Vacation in Paradise

From June 2-9, Jeff and I went to Puerto Aventuras in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is just an hour South of Cancun, so it is on the East Coast. Our hotel was right on the beautiful Caribbean Sea with the clear warm water and baby powder beach. The beaches in Cancun are very sandy and go on forever, but the beach at Puerto Aventuras was rocky and had many varieties of fish swimming about. There were SO MANY activities to do at our hotel and nearby. We definitely couldn't say we were bored this trip. We got to go kayaking in the ocean and ride on a catamaran. Puerto Aventuras is a small fishing town, so there was a marina next to our hotel that had dolphins, sea otter, manatees, etc. It was really fun to walk around the marina and see all the wild life and go shopping. They had a coffee shop with WiFi, so we went over there to use our computer a couple times.

We stayed at an all-inclusive resort again. It is SO NICE to not have to cook, clean or pay for food for an entire week. I think that is really the selling point for me!!

Here are a couple shots of our room, and the view looking out the balcony. The last picture was the view from the other side/entrance to the room. It is so beautiful - A lush jungle with rooftops peeking out.

We decided to go on a tour with Almas LDS Tours again. Because we were repeat customers, we got a break on the price (which was really nice!). We decided to go to Tulum again (see above) and Coba. There was so much to learn at Tulum and Jeff and I wanted a chance to hear it again. 

Sarah, Me and Sylvia in Tulum

Me and Jeff in Tulum

Me and Jeff in Tulum

Me and Jeff in Tulum 

The next stop on our tour was lunch at a traditional Mayan restaurant and then go to Coba, which is a vast archaeological site that you have to tour on bikes. I really wanted to go visit Coba because we would get to actually climb the ruins. 

This is what we were able to climb. It was SO STEEP and TALL, this picture doesn't really do it justice. Sarah started to climb, but then decided she couldn't do it and came down halfway. I thought I was not going to make it because I was getting really scared, but we made it to the top!

Me and Sylvia at the top

Jeff and I at the top. This is the tallest ruins  (and perhaps the tallest point?) in the Yucatan Peninsula!

The way back down. This is a little bit better representation of the steepness. At least the steps were large enough for us to sit on and scoot our way down. 

Sylvia, Sarah and me at the bottom.

Jeff and me after the big climb.

Another set of ruins on the archaeological site of Coba.

After going to Coba, we went and swam in a cenote then visited a traditional Mayan family. That might have been the coolest  part of the trip. They had so many wild animals on their farm. There was even a spider monkey there to welcome us (which just made my day!).

We then went and met the family. This (below) is the mother who is making dinner for the family in the kitchen area. It looked like it would be a really fun lifestyle - almost like camping and making crafts all day! All (8?) of her daughters were named Maria Something (like Maria Lupita, Maria Christina, Maria...) and so I kept thinking that would be cool if they adopted me and named me Maria Amanda ;-)

Like I said, they had so many wild animals living on their property. Below is a Ocelot (which was really cute!) They also had a deer, wolverine looking thing, a bunch of wild dogs and havlinas (pigs).

Other than the tour, we hung out around the resort a lot. Jeff and I had a date night, where we ate a lobster dinner on the beach. It was pretty amazing!! 

Here are some random pictures from around the hotel and the Marina next door. 

The fridge in our room was stocked daily with diet coke and water, which made me happy. 

I also tried a Coke Zero in Mexico, and to my dismay, the Diet Coke (or, coca cola light) tastes better than the Coke Zero. That wouldn't happen in America!

Jeff playing Volleyball. They had a game every day at 4. I played one day, but it was also at the same time as Zumba...

Jeff found a store selling "Local Quickies" (...)

Another view of the resort from our room. 

There were giant iguanas everywhere, which is pretty cool. 

The dolphins in the Marina next door. 

Sarah and Sylvia paid to go swim with the dolphins!

