San Diego

Hi Everyone! As some of you might know, Kiley and I are celebrating our 3-year anniversary next week (on June 24th). Because of Air Force Officer Training last summer, I wasn't able to be there to celebrate with Kiley. So, we decided that we would have a spontaneous trip to San Diego less then a week after I got home from Ohio! Here are some of the highlights:

SeaWorld

Since I am on Active Duty orders until July 15th, we get lots of great military discounts. We got in to SeaWorld for free! We only had to pay for parking ($15) and the souvenirs that we bought. I think this perk might be worth staying in the military for. :)

Shamu Show:

Beluga Whales (Kiley's Favorite):

Journey to Atlantis ride (I'm in the front) - this water ride turns into a roller coaster!

These flamingos are going for a walk - they have to get their exercise!

Me and Joey soaring across the Mission Bay area:

San Diego Zoo

Active Duty military also get in for free at the San Diego Zoo, so we only had to pay for Kiley's ticket. What a great deal! Here is my favorite animal:

Unlike Kiley's favorite animal (the Beluga Whale), mine came with a warning:

So many cute animals!

I loved these cute pandas:

Joey hanging out with the seals:

Joey and his mommy on the Skyfari overlooking all of San Diego:

Joey didn't like the goats at first, but I think he warmed up to them at the end:

Cool Komodo:

Look at this wild bird's long mustache:

The aviary exhibits had some pretty awesome birds flying right over us:

I guess this orangutan was sick and tired of entertaining the crowds:

Who knew that grizzlies were so playful?

We found this beautiful little oasis, and I had to take a picture!

Here's the love of my life!

Temple and Mormon Battalion

After spending much more money on food and entertainment then we probably should, we decided to have a nice relaxing day at the temple and doing "churchy" things. Since we had Joey with us, we took turns going through an endowment session while the other watched Joey. How romantic, huh? The San Diego temple is beautiful! It reminds me of a Disney castle. I had fun taking pictures while I waited for Kiley:

Kiley really wanted to go to the Mormon Battalion monument, and I was a little skeptical at first, especially since the one in New Mexico is nothing to brag about. But this one was awesome! We had a Sister Missionary from Taiwan serve as our tour guide, and there were talking picture frames, cool videos, and lots of old equipment that the Mormon Battalion used on their journey. We also got to pan for gold, and we even got this cool photo as a souvenir for free!

On this trip, we found out that Joey loves being up high. Here he is in the tower at the Mormon Battalion Monument having the time of his life: 

After such a long day, we all kind of felt like Joey did:

This trip has turned out to be a lot of fun! And, it was especially nice to have so many discounts for being active duty - one of the many blessings that has come from serving our country. I am grateful for my wonderful family and especially these past three years - they have been the best of my life! Thank you Kiley for being such a wonderful companion and friend - I couldn't ask for anyone or anything that could make me happier than you. :)

School of Aerospace Medicine - Dayton, OH

Hey everyone! It's Sam again, and I am blogging from the Holiday Inn in Fairborn, OH (just outside of Dayton). As part of my Air Force scholarship (the HPSP), I am required to be active duty for 45 days a year. This year, I decided to go to the School of Aerospace Medicine - I am in the Aerospace Medicine Primary (AMP) 101 course, a 2-week introduction to flight medicine. Super cool!

Here is a breakdown of the course:

• Week 1 = "Death by PowerPoint"
• Class starts at 8am and ends at 4 or 5pm.
• Out of class activities - trip to the fire station, flying lessons (simulator and real plane), trip to the air traffic control tower, GSOS - spatial disorientation lab, hypobaric chamber (to simulate high altitude, effects of low oxygen, decompression, etc), and more!
• Lots of fun!

Here are some of the photos that I took (and that I stole from the Internet):

Me looking nerdy with my fire hat and transition lenses (new glasses!) up 60 feet in the air on a fire truck ladder:

Hypobaric chamber - don't I look legit?

Here's a picture I took during my 14 mile run yesterday. When I hit 10 miles, my left knee started hurting really bad, and I had to walk about 2 miles back to the hotel when I couldn't stand running anymore. Turns out I got IT Band Syndrome! Oww...

My trip to the Columbus, OH temple, about an hour from my hotel:

The famous USAF Museum. Dayton is the city where the Wright Brothers are from, so it is a pretty historic little town!

On Saturday, we got to fly! We had a brief introduction on how to fly. We then did the simulators for about an hour, and then it was off with an instructor! We got a total of about an hour of flying time, and half of it we did by ourselves. We learned how to take off, do "touch-and-go's" to practice taking off and landing, taxi the plane, ascend and descend, basic turns, banking turns, stalls, etc. What a blast! I learned that I get pretty airsick in these little planes, so next time I'll go on a bunch of roller coasters beforehand to condition myself. Here are some photos of the plane that I flew, the Cirrus SR22:

I should have known this would be harder to control than a car:

What a blast!

Here is the GSOS (Gyroflight Sustained Operations Simulator) - a flight and spatial orientation simulator:

I am coming home this Friday, and I can't wait to be back with my family. It has been a lot of fun here in Ohio, though. Our hotel is SUPER nice, and I have a Mazda 5 rental car (all paid for by our lovely tax dollars) so I can go wherever I want after the duty day is over. I am planning on returning here my 4th year of medical school for 2 more courses (AMP 201 and 202), and then I will be a basic flight surgeon! This will be in conjunction with my specialty (I'm planning on doing Ophthalmology), so I will most likely be in clinic 4 days a week and then help out in the flight surgery clinic 1 day a week. And I'll get to fly! :)

Mexico 2014

¡Hola a todos! This is Sam writing, here to give you an update on our wonderful summer (I have the laptop so Kiley doesn't have access to these photos...). I successfully finished my first year of medical school (woohoo!), and I will be starting a rotation at an internal medicine clinic in Albuquerque on July 7th. In the meantime, we have lots of celebrating to do!

The day after my last two examinations, Kiley and I left for Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point), Mexico with her family. We drove with Heidi and her kids, stopping in Tuscon, AZ for the night. We stayed in a super fancy casita for an awesome price - thank you uncle Mike!

Here are some of the highlights from Mexico:

• Banana Boat (big, rubber boat pulled by a motor boat - super bumpy ride!)
• Horseback Riding on the Beach
• Shopping
• Snorkeling (we saw tons of fun fish and lots of stingrays! In fact, two family members got stung - good thing we had internet to look up the first aid)
• Canoeing (Zach and I canoed over 2 and a half miles one of the days)
• Boogie Boarding
• Nieve (I would say "helado," but they called their ice cream "nieve" for some reason - that means "snow")
• Apples to Apples (although this game is not as fun with a bunch of kids who don't know what the words mean)

Zach and the boys:

Joey loves his grandpa Kartchner!

The delicious watermelon we smuggled across the border:

Joey had a great time playing with his cousins:

Leah enjoyed eating dirt much more than Joey did:

Joey and Kiley, my two favorite people!

Here's me:

Devery and Easton's beautiful family. We had a great time taking pictures for them!

We always love taking walks on the beach:

Not my glasses! I don't know if you can tell, but Joey already broke this pair - there's a piece of pink duct tape holding them together:

What a beautiful sunset!

We had a blast going to Mexico - Thank you Kevin and Doreen!