June 2012

Current Weather:  104 and sunny (WAY TOO HOT!)
Current Gas Price:  $2.73 (AWESOME!)
Total Cockroach Count:  5

Hello Family!

How are all of you? We felt so happy and blessed to have been able to spend time with all of you this past month! Wes had two weeks off (in which we saw y'all for vacation) and then had two more (and final) weeks of medicine.  We is officially a second year resident at this point (July 2nd)! Hooray!  I have been on summer break and have greatly enjoyed the down time.  I've spent countless hours trying to make our wedding scrapbook...which is feeling like a hopeless endeavor but I am finally finished up to the reception.  I'm hoping to accomplish my goal this week so that I can bring it with me to show you in July.  But we'll see if that actually happens! I've been pretty lazy about starting it today!

June began in an amazing way as I finished my last day of work for the year and we headed to Tennessee for the lake!  We had a great time at the lake with everyone! I think we were all a bit disappointed that it turned out to be fairly cold that weekend but we still braved the wind and went out the boat for a bit.  John and Dad were in the water for decent amount of time (brave men!) and I ventured out for maybe 10-15 minutes before having to retreat to warmer climates...like my towel and the sunshine! We spent a lot of time (probably too much time) shooting beer cans off the back porch with our BB guns.  Wes and John did a little skeet shooting as well....Kim would throw a can off the porch and they'd try to shoot it.  Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful and did not hit a single can.  Here are some pics from the weekend:

Craig, Libby, Wes and me on the boat!

Kim, John, Dad, and Lynn

Dad & me shooting beer cans off the porch...

And some more...

Wes and John 

"Skeet shooting"

All of us on the back porch...haha, we're sort of blocking the lake but it's behind us!

Everyone else had to go back to work on Monday so they all headed home on Sunday afternoon.  Wes and I headed to North Carolina for hiking and camping in Pisgah National Forest.  We had heard about several trails in Pisgah from our "native-Ohio" friends in Greenwood and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Here are some pictures from our little excursion:

Our campsite at Mount Pisgah Campground.

Smartwools and flip flops...I camp in style! :) 

We made shrimp-pineapple fajitas for dinner.  YUM!

Me in this beautiful meadow. 

Wes on top of Sam's Knob. 

We took another trail at the base of Sam's Knob (can't remember what it was called)  but it ran alongside this beautiful creek and kind of took us in a big circle between several several smaller mountains. 

Wesley by the creek. 

Me on top of Black Balsam Knob.  Gorgeous view! 

Wes stoking the fire with his "femur" log.

Next, I enjoyed a few days off while Wes worked a few clinic days.  Then we enjoyed a visit from the Halderman family the following weekend! They came from all over the place to Greenwood! Dana came straight from California where she had been vacationing with Ben (he unfortunately had to work), Brent and his friend Cammie came from Colorado, and Logan/Halderman parentals came from Ohio! We spent a day in Greenwood, doing various things, went to our church on Sunday and then headed for Table Rock in the upstate.  I'll write more about the rest of our trip in the captions!

We took them to Fusion for dinner.  This is one of our favorite restaurants in Greenwood.  

This is us inside Fusion.  They have Thai and Japanese food here as well as sushi.  Wes ordered some sushi for everyone to try! Haha, some people required more persuading to try to the sushi but in the end, everyone tried a piece and liked it at least a little bit :)

We walked around the Festival of Flowers exhibits during the day.   This is an annual event in Greenwood.   Many schools and companies in the community sponsor and put together these flower displays.  We walked around the Uptown and looked at all of the exhibits.  They had this camera, a jeep, a giraffe, a tiger, and a bunch of other things made out of flowers.

Wes making breakfast for all of us before church. 

Getting ready to leave for Table Rock. 

The weather forecast was pretty bleak for our camping trip so we stopped in Greenville so Wes and I could buy this  little tent/cover thing.  We had been wanting to get one and this was the perfect chance...it looked like we were going to need it! 

The weather held up for our first night and we made the world's largest foil pack for dinner.  Haha,  Mom was pretty incredible moving that thing around the fire...it took major skill to maneuver it! 

So while we were sleeping that night...the rain came! It was pretty much pouring down rain  most of the night and Wes and I tent was the only one that remained dry throughout the evening.  Our new tent thing came in handy after all!

Here we are huddled up for breakfast!

The forecast looked even worse the next day so we decided on Plan B ...we'd go to Asheville and possibly try hiking in Pisgah National Forest again!

We decided to hike Black Balsam Knob again since we had enjoyed so much the previous weekend.  Unfortunately, you could not see anything from the top besides giant rain clouds all around you! So, the view was kind of disappointing.  And as we began our decent down the mountain it, of course, started to pour down rain again! Haha, honestly though, I thought it made it way more fun! We had a great time! 

Wes and Brent ran ahead of us, got the cars from the parking lot and came around to pick us up.  We were prepared with our hitchhiking thumbs though...just in case they didn't recognize us :) 

Wes and Brent picking us up!

After hiking we had worked up an appetite!  Wes and I took them to our favorite restaurant in Asheville, Tupelo Honey Cafe.  It has "modern southern" food and it is delicious! 

This is us in the hotel on our last morning together.  Wes and  I had to head back a day early because he had to work the next day.  Everyone else stayed in Asheville for another day and enjoyed the local "sights." 

 After our two mini-vacations were over we settled down into a day to day routine.  Wes started back at work and I began my relaxing vacation day to day routine :)   The new interns began orientation on July 13th or something like that so there were several get togethers for them.  We enjoyed the annual Skit Night at Dr. Smith's house.  Last year, we didn't really know anyone so the skits were not that funny but this year we enjoyed them a lot more.  The intern class has to make fun of the second year class and vice versa.  You can view the intern class video below.  Wes is at the very end so if you want to scroll ahead that'd be good.  It's not that funny when you don't know anyone...but you can see all of his fellow interns if you're interested! The second years teased Wes for hanging out with his wife so much...haha so we took that as a compliment! You can view the video here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWxP53CIR8) 

 Wes also got a weekend off in which we went to Greenville and road on the bike trail for a while.   This was my first time riding a road bike so I was super wobbly at first and I was pretty nervous about running someone over on the trail but I got used to it and managed to not hit anyone! Here are some pics!

We were very disappointed to find out that our bike rack works on the 2007 Honda Fit but not the 2007 Honda Fit Sport...which is what we have.  So we had to take Wes' Accord to Greenville instead.

We rode around Furman University for a while too! 

We took a little break to see their famous clock tower.  There were so many turtles in this little lake!  I counted at least 10 but I know there were more! They had really pretty gardens and landscaping on campus! Very nice! 

So, that's about it! We are headed to Peru on Monday, July 9th...so one week from today! We are getting excited about it and pray that we will be useful there! Haha, maybe I'm concerned about being useful more than Wes...I'm pretty sure he'll be useful! And then we'll see y'all in late July! Can't wait! Love you all!