Jacob's Moab Birthday

Insert from Chris, just because he was so excited about his first backcountry call: "On Tuesday at 19:00 we were paged to a mountain biking accident on a remote trail north of Moab. The other EMT and I staged our ambulance near the trailhead with search and rescue and we headed out on their ATVs to the scene. It took almost two hours on the rugged trail to reach our patient, but fortunately it was only a fractured clavicle and not critical. We administered some pain meds, put his arm in a sling and took off on the bumpy ride back. By the time we returned to the station it was around 01:00 in the morning.

One of the SAR rhinos for backcountry patient transport.

On my previous shifts I haven't had very exciting pages - I've been a "call killer." So I was pretty stoked to get my first backcountry run! Due to the remote nature of Moab's surroundings, I'm looking forward to many more interesting calls like this."

Now back to Dani: The highlight of our week was definitely when my brother Jacob and three of his friends came down to visit! Jacob's birthday is June 7th, and he talked some friends into carpooling down to Moab the weekend before to celebrate it in Moab. Chris and I planned some fun adventures. They left Provo around 7pm Friday night, and when 11 o'clock rolled around we were anxiously waiting their arrival when I get a call from Jacob telling me that they were going to be a bit late... "Where are you guys?" we asked. "... about 14 miles outside of Saint George." "Uh......"

Yep... St. George is 5 hours away from Moab, on the opposite side of Utah! Apparently everyone in the car thought somebody else in the car knew the way, and nobody bothered to say anything. Luckily they drove safe and the crew finally arrived here around 4am.

Knowing how tired everyone was, we let them sleep in a little as Chris and I ran over to the warehouse to borrow some river gear. Once everybody was awake we ate a good breakfast and then headed down river road to ducky the daily (a ducky is a two person, sit-on-top, inflatable kayak). Since nobody else had river experience Chris and I kinda got into "guide mode" with a safety speech at the put-in and step-by-step instructions on how to run all the rapids. We all had a lot of fun enjoying the river, and nobody flipped.

Jacob and Carley in White's Rapid

Our boat bent in HALF when we got surfed in the wave!

A quick lunch followed the river and then we headed back out to play. We originally planned on going to left-hand (a waterfall with limited cliff jumping) but thanks to it's popularity in town and online, it was too crowded to enjoy. We chose instead to hike up right-hand which is a much better kept secret. At the end of the hike there's some natural waterslides, and though the water was really high with snowmelt there was still a small section we were able to slide down. Afterwards we went to the much larger (and crazy fast thanks to all the flowing water) natural waterslide by the power dam. Everyone had a blast sliding!

                                         

Our busy day of exploring combined with their late arrival wore everyone out, and we spent the night with snacks and a movie. After church Sunday morning we had a family lunch and I surprised Jacob with a birthday cake. Jacob and I have always been HUGE Harry Potter fans, so it was only natural that I drew inspiration from Hagrid for his birthday cake.

It was sad to say goodbye, but I'm so grateful that Jacob and his friends were able to come visit. They all agreed that it was worth the 9 hour drive here, so we must have done something right as hosts/tour guides. We're just glad that it only took them 3 1/2 hours to get back to Provo.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

The Men in My Life

Chris put in some 12 hour shifts at the office this week to try to catch up from our week-long hiatus, and he also agreed to fill in for one of Doc's assistants in Springville this Friday. We both had Wednesday off, so we spent the day mountain biking the Bar M - and considering it was my first time ever mountain biking I feel like it went really well. Chris is definitely the mountain biker, and I've always said it was the one adventure that looked too scary for me to have the desire to get into. However, Chris is convincing and after he bought me a used bike, it was impossible to tell him no. And I quickly realized that I actually love it! I definitely have a ways to go before I can do some of the crazy trails that Chris enjoys, but he's patient with me so I think this will be a lot of fun for us as I learn.

Work was a blast for me on Thursday because I got to go on the river! There was a family in town who wanted to go on a day trip, and since I was in town my boss asked me if I was willing to go, and we did a daily even though the company technically isn't open yet for the season. It. Was. Perfect. I sure have missed the river, and am excited to run it all summer long.

On Friday, Chris left at 4:30am to drive up with Doc to the Springville office to see patients. Although the staff in the Moab office do a great job of involving Chris in working with patients, most of his work is on the computer and on the phone. So Chris really enjoyed working directly with the patients in Springville as he checked them in, took their vitals, gave IVs, and took blood draws. By the time he goes to nursing school he will be showing his peers how to do this stuff!

Chris and I were lucky to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Andrew, and were even luckier that my dad had plans to fly in for a few days. We had a lot of time to spend with him and my brother Jacob. Saturday morning Chris and grandpa worked on fixing their Suzuki while grandma and I did some gardening in the front yard. After our busy morning, my dad landed and met us for lunch. We enjoyed grandma's yummy spaghetti, and then had the pleasure of having grandma and grandpa play tour guide for us. They took us to Thanksgiving Point and rented a golf cart to give us an amazing tour of the beautiful flower gardens, and after that we went for a drive up Alpine Canyon. Following our drive we left the Andrews to drive down to Provo to meet Jacob for dinner at Red Lobster. We then made it a really late night when we spontaneously decided to go to the dollar theater and see the new Star Wars movie in 3-D. It was a super fun night and was worth the lack of sleep.

On Sunday we went to church with Jacob. The reason Dad flew out in the first place was to give Jacob the Melchizedek priesthood, and Chris was honored when Jacob also asked him to stand in the circle. It was a really sweet moment, and I loved seeing my favorite men worthily using the priesthood. After church we had lunch and just spent time talking before Chris and I drove home.

While driving home we took a quick detour to drive around Price, as it is an option for nursing school. Price has been our first choice because their insanely cheap tuition and cost of living, but as we drove around the town, it just didn't feel like home. We arrived in Moab to an acceptance letter from Weber University (which we hadn't expected to get accepted to - here's a lesson in needing to have more faith!). Now we have a whole lot of praying to do as we have big decisions to make.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew