Wacky Hair Day

Today at school it was "Wacky Hair Day" so we got into the spirit of the morning and went crazy! Andy and Michael wanted in on the fun as well! Our school colors are black and red. The effect was quite Halloweenish, so next year we'll choose some happier colors. The kids had a lot of fun and even helped each other put on the glitter! The extra child you see is Tressa Krauss. She comes to our house some mornings before school because her mom works at Mayo.

A Very Cool Yule

So, now that over a month has passed since Christmas, I figure it's about time that I post some pictures on the blog. To the good fortune of many, I am hoping to focus my time and yours on pictures in lieu of my typical rambling prose. Before proceeding , though, it would be appropriate to say that this Christmas was special as we were able to have Nikole's parents and her youngest brother over. We always enjoy their company, particularly during the Holidays.

As parents, Nikole and I continue to try to teach our kids about the true purpose of Christmas--to celebrate Christ's birth, life, and ultimately his sacrifice for us. This becomes tricky in the face of the the commercialization of Christmas. We are finding it difficult to both indulge our kids' excitement for tearing through wrapped gifts, while reminding them that receiving such presents should not be the focus of our celebration. Currently our balance leans a bit toward indulgence, and we continue to discuss ways to sway that balance in the future...

Here I am being the donkey in the Taggart Community Theatre rendition of The Nativity on Christmas Eve. The role came naturally to me.

Here is a group photo of all the actors in the nativity: Andy was a shepherd, Nate was Joseph, Haley was Mary, and Michael was a sheep.

Michael enjoyed his Thomas train set.

Nate's Santa gift was a K'nex roller coaster

Haley is pleased with her Littlest Pet Shop stuffed animal.

Andy is absorbed in his Leapster. Not pictured is the Nintendo Wii, which has quickly become our family's favorite toy.

Christmas is one of those unique occasions when sibling conflict abates, and brothers and sisters can express their true feelings to each other. Sort of.

I was able to take the day after Christmas off from work, and the weather was nice enough that we could go sledding at one of the big hills in town. It was a lot of fun, and we weren't run over by any snow boarding punks.

Naive in N'Orleans

I spent last weekend in New Orleans for the big annual American Heart Association conference. I had not previously been to the Big Easy and was looking forward to having some tasty Cajun and/or creole cuisine (they are different cuisines, right?). Several times throughout my stay I recalled that old commercial with an allegedly real, live Louisiana chef telling me that he "gar-on-TEES" that I will like new Cajun Style Ruffles. I don't think I ever got around to trying them, but I suspect that that commercial is responsible for my continued interest in New Orleans food.

The sad truth is that the extent of my New Orleans cultural experience was born of that potato chip commercial from the mid-1980s. I imagined impromptu jazz parades in the middle of the day, as onlookers shout out "OOOOO-EEEEEE! That is one a fine puh-RADE! I GAR-un-TEEE!!" So it should come as little surprise that I was somewhat naive in planning this trip. When selecting a hotel (location, location, location!) I found one nestled into a corner of Bourbon Street and concluded it would be exciting to stay where all the "fun" is. I would soon learn that my definition of "fun" differs greatly from the prevailing Bourbon Street definition. For me, "fun" is to eat my kids Halloween candy while trying to make it through an entire Netflix-issued DVD without falling asleep. Different definition, indeed.

Now, that's not to say that my hotel was skanky or anything. It was actually quite nice--Mayo Clinic was paying, of course. The only real issue, other than the low pressure, lukewarm showers, was the location. Directly across the street were a cabaret theater and one of at least three so-called "gentleman's" clubs that I passed each time I walked to Canal Street to catch the conference shuttle. The remainder of Bourbon Street was a hodge-podge of bars, blues houses and moderately upscale restaurants. The word was that the far east end of Bourbon Street attracted those of more alternative lifestyles. Even at my end of the street, though, I found more than enough alternatives to my admittedly prudish lifestyle.

After checking in to my hotel, I discovered that I had been assigned a 2-double bed room facing the inner courtyard. I quickly requested a switch and was pleased to find that they had a king room available with a balcony facing the corner of Bourbon and Bienville. I thought, great! Now I can open the balcony door to enjoy the evening music, while keeping the curtains shut so I don't have to actually see anything. It was a great plan, ruined only by the fact that the music I had looked forward to turned out to be a potpourri of honking, police sirens and drunken revelry mixed with three or four different musical genres playing simultaneously and each doing its darnedest to be the loudest on the street. There was Jazz, Blues, Country-Western, and Cover Band Playing Selected Hits from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

The thing is, the cover bands were actually not bad. It became somewhat of a surreal experience. One minute it's Joe Cocker. Next it's the Eagles. Then there's John (+/- Cougar) Mellencamp. Guns N' Roses. The Beatles. I half expected them all to come out from their various bars at the same time, look around at each other with a confused expression on their faces and say something like, "Wow. What a coincidence. Aren't some of us supposed to be dead?" Instead the Billboard hits just kept on rolling and rolling... until at least 3 AM. It was a Saturday night, so I figured that with the weekend and all, I shouldn't have expected a quiet night. Turns out the weekend had nothing to do with it; Monday night and Tuesday night were no different. Apparently there are always people in New Orleans looking for an excuse to party and get smashed. And where better to do it than right under my balcony.

