February Kansas Trip

Aaron and I had gotten all of our shifts done early in the month in February, which meant that we had a week off at the end of the month! We decided to go to Kansas to visit Aaron's family. The week before we came, they'd gotten had a winter storm with a record breaking 15 inches of snow, much of which was still on the ground. We were supposed to head up on Monday, but when forecasters began predicting another blizzard was going to hit the area on Sunday night, we canceled our evening plans and hit the road Sunday afternoon to make sure we beat the weather.

Wearing Aunt Jessica's scarf :-)

The forecasters were a little off, because the weather didn't start until Monday. We were out and about Monday morning and early afternoon, stopping by Grandpa Mark's office, mailing packages, getting some lunch at Aaron's favorite Italian fast food restaurant, and buying Julia some snow boots at the mall. The snow began falling at the beginning of our outing, but it really picked up and by the time we finished and headed back to the house, the snow was coming down crazy hard.

We hunkered down in the house, and watched out the windows as the snow continued falling all day. We ventured out with the dogs for a bit, enjoying the magically large snowflakes and tossing snowballs at each other.

I love this photo! So sweet!

The next morning, the snowfall had finally ceased. The storm had added another five or six inches of snow onto the fifteen from the week before, meaning that there was nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground!

That day, we went outside to play. We were so grateful Gee Mary had bought some snow boots for Julia to keep her feet warm in the crazy deep snow! The snow was SO deep, actually, that Julia had trouble walking in it and kept falling! I worked up a sweat building a huge snowman (snowballs that huge are heavy to roll!) that Julia named Frosty (of course).

Note the fudge stripe cookie eyes and mouth :-)

Later in the week, when the roads were better, we went out to lunch, followed by a trip to the mall to enjoy the quarter rides and indoor playground.

Julia also built her own teddy bear at a store in the mall. She chose a black bear, watched as he was stuffed, put a heart inside him with a kiss and a wish (her wish was for a new bear! Done! Haha!), watched him get stitched closed, brushed any stuffing off his fur, and then picked an outfit for him. Despite being presented with lots of different options for clothing... she only had eyes for a black tuxedo! Ha! So fancy!

Stuffing the heart inside.

Giving the bear an air bath and brush.

After dressing her black bear in a tuxedo, we asked Julia what his name should be.
 
"Sally!" she said.

Umm... no. We looked through a book of names, and gave her some fancy sounding male names to go with her fancy looking, tuxedo wearing bear. The winning name was Baxter.

We didn't notice until after we left the mall that Julia couldn't quite enunciate Baxter. She made his name sound more like an illegitimate child. Whoops.

That night, we went out for sushi with Aunt Jessica, which is becoming a tradition of sorts (a delicious one).

I had a fun time this trip looking through Aaron's memory box that his mom put together for him through the years. It has little keepsakes like his baptismal candle, and lots of papers from school with drawings and essays. It was neat to get a glimpse into his early life! One of the best gems I found that I had to take a picture of:

It so warms my heart that in 1991, Aaron's dream job was becoming a dad. How many little boys would ever say that? What a sweetie! So glad his dream job has been fulfilled! Aaron is such a wonderful dad! Now, if only he'd start doing the cooking part of the job... ha! ;-)

We headed home Thursday, since Aaron had to start his next rotation on Friday.

We had a wonderful time, as always, visiting Aaron's family! It was extra special to get to enjoy so much snow with them!

February 2013

In February, I was on a pediatric clinic elective and Aaron was finishing his community hospital rotation in a rural town close to home. The clinician I was working with had started her own practice not long before, so the clinic was on the quieter side, but I had a great time getting to know her and lots of fun seeing her cute patients with her. Aaron and I both had pretty awesome hours, so we continued to bask in the glory that is fourth year medical school.

Unfortunately, Aaron did have to work some long ER shifts (11 am to 11 pm, but add in 45 minutes of drive time on either end, and it makes for a long day), one of which was scheduled on his birthday. Julia and I made him a special birthday banner and birthday breakfast, but then he had to go work all day. He got home around midnight, went to bed, then woke at 4 am, needing to run to the bathroom to vomit. The poor guy proceeded to wake, then, every half hour for a couple hours to vomit. Seems he picked up some sort of awful bug, made even more sad that it was the night of his birthday. Over the next couple days, as the stomach issues faded, the upper respiratory symptoms flared. He was really pretty sick for a while there. All birthday plans were postponed as he just rested up, drinking sports drinks and going through tons of tissues.

We ultimately celebrated a few days later on Mardi Gras with a take out steak dinner one night after Julia was in bed (she ate a good, albeit less expensive, meal earlier, lest you're worrying I send her to bed without supper ;-) ). Julia and I gave Aaron a bunch of new ties (cliche dad gift, I know... haha!) since he'll be wearing a lot of ties at work during residency. A few of the ties are even washable (!!!) which I think is great, especially in medicine since it's germy work and ties can spread nastiness from patient to patient. We also gave him a funner gift - an expansion for our Rivals of Catan card game. We had my family (minus the college girls who were pretty busy that day) over the following Sunday for dinner so they could celebrate Aaron, too. I made stromboli, tortilla chips and white queso, and ice cream cake per the birthday boy's request. I was going to make a salad, too, but Aaron decided he didn't want anything green at his party... ha!

Valentine's Day was low key but fun. I made a special breakfast for my loves - French toast (using ground flaxseed instead of egg) and berries. I actually had the day off, so Julia and I met up with friends for story time at the library. Aaron surprised me with some beautiful flowers and some gorgeous yellow gold hoop earrings. Then, Aaron, Julia, and I went out for burritos that night, since our favorite burrito place was having a buy one, get one free deal if you kissed each other at the cash register. We're never ones to pass up a free burrito... haha!

We did a lot of traveling in February - much more than usual! At the beginning of the month, we went to Quartz Mountain. The third weekend of the month, we went to Oklahoma City to celebrate the engagement of our friends, Alex and Blake, and visit our friends, Aaron, Jordan, and Michael, our godson! At the end of the month, we went to Kansas for several days to visit Aaron's family - more on that soon!

While Daddy was working one Saturday, I took Julia to the museum for family art day. This craft was a bit beyond her skill level... meaning, I pretty much made this Valentine. Julia did pick out the colors of yarn for me to use ;-)

It may look like a picnic of candy, but that's actually fruit salad... haha! And the sandwiches had a chickpea/avocado spread that was really tasty!

Julia loved her HUGE Valentine from Grandma Mary!

Dance sessions around here are pretty intense.

Julia's Valentine's Day breakfast.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun times walking in circles with Blaise after story time.

My Valentine's bouquet :-)

Yes, I do realize these old crocs probably look better on Julia than me, despite how ridiculous they look on Julia.

OKC Trip

One weekend in February, we traveled to Oklahoma City for the engagement party of our friends, Alex and Blake. Julia is going to be a flower girl in the wedding and I'm going to be a lector, so we were honored to get to celebrate with Alex, Blake, their families, and the rest of the wedding party. We had a fantastic time and were so glad we were able to be there! We are looking forward to the wedding in June!

Our dear college friends, Aaron and Jordan, who also live in Oklahoma City, generously hosted us at their lovely home that night. It was so wonderful to see them and their adorable son (our godson!), Michael. It was so fun to see our little ones interacting! We caught up, ate delicious desserts, and played games that night, then went to mass and brunch together the next morning before leaving town. We had such a wonderful visit with such a wonderful family!
 

We love our OKC friends and we can't wait until we see them all again!