Cardiac Transplant Celebration and Walking Free

True confessions. Ever since Annika's cardiac arrest in 2022, I've been obsessed with hearts. For pretty obvious reasons, my passion for cardiology soon melded with a fixation on transplant. So when Annika received an invitation to the U.T.A.H. Cardiac Transplant Program 40th Anniversary Celebration,  I was pretty excited to tag-along as an extra. 

Also, I thought it was snazzy that the event was being held at the Capitol. In the ten years I've lived in Salt Lake, I'd never actually gone inside. Crazy since we live so close!

Annika was not thrilled that I made her wear a dress, but finally capitulated. 

When we arrived, the place was packed with a giant line to check-in. It was super loud with no place to sit--especially tricky when you're holding plates of food.. Here's a photo Jason took much later after things settled down.

On the positive side, the Capitol certainly is beautiful.

As soon as we figured out it was an option, we headed to the outdoor patio where there were tents and TVs set up to broadcast the program. So much nicer!

The program was meaningful for Jason and myself. The keynote speaker was Dr. Dale Renlund. I had no idea that prior to being called as an apostle, Elder Renlund was the medical director for the U.T.A.H. cardiac transplant program for nearly 20 years. I enjoyed learning about the consortium of Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals, and marveled that there are four transplant hospitals located within 20 minutes of our home (University of Utah, Intermountain Medical Center, Primary Children's and the VA.) I cried when a mother representing Donor Connect talked about her daughter who passed away at the age of three, then invited the boy who had her daughter's heart to join her on stage.  I applauded the fourteen year-old girl who talked about living her new life with positivity instead of mourning the life that could have been. And of course, we recognized the work of all the medical teams who make transplant possible.

As a transplant recipient, Annika plays a critical role--the program exists to help patients like her. So she added her piece to the puzzle.

Annika's puzzle piece was marked with her name and a transplant number.  There have been more than 2000 hearts transplanted since Utah's first heart transplant 40 years ago. Her transplant was so recent that I rather doubt hers was number 1426 chronologically, but I'll ask at her next appointment.

We talked to a man who told us that transplant recipients generally know their number. 

Not Annika. 

As it turns out, she doesn't want to be identified by a number or her status as a transplant recipient. While she enjoyed getting to see a few familiar faces from Primary Children's, in general these were not her people. Within fifteen minutes, she was asking to leave. So after some obligatory small talk and listening to the keynote speaker,  Jason and I gave her permission to walk home.

While naturally we would have loved to have Annika join us the whole time, I also felt a smidge of pride when she left. I am indescribably grateful that she is healthy enough to walk the 2.5 uphill miles home. Before transplant, walking a block was questionable.

So if Annika decides to take off walking and leave her transplant identity behind, that's just fine. Obviously it's something that she can never fully shed (hello meds), but it doesn't have to define her. Frankly, I'm glad that she doesn't share my obsession with hearts. In no way does this diminish her gift or mean that we are less grateful for her donor. It's my hope that her donor lived each day fully, rarely thinking about the miraculously pump insode of them. Their gift is allowing Annika to live life similarly, shedding the world of cardiology to walk free and and enjoy the sunset.

What's Actually Up With the Wheelers

Whew! I finally finished blogging Spain but school is already back in session, meaning that I have an entire summer to catch up on. 

But first, here's a glimpse of what's been happening in our lives, realtime.  Meet Vivien!

Viven has been living with us as an exchange student from Vietnam. She returned to her boarding school at Wasatch Academy in Central Utah on Sunday, but we loved having her stay with us for a month.

(Tally Wally, please know that as much as we love Vivien, you are not replaced! We all miss you, including Zion!)

Back to Vivien, she had secured a summer internship at a laboratory up at the University of Utah, so our home was conveniently located for her. Her research project focused on memory structures in the hippocampus of mice, especially looking at the extracellular matrix. It's not every high schooler who is an expert in neuroanatomy and brain dissection!

Naturally one of the first (and last) things we did with Vivien was take her up into the Foothills near our home. Here's Annika modeling how to properly enjoy a sunset.

