day before we go back to work and school.

Moab Part 1

Today was a long day of driving to say the least. We drove straight to Monticello from American Fork (thanks Grandpa) and made it in time for the 12:00 session. The temple is beautiful and the set up reminded us a lot of Redlands and Newport Beach. We drove back to Moab afterwards, dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed straight for Arches. We did a few hikes before sundown, the lighting was fantastic, and in case you didn't notice, the leaves are changing in Moab too. It is fun to see bright yellows contrast the red rock. Another exciting day coming up tomorrow! :) I LOVE adventures with my very best friend.

Waterfall Canyon

Christie was nice enough to come on yet another fall hike with me yesterday. Waterfall Canyon was beautiful. The leaves were on along the entire trail. Chris is fun to hike with because she is crazy. Ever since her rock climbing class she has the need to plaster herself to all rock faces. This hike was momentous because the last time I went up Waterfall, I had a blood clot and didn't know it. I had to stop a bazillion times to catch my breath and slow down my heart rate and couldn't figure out what was wrong and why I felt so crappy until 6 weeks later when I was in the hospital and it all suddenly made sense. Yesterday the only main stops were to take pictures and I was super surprised when we were suddenly at the base of the waterfall. Fun times.