A new adventure

Can I just say how much I love Michigan and the changing seasons? I have really enjoyed living here...(except by the time it is February and bitter cold.) But I had a moment of sadness when Matt found out that he matched into a fellowship in Georgia! This means that next year at the end of June we will be making the move to Augusta. It is about 2 hours from just about anywhere we could want to visit in the south and I am looking forward to a change and new experiences. So, for all of you just itching to experience the south, we would love to have you come see us.

Matt with hair!

If any of you have seen Matt recently, he is a new man! Since he is done with taking call and the weather is cooling off, he is taking a new step and growing out his hair. Many people have commented on it and some have not recognized him. What do you think?

Utah September 2011

We went to Utah to visit family and spend some time in the mountains. This is our nephew River. It was my first time meeting him and he just stole my heart. He is such a sweet boy!



Matt has been dreaming of the rocks and mountains so of course we had to spend some time hiking.



Oktoberfest up the canyon. Loved the band!



Doing the chicken dance.




One of our hikes. Matt's mom lives at the base of the Cottonwood Canyons so she is close to lots of pretty mountains.




Out to dinner with friends, Tim and Jaime. We had so much fun with them and enjoyed a very delicious meal in downtown Salt Lake.



Outside the Salt Lake City temple.



Since Nic and Ginger both live in Utah, we all got together our last day there to hang out. We thought it would be fun to go to Park City and ride the Alpine Slide. All of us got to ride with the kids and little Audrey hung out at the bottom with Matt's mom.



Cooper and Nic won in a close race against Lily and Emily.



Matt and River just barely passed Angela.




Eliza and Amber smoked Melania and Ginger!




This is our newest niece that we got to meet for the first time...Audrey. She is so adorable!



We got to keep the good times rolling with everyone at dinner.



On our stroll around Silver Lake. (There was a school field trip there that made me remember how exhausting that it can be to have a day away from school...much harder than just being at the school for the day.)

1 year left...well at least for today

We are in the home stretch of residency...well, at least of being in Michigan. Matt started his last year of emergency medicine residency here in Detroit. He is now the senior resident and getting closer to the top of the medicine totem pole. When you are done with all of your training you are called an attending...that is the goal. Next year at this time Matt will be the attending, unless he decided to continue training and in that case he will be a fellow, which is most likely what will happen. SO, we COULD be done in a year, but more like another 1 to 2 years AFTER next year...one day it will all be over. (At least that is what I keep telling myself. :) The golden question is when will Matt be done? Wouldn't we all like to know? What is he going to be doing? He IS an Emergency Medicine Doc with an emphasis on something to be determined. Where are we going to live? Not sure, but somewhere back west.

We are truely enjoying Michigan and these are some of the reasons:

1. We love the weather...most of the year. I still feel like more than half of the year is cold, but when it starts to warm up I absolutely love it. We are more than acclamated to this weather too because now the 80's feel very HOT! This coming from the girl who was raised on the sun...I have gone soft.
2. The church in Detroit is completely different than we were raised around and there is such a purity and newness that is refreshing. I have such a love for the people in my ward that I can't explain. Plus, our ward building is SUPER cool and I still look up occasionally and just stare at the beauty of it.
3. This place is claustraphobic to me. It has taken me until now to figure out how I can tell where north is and know what direction I am going in. Michigan is so full of beautiful trees and no elevation whatsoever that when everything is in bloom and full you fill like you are living in a tunnel.
4. The Michigan left drives me crazy! For those of you who live in normal driving land, this means that most of the time you can't make a left hand turn at the light, but you have to go past your turn and then make a u-turn and go back to your turn to make a right hand turn. Does this make sense? Not really, and when we first got here we weren't sure how to handle this turn. Some of them have a stop sign, while others have a light so it was confusing as to what we should do...watching others and following right along was how we learned the ropes. Brother!
5. It is close to some fun and new places that we have never been and might have never been able to visit. Luckily, when we moved here we were able to go to some church sites, Niagara Falls, New York, and Canada. I would still like to take some time and go to Chicago for more than a day. Plus, our family has an excuse to come visit and see the sights.
6. The food is fabulous! We have found Lebanese food since living in Michigan and it is a favorite of ours. I have no other words to describe it except...YUMMY!

