arches

Our computer has been broken. We have Dave's laptop, but I don't really love using it, so I only go on it when absolutely necessary. But Dave fixed the Mac for only 20 bucks and a couple hours of time so hooray for not having to get a new one! And it means I can get back to writing.

It has been a long few months. Dave had an easy rotation in July, which allowed us to be in Idaho for almost 4 whole weeks. But since we got back it has been one long week after another. 70-80 hour work weeks really wear on you. And the wife at home for that matter.

But last week was his vacation week and it happened to coincide with the kids having a 5 day weekend from school. So we took a trip down to Arches National Park. We have been wanting to go since we moved to Utah and it did not disappoint.

This picture was actually taken on our way out of the park. But its one of the few that has us all in it.

We camped in the park, but we got their after dark, so we had no idea what was surrounding us. We were not disappointed.

Our campsite at sunrise

We started off up at Devil's garden, where we hike for about 3 hours and saw and played around several arches. Ana was our photographer for our big camera.

Landscape arch

On the trail

The trail got a little steep but our kids rocked it and I was only terrified a couple of times.

Our kids' favorite part of the entire park was the sand. Oh the sand. It was awesome and annoying at the same time.

After Devil's garden we went back to our camp and ate lunch. Then we headed up to the Delicate Arch. The kids (Jack especially) couldn't wait to see "the" Arch. It's a 3-mile (round trip) hike up the side of a mountain. A lot of open slick rock. I was a little unsure of how the hike would go. There are viewpoints where you can see it, but we decided to try the hike.  I wouldn't exactly call it a kid-friendly hike. There were other kids, but not as young as Katie. There are steep drop-offs along the trail, particularly at the end. The arch itself is on the rim of a steep bowl. I was shaking I was so nervous. Not for myself, but for the kids. I was sure Jack would just start playing around and slide right down the mountain.

But man, was the arch stunning. I have seen hundreds of pictures of it, but I didn't realize how big and majestic it is.  It was amazing. It was definitely worth the terror.

See how tiny Dave and the kids are?

Are we taking a selfie under the arch, Dad?

I think of all the beautiful vistas and magnificent things we saw, my favorite thing about this day was watching the kids. They didn't complain. They didn't stop. They just kept going. We hiked a total of 6 miles that day and they walked it all. Katie, too. She didn't get carried for a minute (she did ask a few times near the end.) They played "freeze-unfreeze" down the mountain. Katie sang "the farmer in the dell" for a while.  Ana did about 89,784 handstands (give or take). Jack laid in the sand every opportunity he could. They all took turns carrying the water. We ate a ridiculous amount of dum-dums (which is how we get our kids to hike). And they did it! It was awesome to watch. Katie kept right up with the big kids the whole time. I was so proud of them. And they all slept soundly that night. Dave and I got to sit up by the campfire and look at the amazing stars.

Katie was the "freeze" captain. She always tried to freeze while Ana was in the air.

The next day we left the park, but not before exploring some more arches with much shorter and easier walks to them.

Sand Dune arch was one of our favorites. Tucked away between high vertical walls, and tons and tons of sand.

 

We went into Moab for lunch, and then went to Canyonlands National Park for the afternoon. (By the way, did you know 4th graders get into National Parks for free? Thanks, Ana!)

By this point, Charlie was kind of done. He was done not being able to get down and crawl around. He was done having irregular naps and meals. Canyonlands was amazing, though. it was perfect to go for just a couple hours.

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands

So. many. handstands.

 

And I think to myself: What a wonderful world.

keepin' it real

Coming home from work. photo credit: Katie

How Dave spends his days off.

veggin'

I am not generally one to complain about my lot in life. A lot of people warned me about how hard residency is on family life and for the most part we've been okay. Dave's kidney stone was a rough spot, but generally speaking, I feel like I have been coping just fine. In fact, I feel like it has been much better than I anticipated. (I won't speak for Dave, though.) I get into my groove and make plans and deal with things as they come.

But sometimes it just sucks.

Because for every long day he has, I have a long day too. I can't complain to him about it, because, let's face it, he will clock 80 hours this week.

