News from the Beehive State

Hello to all our friends and family! We miss you all!
A lot has happened since my last blog post, so here's the latest:
1. We took a trip down to New Mexico to celebrate with Jesi Hale and David Dornbos on their wedding day. The wedding took place at the Hale residence--the landscape was beautiful! Since Jesi is part Navajo, the ceremony reflected many Navajo traditions. We loved it! It was so great to see many friends from Calvin at the wedding. We saw friends from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, California, Texas, Colorado, and Michigan! We were able to explore a bit the morning of the wedding and visited the Gallup Flea Market and went on a hike that included some impromptu crack climbing. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was worth it!
2. I started my clinical rotation at the VA hospital. I've completed 3 of 7 weeks of this rotation and there has been ups and downs. I enjoyed the outpatient portions which included counseling and classes for diabetes, weight management, and heart health as well as home-based visits. While not all of the patients are easy to work with, some are really funny--whether or not they are trying to be. Also, Dr. Oz seems to the #1 competitor with dietitians--most patients would rather believe him that us. It's hard to convince a faithful Dr. Oz viewer that he actually has no formal education in nutrition. For the last week and a half I've been doing inpatient dietetics. Unfortunately this is much more overwhelming. Most of the patients I talk with are really sick and don't want to be bothered with nutrition questions. Although I've had a few who have told me to come back anytime to talk because I remind them of their granddaughter :). A highlight of my inpatient experience happened yesterday--I got to watch PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line insertion surgery. A PICC line is a long, flexible tube that is inserted into a vein in the upper arm and advanced until the tip reaches Superior Vena Cava (in the chest near the heart). I watched this surgery because total parental nutrition (which is used when an individual's intestines are not functioning) is given through a PICC line. Unfortunately this surgery went terribly wrong. The surgery normally takes 15 minutes, and this one took 1.75 hours! After looking at x-rays it turned out that the PICC line was in an artery going up to the brain (a life threatening error) and it was yanked out immediately. Wow!
3. Our friends in SLC, Caleb and Amanda, are getting married next month! We helped Amanda move her stuff to their new apartment (only 1.5 blocks from her old apartment) a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure we'll help Caleb with his stuff in about a month. Their apartment is only 1.5 blocks from our place. We also went to a couples shower for them--and it was camping themed! All the couples participated in a couples camping tournament. Unfortunately Todd and I could not throw a frisbee straight to save our lives, so we didn't advance past the first round. With a little help, Caleb and Amanda won after throwing bags blindfolded, racing in sleeping bags, and setting up a tent in record time.
4. Todd has set the bar high for all men by taking over all of the cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and laundry for the summer! It's been so wonderful. I wouldn't say he enjoys it...but he doesn't complain too much. My dad says he is setting a bad example...haha!
5. Todd has two students he is tutoring 1 to 2 times per week. Both students wanted some help with ACT preparation. He is also holding morning practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the XC team. He is excited about a few new athletes who have been showing up that may have some potential. Todd is VERY excited about the new TV we just bought...he's been researching them for over 4 months now. I wasn't that excited until I found out we now have TV land....hooray for I Love Lucy and the Andy Griffith Show!
6. We wish we could have celebrated with our fathers on Father's Day. We are so thankful to have loving, supportive, Christian fathers!
I think that's all for now. Happy Summer!

Hiking around in Gallup, NM

Sawyer showing how its done. This is NOT as easy as it may appear.

Jesi and David

Lauren and Todd playing bags

XC girls reunited!

Caleb and Amanda after winning the Couples Camping Challenge

Todd happily watching sports on our new TV

It's June!

