The Traveling Kind

Well, hey party people! I was so worried about not sleeping that I couldn't sleep! So here we are! I decided to make 2:23am productive -- welcome my blog post about Phoenix (and the surrounding areas). Initially, I thought Phoenix would just be a dry, flat desert with the occasional tumbleweed, but I was  wrong! This city is beautiful with mountains in, and surrounding, the city. There are trees galore...not really grass...but tons of trees and cacti. Fun Fact: palm trees, which are all over Phoenix are not native to the area (makes sense when you think about it, they seem like they belong, ha!). They are seriously ev-ry-where-uh. There's art all over the place too! We've visited the Heard Museum which displays Native American art and we went to many galleries in Scottsdale. Most recently we visited the Art Museum at Arizona State and enjoyed a couple of exhibits of Mexican art. We've LOVED it here! We have 6 weeks left and intend to fill it with more art and advent...

WARNING: Boring picture dump ahead... But there's a story about a bidet...so that's not something you see everyday...whose idea was that anyway?? Ryan and I did the trip from Denver to Thousand Oaks, CA in three legs. Our first day we drove from Denver to Moab, UT. How beautiful that drive was. First, we started out in the snowy mountains where the temps were in the 40s.  Then, as we slowly made our way to the west side of the mountains the snow disappeared and the temps rose. The landscapes were so vastly different but so beautiful in their own ways. I just can't believe that if Ryan and I would've chickened out that day 4 years ago we could've missed this. We would've spent our yearly vacations on a beach somewhere and completely missed it. Moab is the cutest little ol' town. There are a few national parks nearby with loads of hiking, biking, and ATV-ing, a river for rafting, and there's tons of stuff to do in town. We DROVE through Arches, st...

No big life decisions here, don't worry, we're not settling down or anything. I mean an ending in Denver and beginning in Thousand Oaks, sillies! We've only been in Thousand Oaks for about a week but it feels like an eternity since my last shift at Rocky Mountain Children's. We spent our last days in Denver finishing up our bucket list, drinking the rest of all the beer with friends, and seeing Kacey Musgraves in concert! We spent a day in Breckenridge seeing the mountains and catching up with an old Texas friend. Our last snowy weekend in Denver, we were dunzo with the snow. Spring had sprung! And then snow happened...and is apparently still happening. On our way to Mount Rushmore we saw signs for Oregon Trail wagon ruts and had to stop by!  For some reason or another Ryan decided to look to see how far Mount Rushmore was from Denver and it turns out it's only a 6 hour drive! Knowing that the wind never really seems to blow us in the direction o...

Well y'all, we've made it to Denver. We left Chicago right after I got off work and drove straight through the night to maximize our time at home with family and friends. We got to spend about 5 days catching up and on Friday we started our trek Raton, NM our midway stop. We moved in on Saturday and by that Monday I was sitting in the first day of my week long orientation. Then, by the time I got home Ryan was already asking if we could extend here. Ha! I hadn't even been on the unit yet. But I have to agree, Denver is pretty amazing. There are so many craft breweries here! In fact, there's two right by my hospital, and one or two right by where we live. Convenience. Ha. Our first 9 days here consisted of moving in and work. The last few days we've really gotten to explore our area a little bit. Yesterday we ventured to the front range of the Rocky Mountains and drove the Lariat Loop which is a 40 mile scenic loop through the mountains. The little mountain towns her...