Tonight was just hard. Jack had a baseball game for about 30 minutes until they decided it was raining too hard to keep playing. I came home and made a quick dinner but all anyone ate was tortilla chips. I then spent the next 30 minutes trying to get kids to help out a bit and then got Katie ready and tucked into bed and then waited and waited for Dave to get home so I could go to a meeting that started at 7, but I thought it started at 7:30 and then he finally walked in at 8 and I probably should have just stayed home but I didn't want to so I left and caught the tail end of it. I am glad I went but then when I got home the big kids still weren't in bed and dinner was still on the table and Katie was still awake because she is the worst go-to-bed-er in the world and I was super annoyed. But then I felt guilty for being annoyed because Dave worked freakin' 14 hours in one day and I read a book and took Katie to the zoo and ignored the mounds of clean clothes that need put away so who am I to complain? Katie finally settled down and I got the kids in bed and asleep just in time for Dave to fall asleep because he has to wake up at 5:30 to start all over again.
 
Sigh...

I don't want to be a Debby Downer. Life is good. It is so good. I am so glad Dave has a good job and is getting such excellent training. He is a fabulous dad and he is humble and intuitive and I could not have asked for a better spouse.

I just wanted to keep it real for a minute. 

The end. 

Close up picture of Charlie so we feel happy again. :)

a post about my resident spouse

On the Red Butte trail watching the sunset. 

Everyone told us residency would be hard. For both of us in different ways. So I started by lowering my expectations for myself, especially since I am pregnant. We are now nearing the end of Dave's 3rd rotation.

Just as an interjection for those who may not know exactly what it is Dave is doing - He is working primarily at Primary Children's Hospital. Every 4 weeks he rotates through a different branch of pediatrics - adolescent medicine, cardiology, etc. He also has outpatient clinic every week. At the end of 3 years, he will be a licensed pediatrician. Or he can continue on a do a 1-3 year fellowship in a specialty. He will apply for those during 2nd year if he wants to. Also sometime during this year, he has to take (and pass) Step 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam, which is a 2 day test. 

His first rotation was a pretty easy schedule, but he decided to get Step 3 out of the way right away so he was studying for that. We found out recently that he passed, which is awesome and he is glad to have it out of the way. The next rotation was "wards"  which is what most people generally think of as residency - long hours at the hospital almost every day. It was long and it was stressful, but I felt like I came through it all right.  Most of the time I felt like I played the role of the supportive wife pretty well. He worked hard and I did what I could to be his supporting cast.

I noticed something amazing about my husband too. When he had such limited time off, he wanted to make it count. He would take a kid to the library or to the store. He would come home for just a minute and ask if there was anything he could do for me. And even if he was really tired, he would curl up with the kids and watch a movie with them. It was amazing.

And then I got all full of myself and thought, "Okay, I have got this. I can do this resident wife stuff."

This rotation is split it two; the first two weeks were called Safe and Healthy Families which pretty much means you are dealing with families who are NOT safe and healthy. (Abuse, mostly.) But the schedule was pretty easy. The last two weeks are night shift at the hospital - just like wards but at night.

It has been rough. I don't do well with the night shift thing. Once I am asleep I am okay, but I am totally unmotivated to get myself there. And there is the what-to-do-during-the-day-while-daddy-is-sleeping issue. The older kids are in school, so that helps. Truth be told Dave is a pretty deep sleeper so that is good. Still it changes routines and schedules and trying to figure out when to eat dinner and what to fix and all of that stuff has been really stressful.

Then last night, while working his night shift, he started with some pain that got so bad that he ended up dragging himself to the ER. He has a fairly descent size kidney stone. They sent him home with some pain meds but he couldn't keep them down and when he did they didn't seem to be working. So tonight, though it was supposed to be his "night" off, he is up at the hospital again, as a patient.

Luckily for me, we landed ourselves in an amazing ward. We made one phone call and had someone over to give him a blessing.  My visiting teacher came to my rescue to watch my kids while I took Dave up AND fed us an amazing dinner. We are so lucky to be here.

As I sit here and type this all out, I feel really, amazingly blessed. Dave is such a smart, hardworking husband and I am so lucky to have him. He has such a strong desire to be a good dad and husband and to be an example of a Christian.  Even though the last couple days have been stressful and a little crazy, the Lord sends his tender mercies in simple things like a text from a sister saying that she understands, and the chance that my friend was home this evening when usually they eat Sunday dinner with extended family. God does not forget us.

Isaiah 49:15-16

 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.