Hello again!
So far June has brought two days around 90 degrees...much warmer than I'd like. But, early next week the temperatures won't reach 70, so it won't be lasting too long!
I've completed my first rotation for my summer internship. 4 weeks of food service management are complete! It was a great learning experience and I was surprised to discover how much I enjoyed it. I wasn't terribly excited about either the VA or the food service rotation, but I was proved wrong. I stayed busy with menu planning, safety and accuracy audits, meetings, plate waste studies, in-service for food service workers. and more. On Monday I begin the clinical rotation at the VA, which will be 7 weeks long. 
I just began work on my Non-thesis project on Nutrition for the elite athlete. I will be proposing my project to any interestied faculty on July 20. There is a lot of work to do between now and then! 
Todd just finished up school yesterday. He has signed a contract for next year and will be teaching one additional class. He will also be coaching cross country this fall. There will be practice a couple times a week starting mid-summer. Todd got some nice notes from students to thank him for being a great teacher. He certainly was a favorite teacher of many of the students!
We've both been running faithfully. Todd has decided to get in really good 5K shape once again. He is trying to ease into it slowly to avoid the injuries that he so often gets. My marathon training plan starts Monday so I've been building miles in anticipation of beginning that plan. 
We've been enjoying nice weather this past month. We grilled out a few times; once at a beautiful park near our house. We decided to spend a night at Steiner State Park over Memorial Day weekend. There was a nice reservoir with a great beach, but the water was still very cold. Earlier this week Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell stopped by Salt Lake City on their way to California for the wine festival. We showed them around SLC and then they took us to dinner at a restaurant on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The food was delicious and the view was very nice. It was so great to see family!
We have a big trip coming up next weekend! We are going down to New Mexico for the wedding of David Dornbos and Jesi Hale. We are looking forward to celebrating with them and seeing many of our friends. I can't take any work off, so we'll be spending most of the 2 1/2 days on the road. I'm looking forward to some relaxing time on the road for reading more of the book my Grandma VanWyk wrote. She wrote a book using all of the letters she wrote to family members beginning after her marriage. Reading about her life in New Jersey raising 6 boys and a girl has been so interesting. Thanks for writing this book Grandma!
I think that's all for now! 

Updation

Hello from Todd,

Anna is enjoying her last day off before starting her internship at the VA tomorrow by having me do the blog entry. We bought Anna a bike today from our neighbor so that she has another transportation option for getting to that internship as she has found the bus to be both a blessing and a curse depending on when she gets out of class. I had a great birthday hanging out with Anna and our friends Mark and Jenna. Thank you all for the cards/gifts. My team is getting ready for the region meet Wednesday and Thursday and we are hoping to qualify a few athletes to the state meet. I also got asked to be an assistant coach for cross country this fall as well.

The biggest news to report is of Matt and Holly's visit out this past weekend. We had a great time with them here in SLC and especially down in Zion National Park.We spent two days backpacking and a third day hiking while I played hooky from school Monday (the students were jealous). We saw lizards, frogs, a large salamander, mule deer and wild turkey but the most exciting thing to see was the scenery itself. For our day hike we went up the Narrows, which is essentially a hike straight up the Virgin River with about 70% of the hike in knee to waist water (or deeper). We rented special water boots and neoprene socks to keep our feet warm because the water was about 45 degrees. Everyone else we saw was wearing wet or dry suits but we toughed it out and had a great time. The best parts included hiking up a beautiful side canyon, standing in the wall street section with 2000+ foot cliffs on both sides, and herding some mule deer down the canyon. Anna and I will definitely be heading back because there are some great hikes in Zion that we would still like to do. Thanks for coming out to visit Matt and Holly.

Peace.

View from the top of the mountain that we live on the base of

Holly and Anna

Stopping for a break along the La Verkin Creek Trail in Zion National Park

Dinner at our campsite

Holly and Matt by the Virgin River

Waterfall by the lower emerald pool

Matt and Todd

Holly and Anna wearing their "water boots"

The water was DEEP at times

Anna & Todd

Holly & Matt

Holly & Matt at the Red Butte Gardens at the U of U

Making homemade pizzas

Vegas, Spring Break, Internship, Easter, Etc.