I don't want to be the cynic who won't acknowledge the good there is in a place like New Orleans. I have to say that I didn't meet a mean person during my stay. There was, of course, the old toothless lady outside the Krystal's hamburger stand who was trying to pick a fight with an old toothless man. But she doesn't count, because 1) it was probably just a really bad hangover, and 2) technically, I didn't "meet" her. Otherwise, though I have to say everyone was very nice and friendly.

Another thing I really enjoyed about New Orleans was the food. While half of the time I may not have known exactly what I was eating--what exactly is "debris" on a Po-Boy sandwich?--I for the most part enjoyed eating it nonetheless. Perhaps my favorite meal, which also turned out to be the cheapest, was at a little hole-in-the-wall called Coop's Place. I had barbecue shrimp, Cajun fried chicken, jambalaya, green beans and red beans and rice. Never mind that we incurred a 20% fee for requesting that the three of us to have separate checks ("I have to enter your order now, then go back and re-enter it to get your bills. It's a real pain in the [butt]."), it was a very fulfilling, albeit a heart unhealthy meal.

Afterwards, we walked back to my hotel, where three other colleagues were finishing their dinners in the oyster bar located, again, right below my balcony. After perusing the dessert menu, I decided that I just wanted some ice cream, which, of course, they didn't offer. So I walked across the street for a $5 ice cream cone and brought it back to the oyster bar window, opposite which the rest of my party was seated. It was a prime location, as I could both signal to them that they needed to hurry up and watch Monday Night Football on one of the widescreen TVs hanging behind the bar. My fantasy football team's victory hinged on the performances of a couple players, so I had a real interest in how the game turned out.

Around this time, a friendly guy who referred to me as "Big Man" came up.

"Hey, Big Man! Whassup? You watchin' the game?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"Whose your team?"

"Neither one. Just watching for fun."

"That's cool, that's cool.... Here you go, Big Man."

At this point he pulled a small business card from a stack of about 30 or 40 and offered it to me. I glanced down at it. I didn't read the whole thing, but I immediately recognized a curious series of X's at the end of some word in the center of the card. Now, I'm no genius, but I'm fairly certain that there is no real word in the English language that has more than one X in a row. Using the deductive reasoning skills that I honed from years of trying to figuring out which of my kids forgot to flush the toilet, I concluded that whatever dubious activity he was inviting me to participate in, I was not interested.

"They is [ladies of the night]," he explained, as if I needed an interpreter.

"I'm not interested in that stuff," I responded plainly.

"Oh, that's cool... cool, Big Man. I get it. You married?"

"Yeah, I am. But even if I weren't, I wouldn't be interested." The complexity of my negative conditional statement caught him a bit off guard.

"You never been to a [gentleman's] club?!"

"Nope. Never."

My reply was met with stunned silence. Visibly confused, he tried to make sense out of the events of the past 90 seconds. I mean, what kind of person hangs around on Bourbon Street after 4:30 in the afternoon? Certainly not the kind who doesn't patronize it's various fine establishments. I wanted to provide him with context for my response, but, while the thought crossed my mind, I decided it was probably not the best situation to explain to him my moral and religious beliefs.

Undeterred, and seemingly unable to find any other logical explanation for my disinterest, he asked, "So, what? Are you Mormon?!"

Stifling the urge to laugh, I explained that, yes, in fact, I am a Mormon. He was excited to inform me that he, too, is a Christian. We exchanged a few pleasantries, after which he asked if I could give him some money to buy a hot dog.

Weekend Update

I'm ashamed that I haven't been more regular in my blog posts. My hope was that this blog would be like a journal of each weeks activities. I guess it HAS become like my journal, in the sense that I don't keep it up to date.

Since my last post we have had several significant events. I've been in the cardiac cath lab since August, and will continue to be there through October. It's a good thing that I absolutely love it. I had a sneaking suspicion that I would enjoy it; now I'm considering it as part of my long-term career plans. If I decide to do cath, it would probably require an additional year of training, which we would probably have to do elsewhere. I have plenty of time before I have to settle on my post-fellowship plans, so even if I am anxious, I don't feel rushed.

Summer is winding down here in Rochester. It has been a very nice summer--not too hot or muggy, not too many mosquitos (although we have had a lot of bees). The weather turned cool pretty abruptly this week. We've had several days in the 70's, dipping down to the 50's on occasion. Hopefully this portends a nice, long autumn, as opposed to the two week autumns we are used to.

As summer comes to a close, Nate and Haley have started back to school. Nate is now in the 3rd grade; Haley is in 1st. They seem to enjoy it very well, although their opinion about school--and their overall state of happiness, for that matter--is closely tied to the chores-to-play time ratio of a given day. For example, if they have to clean their rooms before playing with their friends, then school was dumb and boring. If, on the other hand, they get to watch TV all day, eat ice cream and donuts for dinner and stay up until midnight, then school was fun.

The new school year means renewed responsibilities for Nikole. She is the leader of VIE (Volunteers in Education) at the elementary school. So, she is responsible for finding parent-volunteers for various school related activities throughout the year, such as helping out with picture day and stuff like that (you'll have to ask her for all the particulars). Last year she found herself filling in most of the time when she couldn't get anyone else to help out. Hopefully this year will be easier for her.

Sorry this post isn't as interesting as others may have been in the past. In addition to entertaining (which I always try to do), I feel obligated to inform you about the goings-on at the Taggart homefront. We've had some other outings that have been pretty fun--church family campout, the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota--as well as our normal day-to-day events that are sometimes humorous. I'll make a point to post some more pictures and more lighthearted fare in the near future.

