World Tour Last Stop: Idaho, Wyoming

For my dad's birthday and my mom and dad's anniversary we took a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and went to Bar J. Bar J is a chuck wagon with entertainment, cowboys singing and telling jokes. It's pretty fun, and you get your dinner on a tin plate.

We stopped in Swan Valley, Idaho to have some world famous square ice cream. Huckleberry is the best.

We went to Driggs, Idaho to see my uncle Kent and aunt Betty's house/cabin that they are renovating. It looks great!

We had a small family reunion. This is my great grandma McKenzie, Lallis.

Happy 4th Anniversary!

On July 14th, Matt and I celebrated our 4th anniversary! It's hard to believe that we've been married for 4 years. The time has gone by rather quickly. To celebrate, we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Park City. It was amazing! They served the best steak I've ever eaten on a 500 degree plate! Who knew? The scenery was beautiful and we had a great time.

Our viewThis isn't a good picture, but we had to compromise with the flash.

World Tour: Utah

We spent a week in Utah with Matt's family. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but we had a chance to have a picnic in the mountains.

We went to Provo one of the days and had to go to J-Dawgs. We also went to the Thai Kitchen with our friends Russ and Mandy. It was great. They have the best Pad Thai. We also had a good time with Russ and Mandy.

mmm

World Tour: Kansas

Matt's older brother, Brad, lives in Wichita Kansas with his family. We found some great cheap flights through Allegiant Air and took advantage of a weekend in June to visit them. It's a direct flight from Phoenix to Whichita, which is great because the flight is short and easy. The only problem was we were sitting in the back where I couldn't see out the window. Let's just say that I broke my 9 year streak of not throwing up. It was a sad day. We only wish they lived closer because our nieces are so cute. We also had a lot of fun visiting with Brad and Mandy as well.

Jane

Annie

Thanks for letting us come visit!

World Tour: San Diego

I don't have any pictures, since we were only there a few days, but a few weeks after we got back from Hawaii and after Matt got home from High Adventure with our Stake, we went to San Diego so Matt could shadow his uncle. Matt's Uncle, David, works on the Naval Base at the hospital as a pulmonologist. It was fun to see his family there and to pay a quick visit to the ocean.

Where did Matt go?

Some of you have asked questions about Matt's whereabouts, and asked him before he left. Matt is currently at ODS, or Officer Development School, in Rhode Island. Let me explain. Before we started medical school, we weighed all our options. Medical school is expensive, as you may know, and for us it was a matter of how we were going to pay for all of our schooling, etc. An option that stood out to us was to apply for the HPSP, or the Heath Professions Scholarship Program, through the Navy. We fasted and prayed about it, and this was the option for us. They pay for Matt's school, plus some. In the end, Matt has to serve as a doctor on a Navy base for four years. We figured it was a worthwhile trade for the $300,000 + they would pay for schooling and such. Although it isn't for everyone, we decided it was the way to go.

Now in addition to his four years, he has to complete a month-long ODS, which is where he is now. ODS is not boot-camp. Some of you may have wondered this. : ) He's not going to have to do all that stuff you see in the movies and climb ropes, sleep in a metal bed with gray linnens, and get yelled at by some sergeant. And so far, they haven't cut his hair. ODS is a school where they have classes on Navy stuff, and Naval medicine. (And no, this doesn't mean bellybuttons.)

I'm still not quite sure what it all entails, so I'll have Matt do a post when he gets home giving us all the details. He does say it's pretty laid back and they have quite a bit of freedoms, with him being an Officer and all.

So while he's away, I'm spending most of my time in Idaho Falls, where the weather is much cooler than at home.

Hawaii

Rather than loading up our pictures one by one, it was faster to load them this way, since there are so many of them. Enjoy! Some of the pictures have captions, some do not. Also, we've included a sample of some of the Hawaiian tunes we enjoyed.

we fly in the front of the plane

Today we are grateful for our frequent flyer miles with Delta. We booked our tickets to Hawaii, and we got a load of cash off them because of our miles. Thank you, Delta. Cheap flights, cheap lodging (thanks, Grandpa Serafine!) is making for a great trip!

But when I reserved our seats, we are flying in the front of the plane. Because when this happens:

we want to be in the front so we end up with Jack

and not risk our chance of getting captured by these guys.