Originally we'd thought Vivien needed to leave Friday, so we all went out to eat at Indochine in her honor on Thursday night.

But good news! She didn't need to leave until Sunday so the next night we dined out again. This time we ate Thai at Sawadee in Brooklyn's honor, as she was moving back down to Provo on Saturday. Thanks to NomiAnn, Papa Kay, and the Wilhoits for joining us! I just wish I'd taken a picture. Ah well, I did grab a few silly photos when we went to see Eli at work at Hatch Family Chocolates after.

By the way, Annika is now officially an eighth grader at Hillside Middle.  She is highly motivated to have a successful school year and earn a trip to a Stray Kids concert. You've got this, Annie Mae!  (Yeah, yeah, I know. You're Annika now. But sometimes I miss saying Annie.)

As for Eli, he is now a Junior at West High. He seems a bit uncertain of our antics in this pic! Don't worry--Steve will forgive us. 

Eli is managing a huge load this year: check out this pile of books if you need evidence. 

Add to that being a hardware captain for robotics and running cross-country and working a couple nights a week, and he is busy. I think it's going to take a little time to settle into a manageable rhythm. We love you, Eli! You've got this!

On Saturday morning Brooklyn and I went for our first training run before heading down to Provo. Brooklyn, Eli and I are all planning to run the Haunted Half in Provo on Halloween. This is Brooklyn's very first long-distance run: 13.1 miles--there's a fright-mare for real! Amazing gatherer that she is, she's already talked her former mission companion Hermana Takahashi into joining us, so I'm sure it will be a great party.

Next stop: the Wilhoits for some last minute hugs. Plus, Brooklyn needed to retreive all of the stuff she's been storing in their shed.

Anders looks ready to caravan all the way down to Provo in his tiny Tesla.

Cousin love!

Here we are moving into Cinnamon Tree apartments. Brooklyn has a super-fun housing situation going on where she's talked a group of her friends (Lily, Kacie and Laney) into rooming with her. A cozy apartment with six girls, it's sure be a party every night! I just hope they settle down to study too.  :) Not that I'm actually worried about Brooklyn--she does a fantastic job juggling her academic load, work, and social life. Her color coded spreadsheet of assignments is highly impressive, if not a little daunting. She's even mapped out her calendar for the whole semester already.

Settling in. Told you it's cozy!

Aw, look how NomiAnn's bedspread and some books transform the space.

Perfect spot for a snooze. We were all glad to see Jason get some much needed rest. Earlier that morning he took Zion out for a 10 mile fast run through the mountains!

With move-in mostly complete, we splurged on some Swedish Moose candy with Laney. Downtown Provo is sooo cute!

Before we knew it Sunday had arrived and it was time to take Vivien to the airport. While it's just a two hour drive to Mt. Pleasant, this was the best way to connect with the international students who would be heading down to Wasatch Academy.

Soul sisters. 

Later that day I cajoled the family into taking a hike up to Lake Mary by Brighton. The start was steeper than I remembered, so here we are taking a break to watch the wild jays.

I like this scenery best. I don't think Jason stopped smiling the entire way as he walked through his favorite ski runs and imagined what it will be like to zoom down them in a few months.

Yup, this is me. Always taking too many pictures.

If I had to pick a favorite lake in all the Cottonwoods, it would be Lake Mary.

And hey, look who was back from Provo already! Brooklyn was in Salt Lake for Ammon's mission homecoming, so we captured her for our adventure.

While blessing dinner a couple hours later, Annika thanked God for the beautiful lake and hike, twice. I couldn't agree more, cutie!

Speaking of dinner, we dined well, all thanks to NomiAnn and Papa Kay's kind invitation to eat paella with them. We pulled up to the Cottage just as a rainshower transformed into a gorgeous double rainbow with the moon peeking out between.

Beautiful place you live, Mom and Dad!

Then, when Adam showed up for Sunday night British TV, we discovered that he and Eli were twinners. Family is the best!

With both Brooklyn and Vivien both moving out, it was a bittersweet weekend, but joyful all the same.

