Reed, Brooklyn and I flew to Kansas City, Kansas this last weekend for an interview in the CRNA program (Nurse Anesthetist). He applied earlier this year and then got a letter this fall inviting Reed for an interview. There are seventy interviews for twenty-four slots. It's about a 1 in 3 chance to get accepted into the program.
This was Brooklyn's first airplane flight.
She wouldn't hardly hold still. Brooklyn flew as a lap child so we didn't have to buy her a ticket.
She loved the take-off and was really good during the flights. The flight from SLC to Denver was good and the connecting flight to Kansas City was also good. The flight from Phoenix to SLC was TERRIBLE. There was "moderate" turbulance as the pilot called it but, if that was only "moderate" then I don't want to know what "severe turbulance" is like. There were people getting sick, the pilot wouldn't let the flight attendants out of their seat to serve refreshments because it was so bad. Reed got sick and had to put his head between his knees. Luckily I only got a little bit sick and Brooklyn did remarkably well on the turbulant flight.
Once at the hotel we went right to sleep...with the time change it was almost midnight.
Then the next morning we stayed in the hotel for three hours while Reed brushed up on all of his drugs, titrations, dosages and any other technical questions they could ask. He wanted to be prepared so Brooklyn and I just chilled on the bed. Brooklyn loved entertaining us.
She is starting to crawl so we really had to watch her so she didn't dive off the bed.
Such a little cutie....definetely helped with the nerves we were feeling...especially Reed. We got out a little bit and drove to see the area before getting a smoothie from McDonald's because we really weren't very hungry. (probably the nerves)
I knew the interview would be three hours so I had looked up a cool place to go while he was interviewing. I called one place and they referred me to the River Market Antique Mall. They even had a 5000 square foot mural of Lewis and Clark. It is SO big that I couldn't fit the whole mural in my camera view finder so I had to take two photos to see all of it. It was HUGE!
My arm span was as big as one of their shoes. It was so impressive to see in person.
SO, if the mural was this big....you can guess how big the antique store was.....MASSIVE!!! I spent the entire three hours walking around in this place. Luckily, Brooklyn found it a good time to take a nap. I took photos of some of the random things I found, liked or just found interesting.
This bench is made out of an old chevy tailgate.
I would have taken this letter sorter home with me if I could have fit it in my luggage. It is probably 5 feet tall and about 3 1/2 feet wide. It was SO COOL!!
I found this chair and texted a picture to my friend Shannon who is doing a B&W and Yellow booth for a bridal fair coming up soon. Too bad I couldn't fit this in my luggage also...I love houndstooth print.
The River Market Antique's was so big that I had to use the freight elevator to go up to the top floor and work my way down(advise from Lance...he works there...and was very helpful getting the stroller and myself to different floors). There are stairs but, it's an old building with tight stair cases that a stroller couldn't navigate. There were probably 400+ dealers at the River Market....in other words....you almost have to know what you are looking for otherwise you might miss it.
Each floor had a bell (each one sounding different) and a helper from that floor would come and help you on the freight elevator. I thought the elevator was SO COOL...like the ones you see in the movies. It was HUGE!!
I love finger jointed boxes (I did bring one home in my suitcase) and this typewriter box was super cool. It was too big for my suitcase.
I snapped a photo of this WWII CPR dummy because I thought Reed would appreciate how far the CPR dummies have come...
It was really creepy hanging from the ceiling. A few other customers were joking with me about how creepy it was...I had to agree...pretty creepy hanging from the ceiling.
This is an old stamp holder. I could think of alot of things to use this for but, worried about the space in my luggage ( I had packed light so I could fit some things in but, this was a little too bulky although that didn't stop me from buying a cubby mail sorter....what can you do when you turn a corner and an item almost gives you heart palpitations you are so excited....I had to shop that baby home with a few ceiling tiles.)
This printers box was lined in the bottom of each compartments wtih fabric...cute idea maybe for my printer's drawer...we'll see?!!
I love a cool shaped lampshade.
I took a picture of this banana seat bike because I wanted to show the kids. I was telling them about my COOL rainbow seated banana bike and the kids kept asking me....you rode on a banana???
I kept telling them NO, I didn't ride on a banana but, a banana seat bike.
Hopefully now they get it!!
Then, I paid for my items, and went back to pick Reed up. He said his white shirt was drenched....pretty intense interviews. There were multiple interviews with multiple interview panels...yikes!! Glad it wasn't me!!. Then at the end they took them on a tour of the hospital. Reed feels good how they went. He said you always think of things you could have siad or things you could have changed but, overall he feel good about the long interview.
After the interview we went back to the hotel so Reed could change and we could try some of the famous barbecue that Reed had read about in the brochures. We ate at Arthur Bryant.