Girlie-Man

We have a nighttime routine for getting the kids ready for bed: Put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, read scriptures, read a story, say prayers. On a rotating basis, one of the verbal kids gets to choose a storybook that we will read together as a family. Tonight was Nate's turn. As I was coming into the family room, I asked him if he had chosen a book. He answered that he had. Glancing at him, I noticed a book in his lap with a preponderance of pink on its cover.

"Is that your book?" I inquired.

"Yes," he replied.

Briefly mulling over the matter, I suggested, "It is a bit girlie, don't you think?"

His precocious pre-adolescent mind had apparently already dissected my argument before I had even presented it. "Some books aren't just for girls, Dad," he stated. "Boys can read them, too."

"Uh-huh," I conceded. "What's the title of that book?"

Nate, lowered his eyes and scanned the front cover. Then, after a pause of comedic perfection, he answered:

"Ballet Kitty"

I laughed hard, and informed him that this story will be going on our blog.

Independence Day

We had a nice, fairly relaxing 4th this year. I had the day off from work, which is always nice. Each year our ward has a picnic. We had fun eating sloppy joes and relaxing. The kids had fun playing games, running 3-legged races, etc. The weather was beautiful--sunny, but cool (in the 70's).

After the picnic we came home and hung out for my birthday. Nikole bought a couple of ribeyes and made a tasty marinade. I grilled them and some hamburgers for the kids.

Here I am blowing out my birthday candles. Nikole had initially put three small candles on one cupcake and a big number "1" candle on the other before I informed her that, in fact, I was turning 33, not 31. I think she was hoping I wouldn't catch the mistake and, knowing we are the same age, I would tell everyone that she is also 31. Or maybe she just likes younger men.

For dessert, Nikole had put together an ice cream tasting contest with seven different flavors. I was poised to win the trophy, but I mislabeled Drumstick ice cream as Tin Roof Sundae. Nate won instead (the kids only had to guess one of the ingredients in each flavor). That's fine with me. Either way we ended up with a freezer full of tasty, heart-healthy frozen treats!

Magna Cum Laude

Nikole, our offspring, and I recently returned from a trip to visit her parents in Magna, Utah. Unfortunately, we hadn't been out there in a few years, and while her parents have come to see us a couple times in Rochester, it was nice to see them in their natural habitat. Nikole's sister and brother also live in Utah with their families. Nikole and the children had flown out about a week before I came. I don't know exactly what they did during that week, but I know they enjoyed it. You'll have to ask her for the details.

Our kids really enjoyed seeing their cousins and seemed to hit it off as if no time had passed since our last visit. Here is Haley with her cousins, Corianne and Samantha, who are Nikole's brother's children:
The Friday after I got there, we went to Provo to visit the Y. It had been several years since our last visit, and things continue to change on campus. The Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Building is complete. Unfortunately we didn't plan our time well enough to make it by. More importantly, we were able to hit the bookstore for some apparel and the Creamery for some ice cream.

Here are Nikole and I standing in the quad in front of the the Wilkinson Center, reminiscing about falling madly in love at the Y:

Each time we go to Provo, we make a point to eat at Los Hermanos, which continues to be our favorite "authentic" Mexican restaurant. I snapped a semi-candid shot of Nikole chowin' down:

After ice cream at the Creamery, we swung by the Missionary Training Center (MTC) so I could show the kids where they can go in 11-16 years if they live righteously. While they seemed to not grasp the significance of the moment, they did oblige me by smiling for this picture:

As we usually do when we visit Utah, we went to Temple Square. We got several pictures of the gardens. This a particularly nice one of Haley and Andy ("particularly nice" in the sense that they are not yelling and screaming at each other):

The visit to downtown also afforded me the opportunity to buy a couple of new suits at Mr. Mac. Turns out that I've never bought a suit from anywhere else. The service is outstanding and they do a good job of bloating the ticket price, so when they knock off a chunk, you feel like you're getting a great deal.

Nickelcade was another stop for us. It is an arcade where you pay a nominal entry fee, then use nickels instead of quarters for all the games. We gave each of the kids a couple dollars worth of nickels and let them run wild. The fact that Andy returned empty handed after about 15 minutes makes me think he was meandering around indiscriminately dropping nickels in games left and right, not sticking around to utilize the credits. We could have saved the money since, as illustrated below, he got plenty of enjoyment out of "playing" games without putting any money in.
The definitive highlight of our trip was the smashing good time we had at Cherry Hill. It is a campground/waterpark near Kaysville. My in-laws had rented a nice RV trailer where most of us slept. Those that didn't fit in the trailer slept in a tent.

We set up camp on a Monday and stayed until Wednesday morning. Tuesday was spent at the water park, which was a blast. The weather cooperated well as we were blessed with sun and warmth.

Holden (Nikole's sister's son), Andy, Nate and Haley

All the kids enjoyed the Pirate's Cove and the Lazy River. Nate had a lot of fun on Cardiac Canyon.

Nate and Grandpa Bice waiting in line for the Cardiac Canyon ride

Andy really enjoyed going down the water slides with his dad (sadly, no pictures). Andy and Haley spent most of their time in Pirate's Cove.

Here's Andy under a waterfall

Haley with Grandpa in Pirate's Cove

Cherry Hill also had softball and baseball batting cages. We had a few tokens from the package we purchased, and Grandpa Bice, Nikole and I made good use of them the last night we were there.