All in all it was a really fun trip. Getting back to the US was a different story though...At around 5pm, we found out that our flight was delayed until 2am the next morning. We had to go through customs and immigration again, get on a bus and was shuttled over to a nearby hotel. We checked in and got to eat and sleep for a couple hours and then at 10pm we all met at the lobby of the hotel and they told us our flight was delayed until 5am, so meet at the hotel lobby at 3am. So Jeff and I put in an order for room service at 2:30 am (which was a lot of fun!) and then we got back to the airport and had to go through security/check in again. It was a hassle, but in retrospect, wasn't that bad. It just created some more memories ;-) 

Now that we got to go to Cancun/Cancun Area twice, we likely will go somewhere else on our next vacation, but this is always such a good deal, it is very tempting!!

Catch Up: Work, Disneyland, Mexico

So we're about a month out from my internship graduation. I am scheduled to take the RD exam on Tuesday, July 3. I really feel like I can't enjoy myself or make any plans before that date because all I want to do is study. Tomorrow is my birthday and I still haven't set any plans. Aside from studying...I know I want to get my nails done and go shopping. Other than that, I have no clue! Jeff and I will probably go out to dinner once he gets off work, which is just perfect for me.

A lot really has happened in the last month. The week after I graduated at the VA, I interviewed for a per diem position at Kaiser hospital and I got it! That was just the per-diem position I was hoping for too because I really would like to transition to full time at some point.

Jeff and I also went to Mexico for a week with my friends Sarah and Sylvia. That will have to be saved for its own blog post full of pictures, but in summary: We stayed at an all inclusive resort in puerto aventuras and did a lot of activities like kayaking, riding a catamaran, going to see dolphins/manatees, went on a tour of some ruins (Coba, Tulum) and a mayan village, got to hold a baby lion, toucan and squirrel monkeys, and ate a lot of good food and got a decent tan. It was great!

Here is a little sample though:

When we got back Jeff and I just worked a lot. Jeff is in charge of a test at work and has been working long hours and some weekend days. Poor guy works so hard!! I have been trying to work as much as possible all while trying to re-learn/study for the RD exam. I am enjoying my work at Healthy Dining though. I am doing more blogs and writing content for the site. I have to come up with little tag lines and headlines for all of the articles on the site. Here are some samples of things I have written.:
Ask the RD: Cheese, Italian Food
Birthday Blog, Date night Blog (coming this Friday)

I also had a trip to Disneyland with my friend's Chris and Heather since I graduated. It was a lot of fun! We have all been close friends since our junior theatre days in high school. I realized while we were there that I have been friends with Heather for half my life (and then I calculated that I have known Jeff for a quarter of my life!).  We went the day before Cars Land opened at California Adventure, so there was a lot of press in the park. Apparently that means the characters are out in abundance. I have never been able to take pictures with this many characters. It was a lot of fun! A lot of the pictures I was tagged in facebook, but in case you didn't see that:

Jeff had to work that day, but we are going again on July 6, and Jeff will be coming with us!! (Heather, Chris and I have annual passes...Jeff says he only needs to go once every year...or every couple years. Haha!) So I am sure I will have many more pictures to share then.

I'll work on the Mexico post (probably after I take the RD Exam) and maybe get a disneyland post up soon!! Until then...

Internship and Work and Stuff

I am less than a week away from graduating my internship...I can't believe it! The past 9 months have gone by so fast, its hard to believe I thought it would never end only a couple months back :-) Right now I am in the middle of my staff relief. I spent one week in the hemodialysis unit, which was a good way to ease me into being on my own. Last Friday we had oral exams, where the intern is in a room with all of our preceptors and they ask us questions for an hour. It is really intimidating and I definitely wasn't thinking my best...but I some how passed! This past week I started my two weeks of staff relief in the ICU/DOU. I really love my preceptor that I am working with, she has been very supportive of me throughout the entire internship. HOWEVER, it is a really intense floor to work on, and I have been very busy. But it is worth it because I love nutrition support (ie. parenteral and enteral nutrition) and I think that is the area that I want to focus my practice.

