Where have I been?

Here, there and everywhere.

It's a little late, but better late than never. Ryan, my fam and I went to Hawaii for a few weeks in August. We spent a week on Kauai and one on Oahu. It was the trip of a lifetime. We were able to spend some really great time together as a family. My mom was able to go, she has always loved Hawaii. She had a great time and I'm so glad I could spend it with her.

If you haven't been to Kauai, GO! It was amazing, beautiful, tropical, remote, pristine, adventurous, romantic, fun, turtle overloaded, and did I already say amazing? We had so much fun. We rented snorkel gear for the week and we saw some pretty amazing things. We swam with a ton of turtles, thousands of colorful fish, beautiful coral, ocean creatures, and even a shark! We also saw a seal swim up and sun-bathe on the beach right next to us.We took some amazing drives, saw some amazing views and waterfalls. Played at some beautiful pristine beaches. Had some fantastic shave ice. Took a very adventurous yet romantic catamaran cruise up the Napoli Coast. Spent lots of time playing princesses with Tori, Ryan was a big hairy yellow dragon, but later was turned in to a handsome prince, thank goodness. Tori celebrated her 4th Birthday and we had some fun times making silly videos with her new video camera! Oh and don't forget the time when Ryan fell asleep and Tori and I painted his big toenail pink! He got some funny looks at the pool the next day.

And on to Oahu. We had a great time here too. More of our family members joined us here and we got to be sucked in to all the tourist traps! We did the Pearl Harbor memorial. Went to the famous swap meet and got some great souvenirs. Ate pies from Ted's Bakery. Had a fun time at the PCC, did the whole shebang with the luau and night show which actually turned out to be a great highlight of the trip. We did Waikiki and ate at some local fav's suggested by Paula and Rick. We went on a beautiful hike to a lighthouse and an awesome coastal view. Swam with some pretty big sharks! And last but not least, before the trip, I rummaged up all of our old family videos from home and took them to get transferred to DVDs. Anna was so nice to pick them up and bring them with her to Oahu and each night we'd watch a few. There were truly some classics. Mom absolutely loved them and was constantly cracking up. Priceless.

Now were back and back on schedule again. Ryan started school this week. Liking his classes so far. I'm back to work and ready to jump into all the changes. I've lost a lot of coworkers this year, most of them graduating with their NP or moving on to Nurse Anesthetist programs. Hopefully that will be me in the next year or two. I'm starting school in the next few weeks at the University of Texas at Arlington online bachelors program. Should be about a year. We also have finally found a new intensivist to run our ICU! Dr. Mendez. Finally. Lots of great changes are coming and I'm so excited to go forward and make our unit that much more awesome.

Anyways, happy fall to everyone. Enjoy the nice weather!