Hands On Training Institute

As a dentist, I am required to take a certain amount of hours of continuing education each year to keep my license.  The number that is required is actually quite low, in my opinion.  I try to take several courses a year to continue improving my skills and knowledge to be the best I can be.  I actually enjoy learning more in my profession and improving.  The best courses are usually offered out of state (we usually go to Scottsdale Arizona).

One fun thing for me is to take courses along with my brother Carson.  Since he practices in Seattle he likes to try and go somewhere sunny and warm in the winters to escape his Pacific Northwest winter gloom.  This year Carson and I elected to attend an implant course in Orange County, California to improve our implant skills and take on more difficult cases.  Overall the course was pretty good, but the lecturer was a really pompous jerk.  Oh well, at least I learned more with regards to implants.

Here is a photo the institute took on the day of one of our lectures.

This was during one of the hands on portions.  You can see Carson and me on the upper left of the picture.  You'll notice my bald head on the back row.

When Carson arrived to pick up his rental car, they were all out of the economy ones that he had reserved.  Instead they gave him this convertible at the same price.  Hooray for us!  We got to drive around sunny Southern California with the top down.
We attended class from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each day but the evenings were free to do whatever we wanted.

One evening we drove down to Huntington Beach Pier to eat some grub and watch a little beach volleyball.

It was the last stop of the season for the AVP tour.  The girls were super tall, but just so-so with their skills.

The guys on the other hand were really good.  They were impressive.

Lisa's youngest brother Spencer is serving his mission right now in the Irvine, California mission.  Carson and I surprised him at his apartment one night.  We dropped off a bag of home made elk jerky I prepared for him, gave him some hugs, chatted for a couple of minutes, then left to let him get back in missionary mode.  He was incredibly surprised to see us standing on his door step at 9:30 at night.

We made friends with some dentists from Colorado and New Mexico and they hooked us up one night with tickets to the Anaheim Ducks hockey match vs the Buffalo Sabres.  We had great seats and it was really fun.

One night we met up with our good friend Brandon Jergensen from dental school.  He and his family live in San Diego, so he drove up for the night and we had dinner at Dukes.  It was really fun catching up with him again.

I have a few more courses planned for 2014 that I am already looking forward to.