Miss South Dakota Pageant

This last weekend Sam and I went to see the Miss South Dakota Pageant.  We thought it would be entertaining and worth our time.  It did not disappoint at all!!  I told Sam that when we move away from here I want to come back every year around this time just for this pageant.  It really lifted our spirits and was so worth every penny.  It kind of reminded me of a high school production.  The musical numbers really made the whole show.  There were at least 10 different ones.

It won't let me upload the videos from my camera so these are just the ones from my phone but you can get the idea.

These guys were in many of the musical numbers.

The swimsuit competition is always so awkward.

This is Miss South Dakota 2010.

Here are the final 5.  Miss Rapid City is in the gold dress.

This is the winner.  She did a great job and we knew she would at least be in the final 2. I am excited to see her in the Miss America pageant.

Trip to New Hampshire

A couple weeks ago I made a trip to visit my sister, Kelly and her family in New Hampshire.  I hadn't seen them since we moved away from Boston more than 7 months ago.  My mom, my sister, Cami and niece, Amelia flew from Utah and met us out there also.  The main event was to see my niece, Natalie in a musical she was part of.  It was called "All Shook Up" featuring Elvis songs.  She did a fabulous job!  It was so much fun to spend most of our time there just hanging out and playing games.  I didn't get the chance to go visit my old ward down in Billerica so I will have to save that for next time.

Here is a little video that my niece, Brooke made.  We were being a little crazy one night reading "Goodnight Moon" to Amelia and Brooke's rapping skills and my beat boxing skills started to come out.  I may have found my new calling in life.  Brooke is so talented to make this video.  We always have a fun time.

Sam's jumping in finally!

Sam finally had his first official patient today.  He has been working now for a few weeks but he had to wait on some licensing stuff before he could legally work patients.  He has just been able to shadow the other doctor and was starting to get very bored and was anxious to get some hands on work.  I am so exited for him and am so glad that the ladies in the office thought to take a picture of his first patient.  That was so thoughtful.  It will be nice when he gets into the swing of things and it is just second nature to him.

Change of Plans

Okay a lot of things have been going on in the last few months. We left Boston since Sam was finished with school. The company in Denver was just leading Sam on and probably if we call them now they will still say that it is still between Sam and another dentist. They are crazy but it worked out for the best because now we are living in Rapid City, South Dakota. Yes, you heard that right South Dakota!! Sam actually started work today at the community health center here. It will be a good work experience for him and he has Fridays off. We will most likely be staying here for the next couple years before we make another move.

We stayed at my parents' house in Utah for a couple months making all the arrangements here so we were able to spend the holidays there. We have come back and forth from Utah to Rapid City a few times and it is very nice to be settled in our own place again. The drive is about 10 hours and we haven't gotten sick of it yet.

You ask what there is to do in Rapid City, well we are still wondering about that but in the meantime we will definitely have a year pass to Mt Rushmore which is only a 1/2 hour away. Hopefully we won't have to make weekly trips there for excitement. We are ready to start our new adventure here and have already been looking into some crazy destinations.

Denver

We went to Denver a couple weeks ago so Sam could interview at a company there. The dental office would actually be in Fort Collins which is about an hour north of Denver. We don't know a lot of details yet but we are planning to leave here in the next couple weeks! Crazy!My sister, Cami and fam were there for the Summer while Juan did an internship. It was fun to be able to hang out with them for the week. Amelia is so adorable and I hadn't seen her since she was 1 month old and Sam hadn't seen her at all. We played lots of card games, Mario Party and Mario Kart and just did lots of hanging out. We didn't do much touring since we are probably moving out there soon but we did hit a couple must sees.Here is a huge 2 story chair with a horse on top of it. We have no idea what the story is behind it but it was definitely picture worthy.We also drove past the very first Chipotle restaurant ever! It started back in 1993. Colorado is definitely the place for us now knowing that Chipotle started there.

Polo

We went to our first Polo match in Newport, Rhode Island a couple weekends ago with some friends. The only exposure I have had to Polo up to this point was from Pretty Woman. I just assumed it was for rich people to wear big hats and have an excuse to drink tons of wine. I was definitely right about the drinking tons of wine part (for other people, not for us). It was a lot of fun to bring our little picnics and cheer on the USA team against Scotland. We lost but put up a good fight. I think we did a lot more socializing than watching the match.During "half-time" (or whatever they call it), we were able to go out on the field for the "divot stomp" where we put all the grass clumps back into the ground so the field looked nice and fresh again.These next pictures are my fav. It gave me the chance to use a fun setting on our new camera from Sam's mom. It has a setting on it where you can take multiple pictures in seconds. We love this feature. At the end of the game it is tradition for the players to ride by on their horse to give all the spectators a high five. Let's just say Sam was super excited about this.

Sam's Graduation

A couple weeks ago Sam graduated from dental school. Yahoo!! He still has some requirements to finish up and is planning on being done at the end of the summer then it is off to who knows where. I am so proud of Sam and all he has accomplished so far. The whole time I have known Sam, he has always been in school so I can't wait until he is finally done!! It will be so weird with him going to a job instead of school. It was so nice for Sam's dad and step-mom and my mom and dad to come out for the special occasion. My sister & brother in law (Kelly & Kevin) were able to come to the graduation also. Sam refused to walk when he graduated at BYU so it was fun to see him at this graduation. It was also very nice not to have a ton of people graduating. There were about 200-250 graduates so it lasted about 2 1/2 hours, not too bad. Sam and I were talking about it last night and it really just doesn't seem real yet. Even the graduation is kind of a blur to both of us. I just remember when they called Sam's name before he got his diploma and called him Doctor, my eyes swelled up with tears. It was the first time I had really heard someone call him that. It is just so nice to see that his hard work is paying off.

Sam with his dad & Loa.

Me, Sam and my mom & dadThis is my favorite pic so I had to add it in. I love how huge the diploma is, who knows why. I guess they didn't want to be same as the undergraduate's diplomas. I just love it.

As for where we are going next, we are not sure about that yet. We are pretty open to where ever there is a good opportunity for us. It may be a little easier to interview out East so we may end up staying out here for a few more years. That would be so much fun for us to be able to travel around a bit more. We have really liked it out here and the area we live in now so we would love to stay out here longer.