Back by popular demand

Well, really just a couple people have commented that it has been a while since we've posted so I figured it was time to update you all. I'm sure by now anyone who likes to look at our blog or who knows us knows that "Little" Foote is on the way. We don't know what it is yet. I'm just over 16 weeks even though the counter says I'm almost 17 weeks. Apparently I was a couple days off. Anyway, we are getting more excited for that but we still have a long way to go.

So, the adventures of Kris and Jenny over the past couple of months have been few but they were fun. In January we decided to head to Ashboro for a trip to the zoo. It was pretty fun. It was a nice day and their zoo is set up neat. There is a spot designated for the African animals but it is a very open space and they can mostly roam together. I think they did have the elephants in their own spot but they had quite a bit of room to do their thing. We never did see the rhinos but maybe they were taking a nap somewhere. It was such a big area that some of the animals were tough to find because they were on the edge of the fence or in a corner. It was cool though. I don't remember if it was this gorilla or another one but they were quite active the afternoon we were there and one of them ran up to the glass and slammed into it. I was at another window but I heard the people scream there were there because they were scared. It was also doing a little dance for everyone.

Kris is working with the Weblos and they had their annual Pine Wood Derby at the beginning of February. They had fun cutting the wood, painting/decorating their cars and adding some weight. I think the big race was fun for them.

We were able to go to a Wake Forest basketball game one night. The medical students can put their name in for a draw to see if they can get a ticket to the games and we finally got some to one we could actually go to. It was fun. We ended up seeing some friends of ours and sat with them for most of the game. The Deacs won so that always makes the game awesome.

we had the event of the year...the weather forcasters finally forcasted some real snow. None of this 1 inch or less stuff that the kids can get off school for or at least have a 2 hour delay. We got a whopping 5 inches. It was really beautiful. Kris and I stayed home all day. It just happened to be on a day that I don't normally work and Kris didn't have school because they had a test that week. By the end of the week it was about 75 degrees. I guess I'll always be glad I came from Utah because I'm use to the weather being kind of crazy like that.

The first Saturday of spring break Kris had signed up to volunteer at the Special Olympics so I decided that I would go with him because really, what else was I going to do by myself...clean house?! The event that we covered was basketball. So, Kris was a medical volunteer which basically means he picked a couple people up off the ground when they fell or clean up scrapes. It was pretty low key but we had a good time. I was in charge of the time clock/score board in one of the gyms. It was fun to watch the people and how excited they were to play and to see how some of the coaches worked with their teams. They were so encouraging. It was a long time to sit but it was a good experience.

Sunday we picked up our friends dog to dogsit for a few days while they went to Florida. Salta was a bit nervous that first night but I think she liked us by the end. We took her hiking down by Charlotte at Crowder Mountain State Park. We did about a 3 mile hike I think and she made it most of the way by herself. She's a little dog so we had to pick her up for a few of the rocks. It was about 85 degrees that day and it was so nice to be in summer like clothes. The leaves haven't really started growing back yet but we had a nice time just being in the outdoors again. We are excited to get back to the mountains in the western part of NC but we will probably wait a few more weeks so there isn't any ice when we go. The rest of spring break I had to work so Kris occupied himself with other stuff. He made a little garden box so we can try to have a few fresh veggies later this year and he bought a model airplane of a beaver with floats. It will probably take a while to finish because this morning they started their next section in school...neuro-anatomy and the word on the street is that it is brutal. Well, I guess that is good for now. I hope you enjoyed our adventures. Come visit us and we'll take you on some adventures too.

Since Thanksgiving

While we were home in Utah at Christmastime we went snowshoeing in Rock Canyon. It was a gorgeous day, oh how we miss the mountains in Utah (and the snow).

We also took a fun trip to the dino museum at Thanksgiving Point with all the little nieces and nephews. They loved it. Other than that we had a great time with family and were able to visit some good friends also.

Thanksgiving in New York

New York with great friends was a wonderful place to be this year. We drove up from North Carolina and spent the long weekend there. Garret and Megan are great, they have a small apartment in Brooklyn, and let us crash on their futon bed. Coincidentally, they are also great tour guides, so we had lots of fun too.

