Soon...

In just a month from now I will be married to this Sexy guy!!!

Nathan, you melt my heart. :) I love you!!!

sneak peek of our engagements: enjoy! :)

Graduation and New Beginnings.

Seriously??... September was the last time I posted?!? WOW! So much has happened since than. I have some catching up to do now. For the last 3 months I have been devoted to my studies of echo/vascular ultrasound, writing my baccalaureate thesis, studying elective material I don't much care for, and on and on. So blogging has definately been at the bottom of the to do list. BUT good news is that I am ALL finished!!! For good..No more school for me!!! WOOT WOOT!! Life is gooood!! I turned in the last of my work this past Friday and let me tell you... it was a huge relief. I walked out of the Allied health building feeling like a new woman. Seriously I was on cloud nine. :)

These past 18 months have flown by. I remember starting my program and thinking the end was so far away and how on earth was I going to learn this foreign thing called ultrasound. I was terrified and really questioned if I was going to be able to grasp the material and scanning. After all, I had the biggest shoes to fill. My Dad was the best at what he did. He was respected by many who worked with him and truly loved his job. There have been several times where I have felt my Dad's hand in my journey through school. Having my clinicals at McKay Dee where he worked for 14 years really brought me closer to him in a way that I will never forget. He is still very much a part of that place. I often found myself thinking "How would Dad do this?" or "What would Dad expect from me?" I know that his expectations from me are VERY high and I know that it has pushed me to work harder. I miss him. It has been a hard road to face without him but I have been in good hands with good people who love what they do as much as my Dad did.

I want to express my gratitude to Jake, Jen, Heather, Marci, Char, and Jeremy for taking me under their wing and showing me the ropes. I had the best clinical experience hands down. I have enjoyed learning from each of you and thank you for being so patient with me. It has been a great experience. SO great that I just don't want to leave....

So I'm not. They've offered me a job to work as a tech in echo/vascular. :) I am so excited! I have been working the past 2 month cross training into Vascular ultrasound. So far things are going pretty well. Vascular and Echo are so different from each other but I've really enjoyed learning vascular and the new challenges it brings. The vascular team has been awesome to work with and very patient with all the questions I've had. Thanks Kam, Meg, and Phil. You guys are so much fun! :)

It doesn't feel real that I'm officially done with school for good. I've got plenty to keep me busy with the holidays and I'll be hopping on a flight Friday night to the Dominican Republic with my Mom and Brother. So EXCITED!!!! It has been so dang cold lately that I am looking forward to soaking up some rays on a white sandy beach. :) P.S. If any of you have any recommendations on good books to read... let me know. I have been looking forward to reading a book of MY choice for months now!!!


I will update more of what's been going on these past couple months real soon. Stay tuned... it's a goodie... Six Flags, Halloween, Swine flu, homecomings, birthdays, and holidays. :)

LOTOJA. 09

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to ride support for Nathan in the big LOTOJA race. I knew that this was going to be one tough ride but I had no idea how hard it really was. The race starts in Logan and finishes in Jackson Hole. It's 206 miles, making it the longest one-day bicycle race in the country. People come from all over the U.S. to test their physical and mental stamina on the course that has three mountain passes just in the first 110 miles. It was really a neat experience to watch 2,000 people come out and push themselves. It was amazing how many people get into it. It's a big deal!
Nathan ROCKED it!!!! Seriously... He did so well! I am so proud of him. It was his first time riding it and he finished strong just over 13 hours. He did such a good job!!
I'm glad I could be apart of it. I had so much fun! The atmosphere was great, everyone cheering on everyone, and it was exciting to see all the riders just pushing themselves as hard as they can. Honestly... I don't know how anyone does that whole race by themselves. BUT I think it would be really cool to be on a relay team and do it. hm... maybe...Who's with me!?! Oh wait... I need to get me a bike first. :)

Bagels and Gatorade... Breakfast of Champions!