Here are some pictures from the internship:

Interns: Jen, Sylvia, Hai Van, Sarah, Kritstin and Me

Interns in the Healing Garden

The interns at our Wellness Fair booth

Me, Sylvia and Sarah at the Farmer's Market during National Nutrition Month

My cooking demo during National Nutrition Month. Won't miss having to wear a hairnet!!

So, what will I be doing after my internship? Since the middle of March, I have been working at a company called Healthy Dining Finder as their web manager. It has only been about 10 hours a week during my internship, but is going to increase to about 20 hours per week once I graduate. Healthy Dining Finder is a great company that has a team of registered dietitians look at restaurant menus and pick out the healthiest items. We also do nutrient analysis for restaurants and have daily blogs about the different restaurants or health topics. It is a great company that is doing great things in the field of nutrition, and I am happy to be a part of their mission. 

I also am looking for a per-diem or part time position as a clinical dietitian, so I will keep you posted on that. The next step is taking the RD exam, which is a little intimidating. The interns took a practice RD exam the other day and I didn't do as well as I hoped - Which pretty much means that I have a lot of studying in the next month!

Jazz Clippers Game at The Staples Center

Back in December when we heard there would actually be an NBA season, Jeff and I decided we would go up to The Staples Center this season and watch a Jazz Game. Our neighbor, Michael (who is also from Utah) often comes over and watches Jazz games with us, so we all devised a plan to come up to LA at the end of the season and watch The Jazz vs lakers or clippers. Since Clippers games are much less expensive than Lakers games, we decided to go up and see the Blake Griffin and Chris Paul show.

Jeff and Michael . We tried to get Stockton and Malone Jerseys for them to wear up to the game, but they were pretty expensive...next time..

Me and Jeff

Our seats were directly across from Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal).

We were also directly behind Matt Harpring and Craig Bolderjack. At halftime, we caught Matt's attention and he came over and introduced himself, asked where we were from and said that he would try to get shots of us because I was wearing a Utah shirt. As suspected, he was a super nice guy.

When the cameras came over to Matt and Craig at half time, we could see the live feed on their computers, so I tried waving to everyone watching in Utah...but I had to kind of bend over a rail to wave. On my end, all I could see was my hand, so I bent down a little bit. I guess it worked, because this was the screen shot Katie got:

Not the most flattering angle, but hilarious none-the-less.

Surprisingly, it was really fun to be one of the only Jazz fans in attendance. There was an 8 year old Clippers fan sitting a couple people away from us who kept heckling me. Next to us was a really sweet older Filipino couple who kept talking to us about how we should have never traded D. Will and Carlos Boozer. We told them "just wait and see...give this team 2 years and they will be in the finals..."

We also got some great shots of the players:

Tyrone Corbin and Devin Harris

Big Al Jefferson

CJ Miles and Paul Millsap

Little Gordie Hayward. I yelled his name and got a wave. Pretty cool!

It was just so exciting! Michael and I kept taking pictures of every thing, and Jeff kept saying to me "Ok, i get it, you're at a Jazz game." (as in, "you don't have to take pictures of everything" haha!) Our seats were perfect and surprisingly weren't too expensive. It was a fun time, even though the Jazz got WORKED. The only thing that would have made it better would be if the Jazz won and if we were at the Energy Solutions arena.

After the game was over, we walked down and asked Matt Harpring if I could get a picture with him.

I just love getting pictures with famous people. I can add it to my collection of me with the guys from 2-live-crew and Rupert Gee from The David Letterman Show.

Lastly, on our walk back to the car, we came upon a ridiculous high end furniture store, where they sold very interesting lamps.

Anyway, that was our trip, and it was a lot of fun. If the Jazz make it to the post season and play in LA again, maybe we'll come up again.

I'm a star!

Haha, kind of...

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I really should update everyone! But for now, here is a link to a video I was in at the VA. It is going to be played at 6 VA facilities on the West Coast in all of the waiting rooms and patient rooms. The whole thing is very long, and I am only in about 2 minutes of the video (if that!).

I come in at about 7 minutes an then again at about 19 minutes. Not much, but it was a lot of fun!