2013/04/28 Sunday: Feats of Strength

First we have a baby, being held by a baby, being held by an adult.

Liz lifted up O, then V, then V lifted up Liz.

And Grandma got tackled by every grandkid at once, except E, who's not really mobile yet.

2013/04/27 Saturday: All Good Things

We woke up, swam in the hotel pool (since we hadn't all week,) and then drove to the LAX airport.  Nick boarded a plane to Chicago, and two hours later I boarded one for Salt Lake to go retreive our children.
When I walked in the door, Gigi shouted "momma" and wanted me to pick her up, and was clingy for the next couple of days.  Henry said, "hi, mom." and went back to playing with toys.

2013/04/26 Friday: Burn Conference Ball

Friday was the last day of the burn conference.  Nick presented his research of the persistence of anemia following burn injury.  I think he did a great job.  After each presentation, people are given the opportunity to ask questions.  A few of the questions asked were outside the scope of the presented research, such as the use (and it turns out futility) of EPO in burn patients, but Nick was able to give them good answers.  I thought to myself "That guy is totally an anemia expert."
We then went to a wound care symposium, which was fascinating.  It was an open discussion, moderated by two surgeons, one of which is with the military and retrieves burn patients from around the world.  Pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and physical therapists were all involved in the discussion.  Hospitals had very different ways of doing things.  Different products, methods, and philosophies were all discussed.  Children's hospitals had very different ideas of what should or shouldn't be treated in a patient's room.  I think some of the practices shared will lead to changes. 
We went out for ice cream in the early evening.  I thought the coconut ice cream was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten.  Nick thought it was flavorless.  To each his own.

The evening (and conference) ended with a gala dinner.  After the dinner, there was a live band and dancing.  We joked "We must be too old, because this music is too loud."

2013/04/25 Thursday: Meanwhile Back In Utah

The kids have been doing really well at my mom's house.  People are sharing the workload of watching them for the week, but my mom is certainly taking the brunt of it.  We have been told the kids are doing really well.  I think that's largely because they get to do whatever they want, all the time, so of course they're having a good time.

We had a break in the late afternoon, and decided to take the Palm Springs tram ride to the top of the mountain.  Nick has a pipe-dream of hiking to the top (which some people do, and they are crazy.)  The temperature was about 50 degrees at the top.  We took a hike, briefly got lost, found the trail again, had a nice conversation with a researcher from Texas who Nick had seen present his experiment on wound coverage.  After the tram, we met the other participants from Loyola for dinner, and then went to the street festival.

2014/04/24 Wednesday: Steak Dinner at a Price

After a day of conference, Nick and I went to a very fancy steak dinner.  It was paid for by a drug company that manufacturers a wound care product.  So the dinner is free, but you have to eat it while looking at a power point slide of horrible wound pictures.  In reality, the product and case studies were really interesting, but the waitress was shocked that we could eat while watching it all.  We went to a drug-dinner last night for IV acetaminophen.  The drug was interesting, largely because it seems so unneeded   However, that meal was pretty terrible.  We talked with some nice local nurse practitioners that do wound care for diabetics, but it was kind of like a dinner date since no one else sat at our table.  I was not there as a doctor's wife since the government doesn't allow that anymore.  I was there as Kara, RN.  I even had to register with my license number.

I attended several presentations at the conference today that were very interesting.  A couple seemed interesting, but I didn't have the niche scientific background required to understand them.  And there were a couple of others that the presenter had such a thick accent I had no idea what they were saying.

2013/04/23 Tuesday: American Burn Association Conference Begins

Nick is presenting his research later this week, and is still spending lots of time preparing, even though I think he seems really well prepared.  He went to several lectures and presentations.  I went shopping at Ross and bought a cheap dress, some shoes (the only pair my size in the store) and a doll for Gigi.
We ate lunch at a vegetarian care and had the most delicious avocado tacos.

Happy Birthday to my Dad.

2013/04/22 Monday: Palm Springs and Marilyn

We started our drive to Palm Springs by stopping for lunch at Seal Beach.  We ate at a burrito place, then took a long walk on their long pier.  There were lots of people fishing, and one fisherman caught a manta ray.  It was pretty awful to watch the process of them lowering a net basket to pull it up so they could remove the hook and then throwing it back.

We stopped at the Sketchers factory outlet when we saw it off the freeway.  Nick has been needing some new shoes.  He found a couple pair, but the real prize was Gigi's new shoes.  She played with shoes just like these at a friends house and obviously loved them.  I tried to buy her some, but no one had them in her size.  Sketchers only had one pair, but they fit Gigi so it was a lucky find.  I would have bought the next size up too if they had it.

The shoes light up along the top front and the size.  They are very good at getting people's attention.

We arrived at Palm Springs and checked into our hotel, which is beyond nice.  In exploring town a little, we discovered the same tacky statue of Marilyn Monroe that was in Chicago is now here.