The trip was loads of fun overall. The kids did not want to leave. The night before we left, Nate cried, because he would "miss Grandma". We certainly look forward to the next opportunity to visit Nikole's family!

Music Man (and Woman)

Here's a picture I took of Haley and Andy listening to some CDs. I don't know how it came about, but the kids were very interested in listening to music on their CD players on Saturday. Andy is actually listening to Nate's player with Nikole's headphones. I think he just likes to push the buttons on the player.

We got a kick out of listening to Haley sing along to the Lilo & Stitch soundrack. She was very enthusiastic when she new the words ("Aloha, a-LO-O-O-ha!") and a bit more hesitant when she didn't ("Mm-mmm-mm-mmmh-AND RAIN!").

Hoop! There it is!

A few weeks ago I went on a binge and purchased a nice basketball hoop for our driveway. It actually was somewhat of a retaliatory purchase. On Memorial day, Nikole had conceded to me that I could purchase a Wii for my birthday. The following Saturday, Nate had a fit because we wouldn't let him watch TV. In some expression of elementary school logic, he refused to go to his soccer game (it was the last game of the season). While my first impulse was to force Nate to go, I thought Nikole would not approve of my forcing him. (Turns out she would have forced him to go). Realizing that this was not a situation that I wanted to introduce something new to distract from physical activity, I put off the Wii purchase, and Nate and I went to Dick's Sports to by a basketball hoop. Surely, I thought, this will entice the kids, primarily Nate, to spend more time outside.

[As an aside, our kids really don't watch a lot of TV. Nikole has done a wonderful job of establishing a calendar of alternating "TV days" and "No TV days". Even on days where TV is allowed, it is limited. Funny, though, that Andy now has his personal calendar by which he identifies the passage of time (TV Day, No TV Day or Church Day).]

It's a nice system, sort of a poor man's Goalrilla. This is literally true as I am a poor man and Goaliath (our system) is a lower-end line produced by Goalrilla. Still, it has the requisite glass backboard, spring-back rim, in-ground pole, adjustable height.

I started setting it up that day and finished the following week while Nikole and the kids were visiting her family in Utah. I was excited to show the kids. They were excited as well, bless there hearts, for almost 10 minutes. I continue to have fun shooting around as I try to remember that it took me a while to really take basketball seriously. Hopefully, the fact that the hoop is there will provide opportunity for their interest to develop. We shall see...

Hawaii 2.0

This is a continuation of my previous post about our recent trip to Hawaii. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this thing. I was hoping that I would maintain this blog better than I have my journals, but so far I have had no such luck.

That Saturday evening (now day+4 from the date of arrival--the same day as Dr. Kawasaki and Iron Man), we had our annual Mayo faculty and alumni dinner. The Department of Pediatrics holds one each year at the PAS Meeting and invites all current and former faculty and trainees who are attending the meeting. This was the first one I've ever been to, but have been told, and my own experience corroborated, that Mayo does it up well. We went to a restaurant called Ciao Mein in the Waikiki Hyatt. It was Italian-Chinese fusion cuisine consisting of about 6 different entrees and a smattering of side dishes. A lot of it was quite good. Unfortunately the only dessert they offered was tiramisu. For some reason, I keep hoping that the brown powder on top is cocoa, but it always turns out to be coffee. So instead Nikole and I grabbed ice cream on the way back to the hotel.

This is a picture of the current residents with their significant others who made it to the dinner:The couple in the front, Christine and Jeremy got engaged during the trip. Jeremy flew in from Canada to surprise Christine, who was also involved with our workshops. The irony of the whole thing is that not two weeks earlier Christine was telling Jay Homme and me how marriage was not that important to her since she new that she and Jeremy would be together forever. We gave her a nice ribbing about that when the news broke.

The next day, being Sunday, Nikole and I planned to attend the local ward with Mike and Molly Johnson. Mike is a 1st year pediatric resident at Mayo who was presenting a project on obesity and thyroid disease in children (if I remember correctly). The ward website stated that church started at 9 am, but when we arrived, we found out that it was Stake Conference that week, which didn't start until 11 am. Mike had a presentation at that time, so we weren't able to make it back. Instead we spend a little time on the church building grounds, which were beautiful. The building itself was built open-air, in the sense that the classrooms and chapel all opened directly to the outside. There were some beautiful blossoming trees as well on the grounds. My favorite, though is this enormous "Swiss Family Robinson" tree. I want one in my own yard, but I question how well it would do in the Minnesota winter.

As we had an hour or so to kill, Mike, Molly, Nikole and I took off in the Johnsons' rental Ford Mustang GS convertible for a quick tour of the surrounding area. The word "beautiful" gets a bit redundant, but it accurately describes the landscape of Oahu. I took several pictures along the way. In particular I enjoyed the view as we went farther inland, toward the mountains.

Monday was spent primarily at the conference as we had the second of our public speaking workshops. A group of us walked down the beach to a restaurant for dinner. I snapped this nice sunset as the battery to my camera was running low:

Tuesday was our last full day in Hawaii and was the one day that we had more or less planned out well ahead of time. In the morning we left for the north shore to the Polynesian Cultural Center via the Dole Plantation. Even though I had heard about the pineapple maze, I was expecting little more than a souvenir shop. The reality was that it was quite a nice joint. Sadly, we didn't schedule a great deal of time there, so we rushed a little bit. Still we were able to get some nice pictures of the many different types of pineapple. We also grabbed a tasty bowl of Dole pineapple soft-serve, which at about $4, seemed like a steal.

