Merry Christmas from the Cannons
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While we were able to include some pictures on our Christmas cards, we didn’t save much room to tell you about what we have been up to this year (or last year for that matter since we didn’t send out cards – oops!) So – just what has been going on around here lately?
Austin
Austin is now in his 4th clinical year of residency/5th total year at the University of Utah. He is in the general surgery residency program. Austin did a research year from July 2018-June 2019 which doesn’t count towards clinical years so it’s really his 5th year of residency total. He has about a year and a half left to complete his residency training.
Unlike the regular clinical residency years, research year is a little more relaxed. Check out this research year recap post that covers July 2018-June 2019.
After residency is over, Austin is planning to do a one year fellowship in colorectal surgery (yes, he wants to be a butt doctor, LOL)
The fellowship matching process is very similar to the residency matching process. Austin will apply and interview to several programs (probably around 15 different places). Then he will rank the places he liked and the programs will rank him against other applicants. Then there is a computer system that will “match” the residents to their new programs.
Besides residency, Austin doesn’t have much time for many other fun activities but he is excited that we just got a “new to us” Jeep. However, we did get the Jeep stuck the very first time that we took it off-roading. You can read more about that fiasco here.
Andrea
Andrea is now in her third year working for Bristol-Myers Squibb as an oncology medical liaison. This basically means that she shares information related to efficacy and safety of the cancer drugs with oncology physicians, pharmacists, nurses, etc. Andrea covers 4 states (Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico) and has flown around 250 times this year between work and fun. She is excited to take her first international solo trip right after Christmas to Sweden.
Andrea is proud to have completed two Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman) events this year. These consist of 1.2 miles swim, 56 miles bike, 13.1 miles run in that order. She also did two Olympic distance triathlons which are approximately half of all of those distances. Andrea has signed up for her first FULL Ironman to be completed in November 2020 near Phoenix, Arizona. A full Ironman is 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles bike, 26.2 miles run. There will be lots of training in 2020.
2019 Travels
This was a great travel year for us, mainly because the second half of Austin’s research year was the beginning of 2019. A few of the places we visited included Kauai, New Zealand (maybe an all-time favorite!), Havasupai, and Southern Utah/Northern Arizona.
Other fun things from this year
Austin and Andrea completed the Huntsman 140 bike ride (Andrea rode 140 miles and Austin rode 75 miles) in June 2019.
Dex turned 5 this year and is still as playful as ever.
Andrea has also been blogging pretty regularly so you can keep up with us year round if you are interested by bookmarking the blog www.beaUTAHfulworld.com or subscribing at the bottom of this post. You can also follow Andrea on Instagram here.
Overall, we are incredibly grateful for such a wonderful 2019 and we are looking forward to 2020. We wish each of you a Merry Christmas and wonderful holiday season.
Let’s Stay in Touch…
Andrea Cannon is a pharmacist, triathlete, gratitude practicer, and avid traveler. For both business and pleasure, she has taken more than 250 flights yearly for the past 3 years. In addition to being a travel hacking enthusiast, Andrea enjoys hiking and spending time with her husband (Austin) and dog (Dex). You can connect with her via her blog www.beaUTAHfulworld.com or on Instagram @andreafcannon .