First of all, Grant, I've switched the font for you. Enjoy!
So it's been awhile again. The time between blogs continues to grow. A lot of things have happened, so I'll try to catch you all up to speed on life in Utah.
Shortly after my last blog post, Todd and I drove out to Las Vegas to join his parents for a weekend. Neither of us had been there before. We enjoyed walking the strip, dinner in a couple delicious restaurants, and catching up with Jeff and Bonnie. We also took a side trip on Saturday to the Hoover Dam and Red Rocks National Conservation Area. We took a tour of the Hoover Dam and got to walk around inside the dam. Todd's favorite fact he learned was that there is enough cement in the Hoover Dam to make a sidewalk around the entire equator that is 4 feet wide and 3 inches thick. Wow! We did a short hike in Red Rocks and climbed around a bit. We saw a couple groups of climbers and would have liked to join in, but didn't have gear with us. It was a great weekend!
Last week was Todd's Spring Break. He thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in! He still went to track practice for the athletes who were in town. He even "coached" me during a morning workout for my upcoming half marathon. Todd recently found out that the paper he had published in undergrad after his summer research project has now been cited in other articles. The theorem in their paper has been renamed the Hays-Mitchell Theorem. 
Our nutrition class put on a "$1.50 lunch" at school last week. Our task was to plan, prepare, and serve lunch on a budget--$1.50 per person. We decided to imitate taco cart food, except with a healthy twist. All guests paid $1.50 for two tacos, beans, rice, and mango rice pudding, as well as a short speech about food insecurity, eating on a budget, and nutrition. We set a department record for attendance (which got us out of our last test for food management!).
I have been given my assignment for this upcoming summer internship. After much confusion, I have been assigned to VA medical center. I will be there for the first 11 weeks of the summer (for both my clinical and food service rotation) and then will spend the last 4 weeks with the sports dietitian for the University of Utah athletes (my community rotation). Those 15 weeks make up my ENTIRE summer break. I was under the impression that I would get at least 1 week off--but that's not the case. Bummer! I'm not thrilled about being at the VA, especially because I was originally assigned to the University Hospital and the Huntsman Cancer Institute (a BEAUTIFUL new hospital), but due to some miscommunications and problems I got reassigned.
We had a wonderful Easter these weekend with friends. We invited 4 other couples over to our house for a potluck style Easter dinner. What a blessing it is to have met so many wonderful friends! 

Hoover Dam & the new bridge across the Colorado River

Red Rocks National Conservation Area

Red Rocks

Eiffel Tower Replica

Fountains at the Bellagio

Jeff & Bonnie

Inside the Hoover Dam

Climbing around at Red Rocks

Todd & I in the Venetian Resort

My nutrition class at the $1.50 lunch

The happy chefs :)

Easter Dinner

Spring Break

Spring Break has come and gone. It was so nice to spend some time away from school! Todd's Spring Break is coming up in a couple of weeks--it will be a much needed break.
Last week Tuesday was Olympus High School's first outdoor track meet. I came to watch and help Todd with splits. He has a small team with a few talented kids, but the team is not nearly as competitive as the South Christian team was last year. He is really enjoying it though and is looking forward to their next meet tomorrow. Unfortunately, his knee has been bothering him for about a month now so he hasn't been able to run much with the team. Hopefully it will get better soon!
On Wednesday my parents arrived in Salt Lake City! It was so wonderful to have them visit us for a long weekend. I gave them a tour of the University of Utah campus and took them to see Todd's school on Wednesday. On Thursday, we drove out to Antelope Island State Park. The island is on the Great Salt Lake. We did some hiking and then drove around the island to check out the view and the wildlife. That night we had dinner at the Squatters Pub downtown and watched a very close and exciting basketball game between the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves. On Friday we walked around downtown. We toured Temple Square and got lunch at the new City Creek Food Court. We also went to the new Utah Museum of Natural History. That museum is so unique! We then picked up Todd from school and drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. Although it was cold (barely reached 40 degrees) and snowy, we had a great time hiking down into the canyon and seeing the beautiful views. Mom and Dad joined us for church and Sunday school on Sunday. What a fun week!
Now we are looking forward to our next visitors--Holly and Matt!

Snowy Bryce Canyon National Park

Antelope Island

Mom and Dad at the top of the hike on Antelope Island

Bryce Canyon

Buffalo on Antelope Island 

Dad and I at the Great Salt Lake

Temple Square

Bryce Canyon

Mom and I on campus