Indianapolis

Last weekend Hannah and I had a blast in Indianapolis! The school sent me to present a poster about my research at the Sigma Theta Tau annual nursing conference. Since James had class on Monday and Tuesday and couldn't come, my mom flew out to watch Hannah while I was at the conference. It was so much fun to see her (and we had such a great time shopping that I had to take an extra suitcase home!). And to make the trip even better, Beth and Ainsley Reese (one of my best friends who happened to marry James' cousin!) came and stayed with us in Indianapolis (Tom is going to MBA school in Bloomington which was just over an hour outside of Indy). It was the ultimate girls' night (that lasted three days!). I think the best was eating cheesecake in the hallway of the hotel so the girls could fall asleep in their hotel cribs in the dark!

The nursing convention was a lot of fun. I met many people that were interested in my research and that are doing similar things in their hospitals. Here I am in front of my poster:

I also got to meet a few of the big shots in nursing. I ate lunch with Shannon Perry (who wrote the Labor and Delivery book that we used at BYU)--she was pretty awesome and not afraid to tell me about it. I also ran in to the faculty members from BYU that were there, the woman that wrote my stats book (Dr. Polit), and Greg Mortensen who is an incredible philanthropist and wrote Three Cups of Tea (which I highly recommend):

He was incredibly nice and even took the time to chat with me a little bit. Of course, the picture where we are both looking at the camera is so blurry you can hardly tell which one is me, but here we are talking:

We got to Indy on Halloween (so of course Hannah wore her costume on the plane and wooed just about everyone she saw!). But Grandma was the most excited to see this little Dorothy!

Hannah calling Daddy to say goodnight. Or she might be calling 411 because that's her favorite number to dial and then hit SEND.

And Hannah refusing to sleep because it was way too fun to have Mommy's bed RIGHT next to her crib!

Beth and Ainsley met up with us on Sunday (here we are on one of the many skybridges that interconnects the whole downtown area of Indianapolis)

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and did the canal walk. We stopped to let the girls feed Cheerios to the ducks, but really the ducks just watched as the girls fed themselves!

Playing with the work of art along the canal

Ainsley was so cute the whole trip!

The girls were really adorable together, but it was impossible to get a picture where they were both looking and smiling! This is the best I could get!

On Monday night we went out to Bloomington where Beth and Tom live. We drove around the Indiana University campus (and even saw the McNutt Quadrangle (student dorms)!). Then we drove a little farther to the cutest little town called Nashville. Main street was packed with a ton of shops with all sorts of decorations, toys, fudge, and handcrafted items!

Hannah loved the scary giant cat

Then we met Tom for a dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Bloomington. I am definitely now a fan of Turkish food!

After a few hours at my convention on Tuesday, Mom, Beth, Ainsley, Hannah, and I headed to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (you can't go to Indianapolis without seeing the track for the Indy 500!). Despite our lack of knowledge about anything car-related, we had a blast! We went through the Hall of Fame Museum...

(Hannah wanted to take off in one of the cars)

...and we took an interesting tour of the race track.

According to the brochure, "kissing the bricks" at the speedway is the thing to do. So we couldn't pass up the opportunity!
Then off to the airport for a couple quick flights. Thanks Mom and Beth for a great few days! Love ya!