Day 15: Soria and Home Again

Our last full day together in Spain was in Soria. Brooklyn, Eli and I started off the day with a trek to the San Saturio Hermitage, picturesquely situated on banks of the Duero River. If I remember correctly, we walked ahead, then Jason drove down and met up with us later. (I think maybe Talia and Annika were tired and stayed home.) Anyway, it worked out great because the hermitage itself was locked when we first arrived but had opened up by the time Jason jogged up. He encouraged us to turn around and go back. It was absolutely worth it! While still interesting from the outside, we would have missed this hidden gem.

There's a hidden entrance to the hermitage through this super cool cave at the bottom.

These first rooms below are where Sarturio, patron saint of Soria, lived as a hermit for decades. The sanctuary above wasn't built until much later.

If you're ever in the area, the hermitage is a must-see.

Afterward we all went to seek pastries. I was especially interested in trying Soria's famous butter.  Mantequilla de Soria seemed like a good place to start.

Um, yes. We did purchase and consume everything pictured here...for breakfast. Hey, it was our last day!

Sleeping off the sugar rush after. 

Once again, stork in the belfry.

From there we took a daytrip to the Cañon del Rio Lobos.  No, we didn't actually see any wolves by the river, but that would have been pretty cool! On the otherhand, we did see an astounding number of griffon vultures.

Plus the trail markings were pretty cute.

Plus, we got to visit the Hermitage of San Bartolomé, it being a hermitage kind of day.

The carvings on each of the dentils were unique. I love how Jason pointed out this detail that completely would have escaped my notice.

Pretty as a picture with flowers in her hair.

Exploring a nearby cave.

In the background you'll see Annika starting to scale a wall, as one does. Or, at least as one does if one is Annika.

Unfortunately she got herself up so high that she couldn't get herself safely down. Fortunately Jason came to the rescue.

In the end it became a group effort to get our little adrenaline junkie down to safety without any skinned knees.

Still not ready to end our marvelous trip, we took one final detour on the way back to swim at Playa Pita. While called a beach, it's actually a large lake with some sandy beach front in places and lots of shady pines in others.

Not perfect rock-skipping conditions, but Eli gave it a go anyway.

I'd thought Annika would swim, but instead she spent her time hunting for tadpoles. Again, as one does.

Just for the record, no I did not let her bring them home.

That evening we went out for an elegant meal at the restaurant directly outside the front window of our apartment, La Gastro Tasquita. I loved it!  We ate this delicious infused burrata...

...some absolutely delicious squid

...and a dish that somewhat resembled migas, a Sorian specialy.  Next to it you will see an empty dish that contained pork tenderloin until we devoured it all.

The crowd favorite, however, was hands down the lagarto.  Yes, we ate lizard and found it heavenly.

The funniest part is that despite all of this deliciousness, the one thing that will make this meal legendary is the mushroom pâté.  While most of us liked it or at least found it tolerable, Brooklyn absolutely hated it. This was so funny to me because she is such a foodie with generally refined tastes who is willing to try most everything. She also likes mushrooms--usually. But something about the texture and the way this was prepared made it rise to the top of her list of least like items ever. 

So there you have it!  We finally found the one thing she didn't love in Spain. I guess that meant it was time to go home.

And fly home we did. The next morning we drove to Madrid, returned our rental car (uneventfully, thanks to a heads-up from Grandma Susie that it can be difficult to find the drop-off), and began our series of flights back. I really don't remember much about them, so they must have been reasonably smooth.

Kids look happy! We came home with only a few souvenirs but mountains of joyful memories. (And an equal number of photos, obviously.)

Flying in to rainbow skies.

There is so much I could say about Spain, but the word I feel most is gratitude. Gratitude that everything ran so smoothly. Gratitude for this special time with our family. And above all, gratitude to this nation for welcoming us warmly, for treating our Brooklyn well, and for sharing its beauty so gracefully. Despite the political ugliness that tarnishes world relations, we felt welcomed as citizens of a singular globe instead of judged for the poor decisions of leaders. The Spaniards were patient even in moments when we obviously didn't know what we were doing, like when we got in the wrong toll lane and held up the entire line. Coming back to Salt Lake, I hope I can share this spirit of hospitality and warmth to all.