we have officially entered the last year of residency, so the job hunt is on. it seems a little crazy to me to be looking for a job nine months in advance, but i guess it takes a long time to get licensed and credentialed. hospitals start looking plenty early to get their positions filled. grandma berta was nice enough to come out and watch our boys for us while we spent nine days travelling to idaho, utah, and oregon. we couldn't work it out to pick her up, so we dropped the boys off at david's and off we went.
our first flight was pretty late heading up to boise, so luckily we got bonnie to go to sleep pretty easily. it was a bit of a late night by the time we got to boise, picked up our luggage and rental car (went back to report some existing damage to said rental car), and got to the hotel. we were definitely glad to stay in boise instead of having to drive the 45 minutes into mountain home.
mountain home was a surprisingly pretty little community. the community tour they took me on showed me a lot of great amenities while ryan got to know the facility a little bit. we left feeling like it could be a real possibility for us.
since we finished up in mountain home on saturday, we drove down to logan (with a quick stop to drop off a treat for a missionary who's family lives down the street from us) to stay with my grandma for a couple of days.
grandma found this beautiful quilt that her great aunt made for her when she was a baby. her mother didn't use it much, but once grandma grew up and moved to clearfield, it got used a lot with a flooding problem they had. its in pretty rough shape around the edges, but it is so beautiful and such a treasure to me.
the bottom corner says 'lucile' which is why grandma thought i'd like it. just perfect for our beautiful bonnie lucile :)
somehow i was so crazy to not even take a picture while i was there with bonnie and her namesake. this is the closest i got. bonnie loved taking a bath in great grandma's sink and loved when great grandma chatted with her.
it was pretty chilly, so we were glad we brought some warmer clothes. we got to go to church with grandma and have dinner with greg and shirley. ryker and his soon-to-be-fiance (presumably), mitch, even came up. it was so fun to see so much family.
we drove down to provo on sunday night and got a big box with this gift basket inside when we checked into the hotel. we sure felt special! perfect snack foods.
bonnie looked so cute ready for all her interviewing :)
we did a quick interview with the administration side of intermountain healthcare before we drove down to richfield utah for an interview with the physicians there. the best move they made in richfield was to have the doctors' wives take me to lunch and on a tour of the community. it was so nice to connect with some women who knew what it was like to be at our point in life, plus they were super nice. it felt like a very relaxed, family-like group there.
one of the doctors' wives is a real estate agent, so she met us to show a few houses to give us an idea of what housing was like there. when i went into her office, i found the card for one dirk dopp who spent a summer selling living scriptures in thatcher and hung out with tish and i on a near daily basis. what are the odds?!
we took a picture of one of the fun parks we saw to send to the boys
bonnie was such an awesome traveling companion. everywhere we went, they were super impressed with how happy and easy going she is. she was so flexible with naps and napping locations and was happy and smiling for everyone who even looked her way.
after finishing in richfield, we drove back up to provo area and spent the night a chris and tish's new house. tish went to pick up tucker when we got there, so i watched jocelyn for a minute. mostly she just hung out in her bed and i let bonnie lay with her for a minute. what a difference a few months makes! bonnie looked huge!
between their dog and two rowdy boys, bonnie spent most of her time in the swing. it was her first experience in a swing and she loved it - especially the mobile.
tucker wanted to hold bonnie all the time. he's such a good big brother. i kept looking around for cody and isaac and thinking how much fun they'd have been having with tucker and riley.
tish hosted dinner with nisha (and her two cute kids - lenora and hugo, who the boys called hogo) and sterling. amazingly, its been ten years since i've seen sterling, so it was fun to catch up a bit. heather and josh were going to come, but someone was sick. we missed them!
the next morning, we met up with brad schramm at qualtrics, where he works. we had to wait in the lobby for a bit, but luckily shoelaces provide endless entertainment. she's getting better and better at sitting up, but a cushy couch always makes things easier.
brad took us on a tour of his office and its pretty much awesome. they have a breakfast bar, snack bar, lunch bar, drink machines, gym/treadmill areas, lots of game areas, a couple of golf carts for lunch runs, and so many fun things. he pretty much has an awesome job. it was fun to see him for a few minutes.
we drove from there back up to salt lake where we caught a flight up to oregon. this is where we discovered the wonders of a plastic cup. hours of entertainment after the novelty of the shoelaces wears off.
we had a layover in portland and then flew to medford in a little propeller plane. we had to take a picture for cody. it is fun to say we've ridden on such a small plane that we had to walk out onto the tarmac to board.
we drove the hour from medford to klamath falls that night. the hotel we stayed in was pretty awesome. they had a great breakfast available every morning (including individually wrapped tillamook cheese), water and lemonade all day, soup and salad for dinner, and fresh baked cookies with milk in the evenings.
the area was absolutely beautiful, but i had a hard time getting over the distance factor. every trip to visit family would take an hour drive to medford + a flight with a guaranteed layover in portland or san francisco or a 24 hour drive. not my cup of tea.
after all the interviewing during the day - mostly bonnie and i hung out at the hotel to catch up on sleep - the ceo and her husband took us out to see the community. they even drove us up to crater lake. stunningly beautiful.
from oregon, we flew back to houston. it was a whirlwind of a week or so and we are so glad to be home and back with our boys!
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