Rocks n' Ducks

Last night was a lot more fun than hay haulin', I went rock climbing at WSU's rock wall on a double date with some of my really awesome friends. It was so much fun but once again, my arms are dead from the compilation of hay, skiing, and now climbing. After the wall, we had some hamburgers and virgin mojitos and then went canoing the WSU's duck pond. That was a blast because it was dark and the lights and fountains were on and there were baby ducklings everywhere!!! Ben caught a little baby that I saw floating right by the canoe and it was so cute! It pretty much fell asleep in my hands while I pet it for a while. Then we set it free even though we were a bit concerned because of how sluggish this particular duckling was acting. I also chased a rat out of a hole and watched him take off hopping across the lawn. Then, to top off this super fun night, we had rootbeer floats! All of my favorite things: ducks, rocks, and rootbeer floats!

Haulin' Hay

Even though working on a farm or weeding the yard and working around the house can be hard work, it's so worth it. I went and helped haul hay in Eden last night and worked my butt off rolling the bales in nice rows so the men could load them on the trailer easier as it drove by. It took a long time and three trailer loads but we cleared the lower field and got it all loaded in the barn. It was so rewarding to see the field empty and the barn fill up and even more enjoyable to eat the delicious pulled pork sandwiches waiting in the crockpot inside:) My back and legs are pretty sore now but all is well and I'm feeling really good at the dental office today. Dental assisting is not quite as rewarding (except the pay is a bit better) and it generally follows this pattern: set up room, seat patient, chart, suction, walk patient out, clean room, set up room again, seat next patient, chart, etc... The only real way you can see your work being accomplished is by watching the appointments turn black on the computer screen and seeing the time go by. Luckily, hygiene is not like that. You see a mouth come in covered in who know's what and then you send them home as clean as you could possibly get them in the time allowed. You can actually see the difference that your time and efforts have made and it's very rewarding.

Working Again....

Bear put on his "ice cream goggles" on the way to Island Park. It was the lid to a shake.


Well, I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Island Park with the family and a few other
couples. It was so much fun to go float the river and SKI!!!! I got some amazing runs in and I started to figure out once again how to cut harder
and it felt so incredible. I even got some sweet butter smooth glass runs in! I got to Sky Ski and surf again too which was a blast all while watching the baby Grebes and Antelope playing around in that incredibly beautiful area of Idaho.
(I know, I just called Idaho Beautiful... it still sounds so wrong to me:)

Waterskiing in the Reservoir

However, now I am no longer on vacation, nor am I home with free time like I
have been this summer... nope, I'm WORKING. Also really hard to believe, I know, since it's only like my 10th day of work this year! Oh we
ll, I'm still excited to actually be working so I can have some sort of income and not have to mooch of Brit the rest of my life!

Summer Update!

This is to document my first and only (so far) time in Denver, Colorado. It is also the time that I realized on my way to DC that my camera was almost dead because it hadn't charged right and of course... I didn't bring my charger!!! Thus why there aren't very many pictures of this DC trip. But it was still very memorable.

Well, July has been great and June was awesome! I went to Washington D.C. to present my research project on Secondlife from June 16-June 20th. It went so well! Our presentation didn't win but we did stir up some interest and excitement among students and educators from across the nation about our National Board Review Second Life project for next year! I also got a bunch of free dental swag and lotions and other random prizes from the ADHA conference. I'd definitely suggest going to the national convention whenever possible because it actually was pretty interesting.

I mean Esther Wilkins herself was there!!! (for those who don't know... she is the author of our very most important Dental Hygiene text book that many refer to jokingly as our "bible". The rest of my time in D.C. I spent at the Smithsonian wandering around all the different museums. I also made it over to my grandfather's grave in Arlington National Cemetary although it took me four hours of walking, phone calling, and searching it was definitely worth it.This is Kara, Pam and I being reflected in the Vietnam Memorial where my Grandpa's name is written.

I was also able to locate his name on the Vietnam Vetrans Memorial: Leroy P. Bohrer. It was a very neat experience for me to feel that much closer to the Grandpa I never got the opportunity to meet in person. I flew straight from D.C. to Portland to help my sister drive home for our family trip to Lake Powell. The drive home went very smoothly and rather quick despite the incredible tempest we had to power through for about an hour. As always, Powell was a blast. We got plenty of ski time in and I got a few great runs on the Air Chair as well.