Our drive along the north shore to the PCC was brilliant. The north shore is nowhere near as busy and populated as Waikiki, so the drive itself was quite relaxing. The highway we took followed right along the shoreline, providing a beautiful (there I go again) view en route to our destination. The view did prove to be a bit distracting for the driver, so Nikole found herself reminding me to keep my eyes (mostly) on the road. We did pull over at one point to take some pictures by the rocky shore. I took this one of a very compliant crab. At least that's what I thought until I nudged it with a stick. Turns out is was just an empty exoskeleton. The crab, they say, was only a shell of his former self.

The Polynesian Cultural Center, located in Laie was great experience. We spent the afternoon/evening with a tour guide and a group of about 8 people visiting the various "islands" at the center--Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). The purpose of the islands is to give visitors an interactive look at the culture of the indigenous populations of the different lands. Given the size of the different lands, we were only able to visit four of the six islands, all of them except Fiji and Samoa. While all of them were great, I particularly enjoyed Hawaii and Tonga.

Hawaii featured Cousin Benny who explained the history of and demonstrated the various musical instruments heard in Hawaiian music. He also shared the story of his daughter, Natasha, who will be representing the US in the Summer Olympics as the first Hawaiian member of the US women's soccer team. Uncle Benny claimed that it was his liberal use of the pu'ili as a disciplinary tool that taught her how to run fast.

In Tonga, we had the opportunity to practice spear throwing, which looks much easier that it truly is. The highlight, however was the percussion exhibition, where three members of the audience were chosen to come up and wail on drums. Three guys from (one each from Poland, Japan and Philadelphia, I think) were chosen to follow the leader, pounding out rhythms while shouting purportedly authentic Tongan chants. While the poor volunteers were game, the beats and song became more and more complex, resulting in a pretty funny outcome. Fortunately I was able to catch most of it on video.

Outside of our visit to the individual islands, we had the chance to watch "Rainbows of Paradise" a canoe pageant featuring performers representing each of the islands. We also took in the Ali'i Luau which was nice for the entertainment, but the food was surprisingly bland. I ran off to catch the last IMAX showing of The Coral Reef Adventure, while Nikole finished eating and went shopping.

After the movie, Nikole and I scurried over to the Laie Hawai'i Temple, which was just as amazing in real life as it is in all the pictures I've seen. In fact, it's not difficult to take a nice picture of the temple, as is proven by the photos below that I took with my own point and shoot.

We finished the day with Horizons, the PCC's nightly pageant. It was spectacular. The music, dancing and pyrotechnics were all well done. And the dessert during intermission was tasty and refreshing! After the show Nikole took my picture with one of the performers: Wednesday morning we left early in the morning for Hanauma Bay to do some snorkeling. Hanauma Bay is a state preserve about 30 minutes from Waikiki with an incredible reef that through which visitors can snorkel. This was something I had read about ahead of time and thought it would be worthwhile. But as we realized the limitations of our time in Hawaii, we put it on the back burner. Boy am I glad that we ultimately decided to do it! Of everything we did, I think it far and away had the highest fun-to-cost ratio. We got there at 7:30, paid a buck for parking and about $12 each for snorkel equipment and fins. It was a little chilly at the start of the day, but you get used to the water and the weather warmed up fairly quickly. It was incredibly relaxing (once you get used to breathing through a tube under water) just floating around the reef looking at the varied marine life. We even saw a couple sea turtles, one coming within arms reach of me. I didn't touch it though, as the rule of Hanauma Bay is "You can look, but you can't touch!". Seeing the sea turtles inevitably led to my reenacting for Nikole the "sea turtle" dialogue from Pirates of the Caribbean about 7 times during the drive back to the hotel. One thing I love about Nikole is that she laughs at my jokes, even the lame jokes and the jokes I tell over and over. And the lame jokes I tell over and over.

My conclusion from our Hanauma Bay excursion is that I could have spent an entire day there. I think Nikole agreed.

After the Bay, we scurried back to the hotel, requested late check-out and frantically packed. We drove to Pearl Harbor for a couple hours and went to the remains of the USS Arizona. It was a somber experience and our short two hours did not do it justice.

That afternoon we took a bittersweet flight back to the mainland. We were sad to leave Hawaii and the incredible experiences we had. At the same time we were excited to be back with our kids, whom we missed. Turns out that they didn't miss us too much with Grandma around. She kept them busy and happy with fun activities and almost daily excursions to McDonald's. Still, they at least acted excited to see us when we got home. That lasted for the better part of the day, before they returned to their sibling spats and temper tantrums. And I returned to Travelocity to check the price of two more tickets to Honolulu....

More Things About Me (Nikole)

46. Tulips are my favorite flower.

47. Nathan will get me flowers 2 or 3 times a month. He's so sweet! He's even found tulips in February!

48. I have to wear a mouth guard at night because I clench my jaw. I've cracked 2 of my bottom molars and didn't know it until I had cavities.

49. I've never broken a bone (knock on wood).

50. Speaking of that "knock on wood" I am a little superstitious. I always seem to jinx myself unless I say that. At lest that's what it seems to me! (-:

51. I was roommates with my cousin Heather both years at Ricks. It was a lot of fun to be roomies with her. We are about two weeks apart in age. Good memories.

52. Speaking of Heathers, I have a very good friend in Chapel Hill, Heather Pollei, who remembers my birthday EVERY year! Unfortunately, I never remember hers!