Shark Week

Why do I enjoy shark week so much? Good question...but I can't get enough of it! I hate sharks and the fact that they are in the ocean keep me from going too far out in the water and make me panic whenever I can't see what is beneath me. So, why is it so fascinating to watch animals that terrify us? Just curious.

In honor of shark week we watched the movie Soul Surfer. It was a great movie about coming out of trials with a good attitude and making the most of a bad situation. The message was great, but can I say that Carrie Underwood makes a much better singer than an actor?

Detroit Zoo

The Detroit Zoo is only 5 minutes away from us and we have been waiting for a nice enough day to go. We finally got that chance a couple of weeks ago and we could both use a distraction so, off we went.

A sloth...yes he is real even though he didn't look it.


A red panda...looked like a fox and bear mix.





These were Matt's favorite...the rhinos. He was certain that they had a connection.



My favorite was the giraffe. Isn't he cute?


Wild pigs. We have actually seen some of these firsthand while camping in AZ.



The anteater was just about the ugliest animal we saw that day...wouldn't you agree?


Good day at the zoo! We didn't really take pictures of us, just the animals.

Summer!

The saving grace of our summer has been our grill! We have used it a ton to cook outside, which keeps the whole house from heating up when we use the stove. Plus, Matt loves being outside and feeling "manly". ;)



We also LOVE our hammock and have had some good naps on it. The only thing missing here is our inflatable pool where we get to put our feet in and cool off...which we have also found is a good breeding ground for mosquitos!



You can't really tell from this picture, but there is a storm brewing and the sky is a greyish-green color. The air is also THICK with humidity. This is what we have now come to know as summer.

Belle Isle

We live in an old house which has no air conditioning, except for one window unit in our bedroom and since we can't hang out there all of the time we try to be out doing things as much as we can. Michigan summers can be pretty warm and with the added effect of the humidity, we can experience some unbearable heat.

One day when it was super hot in our house we decided to check out Belle Isle. It is an island on the Detroit River, which runs between Michigan and Canada. This isn't the cleanest of places, but it was really green with lots of flowers, plus it had some fabulous trees which provided for some nice shade from the heat.



Detroit is on the right and Canada is on the left side of the river.






The edge of the river was SO yucky! There were several dead fish washed up...what does that tell you?



I don't think we will go back, but at least we have checked it out.

Coney Dog Showdown

Back in town we wanted to get a taste of pure Michigan...Coney Island hot dogs!(Matt was back in the game for this trip downtown.) There are two family owned restaurants that are next to each other and they each think that they came up with the idea for the Coney Dog. They have been on a show called Food Wars, which ironically was on the day after we had our own "food war".



First up, Lafayette Coney Island. This place has a fast pace and is a little like "Soup Nazi" feeling. The guy hollers out the order and threw the drinks on the table along with the food.




These hot dogs had great flavor and the chili was mighty tasty!



Up next: American Coney Island



This one had the diner feel to it and was much calmer! Quite tasty also.




I don't know why we didn't take any pictures of the actual food we ate, but we had a clear winner in our taste test. Lafayette 3 to 1 American. The major difference for us was the chili on top. (On Food Wars, American won.)



Bonus: Some sights of Detroit.




Thanks Dad and Mom for a fun visit!

Last day on the road

We took the tour of the Kirtland temple, but the church that owns it doesn't allow you to take any pictures in the temple or visitor's center. So, this is what we have to show from our tour.



This is a beautiful painting at the Kirtland Visitors's Center.



Kirtland has restored and replicated lots of the buildings that you would have seen at the time the Saints lived in Ohio.




What a fun and very fast trip!