The Journey Continues

The journey really does continue. Just wanted to let you know this site has continued/moved as well! Anything I post from now on will be at www.theadventurecontinued.blogspot.com. It is mostly still pictures:-) and a few verbal updates on what has been going on!

The Rest July and some of August.

The trip to the Northeast was the last in the line-up and I have been home since. Did some catching up with school and finished my summer semester by July 31. What a relief! This Fall I will be taking a Health Assessment class which includes a lot of the reasons I want to be a CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist) vs a NP (Nurse Practitioner so that will be a bit of a challenge. It includes 12o clinical hours which a doctor at church has graciously agreed to do with me! I actually created a website discussing the differences in the roles. The CNS has much more of a teaching and hospital based emphasis - http://cnsandnpdebate.weebly.com/. I am just going to have to power through. Speaking of websites though if you have not seen Abigail and Olivia lately you should check out the photos on Lynn's site at http://thecaliforniasmiths.blogspot.com/!
I plan on working at KU again in the learning lab and this time I will be teaching health assessment techniques to bachelors nursing students. Hopefully the two classes will compliment each other! Until then I am just enjoying the summer. Some of the past few weeks highlights were:Having dinner with Dee and Cheryl and playing with their precious ones (Adam above being some sort of monster) Emma and Riley!



Baseball games with the Royals and White Sox - the last of this season for those two at home!
Canoeing at Shawnee Mission Park with Adam's friend from work whose name is Adam and his wife Laura
The Fray concert - Adam took me for a surprise date. (AKA I like them and he was making me happy by taking me:-) )
Yolanda coming in town. Sarah broke her foot so she wasn't able to make it. We went to the zoo, made whiskey cake from the whiskey Adam had received as a groomsman gift at the wedding, went to Theater in the Park and saw the wedding singer (we don't recommend it), and a tour of the local brewery - Boulevard Brewery!


Dinner out to celebrate the end of the semester. Sushi, yes I am one of those pseudo vegetarians that loves sushi!
And then for my birthday weekend we went to Oceans of Fun which is a water park and had a blast. Afterwards Adam cooked me dinner - a recipe that his brother created. Yummy again!




And since I am working nights I will leave you with a 1/2 and 1/2 tower taken at Perkins. I have been working a lot of nights lately so we have been eating breakfast for dinner...My favorite meal!

Home Sweet Home

So it was home again to work over 4th of July and write a few papers (are we seeing a pattern here?) and then off to Adam's home sweet home - Pennsylvania! We started in Philadelphia with his brother. Adam is above with his brother's cat. I made everyone take a picture in front of the Liberty Bell:-) We visited Independence Hall and some of the historic buildings around Philadelphia. One of the most interesting, and a bit strange was magic garden which was created by an independent artist over years with pieces of pottery, glass clay, wood etc. (http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about/general-information) The mosaic took incredible patience and a little bit of insanity! From there we went to a Phillies b-ball game. They didn't win but the stadium was packed! While we were there Adam's brother created a NINE course brunch for us which was delicious. He is a chef so had thought of some crazy wonderful creations like salmon and bulgar wheat sushi, carrot sausage, french toast bread pudding with almonds and black cherries, toasted white chocolate, fruit with bee pollen and tarragon....I could go on but needless to say it was wonderful! Rob lives near the famous 'Rocky' steps and although we did not have time to go to the art museum, we walked around the outside and got a great view of I think Main St.









We took the train from Phillie and traveled to Hershey where Adam's parents live. We went to Chocolate World of course complete with singing cows saying how sweet the milk is, we road rides at Hershey Park, walked around a butterfly house, visited with his family and spent some time at Hershey Hotel. I am not sure that I could ever afford to stay there but it was beautiful!





The view from Hershey Hotel!

From there we took Adam's parent's car to Ithica, NY to attend a wedding of one of Adam's good friends from college. The drive was so pretty and reminded me a lot of Nashville with the rolling hills. Adams friends were so fun and welcoming and I had a great time seeing the campus where he studied and getting to visit some of the gorges that Ithica is famous for. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets and stayed with Adam's friend Joey who is a southern boy who has been up north for the past 8 years. He made me feel right at home with his accent and we were able to run some of the trails while Adam was hanging out with the guys. They played Wiffle Ball at the reception and Adam and I danced. I still love to dance!

Colorado Reunion 2009

After Nashville it was back to KC for a few days to write some papers and work. Then off to the Reno Family reunion. I flew to Denver and then took the 4 hour fabulous drive over the mountains to Gunnison. I came at the beginning of the reunion to catch as many Renos as I could. There were a ton of kids of course, lots of game playing and walks in the cool mountain air. One of the highlights was a day at the Blue Mesa Reservoir. All of the kids had fun paddling around in the rafts that Ter Bear had bought. It was another great trip, too short, but great to see the crew all together again!