Casting

I've got 5 weeks left of the academic year. In order to get us ready for our clinical rotations we're learning some of the really fun clinical skills like drawing blood, starting IVs, suturing and casting. Friday afternoon we got a chance to put casts on each other and then cut them off with the cast saw. ( I couldn't watch while Kristan cut my cast off - but it's actually pretty difficult to cut someone with a cast saw.)

These are awesome classmates of mine, if the back of the photo you'll notice me using the cast saw.

 

Emerald City Comic-Con

Jeff came up to Seattle the Thursday before General Conference weekend so that we could go to the Emerald City Comic Convention. We had a great time, Jeff got comics signed, I played the new Star Wars game for the X-Box Kinect (it's like you really have the force) and we got a ton of pictures. Here are just a few of them.

Me and My new friend Jon waiting in line to see Kevin Conroy. Notice the Brony in the background.

Kevin Conroy, the voice of Baman/Bruce Wayne in the Animated Series.

 

For John (my brother, not the new bearded friend Jon)

 

 

This is only a small sampling of what we saw. It was great! Who knows, we might make it again next year!

Easter Morning

No Easter baskets at our house this year but we did have a delicious Easter breakfast of waffles with fruit! Will and enjoyed a lovely day with an afternoon walk around Mt Tabor park.

Baltimore

After taking a nap Satirday afternoon in DC we ventured out to Baltimore. Blake and Stefi were kind enough to drop us off at Ann and Andrew's and we set off exploring, their apartment that is. Ann had the Young Women broadcast and Andrew had... twelve things he was doing, so we were left to fend for ourselves. We know that Ann would feel fine going through our kitchen so we went through hers and made some pancakes!

After a wonderful time at church (we love our downtown congregations) we had a relaxing afternoon of nap taking and chit-chatting. Around 5:00 it was time to go exploring. We found out that Fort Mchenry closes at 5:00 but Fedral Hill has a great view of the city:

Ann and Andrew then took us on a nice driving tour of Baltiomre. It is a beautiful city! There were streets filled with row-houses, each block having a different style. We stopped at a park in the middle of a neighborhood. The park was full of tulips so we took some fun pictures.

It was a fantastic visit to Baltimore. If you ever get the chance to visit Ann and Andrew you should take it. Even though Ann is having a baby girl this week and Andrew is busy changing the world one tech student at a time they sure know how to show some West Coast bums a good time.

DC trip

We started our trip off with a red eye to DC from Seattle arriving early Saturday morning. Blake picked us up and we headed into DC. We started off with lunch with Stefi at 2 Amy's for some tasty pizza and rounded out the afternoon with some shopping in Georgetown. Here are the boys enjoying some treats.

Blake and Stefi were kind enough to drive us to Baltimore. Monday Ann brought us back to DC and visited the American History Smithsonian with us before she headed home to Baltimore. Will and I visited the Newseum - our favorite museum of the trip! And we caught up again Monday night with Blake and Stefi for Georgetown cupcakes and a night time drive to the Lincoln and Jefferson monuments.

Will practicing giving presidential addresses.

Tuesday we walked the Mall, seeing the Supreme Court, the White House and Congress Building. We stopped by the Phillips Collection and had dinner with Blake at Good Stuff.

Supreme court with protestors outside.

The capital building and the Canadian Embassy from the Newseum.

We had a great time visiting Blake and Stefi and are excited to see them in June for their wedding! Congrats you two!

 

Punchbowl Falls

Friday morning Will and I were up early and headed out to the Gorge to fit in a hike that we've been wanting to do since we moved here. Punchbowl falls! It's not a long hike, just a little over 3 miles. But it was beautiful! It was fun to be up early and out on the trail before most people. We had a trail completely to ourselves on the way there and saw just a few people on the way back.


All along the way we found little waterfalls and weeping rocks. Here's one of the little falls we could see across the river.
Here was our first view through the trees of the falls. We took a small trail down to get a closer look. The water level was pretty high. My favorite part was the beautifully clear water with a touch of aqua blue color in the deep parts of the river.

It was lovely to get a chance to get out of Portland and enjoy some of the beauty around us! We even saw a bald eagle on our way back.

Two Days Off

Sara didn't have school on Friday and I didn't have to work Friday or today so we've had a little more time together than we normally do. We went hiking, I washed the car, Sara studied, and we even took some time out to write a few blog posts about our trip to DC/Baltimore/Seattle/Emerald City ComicCon. We'll try to space things out so you don't get a Will and Sara overload.