Introducing....Kenobi!

A new dog has been in the works for quite a while. We have come close to getting one before now, but it just wasn't right until now. And this little Australian Shepherd couldn't be more perfect for us. 

He is 12 weeks old, weighs right about 12 pounds, and will most certainly be bigger than Ameya in a matter of weeks. He has stolen our hearts already.

I mean, just look at that face. How can you not love it?

Ahh, puppy tiredness. Play hard, sleep hard. He's definitely got both of those things down. 

Ameya is adjusting pretty well. At first she wasn't sure how she felt, but as time goes on, she likes him more and more. The first night we had him we were fully prepared for puppy crying all night long. Kenobi was a perfect angel and Ameya randomly growled at him and charged at his crate multiple times. We've come a long way since then though.

Like Ameya, he is a big fan of helping with the laundry....

...and my mom. Again, look at that face. What's not to love, seriously??

Pretty much everything he does is cute, really. Here is another example:

I don't know what is so adorable about sleeping dogs, but I'm pretty sure a good 75% of all pictures we take of our dogs are when they are asleep.

We love him and can't wait to learn more about his cute personality as we watch him grow and learn more about the world around him.

More sleeping....

And here are a couple videos of him and Ameya running around and wrestling. They are both growlers. haha. Kenobi likes to bark (very high pitched at this point...) but hopefully he will outgrow that. Ameya runs laps around him and likes to make sure he knows she is higher up on the food chain, and not only when it comes to running around and playing. She seems to make sure he knows when she is on the bed and he's locked in his crate and that she can jump on the couch and he isn't quite strong enough just yet. It's pretty funny to watch, really. 

There will be many more posts to come, rest assured. We can't get enough of this little guy. 

To be a Bulldog.....

Hunter here, with the long awaited PA school update.  Tiff has been wanting me to post this for a long time, but let's be honest, sometimes I'm just lazy. 

The last time I gave an update on the PA school front I had just been accepted to A.T. Still's program and was so excited that I could finally have the opportunity to move forward in my education.  Since that time I have interviewed at 3 other schools, namely, MEDEX @ University of Washington, Duke University, and Yale University.  All 3 schools are much higher in the PA school rankings than A.T. Still.  Duke and Washington are in the top 10 and Yale in the top 20.  After all was said and done I really loved my interview at Duke but unfortunately was not offered a spot in thier class.  I was however accepted at both MEDEX and Yale!!!! 

Now to some of you that choice might be a no-brainer.  Undoubtably you hear the name Yale and you think Ivy League, super selective, and a whole lot of name value.  For those of you who think that, let me refer you to the paragraph above; MEDEX is a higher ranked program and one of the oldest in the country.

Tiff and I found ourselves with a very hard decision to make because both programs really are outstanding and have alot to offer.  Tiff and I have always wanted to end up in WA and choosing MEDEX would have been the perfect opportunity to move up there and settle down.  And as I have said, they have one of the oldest most established PA programs in the country.  MEDEX focuses a lot on bringing in a diverse class of students who all have a team work attitude that creates an environement in the school where everyone is very friendly and willing to help when they see other students start to slip.  The lectures at MEDEX are mostly taught by PA's who are able to provide a PA's perspective on how the matierial will be of use in practice.  Yale, on the other had, also has a very old and very prestigous program.  Yale also has alot of things going for it that MEDEX doesn't.  For example, they have a full cadaver lab including disection, they have a soft-tissue rodent lab where students can practice suturing.  Yale also has a WIDE diversity of clinical rotation sites offering clinical experience in anything from neuro-surgery to global health in 3rd world countries.  All the lectures are taught by PhD's who are leaders in their respective fields.  Along those lines, the lectures students get at Yale are basically the same ones given to the med students just in half the time.  That really seemed to us like a great opportunity. 

Both schools also had some negatives as well.  New Haven, CT has one of the top 5 crime rates in the nation, not exactly where we envisioned ourselves starting a family.  As you can imagine, cost of living and tuition at Yale are also significantly higher than at MEDEX.  MEDEX on the other hand has a LARGE focus on training PA's to work work in rural or underserved communities; this is an area that I am not very interested in.  They also don't offer a cadaver or soft-tissue lab, in fact, their anatomy class is taken on-line in the months before the program actually begins. 

Ultimately this was the deal breaker for me.  While I have not made a final decision on what area I want to practice in I know that I am interested in areas like Orthopedics, Cardio-Thoracic surgery, or Emergency Medicine.  I felt like that in all of those areas it would be very advantagous for me to attend a program that would prepare me for that type of practice.  Yale fits that bill more than MEDEX does, and so Tiff and I decided to keep BYU's colors and make the short jump from being Cougars to being Bulldogs.  We even get to keep the same colors!!!  It will be kind of fun to tell people that I went to the "Y" and actaully have that mean 2 different schools, haha.