Reed wanted ribs so he convinced me to share some....this is what we got....a HUGE platter of ribs. Needless to say, we didn't order anything else...it was definetely enough. Then we drove to the famous Legends Outlet Mall. It's like our Park City outlet on steroids.
We pretty much just walked around. I found a long skirt (long needed, since it's hard to dress for sunday when you have a nursing baby)
This was the entrance to one of the entrance called T-Rex. It's a kid themed restaurant. We walked just inside just to get a glimpse. It was REALLY cool!!
A robotic T-Rex is at the entrance of the restaurant.
One of the pillars had dinosaurs sticking their head out of the foliage. It was creepy cool (as Isaac would say).
Then we drove back down Main street to the hotel.
By the time we got back to the hotel everyone was plum tuckered out!! I wasn't that tired...probaby still too excited from the River Market and trying to figure out how to ship or take on the plane my cubby cabinet and ceiling tiles. I was looking up online how big of a checked bag could be and I found out that it would be odd sized and would cost almost 150 dollars to take on the plane...I quickly began formulating plan B....ship it!
So, the first thing we did the next morning was find a UPS store to ship our items (Reed is sitting here saying, "OUR ITEMS" really I should say "MY" items) home. It was only $38 dollars to ship this heavy cubby with the ceiling tiles...WHEW...what a relief!!
We had looked up a UPS store in Overland Park (a suburb) of Kansas City so we could drive around and see the area. Then we went back to University of Kansas Medical Center because Reed wanted me to see the campus.
Let's just say, IT'S HUGE!! This is the Medical Office Building that adjoins the hospital.
We walked the hospital and I had to take a picture of these old photos of classes of Medical Technicians. Since this is what I have my degree in, it was really fun to see the pictures of early classes of that degree even though the degree's name has recently changed to Medical Laboratory Sciences.
Out in the court yard, we took pictures by the University of Kansas' Medical Center sign.
Brooklyn chose to nap during our tour.
A picture of me to prove I was in Kansas...although I don't think we're in Kansas anymore ( Ha Ha Ha...just had to put that in there....couldn't resist) Although we did buy Abbie a stuffed Toto for her souvenir. She loves her Toto!
All the brick building connect in the courtyard and are 4 and five stories tall...it's really impressive to see. The building in the right of this photo is the University of Kansas' Nursing School.
A cool red berry bush in the plaza.
The nursing school was closed (it was a saturday) so we were looking inside at the common are which was open four floors up. It is an impressive building. We took this picture of ourselves in the glass. We kinda look like ghosts in the window. We couldn't get my camera figured out how to take a self portrait. So maybe next time, we can take a REAL picture of ourselves.
Then we went to the book store for the medical school. I liked this t-shirt.
Then we had time to walk back to our car, drive it back to the car rental place, and go through security again to get on our plane. We were planning on eating when we got into Phoenix but, apparently we had a head wind and was 38 minutes late into Phoenix. We only had an hour layover and by the time we got our carseat and stroller from under the plane, we had to RUN ( and I do mean RUN) to our next terminal. I had no idea the Phoenix airport could be so HUGE. We had to go from terminal A 20 something to B24. As we were half way to the terminal we head over the intercom "last boarding call for flight 456 to SLC". We (still running) weren't anywhere near the gate. It was pretty stressful running with a baby, all the baby gear and our luggage. Then once we finally get to the gate they didn't have Brooklyn's information for the flight. AAAgh!!! We quickly gave them the information, got our carseat and stroller stowed under the plane and we were the last ones onthe flight. Phew!! Except the next 2 1/2 hours was the worst turbulent flight we've ever been on. People were sick and loosing their cookies, Reed got pretty sick but kept his cookies (thank goodness). When our plane landed...the entire plane of people cheered and whistled that we finally had landed!!! The lady next to us flies all over the world and said this is the worst flight she has EVER been on. Glad we ran to make the plane...although I don't think waiting another four hours for the next flight would have been any fun either. We got home an hour late and thanked Jennie and John (my sister and brother-in-law) for watching the kids. Thanks again guys!! It is really appreciated!!
We ended our trip with a bowl of chicken noodle soup at like 10:30 at night (because after that flight...it was the only thing that sounded good...and there was no time to get dinner in Phoenix...remember us running to make the plane).
Here is the last picture I took of the University of Kansas. I love all the architecture of the building there.
Then it was time to fly home.
While on our way back to the airport at the terminal, Brooklyn woke up and was all smiles!! It was a good trip, definetely stressful getting ready for the interview, saw some cool areas and I did find that cool River Market place. We won't find out for awhile how the interview went. We just have to wait and see if Reed was accepted but, even so, we had a fun adventure in Kansas.
