New Office Help

Wow, the past few weeks have been quite chaotic! A couple of months ago my previous office manager was diagnosed with some pretty severe medical problems and hasn't been around for quite a while. In addition to not having an office manager, one of my two assistants had to fly out to Indiana to help her daughter who went into labor 2 months early. She took off for about a month to help her daughter. So, basically Shauna and I have been running the show and trying to hold the fort down.
I ended up bringing Lisa to the office to answer phones, schedule patients, and clean up the operatories. We trained her and she has been a huge help for us. It's been really fun having her at work also. I'm glad she has had the opportunity to learn the office and the dental ropes. Major thanks are in order for her parents who have been watching the kids for us so she could come in.
We ended up putting some ads in for a new office manager once Marilee told us she wasn't going to be able to return, and we got a ton of resumes in response. I even had a guy with an MBA from Harvard who applied. Apparently they don't teach reading comprehension to those MBA guys because we clearly stated that dental experience and knowledge of ADA codes was a must. Despite that pre-requisite Mr. Harvard and many others without any dental experience applied anyway. I guess we should have been more clear than just saying "a must", like "Don't think of applying unless you know your dental stuff". We decided to hire Lindsay Smith among all the applicants. She was very qualified and is a good fit for our office. One problem solved, on now to the others that we have inherited from the last office manager.
Here is Lisa in all her glory at the front desk. Go Lisa go!

Let's Go Fly a Kite...and Swim

We busted out a kite I bought for the kids well over a year ago and had a great time flying it in our circle. The wind was perfect and all the neighborhood kids had a great time watching Tigger and Pooh fly! I met up with my dental friend Amber and her kids on Thursday to swim at my Grandma's. We let Tucker take this picture of the two of us. Not too shabby!

Tucker, Aubrey and Will had fun floating along in the pool.

Rise Against

So I've been on a big "Rise Against" fix lately. Their music really kicks. I love to listen to them when I need to unwind, like when I'm out biking, after listening to some liberal loser like Pelosi, or when I have a really difficult root canal that gets the better of me (which doesn't happen often because I'm so awesome). Go check out their tunes if you like the punk stuff. I really dig "Prayer of the Refugee" and "Re-education Through Labor".

Grant Family Reunion

Every year my Mom's side of the family gathers up at the Reid Ranch near Tabiona, Utah for a reunion. We've gone for as long as I can remember with the exception of 1 year when my grandparents were serving a mission. It's fun to be able to take my kids now and let them enjoy what the ranch has to offer. Back in my day we didn't have to be outfitted with life jackets and helmets to ride horses, but with people that manage to fall off a horse on a well groomed trail while being led, insurance purposes call for more protection. Luckily my kids didn't mind and they had a great time riding the horses all by themselves. What parent would need to worry when your child is wearing a lifejacket?!!

My dad and cousin have created a potato gun launcher that we use every summer. Even the little kids can try out this gun.

Cody is aiming for a deer with this shot.

The Grant family loves volleyball and most of the original kids played in high school. We had our traditional games and roasted marshmallows over a bonfire. (Checkout that sunset!)

There will be 75 members of the Grant clan at the end of this week (my sister-in-law is having a baby on Friday) including spouses, grandkids and great grandkids. Only a few missed out this year.

We had a fun time catching up and hanging out with each other. It's been a tradition to go to Granny's in Heber for shakes after each reunion. We kept the tradition up this year, although Cody and I convinced the group to head to the Dairy Keen instead. Now that we are "locals" we think it's better. Plus they are closed on Sundays and who wouldn't want to support them. ; ) It was nice to only be 5 minutes away from home at that point.

This summer I've been taking my kids to my Grandpa Foster's house once a week to swim. Aubrey is our little mermaid diva.

Cole is just so dang cute and has the fattest cheeks. Tucker has learned to float in a life jacket (my goal for the summer) and loves his freedom to move around. Swimming lessons didn't work out so well this year, but now that he can float and is comfortable with the water, next year should go smoother.

Caborca

10 years ago today I was in Caborca, Mexico serving a mission. I was looking through my old journal and loved remembering the experiences I had there. It is a dry, dusty city in the middle of the Sonoran desert. What an amazing experience to serve there. The people are so loving and humble there. The food was phenomenal. The sunsets there are undescribably beautiful. I grew so much during the 4 months I was in that city. I loved it so much, all except for the heat. It's already 114 degrees there today, and it's only going to get hotter as August approaches. It got up to 128 degrees one day while I was down there. Man I hate that kind of heat! And for all you doubters, yes you can fry an egg outside in the sun when it gets up in the 120's. We did it once on a hot skillet that had been sitting in the heat all day. All of you Phoenix and Las Vegas lovers can have your stinking heat.

4th of July Weekend

We started the 4th of July weekend by kicking it off with the traditional Foster family Oakley Rodeo roundup. We went up to the Foster cabin on Thursday and had a big bbq and dinner with the extended Foster family. Lisa's family was all there along with her grandma, grandpa, and Uncle Brian's whole family. The food was great and the company was better. After dinner we all headed down to the Oakley rodeo where we saw some good bronc riding, bull riding, roping, barrell racing, etc.

I think most people that attend the Oakley rodeo go more for the social scene than the actual rodeo, as proven by the ladies wearing their designer clothes, the dudes strutting their latest Abercrombie and Dillards purchases and the lack of hooting and hollaring from the crowd when someone has a good ride. It's a shame too because the Oakley rodeo is surprisingly a top notch rodeo despite being in such a small town. They attract some great talent and the bulls, broncs and other livestock perform really well. I guess some people just want to be seen as being all "cowboy" as if that makes them cool, but hey, to each his own.

Heather was sitting with Dan and his parents who came up from Texas for the weekend.

Some of the Foster clan.

April entertaining Cole, or is that Cole entertaining April?

On Friday, after seeing some emergency patients at the office, we went up to the Soap Stone Basin with my parents to do some camping. We had a great campsite with fantastic views.

Here is a view out the backside of our camp, pretty cool.

Lisa, Tucker and I took a little hike to a meadow above our camp and found a field packed full of wildflowers. It was amazing.

Tucker and Lisa decided to pick some for my mom and Aubrey to enjoy because they couldn't come with us on our little hike.

We decided to see if Tucker could take a photo with our Canon, and he did a great job. Now he wants to take all the pictures for us.

We pitched our tent behind my parents 5th wheel, and again, we loved the views we had!

For dinner we made some awesome dutch oven potatoes and bbq ribs. So yummy!

After dinner we got the fire going and roasted some marshmallows for smores. We pretty much ate like kings that night.

Here's Lisa completely enjoying her smore making.

A cool shot at sunset.

Today when we got up we went for a drive. We saw some deer, a few smaller bucks, and did some 4 wheeling.

Because of all the rain the past few weeks, the mud puddles were plentiful. Lisa and I both took turns gunning it through the mud to cover our Pathfinder with "chocolate" as the kids called it.

I think we would make Brad Paisley proud with our mud on the tires.

Tonight we are going to put our camp chairs out in our cirlce and watch the fire works they light off Memorial Hill. It should be a great climax to a fun weekend. I hope you all had a great Independence Day!