53. Four weeks after Haley was born I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance because we thought I had a bloodclot in my lungs (which is common during postpardum). But I was actually having a gall bladder attack and hyperventilating because of the severe pain in my abdomen. I had to have my gall bladder removed, which was full of stones. Unfortunately, six of the stones had migrated to my bile duct, so I had to have another procedure where they stuck a huge tube down my throat and they had to cut my bile duct a little to get the stones out. They wouldn't let me nurse Haley through all of this and I was so worried about my milk supply that I pumped the whole time I was in the hospital. This was one of my scariest moments. We were living with Nathan's parents at the time and Marilyn, Nathan's mom was so scared because I couldn't breathe.

54. We lived with Nathan's parents in Raleigh, North Carolina, in their downstairs apartment for 3 years.

55. We moved to Chapel Hill Nathan's last two years of med school. We lived in married student housing which was right across the street from the hospital.

56. I really worry about the crows feet/laugh lines I am getting. Does anyone know a great eye cream?

57. I rarely tan on my legs. I usually burn and then go back to white. I've tried one self-tanning cream and it turn my knees and ankles orange, no matter how hard I rubbed it in!

58. I am a night owl, hard core! I have a really hard time getting to bed and getting up in the morning. My mom said she used to have to get me up first for school so that I could sit in the big rocking chair and slowly wake up!

59. I remember watching "Wonder Woman" on t.v. when I had the chicken pox. I also got a really bad bloody nose while watching.

60. I had my tonsils out when I was 2. I remember waking up to a big lion painted on the ceiling. That is my earliest memory.

61. I love to make my kid's birthday cakes. They are never fancy or complicated, but it is something that I enjoy doing. I learn something new with each cake I make.

62. My mom made the white dress that I was baptized in. She also made me a lavendar dress to wear afterwards. I remember we went to Chuck E. Cheese after I was baptized.

63. When I was a pre-teen, my favorite color was peach. When I got my own room, we painted the walls peach (I know!), but when the first coat dried we were horrified to see that it looked really orange! We added another coat and it turned a little more peach, but when the sun hit the walls just right, it still looked a little orange.

64. I used to get really bad growing pains in my legs, especially my calves and shins. Now Haley gets them, she'll wake up in pain.

65. I also used to get charlie horses in my calves a lot. When I was pregnant with Nate, I'd get them frequently. Nathan was always worried when I'd jump out of bed with my huge belly because my leg was cramping.

66. I've been to Disney World 4 times. One time was when I was pregnant with Haley and I threw up in the Epcot parking lot! Fun times!

67. I wore a dress every day in Kindergarten. I wore a dress for picture day in every grade up to 4th grade.

68. We used to play kissing tag every recess in Kindergarten.

69. My second grade teacher had a baby while I was in her class and she used my name for her baby girl's middle name.

70. Ever since I was pregnant with Andy I am very prone to styes in my eyelids.

71. My mom used to make me the coolest Halloween costumes! I was Alice in Wonderland, Wonder Woman, Princess Leia, and The Tooth Fairy (2 years in a row). She used to always make my dance costumes as well. Thanks Mom!

72. I'll sometimes get a serious craving for chocolate and I'll eat half a bag of chocolate chips because that's the only chocolate we usually have in the house.

73. I ran in a 5 mile race in Moab, Utah during my third year of college. I've also run in a few 5Ks. I haven't run in a race since college. I don't know if my knees could take it now.

74. I really love the Harry Potter books and have read the entire series 3 or 4 times.

75. For our 10th wedding anniversary this last December, Nathan surprised me by renting out a movie theater and showing a movie he'd spent hours and hours and hours making just for me. It was really awesome to see our life together played on the "big screen". He was very sweet to do that for me! I LOVED IT!

76. I love it when Nathan plays with my toes. But not my feet, I'm too ticklish!

77. Some of my favorite picture books are the "Max and Ruby" books. I laugh every time I read one to the kids.

78. Cobwebs and dust bunnies REALLY gross me out. I seriously gag when I have to clean them up. As you can tell, I don't dust under our beds very often and that's where dust bunnies love to hide.

79. I wish that I could have a decorator come in and tell me how to decorate my house. I am totally at a lost as to how to do that!

80. My first two-wheel bike had a long banana seat with a rainbow on it.

81. I was so bossy when I was younger that the kids on my street used to call me "Nellie" (from Little House on the Prairie) behind my back!

82. I loved teaching Math, but I really hated learning it while I was growing up.

83. I love Angel Food Cake. One year when I was a teenager, I asked for an Angel Food Cake for my birthday.

84. One Easter morning when I was little, my sister, brother, and I thought we saw the Easter Bunny in the living room and we were totally scared to go out there! We did see some ears, but they belonged to a big blow-up bunny and we thought we were silly when we found out.

85. I have really weak ankles and I can twist them just walking on the grass!

86. I used to love to cross-stitch. I cross-stitched a "Precious Moments" pillow for my sister for one of my Laurel projects.

87. I used to never floss my teeth. I've only gotten into the habit in the past year. Gross, I know!
88. My favorite foods are all desserts.

89. I would rather make cookies than dinner.

90. I could have cold cereal for dinner every night. I did have cold-cereal dinners a lot in college!

91. I am a procrastinator. Just ask my parents.

92. Just before Nate turned a year old, we went to the one of the beaches in North Carolina. One afternoon after being in the ocean, I took off Nate's swimmer diaper and found a little fish, fortunately it was dead!

