We're still here

What is my deal? It's been so long since I last posted an update. My friend Anjie made a comment today on the post below noting that I had been neglecting the blog and asking if I was pregnant. If that's not a big enough incentive for me to get blogging again, I don't know what is! Even though she's hundreds of miles away from me, she made me blush while sitting here at my computer. As far as I know, my womb is barren, so if you have came to the blog looking for an announcement... sorry. No exciting news. Just updates, travel logs, and pictures...

So, where to start?

Tyler's 3rd year break was assigned to him to be the month of September. Yes, we just had May off (for his 2nd year break), so we weren't completely excited about practically back-to-back vacations. But we found some great deals on flights (and Annie could fly free till the 29th!) so we decided to head out of town for the month.

On September 1st, we took the 6am flight out to Colorado to check things out and see if we could live out there post-residency. Tyler had set up an appointment with some people to check out a career opportunity, and of course, Tyler's sister is out there, so we were able to spend a fun week with her and her sweet family! Here is Tyler on the flight. Just reading a book and relaxing while Annie is looking for trouble.

I took Whitney & Cole over to the Butterfly pavilion by Marlie's house and they loved it. Whitney held "Rosie" the tarantula. YIKES!

After Rose, we enjoyed the sauna-like room where hundreds of butterflies are flying all over the place. The kids were in heaven. Did I mention that butterflies are Whitney's favorite animal? She is obsessed.

We checked out two towns in Colorado for potential places to settle. One was just less than an hour north of Tyler's sister, and it reminded me SO much of Texas. I loved the "big sky" feel to the area.The other place was about an hour (and a half?) south of Tyler's sister, and it reminded me of Utah--but with greener mountains. It was a very beautiful place!

We were able to visit with our friends from our freshman year of college, Marc & Diana, for the afternoon and got to meet their little boys. I still don't know how we managed to not get a picture of or with them. Doh! It was wonderful visiting with them and getting to know more about their area of Colorado.

Marlie & Kris were so kind and generous to us. It made us realize how much we miss them while we're out here in NorCal and they're so far away. On our last day in town, we all went out to Boulder to see the fun sights (and people).

Tyler couldn't resist getting this shark hat for the kids. Cole wore it for the rest of the afternoon and on the airplane to Texas. He was not a hard one to spot with that thing on!I can't believe how few pictures I got of our trip there. And the ones I did get were pretty random! Marlie is so good at taking pictures of everything. She got some shots of the kids playing at the kiddie pool, destroying her garden, and of all of us at her aerobics class. [You can check out her blog here if you wish to see more pictures of our trip.] Did I mention that she is a newly certified kickboxing instructor? Or that my rear-end, legs, and arms were sore for no shorter than 4 days afterward?! She taught a KILLER class and we loved it! :)

Next, we flew to Texas for some fun with Grandma & Grandpa and for Tyler to check out another potential job. We made a trip to the Space Center on one of our first days there, and now the kids want to be astronauts when they grow up. There was a George Lucas exhibit set up for us to enjoy -- complete with an Indiana Jones indoor ropes course.
Don't you love the family picture above? Sing it with me... "WE ARE A HAPPY FAMILY!!"

The kids enjoyed re-enacting space missions and learned a lot from the IMAX movie we saw.

Unfortunately, Tyler caught a bug somewhere between CA, CO, and TX. His poor eyes were puffy, he had a weird rash on his body, and he was just not himself with how tired he felt. Oh well, that didn't stop me from dragging him on a last minute jaunt across the state to experience the HEART of Texas. The grandparents offered to watch the kids for us so we could go enjoy a getaway in San Antonio. A cute group of traveling empty-nesters stopped us and offered to take a picture of us "honeymooners."

Little did they know that we recently had our lucky 7th anniversary and that there were 3 kids back at home... having a party with Grandma & Grandpa!

Tyler got to experience the Alamo, Buckee's gas station, and Rudy's BBQ. We also met up with my old roommate, Lindsay and got to meet her sweet new baby! Lindsay was such a good sport meeting up with us at the last minute and bringing along her little gal for the ride.

We were going to stop in Austin on our way home and make other "drop-by" visits, but with the way Tyler was feeling, we decided it would be best to just head back. Tyler rested while I drove through a killer Texas rain storm. I really thought Noah and his ark were going to show up on the freeway there was so much flooding. That was just one of the times I realized on this trip how much I had acclimatized to NorCal. I was such a wimp with the heat and humidity. Tyler had to keep reminding me to be nice and not so harsh on Texas. But really, we had a great time and found some great ways to beat the heat:

POOL--every day:

Mall play area & a visit to Build-a-Bear workshop:

This was their first time to the build-a-bear shop. They ATE it UP!! The worker there couldn't have loved her job any more; she was really sweet with the kids.

ITZ: A Chuck-E-Cheese-like place, but on steroids--fun for all ages

Open play day at the gymnastics building:

Oh my goodness. This place was AWESOME. Great way to keep the kids active while staying out of the heat. I think it was $5/kid for 2-3 hours of open play? Something like that. Parents were free!

Of course we had fun visiting my brothers. Uncle Todd was a great sport letting the kids climb all over him all the time and letting us crash his new bachelor pad!

And Uncle Phil & Ashlee came over lots with their little dog Rosie. Ashlee even had us all over for dinner at their new home one night.
And just for the record, I have to say that Phil found the greatest match ever. Ashlee is just top notch, and she is so amazing and thoughtful. She was always doing sweet things for the kids and looking out for them. One afternoon she even brought over some crafts for the kids to work on. They loved it!
Phew! What a great trip!! We have lots of fun memories to tide us over till the next time we're down there.

After we got back home to California, Whitney got back into the grove of school and Cole got to start up our "Mothergoose Preschool"--the home preschool where several of us moms take turns teaching in our homes twice a week. Here is our lovely obligatory first day of school picture by the front door:While I held down the fort, Tyler took a trip down to So Cal to check out another potential post-residency location. He had a great time and made it back just in time for his parents to come in town for a quick visit. Tyler's mom helped me make over my family room and dining area. We made a tablecloth, curtains, pillows, moved furniture, rearranged pictures, and even made seat cushions for the chairs at the kitchen table. What a difference! I could definitely stay here for another year and 8 months or so. It feels more like a home with all these little improvements. THANK YOU Linda for being a work-horse of a mother-in-law and for doing more in 4 days of being in town than I could do by myself in 2+ years of living here!

Oh, and how could I forget? Tyler & Whitney and his parents also went and saw Wicked (finally!) and really enjoyed it.

That pretty much wraps up Tyler's month off! I would say we sufficiently partied, yet we still got some work accomplished towards figuring out where we're going to end up after residency.