I also want to say how grateful I am for Tiff, who was nothing but supportive throughout this process.  I am a lucky man to have her by my side.

      

Family Fun

Last weekend we were able to spend the last weekend in Parowan with my family - and all of us were there. It's still a little weird to me that we are all grown up and it takes concerted effort to get us all home at the same time. One thing on the top of the agenda was to take family pictures - now that Andre is a permanent addition. We drove up through Brian Head and over to Cedar Breaks to do so, making various stops along the way. It was surprisingly warm and everything was blanketed in a foot or two of snow. 

Ameya learned very quickly that she is not too fond of snow as deep as she is tall, although she did seem to enjoy it in the beginning.

I honestly don't know if I had ever seen a snowy Cedar Breaks before - it's quite striking.

Much to Brittani's dismay, all of the boys walked out to the very edge causing her a little newlywed panic. As a side note, Hunter slipped in the mud when he first started (making a mess of his belt, pants, jacket, and gloves) which caused me to panic a little as well.

More snowy baby dog...

She was definitely over it by this point.

Of course Kenny had to take advantage of this awesome tree chair.

Then for the individual(ish) pictures...

Beachy Days and 26.2

I'm a little slow catching up with it all, but here is some more from Hawaii! Here's to wishing we were still loving the warm, clear weather in Hawaii rather than this nasty 20 degree high inversion we are experiencing in Draper. This post is to warmer days. 

We had one day devoted to the beach. On our way out, we stopped at a Buddhist Temple that was really close to where we were staying. 

It was pretty fascinating and felt like we had been teleported to Japan. 

Do you see the perfectly maintained rock garden? Wow.

North Shore in December = HUGE waves, just in case you were wondering. It is a workout just playing in them for a while. Big waves are my favorite kind to play in. We were smart though and learned to surf in Waikiki with much calmer waves. 

 I don't think you can really say you've been to Oahu without hitting up Matsumoto's for some shaved ice. 

...or the Shrimp Shack for shrimp of course. Best food of the whole trip - and I don't even like shrimp normally so that's saying something.

Our final day in Hawaii started with the whole reason we went in the first place - so Hunter could run in the Honolulu Marathon. All of Oahu was invaded with people there so they could participate. All in all, there were 31,000 participants. We got to meet and talk with quite a few others. The ones we talked to the most were Benji and Amie Durden. Turns out Benji is a marathon legend taking 3rd in the Boston Marathon in 2 hours and 9 minutes at his peak. What?!? Small world it is, they know Hunter's Cross Country Coaches and are good friends with them. Even crazier - Benji finished this marathon in 3:46:14. Making him 792/31,089 - placing right after Hunter.

Here are Hunter's stats:

Time: 3:46:11

Overall: 791/31,089

Gender: 688/10,830

Age Group: 86/1,077

Pretty impressive for his first go at it, no?

Don't worry, the frisbee made it too. haha. 

We finished the day off with the swap meet at Aloha Stadium (where I got these glasses - here's to hoping they last for a while) and bumming it at the beach. 

We were so sad to come home. It was a quick but awesome trip. One we will definitely be repeating - with or without marathon involvement.

Laie Temple and The Polynesian Cultural Center

One thing that we always try to do wherever we go is attend a session at the Temple. We were happy that this time around we were on the island with a temple!

At the end of that road is the ocean! It seems to always be such a short trip away :)

Next door to the temple is BYU-Hawaii and next to that is the Polynesian Cultural Center. Interesting side note: 75% of the Polynesian Cultural Center employees are students of BYU-Hawaii. It is hard to capture the spirit of the place in pictures. The tour included visiting the different "islands" of Polynesia. Each one had different things that were traditionally done and a fun little show to truly showcase the people.

One of the first things we saw was the water parade.

Representatives from each area did a cultural dance relating to the island or group of islands they were representing.

We were also able to do some traditional weaving...and made kissing fish!

Here are some pictures of the different areas highlighted...

We learned a hula dance! The boys wouldn't show us how their mad hula skills even though they got to watch ours. Rude. haha.

After our tour, we got to take a boat to our luau dinner.

Which also consisted of a pineapple filled with pina colada smoothie...

We finished the night off with the night show. which was a pretty incredible sight to see. The whole thing was incredible, really. This may have been Hunter's favorite part of the whole trip. I have a hard time deciding what mine was because I loved so much of it! This definitely ranks among the top contenders though.