Gunner and the Slide

Ellasen and Gunner share a love of the slide. They are not swing fans, or playhouse fans, or monkey bar fans, but any slide any where and Ellasen and Gunner are there. We take lots of walks to the park and Gunner will follow right behind Ellasen on the slides. We have a small slide in our backyard, and the two of them take turns going down the slide. Here are a couple of videos of it!

The Last Supper

Well, this is it. The 6 ortho couples who have done pretty much everything together since we started here in Rochester got together for the last time on Sunday night. Catherine and Louie put a great pizza dinner together for us. They are a year ahead of the rest of us and will be moving on to a fellowship this summer. With that and some away rotations coming up for some of the other couples this was the very last time we could all be in the same room. Even still we were missing one husband...someone is ALWAYS on call. It was a sad reminder that most chapters in life are temporary. It will be hard to make friends like these in the future. We were all pretty much newly weds together, had our kids together, maneuvered the ups and downs of residency together, and warmed each other's spirits during the LONG winter months of Minnesota. We will really miss one another.

The kids got to make their own pizzas

All the husbands minus Mike

All the wives and their kiddos...Mel's is in her tummy due Sept. 27th 

Kids playing!

Witt and his pizza 

The "older" kids making pizzas

Enjoying the pizzas they made

Gunner

For those of you that didn't know, Tim surprised me with a new puppy for a combination birthday/Valentine's day gift. His name is Gunner and he is very sweet. He loves Ellasen, and gets really excited when he sees her. She does not love that he jumps on her some, but we are trying to work on that. I have to say taking care of a two year old and a puppy is a ton of work! I think I might have a small idea of what it might be like to have another baby around! Gunner can't actually get down our steps to the yard yet, so we have to take him out each time he needs to go. Let's just say we are mighty thankful for the mild winter we are having this year. Gunner is a miniature goldendoodle. He is a cross between a miniature poodle and a golden retriever. He will get to be about 30 to 35 lbs. He is non shedding and super sweet. We miss Titan a lot, but it is nice to have a dog around the house again!

You can't tell maybe, but this Tim is wearing the same t-shirt in both of these photos and they were taken in the exact same place in our living room. I am sure this will be a common occurance...

 Gunner's favorite place to sleep is on my Uggs. We think maybe he thinks they are puppies too!

My Birthday

I have the best friends and husband in the world! They are all so thoughtful and clever...they totally made my birthday amazing! My friends and Tim got together for some serious planning in the past few weeks. They decided to go big for my 30th and planned an amazing day for me! It all started when I got my first clue card on Saturday evening. My friend Emily dropped it by my house. It had a rhyme on it that said I had to meet a familiar face for coffee at 9 AM and it had a Caribu gift card inside. When I arrived I got to have coffee with my friend Danielle for a while before I was presented with the next clue card. This rhyme told me to head to Panera for lunch. I ended up having lunch with another friend, Emily, and Tim and Ellasen. At the end of lunch the next clue card told me to head over to the nail salon for a pedicure with another familiar face. Emily joined on this event and we met my friend Ann. After pedicures my clue card said to head home, grab a tennis racquet and my bathing suit and head to the RAC (our health club). I got an hour long tennis match in with my friend Sari and then a soak in the hot tub with both Sari and Catherine. After that I got another clue card which said I needed to head downtown to meet another friend for my favorite cocktail at Chesters. My friend Melissa met me there and after a few drinks she gave me another clue card! This one was to a Super Bowl party Emily was having. We watched the game with ALL our friends, she had a cake with pink icing, pink champagne, and one last clue card! It said Tim and I were having a dinner date the next night (my actual birthday) and that she was watching Ellasen for us! Seriously, Best. Birthday. Ever.
Tim and I went to dinner last night at a place we had never been in Rochester. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves since it was a Monday night, and I again had pink champagne! The food was amazing and the chef sprang for dessert. Tim gave me a very sweet card with a picture of a puppy inside! My birthday (and Valentine's Day) gift is a new little puppy. He is a miniature goldendoodle (mix of a miniature poodle and a golden retreiver) and he will be ready to come home Feb. 18th. We still miss Titan every day, but this feels like a good thing. This dog will be under 40 lbs, non-shedding and his parents have been certified as being free from every possible genetic defect. It will be nice to have a dog around again!
In addition to the new puppy, I got some amazing cards and gifts from my family and friends. Thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday one to remember!

The clue cards and gift cards

My fabulous cake

Birthday dessert at dinner with Tim

Pink Champagne

 Wall of Cards!

Our new little man!

Snow! (Take Two)

We got some more snow last night and the girls didn't have school today. Tim is out of town interviewing and when he called this morning I told him about the snow. He said that I should shovel the driveway...sooner rather than later. I thought about that for a while, and decided javascript:void(0)that it would be much more fun to have the girls get their sleds and snow pants and let everyone sled down our driveway. I mean what is the point of having a super steep driveway that lands in a cul-de-sac (that doesn't get plowed until late afternoon by the way) if you can't sled down it! We had a great time and though the driveway eventually did get shoveled and salted this was a way better use of the fresh snow!

Gymnastics

There is a toddler group here in Rochester that does some cool activities for kids. The last activity they had was a free gym at a gymnastics center. I took Ellasen and she had a great time.