Vacation Update

I am still in Salt Lake City. It has been really nice spending time with family and friends. Of course we spent some time up in the mountains (I can never get too much of being in the mountains where it is cool, smells like pine trees, and is so beautiful). We spent some time in Millcreek Canyon with Quisha's (my wife) family. Here is a link to some nice photos of Millcreek Canyon: http://www.utahpictures.com/Mount_Aire.php
My daughters, Hannah and Sasha, went wading in the river (creek) they wanted me to show them how to skip rocks. The water was so cold (it is runoff from the snow pack--so very cold) I couldn't stay in for very long. Hannah, on the other hand, just stayed in apparently unaware of the freezing cold water and threw rocks until...she lost her footing and fell completely in. She quickly decided it was cold. Unfortunately, we didn't bring her an extra set of clothing (I don't know what we were thinking!?) but since we were only about 15 minutes from home we just went home to change her clothes and then sped back up the canyon for more mountain fun.

We roasted hot dogs and beans and of course s'mores. I even made some banana boats. What are banana boats? Well, my version is: open a banana with just a quarter of the peel exposing the banana, slice the banana lengthwise and make room to put chocolate and marshmallows, replace the peel and wrap in foil. Place the foil-covered banana in the hot coals of the fire and wait 5-10 minutes until the chocolate and marshmallows are melted and the banana is warmed. Carefully remove from the fire, unwrap the foil, and enjoy...yum. My wife likes to add peanut butter. Delicious both ways. How is it that food always tastes better in the mountains?

Well, I must run to pick up my daughters from a sleepover with their cousins: Ari, Natalie, and Katie. I am sure they all had a great time and probably had very little sleep...we should probably call it a stayover rather than a sleepover...

Heading Home for the Holiday

Tomorrow morning I am flying to my hometown, Salt Lake City. I am excited to see my family. I have been a bachelor for the past almost 3 weeks so I am really missing them. My kids look forward to going to spend time with their grandparents and cousins and friends each year. It is really great for them as they don't see any of their extended family too much since the extended family all live in SLC. SLC is really great little city with mountains surrounding the entire city. Every direction you look you see mountains. It has been somewhat difficult trying to find my bearings in Kansas City when I am so used to having the mountains to act as permanent guideposts.

This has been an interesting couple of days as I have worked in two different physical therapy clinics that are so very different in their business models. One has the policy of whomever is available of the therapists will treat any given patient. So a patient may have several physical therapists treating her and treatments are typically lengthy. The other clinic is more traditional in that each patient is assigned to a therapist and will be consistently seen by the same therapist throughout the course of his treatment. This clinic also only treats patients for 30 minutes. It was a bit difficult to go from a somewhat chaotic but lengthy treatment to a very regimented and trim treatment. When I first learned about the "whomever is available" model, I somewhat choked and thought that this would never work after all "the continuity of care must be pathetic." However, I have found that the patients and the physicians who refer to this clinic are on the high majority very pleased with their care. I find this somewhat fascinating because theoretically I don't think it should work but practically, at least in this clinic, it works very well. I think it works well for several reasons: 1) All the therapists communicate well with each other, 2) the clinic is small enough that even though one therapist is not directly treating a patient, each can give input to all patients, and 3) since many therapists are working on the same patient this allows for the patient to have the benefit of many hands, eyes, and minds working for the same goals.

Well, I will enjoy a few good days seeing my family and celebrating the birth of this great, albeit mislead, country. I hope you all have a great 4th of July. Be safe.