the great outdoors

{hiking}

little fire hat

other Christmas break festivities

We were in Utah and Idaho for a week and a half, and we filled each day with something fun. 

christmas 2.0

When we were up in Idaho Falls we had Christmas all over again.  And once again we were spoiled.  

Christmas Morning

This year we had a lovely Christmas with the Serafines in Utah.  It was beautiful and snowy, and a perfect Christmas.  We always love spending it with family, and thanks to the Serafines for having us!

twas the night(s) before Christmas

12-12-12 Match Day

Medical school sort of builds up to the one single, very important day known as match day.  A medical student's entire future kind of hinges on this one day, and it can cause some serious anxiety.  In case you aren't completely familiar with how it all works, med students do audition rotations (try-outs, if you will) at multiple locations where they are interested in doing their residency.  They also submit applications to many more.  Then leading up to match day, the students rank their choices, as do the residency programs.  Your goal is to 'match' with a program who wants you and vice-versa.  If you don't match, then you have to enter the scramble, and basically 'scramble' for an open residency.  Yikes.  High pressure.  Well, since we are taking the Navy route, our match day was much earlier than everyone else's, taking place on December 12, 2012.  So we anxiously waited for word on where we would be going.  We're glad to say we survived the match and came out victorious.  

Remember this day?

We get to live it up in sunny San Diego!  Matt's going to be starting his residency at the Naval hospital in San Diego.  We're pretty excited to go to such a fun place, although we aren't thinking of moving too much yet, because we can't stand the thought of leaving our home here in AZ.  We're really proud of Matt for all his hard work in school and on his boards.  He's done really well, and the Naval hospital wanted his expertise.  : )