FauxToJa. Nathan wasn't officially registered to race so Greg took a sharpie and made the fake LOTOJA tat so he would fit in with the rest of the riders. What happened is that he applied and everything back in March for the race and didn't get picked out of the lottery. He decided to race anyway... who's gonna stop him?? it's a public road. :) The funny thing was that Greg ended up making this replica like 2x bigger than the original symbol. haha It was massive!

5:45 AM!!!!! Getting ready for a LONG ride

SO many riders...

Getting snacks for the support crew... Me and Greg

{First feed zone} Nathan explaining to us how he got clipped by a tandem bike and crashed. Oh and they didn't even stop to see if he was ok. RUDE! He was lucky that he didn't get ran over by anyone in the peloton. He hurt his lower back/tailbone and had some road rash on his ba-donk-a-donk and ankle but he kept on going. He's an animal!!!

Riding, riding, and riding some more.

Sweet sweet victory!!!

After 13 hours of riding... he still looks sexy!!!

Greg rode the last 50 miles in and did awesome!!!

We made it to Jackson!! Woot woot! :)

2 hours later.... ready to pass out waiting for our dinner. Honestly, the day went by pretty fast but by this time I felt like I had just rode 206 miles on a bike. Exhausted!!!

But I would do it all over again! :)

Up and coming events for October:

Cal-i-forn-i.a.

Derek's coming home!! {2 weeks and 2 days}

Halloweeeeen! Wahhahahhaa!

Labor Day weekend at the "Trabin"

Labor Day weekend I spent with my Mom, Nathan, and the Okelberry's at the Trabin. What the heck is a "trabin" you ask?? Well it's exactly what it looks like... mostly trailor with a little bit of cabin built on= a Trabin. ha! We've been coming up here for years with the Okelberry clan. We were definately missing some people this trip {4 boys on missions, and the Smedley's}but it still was a great holiday weekend full of fun. We spent our time 4wheeling, canoeing Box Canyon {beautiful by the way}, going into Yellowstone National Park to do a little swimming of the fire hole and seeing Ol' Faithful in all its glory. Of course the weekend was full of games, laughs, and good food. To end the fab weekend, we stopped at the falls on our way home with some friends.

Box Canyon
We made these sweet shirts just for the trip. Peace&Love.

Ye Old FaithfulSwimming Fire Hole
Oh my...what nice hooves you have.
Gorgeous!

P.S. This cute boy below will be home from his mission in ONE month {October 15}!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! I cannot wait!!! :)

So long sweet summer.

You have been good to me. I shall miss you dearly. Until we meet again

**August in review**

At the first of August I attended an Ultrasound/physics conference in Las Vegas. The conference is designed to help me get ready to take my boards when I graduate. It was an intense 3 days of class {I'm talking ALL day 7:30-5). My brained was completely shot by the time we left Vegas but I still managed to have plenty of fun with this hot boy while I was there. We layed out by the pool, had dinner at really yummy restaurants, had frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3, road the rides on top of the Stratosphere, and saw "real" jousting at the Excalibur. :)

LaGOOOOOON. It's where white trash fun is. ;)

Photobooth was broke so we created our own.

YSA Jackson Hole Trip.

Me and Lexi

We found Big Foot!
AHHHHHH!!!

Ready to raft the Snake River.

Me and Nathan on our way up to The Canyon's Resort in Park City

Enjoying some good ol' blue grass music.

Jamie and Collin

Monday night at the Bees game.

A baseball game is not complete without the following: Hot dogs with lots of ketchup, coke, and don't forget the big league bubble gum chew.

As you can see we kept ourselves pretty entertained throughout the game.

Nathan obviously has better bubble blowing skills... He works out :)

Holy HUGE bubble!!!
Good friends, good food, and sweet summer tunes from Kalai.


... summer has come and gone, but there are more good times to be had. :)

Stay tuned: Labor Day weekend in Island Park *
LOTOJA {Logan to Jackson}*