This is a pair of Alaska Brown Bears at the American Museum of Natural History, what an amazing museum. It is huge and the exhibits are very well done, we could have easily spent all day there.

Clearly, we had to visit the Statue of Liberty. It was special to think of how so many people must have passed her in the harbor and what a symbol of hope and freedom she is. There is a poem, on a plaque by Emma Lazarus, that has the words "...Give me you tired, your poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free." What a blessing.
Lights, people, sounds, and smells are all around when you take a walk through times square, it is teeming with life.

One other place we visited was a retired aircraft carrier that has become a museum in the harbor, The USS Intrepid. They some fun stuff for kids and historical information about the life of the carrier. Back when it was active in the Navy, it had a crew of over 3000.

We saw many other sights in New York, this is just a few. Riding the subway was fun, we also had a great Thanksgiving dinner. If you get a chance to ride the IKEA ferry at night, the skyline is beautiful.

Ahhh, Pumpkin Pie

I made my first pumpkin pie over Thanksgiving, I think it turned out pretty tasty.

Wake Forest vs. Duke

Because Kris is a student at Wake we were able to get some tickets to the Wake vs Duke football game. It turned out to be a pretty good game because they were both about equal. Wake was able to pull off the win in overtime. Wahoo, go Deacs!

Grandfather Mountain

Grandfather Mountain is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is privately owned right now but I heard that the state of North Carolina is going to purchase it and make it a state park. It was a beautiful place. They have a "mile high" bridge which really means that it is a mile up from sea level but it was still pretty cool. It is a swinging bridge but it is made from steel I think. They also have a little wildlife preserve place that has 3 bears, some eagles, otters, cougars, and white tail deer. They believe that there are not any breeding cougars here anymore out in the wild. There aren't too many eagles either but the other 3 animals are pretty well represented in this area. Then we hiked to one of the peaks. It was only a mile from the parking lot but it was a good mile. There are a series of ladders that help you to reach the top of the mountain. It was awesome. There were 2 guys that we met along the way that said we must be from the west because we were wearing real hiking boots and not worn out tennis shoes. The one man's toes were hanging out the side of his shoe. Most of the leave had already fallen from the trees because they are at higher elevation but it was a beautiful day and a nice view. We wanted to continue on to the next peak but shortly after we started on the trail again we came upon some ice on the trail that was very slick and we didn't feel comfortable going ahead without knowing what we would find later on. We are still planning on going back sometime though because there is some cool camping on that other peak that we'd like to do.

Hanging Rock

We decided to take advantage of the first block of school being over with for Kris and we went to Hanging Rock State Park again. This time we hiked to a fire lookout. It was about 4 miles total and it was a fairly easy hike. It was pretty with all of the leaves changing. When you go hiking here there are so many trees and the shrubs are so thick that you can't see a whole lot until you reach your destination. It was definitely a pretty view. We are glad that there are places near by that we can go, even for half a day. 

Salem Lake

One day while we were out and about we decided to stop at a little place called Salem Lake. It isn't too far away from here and we thought we should see what we could do at this place. During the summer time you can rent canoes for an hourly rate or for the whole day, you can go fishing there if you have a license or there is a path that goes all the way around it that you can walk run or bike. We didn't do any of those things on our first visit there because it was an information visit only but we are looking forward to the time when we can go back and really enjoy the place.

Lexington Barbecue Festival 2008

I don't know if you have heard the word on the street but it is that Lexington, NC has the best barbecue pork in the world. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with that but I don't think my opinion from the west really means much out here. There is a festival that has been held for the last 25 years on the main street in Lexington. They have several stages set up so that groups can sing, there are rides, lots of little shopping places like at the fair, and of course the food. We had pork sandwiches which probably would have been a lot better had the buns not been totally soaked and smooshy. They have a spot where they display painted pigs. When the festival is not on they have some of them displayed throughout town. It kind of reminded me of the painted buffalo that are found in different places throughout Utah. Anyway, it was fun and that might be because we went early and it was raining a bit so the crowds weren't as terrible as people told me they would be. 

