Monday, April 18, 2016

The Great Past 6 Months!

It felt like yesterday that I wrote my last post, so you can imagine my surprise when I decided to do a post and realized it has been about 6 months  Ladies and gentlemen, there are no excuses.  I have failed the family blog.  However, the good news is that if you are true friends, you are following us on instagram and are pretty well caught up with the happenings of the Hutchings.  If you are not currently following us on instagram, then you have no clue what has been going on in our lives which has been not a little, and I highly recommend that you get on instagram and search for "jakeandem" so that you can be up to date.  Also, it takes a really long time to add a lot of photos, especially the ones that we have taken over the last 6 months, so, today you will not be getting a plethora of pictures on our blog, in fact I think that you should look at instagram since that is the main communication pathway these days.

OK, now that is out of the way, let's go.  6-7 months have passed, what has happened in that time? Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, a dog joins our family, lots of birthdays, New Year's, a dog leaves our family, Spring Break-Branson 2016, among other activities and such, which is where I will try to pick it up.  But, please know that both good and bad times were had by all.
Nice Catch! Branson, MO
Table Rock Lake
I have decided to skip all of the exciting times and go straight to this last week where I was in Springfield, MO doing a pediatric dental externship (mainly to make sure that is actually what I want to do when I grow up).  I have learned a few things after spending a week in Springfield which is also known as: "the Queen City of the Ozarks", "the Birthplace of Route 66" and the home of the national headquarters of Bass Pro Shops, "The Grandaddy of all outdoor stores"; I learned that it is the third largest city in Missouri, I learned that there are some amazing places to eat (anyone ever had a fried pickle and ranch burger? Delicious!), and I learned that I definitely could one day live there (either for a residency or as a final destination location)
World Bass Pro Shops Headquarters-this one puts most other outdoor stores to shame (even Cabela's, sorry Dad)
I stayed with the parents of some of our friends, and they have a great location, about 15 minutes north of Springfield, they have a few acres.  I was able to see nature in action, much to the chagrin of our friends, where I saw a fox snag one of their free-roaming chickens.  That was one of those situations that you feel grateful that you saw it, but felt really bad for them.  The coolest thing was when I first got to their house I noticed a bookshelf that was completely yellow, when I looked closer, I realized that it was full of National Geographic magazines! Some issues went all the way back to the 1920's, and they have every issue from 1951 to present.  So, as a lover of Nat Geo, I went straight for the issue that is the most important to me, December 1979 (my birth month).  It was so great to see the ads for a Toyota Corolla, which was funny since that is the car I currently drive.
National Geographic heaven!
Greatest issue ever
During my externship, I met some great people that really allowed me to get to see what it is like to be a pediatric dental resident, and I decided that is definitely what I want to do when I grow up.  I felt like it is my "calling in life", to work with kids and to get their mouths healthy.  Huge thank you to the residency program at Jordan Valley Community Health Center!

As I was pulling into the driveway from my week-long trip I got a call from Cooper saying that they were at the pool and I needed to come quick because Bennett fell and needs stitches.  I pulled into the driveway and backed right out to rush to the pool and take poor little Bennett to the Urgent Care where they decided that he did indeed need stitches.  The nurse practitioner told us that we could go to the hospital to have plastics stitch him up since it is in such a noticeable spot, but we figured that since he was so young, and that he is a "he" and would love a good scar to show for the rest of his life, we decided that it was ok to have the nurse practitioner do the stitching.  Bennett was hilarious the entire time, laughing and joking, talking and playing, he was an all-star.  
This is to show you that it was definitely in a very noticeable location
Just chillin'
Happy Boy
Ninja Headband

Friday, September 25, 2015

Time to Catch Up!

Much thanks to "Ar P", whoever you are, for commenting on my last post and letting me know that I could do better than one post every 6 months.  So, this one's for you "Ar P", wherever and whoever you are.  So, first things first...everyone needs to know that we are alive and well.  To sum up the last 6 months:

We have moved from Kirksville, MO to Ballwin, MO 
The truck is as big as the house!
Emily and her Kirksville Ladies
Goodbye Kirksville campus
Hello St. Louis campus
We finally (after 6 years) burned our moving boxes!
Kinda funny to think that some of these boxes were as old as Ethan!

We drove to Maryland for a family reunion.  I would have put up all of the pictures I took of the state signs, but Emily thinks I'm a nerd for taking all of them, and so you all don't think I am a nerd, I will refrain from putting them up. 
Best slip-n-slide ever!
Family picture fun (we needed to have Anderson strapped in so he wouldn't run away)
The family invaded the hotel pool, and surpassed the hot tub capacity by about triple the max capacity
Dulles Air and Space Museum, that is the Discovery shuttle
Family Bonfire night
Anderson did not like the zipline
Cousins and the D.C. temple

I flew home to start my third year of dental school 
We learn 2 things from this letter.  1) I passed 2nd year, and 2) I had at least a 2.0 gpa
Funny story, summed up...bullet through the window!
My home for the next 2 years
The dam. Sorry to those of you who come and see me and need to have this placed.  No fun! 
Because I'm a nerd, I have taken pics of all the teeth I have extracted.  I was going to put more up, but Emily said no.
So, here is one of them

Emily thought the drive to Maryland was so fun she decided to drive from MD to Georgia and stay there for a couple more weeks, then I flew to GA and we all drove home together.  
Tired kids, lots of road work
Wild horses, on the beach in Maryland

While Emily was driving for those couple of weeks, I was going to school and then coming home and doing some remodeling on our home, all while trying to keep the pool a decent shade of blue.  Let me interject something here, I do not recommend owning a pool unless you are able to afford to pay someone to help keep it clean, even if you think you will have time to do it yourself, HIRE someone!!!  This pool of ours has seen every shade of blue, but more unfortunately, it has also seen every shade of green, and it was mostly somewhere in between.  It wasn't until just recently that we were finally able to see the bottom of the deep end, and then the weather got chillier and the pool got greener again.  Bah!
Before
During
More during
Finished (for the most part)

50 Shades of GREEN:
Here it is at least with a little blue tint

This summer we also took a weekend trip over to Indianapolis to go to the LDS temple open house, which was a really neat experience, we then drove over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and checked out the museum there.  Finally, we were able to meet up with my cousin-brother Nate and his family who live in D.C. but just happened to be in Indy the same weekend.  
Indianapolis Indiana LDS Temple
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
This is the Official pace car from this year's race

We have spent countless hours and Saturdays exploring our new stomping grounds that is the St. Louis Metro area, which we have absolutely fallen in love with (and just may call it home permanently), we have been making great new friends as well.  One of the best things about living here is that it is a great pit stop for visitors that are travelling across the country, it is also just a fun and much more exciting place to visit than where we had been (sorry, Kirksville, we loved you, but our visitors did not!).
One of the new parks in our area
The "Rock Park"
Even though you can't see it, I got a nice outdoor chair for Father's Day
Cooper and the Nauvoo Lego temple
Missouri Botanical Gardens
St. Louis Cardinals Mormon Night
Hike in Meramec State PArk
FredBird, Mini-FredBird (Cooper), and Luke at our neighborhood park 
Luke at the Parkway South Homecoming Parade (we got enough candy for Haloween!)
Botanical Gardens again
Luke admiring the height of the STL temple
More from "Rock Park"
Friends, Labor Day, and kickball
Fun visit from Grandma and Poppy Jewkes
The brothers and their Tae-Kwon-Do lessons
Krispy Kreme pirate day.  I love Bennett's face in this pic, classic Bennett
Not quite the ABQ Balloon Fiesta, but it is beautiful scenery, and we had a lot of fun