93. I went on Weight Watchers after Andy was born and lost almost 40 pounds! I haven't been so motivated this time around (after having Michael, I mean).

94. I think that Fall is my favorite season. I used to really like Spring, but every year it seems to get shorter and shorter. We seem to go straight from winter to summer, especially here in Minnesota.

95. I tend to be a pessimist, but I am really working hard on being an optimist.

96. I think it's great that my kids are into the same stuff I was into growing up, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, etc. Nathan loves that Nate LOVES Legos and Transformers.

97. I ran for Junior Class Secretary and for Varsity Cheerleader and didn't make either. AWWWW! Don't you feel bad for me?

98. I really enjoy playing card games and board games with my husband and kids. Nathan's family is really into games as well. In fact when we lived with Nathan's parents, we would play "Rook" almost every night during the summer.

99. I love barbeques! I love when grilling season is around. MMM! That sounds good right now!

100. I am really grateful for the friends that I have made over the years. Friends are such a blessing! Thanks to all of you! Love Ya!

100 things about Me (Nikole)

Some of my friends have done this, so I thought it would be great to list things about myself, since Nathan thinks I don't say anything nice about myself. Here goes:

1. I was born 33 years ago on this day, May 14, and I am feeling somewhat old today. At least my body likes to remind me how old I am.

2. I have a "phone-phobia". I hate to call people that I don't know. I struggle setting up visiting teaching appointments on the phone, I can't order pizza on the phone (I use internet), I am the Volunteer coordinator for our school and I have a really hard time calling people to volunteer (I rely heavily on email). I've had this phobia most of my life.

3. When I'm feeling down or depressed, buying clothes for my kids always makes me feel better.

4. Nathan and my Mom get so frustrated because I use my birthday money and gift certificates to buy things for my kids and house.

5. One Mother's Day I asked for a rechargeable vaccum so I could vaccum the rug in our kitchen.

6. I don't mind washing and folding the laundry, but I HATE putting it away. I don't know why I have this aversion, but we'll live out of the laundry basket until it's time to do laundry again.

7. It's the same with the dishes. I don't mind loading the dishwasher, but I hate unloading it.

8. If I had time to myself, I would rather take a nap or read in bed than anything else.

9. When I'm stressed about something, I always have dreams about packing. I dream I'm moving or going on a trip and I don't have enough time to gather everything and I keep finding more and more things to pack.

10. Nathan and I were in the same ward at BYU. We really had said two words to each other until he came on a group date with my roommate. I thought he had a great sense of humor!

11. The day before we got married, he gave me a dozen roses. He gives me a dozen roses on every wedding anniversary. He's 10 for 10!

12. I get along really well with Nathan's family.

13. I haven't been the most supportive wife with Nathan's medical school and residency hours.

14. I got glasses when I was 8 years old.

15. Before I got braces, I had to have 7 teeth pulled to make room. I had 4 baby teeth pulled and with 3 of those baby teeth, they pulled the permanent teeth above them, so they had to cut into my gums to get at those.

16. I grew up with 3 cats and 1 dog.

17. I will not let my kids get a cat or dog, for now anyway. I've seen how hard they are to take care of when they get old. I can't deal with that emotionally or physically right now.

18. I am the secretary in the Primary and I love it!

19. I love that Haley is great at drawing and I love her pictures and love notes.

20. I love that Nate has turned out so smart. I feel like he was just born that way, I really haven't had to work hard with him, he just picks things up really easily.

21. I love that Andy loves to give me hugs. During the day, he'll just randomly come up to me and give me a hug.

22. I love that when Michael is tired, he'll cuddle with me and put his head on my shoulder. None of our babies have been really cuddly, so this is such a treat. I'll rock him before naps and bed, just so I can have his head on my shoulder and listen to his pre-sleep babble.

23. I love the way Nathan's eyes crinkle when he smiles.

24. I have a fettish with my husband's and children's earlobes. I love to rub them, they are so soft!

25. I am the oldest child in my family. I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. Our order is girl-boy-girl-boy.

26. When I was young, I had really blonde hair. I hate that I'm now considered a brunette, but I don't like the idea of coloring my hair, either.

27. I want to learn Russian, but I have yet to become motivated enough to sit down and do it. Nathan went to Russia on his misison and wants to take me there someday.

28. For our honeymoon, Nathan and I went on a cruise with Nathan's mom's parents and siblings. There was a huge group of us. It wasn't weird at all. In fact, it was nice always having someone to take pictures of us. They were all really good about leaving us alone, if we wanted it.

29. When I was pregnant with Nate, I really craved those little smokie sausages.

30. I taught second grade in North Carolina. It was a struggle, but I loved the kids!

31. I graduated from Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah in 1993.

32. I did not go to my Senior Prom.

33. I did not have my own car until my third year of college at BYU.

34. I went and graduated from Ricks College before going to BYU.

35. At Ricks, I worked in the Women's locker room in the "cage" where we handed out towels, swimsuits, locks for lockers, etc.

36. I carried on that tradition by working in the Women's locker room at BYU. I made a lot of good friends with the girls I worked with. I always enjoyed going to work there.

37. In High school, I was a school janitor. During my sophomore year, I just worked at the High school during the summer, during my junior year, I was a daily janitor at my high school in the afternoon and during my senior year, I was a janitor at an elementary school. I know it's not pretty but, it helped pay for college, and I wanted a job that didn't work on Sunday (my choices were limited). I have not had to work (at a paying job )on a Sunday in my life.

