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!

Nautical Birthday Party

Ahoy!  I decided to throw a special bash for our little birthday boy.  It was more for me as his mommy to celebrate not only his turning one, but for keeping a human being alive for a year.  Impressive, right?  So I decided to do a nautical theme and invite our dear families.  Here's the invite:

                                 

Our parents and sisters with their families were able to make it.  Here is the spread:

We had Captain's Wafers, Goldfish, nautical cupcakes, watermelon, lifesavers, water bottles, and "chocolate treasure".

 The decor:

 

 Some of the guests:

The weather turned out lovely so we pulled out some kiddy pools:

However, the water was cold, so our guests could only handle so much:

 

Only way Joey would sit in there is if Sam held him. 

 

 Beau wanted to be part of the fun:

What we all enjoy most on any first birthday:

Not sure about the singing:

Being dainty:

Daddy showing him how it's done:

Yum!

Making sure the frosting is in every nook and cranny:

Happy Birthday, Joey!