Pilot Mountain, again

Well, last week the weather was awesome. So great in fact that Kris couldn't stand letting it waste away and so we took another trip to Pilot Mountain. This time we did some rock climbing. We are both very out of practice and so it was a bit rough but we had a good time and we will probably be going there again. Most of the climbs are top rope so that makes it nice for people like us who need to build up their strength but still want to have fun. It was a gorgeous day but I got eaten alive by the mosquitoes there while we were reading at a picnic table. The price you pay for not wearing long pants.

The life of a medical student

As I have been sitting here updating our blog Kris has been diligently studying his material. I wish I had taken some pictures of the other times he has fallen asleep while working hard. I know that there is so much information that he gets each day and by the end of the day he is exhausted. It sure is cute though.

First weekend in October

So this past weekend was the White Coat Ceremony for the first year medical students. Kris' mom came out for the festivities and a little visit with her favorite son and daughter-in-law. They had the ceremony on the Wake Forest campus which is not where the medical school is. They had a speaker and then they had them come up one by one and put a white coat on them. It was neat and inspiring. I'm so proud of Kris and all of his hard work so far. I know that there is still a long way to go but he is going to be a great physician in whatever direction he decides to go. The speaker was the dean of the medical school at Texas A & M and he was a former faculty member here in the 90's. He decided to wear a baseball cap instead of the regular cap for these types of ceremonies.
The ceremony was held in the Wait chapel on the regular Wake campus. It was pretty.We spent that afternoon at the medical school and got a tour of the building where they spend all of there time. Then there were talks given by 2 professors and 2 upper classmen about the history of Wake Forest and the life of the student while here. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time.
The other part of the weekend was spent doing a little bit of birthday shopping, the county fair, traveling along a small portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and at Old Salem. The fair was pretty good. It sure seemed like there were lots of rides and game booths but we were able to find some of the other stuff we were interested in seeing and doing. I ate some roasted corn on the cob which was delicious, Kris had an ice cream cone, and Jean had a funnel cake which was also delectable.
We also made a stop at the demolition derby. It didn't compare to the ones I've been to in Fairview Utah but it sure was full of those people that come out of the woodworks when the fair comes to town;)
We saw a guy carving something in wood with his chain saw-it looked like the Karate Kid's teacher guy. I don't remember his name. We didn't stay long enough watching him to see what it really was going to be.
We also made a quick stop to watch the sheep dogs work with sheep
and some ducks.
Then we toured the education building with all the crafts, food, and photography that people entered. Hats off to all those who spend the time and make the effort to enter their stuff. Lastly we walked through the building that had all those people selling/promoting things. I only saw one thing that almost tempted me and it was a handbag, interesting. All in all we had a good time at the fair.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was pretty with the leaves just beginning to change. We didn't go really far on it but it did take us a good part of the day.Many of the overlooks were overgrown with huge trees so there really wasn't much of a view.
We went for a small walk in the trees here. The color of the leaves on this tree was beautiful.
The mountain in the background is Grandfather Mountain. It is a place on our destination list but we didn't want to pay an entrance fee on Sunday for just a few minutes. Right now it is privately owned but the word on the street is that it will be bought by the state sometime in the future.
Finally we stopped at some waterfalls. This is just above where the water falls through the rock. It was gorgeous.

Friday was test #2 for Kris and so we had the weekend to spend some time together without having to do much studying. We decided to make a trip to Stone Mountain State Park despite the gas crisis that was going down here in NC. Apparently we get all of our oil/gas from Texas and since they shut things down for the hurricane there was a sort of panic here. Anyway, we had a great time. I didn't know that we were going to be doing the stair master in the mountains but we did and it was fun. The hike we did went up and over the top of the mountain and back around. It was 3.8 miles. It's nothing like the mountains of Utah but they are still beautiful and I'm excited to see them when the leaves change. Word on the street is that it is breath taking.