38. Despite being in dance classes many year while I was a little girl, I still do not have any rhythm!

39. I was on my high school's women's tennis team during my senior year. I lettered. My best friend, Audrey, and I went to district finals in doubles. I haven't picked up a raquet since.

40. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift car until I had my own. My dad insisted that I buy a stick shift car so that I was forced to learn to drive one.

41. My favorite movie is the one that Nathan made me for our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

42. Nathan and I are really into "Lost" and "The Office" right now.

43. Two of my most favorite places is the library and the bookstore. I love books! Especially picture books!

44. I love the smell of clean diapers and new books.

45. I hate wearing perfume and jewelry. The only jewelry I'll wear is my wedding ring and maybe a watch.

I will have to finish this later. (-:

Kickin' It in Waikiki

Aloha! This is our first post to the world wide web blogosphere. The question is always when to start from. Rather that reminisce about the past 10 years of marital bliss, it's probably best to start with the recent past and go from there.

Nikole and I took a nice trip to Hawaii April 29-May 8. We went there under the auspices of my attending a couple pediatric conferences, but we still had plenty of time for the sights. Mayo paid for my part of everything (airfare, hotel room, ground transportation, and per diem), so we really only had to cover Nikole's airline ticket, food and souvenirs. My mom, bless her heart, flew into Rochester to stay with the kids while we were gone. We missed them while we were gone. But, knowing they were in good hands, we didn't miss them too much.

The plane ride into Honolulu was much better than anticipated, primarily thanks to Northwest's Airbus A330s, which have individual television screens at each seat in coach. You can choose and watch a movie from about 30 choices, some of which are edited. I watched The Great Debaters and X-Files, as well as an episode of The Office ("Phyllis' Wedding"--very funny).

After an 8 hour flight, we touched down around 3 pm in Honolulu. To get to our hotel, we grabbed a cab, which turned out to be a circa 1986 limousine, complete with VCR player and mirrors on the ceiling.

Despite being quite tired that first evening, we just had to go to beach. There was a Hawaiian band playing at the hotel's beachfront restaurant, which created a very nice ambiance. A native Hawaiian came up to us and gave us lei's, saying "Take one for your wife and for you!" Just as I was thinking that Hawaiians have got to be the nicest people in the world, she said, "For only small donation...". Anyway, we got our flower lei's and felt good about giving $10 to the Boys and Girls Club of Honolulu. [By the way, I am fairly certain that, if not the nicest in the world, Hawaiians are well near the top of the list].

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower. Mayo's policy is to cover hotel rooms up to $325/night. Our room was $324/night. It's all about toeing the line, right? Here's a view from our balcony:

We actually never went swimming in the pool pictured, because our tower had it's own pool on the second floor. Even then, when you're 50 yards from the ocean, why settle for a pool?

I spent a chunk of my time at the conferences, at least for the first several days. I was part of a couple workshops about public speaking. The first conference was primarily a residency and fellowship leadership meeting (Association of Pediatric Program Directors--APPD). Our workshop at that conference focused on teaching public speaking skills to pediatric trainees (i.e. residents and fellows). It went really well and we received very positive feedback. The second conference we presented at was the Pediatric Academic Societies' (PAS) Annual Meeting. Our workshop this time focused more on the attendees themselves becoming better public speakers. Specifically, we wanted to teach people how to help their audience not fall asleep during their lectures. We planned for as many as 45 people attending, but we ended up with about 56, more even than the room was set up for. It went very well, we think. We are hopeful that we can continue to conduct these workshops at future conferences. The APPD and PAS meetings next year are in Baltimore, so it won't be quite as exciting as Honolulu. Unless, of course, we get mugged. That would be very exciting.

I also attended a few scientific sessions, some of which I was peripherally involved with. Those are always hit-and-miss, usually miss. The titles of some of the presentations can be quite misleading. I went to one session about the recent advances in Kawasaki disease. I was interested because of the cardiac implications of Kawasaki's. Mostly, though, I wanted to catch a glimpse of Dr. Kawasaki, who would be presenting the closing remarks. They introduced him at the beginning to a round of applause. The first talk was actually very good. It went through recent breakthroughs in finding the cause of Kawasaki's (it looks like it'll turn out to be an RNA virus). After that, though, it went down hill. Way too many small details and very boring PowerPoint slides. I couldn't last until Dr. Kawasaki's remarks. So I left and went to the mall. I called Nikole up, she met me, we had lunch, went shopping, then went to see Iron Man. It was sweet. Sorry, Dr. Kawasaki.

I was able to meet Dr. Noonan of Noonan Syndrome fame. She works at the University of Kentucky at Lexington. She was incredibly nice and chatty, was interested in us and our aspirations. It's nice to see you can stay down to earth even when you have a syndrome named in your honor.

Outside of the work part of our trip, Nikole and I had a good time exploring Oahu. Our first full day there, we hiked up Diamond Head State Monument. It is an extinct volcano, from the top of which you can get a nice view of the island and of Waikiki, in particular:

It was, as we had been warned, not a casual stroll, but a legitimate climb. Still, well worth the time. We recuperated with a mango smoothie and passion fruit shave ice (not "shaved" ice) once we got back to the bottom.

There is plenty more to tell about, which I will do another day. It's 10 o'clock and basketball is at 6 am. Aloha and mahalo!