NYC Part 1

They say once you start traveling, you can't stop. Well I say that's true and husband and I were in need for another, exciting, cultural trip. My college roommate, Caitlin Stweart, moved to New York City a little over a year ago has been asking me to come visit ever since. Well, husband and I made the decision, some what spontaneously, to take a trip out to NYC in mid October, visit Caitlin, and to see what all the fuss is about of the famous Big Apple! Since I turned 27 earlier in the week, we thought it was a good excuse to go on an exciting adventure for my birthday!

Day 1 (October 17) : Flew from SLC to Denver to LaGuardia Airport in New York. We were pretty relieved to get off the plane and set foot on New York. For our first evening, Caitlin took us to dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant followed by dessert at the famous Cafe Lalo (from You've Got Mail).

Caitlin just lives about a block or two north of the Lincoln Center and across the street from the LDS temple, quite the location!

Day 2 (Oct 18): For our first full day in NYC, we decided to fit as much as we possibly could and tried to dominate most of the sites. We visited the Rockefeller building and plaza, took a ferry boat ride along the south end of Manhattan island and toured past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, walked down Wall Street, took a picture with the Charging Bull, sat inside Trinity Church, visited the 911 Memorial/Freedom tower, went to the top of the Empire State Building, made our way to Brooklyn for famous New York style pizza, and went back to Manhattan for dessert at Serendipity for their famous frozen hot chocolate. I think it took us less than 10 seconds to fall asleep once we got back to Caitlin's apartment......it was quite the day!

 The Lego Store

The larger, middle building is the new Freedom Tower

New York Stock Exchange

Trinity Church

The Charging Bull

World Trade Center Memorial : South Tower

North Tower

Caitlin made sure we had a true New York experience by taking us to Grimaldi's: Famous New York style pizza in Brooklyn, New York. We pretty much waited over an hour outside, just to get seated. 

Peanut Butter Frozen Hot Chocolate=Delicious! 

More pictures to come!

Love,
the Durrants

Occupational Therapist At Your Service

Earlier this year, I posted about passing my national board exam and could officially be called an occupational therapist. So now I just wanted to give a brief overview of what I have been up to in the field of occupational therapy. Before I took my exam, I had a job offer from Intermountain Healthcare to work in their home care unit for Utah County, with their office being located in Provo (just up the street from our house, so convenient). For Intermountain home care, I currently am working as a pediatric OT and visit children in their homes who are medically unstable to leave their homes. Basically, I address their developmental needs, anywhere from feeding/oral motor skills to play skills, fine motor skills (reaching, grasping), functional/transitional movement patterns (rolling, moving from sitting onto their tummy, crawling),  splinting, motor coordination, sensory organization, etc. When I started working for IHC, I went through a 3 month orientation process up in Salt Lake City, working with other pediatric OTs. Early October, I was transitioned down to Utah county and started seeing my own patients. So far I am absolutely loving it and can't believe I was able to jump onto my dream job just after ending school. Right now I am truly blessed to be working with such amazing families and amazing children. I couldn't have asked for a better job for me!!!

Love,

Krisann Durrant, MOTR/L

Craters of the Moon

So I just noticed today that this poor blog post has been sitting in my draft pile and was never published to share with the rest of the blogging world. So even though it's from earlier this year....cough, cough....back in May for husband's birthday, I still thought I would share it.

So, husband turned the BIG 25 this year and to celebrate, we traveled up to Idaho to visit my family and to visit a place husband had never been to.....Craters of the Moon National Monument....dun, dun, dun. Husband LOVED it. One reason why I picked this place is because husband is fascinated by caves and could spend all his days exploring any cave he could get his hands on. But Craters of the Moon caves is only one aspect of this park. There are lava tubes to explore, volcanos you can climb up, hiking trails, etc. Here are some photos from our Craters of the Moon adventure.

Love,
the Durrants

Passed

A couple weeks ago, school and studying came to an end and I entered a Prometric testing center to take the worst standardized test of my entire life, my national boards for occupational therapy. (Really, any board exam anyone has to endure through is horrible.) It was a 4 hour test with NO scheduled pee breaks! In addition to the stress of the exam, I had to wait almost a week before finding out whether or not I passed. Cruel and unusual punishment, right? The test featured 3 clinical simulation questions and 170 multiple choice questions where you need to choose the BEST (not correct...best) answer, which means all could be good answers, but only one is the best. I used every minute given and didn't have enough time to review uncertain answers. After I left the testing center, I had no idea if I passed or failed and I was a complete mental mess the rest of the weekend. It was horrible.

The tests are scored every other Wednesday and Pass/Fail is posted the following Thursday. Last Thursday morning, I learned that I did in fact PASS.. woo-hoo.... after worrying for a week that I failed and would need to retake it. I was visiting family in Idaho during my week of waiting and as soon as I got back to Provo, I turned in my paperwork to become a licensed occupational therapist for Utah. So once my paperwork is done being processed and when my licensed is active, I will be an official registered and licensed occupational therapist..........Krisann Durrant, MOT, OTR/L........so excited!!!!

Love, 

Krisann

One Year Down, A Forever to Go

Well, since June 15, 2012, I have officially been Mrs. Durrant for one whole year and it's been fantastic!

It's been one crazy, busy but wonderful first year of marriage. Husband and I were pretty excited to hit our one year mark and to celebrate our first wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we went to Salt Lake where we did sealings in the Salt Lake Temple, had lunch on the 10th floor on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, saw Man of Steel movie at Thanksgiving Point, and had dinner at Macaroni Grill. All in all, it was another beautiful June 15th.  

Yay for marriage and yay for 1st year anniversary celebrations. I love you Nicholas Durrant. I am one lucky and blessed girl to have you in my life. You are smart, talented, wonderful, hilarious, handsome, spontaneous, adventurous, hard worker, humble, genuine, kind, supportive, loving, and SO much more.You are my one and only. I love you oh sooooo much, and can't wait for more years and anniversaries to come and share with you! Happy one year anniversary, my love!

Love,

Your Mrs. Durrant

For Dad

Happy Father's Day to this awesome DAD!!!!

Thanks Dad, for all you do, for all the silly laughs, adventures, baseball games and hot dogs, Seinfeld quotes, for your love and support, and for all the fun times!!! We are sure blessed to have you in our lives!!!! Hope you had a great day and Happy Father's Day! We love you!

Love,

the Durrants