Change of scenery

I think I am a little behind on my promised update (about 1.5 yrs). We have moved to Erie, CO where I took a job as a kidney doctor with a group called Western Nephrology. Here are a couple of spotlights from the last year.

Nutcracker Nov 2010

Molly and Walter

We went overboard and bought a sweet "olympic" trampoline

Worth every penny

Molly and Afton battling it out at soccer camp

Afton and Rosy the tarantula

John and Sariah

Walter was born 11/20/09

Early post

I know it's not October yet but here is our biannual post. We are looking for nephrology (kidney disease) jobs for Peter but unfortunately there is not much we have found in the Mountain West area (including Utah). We are keeping our options open right now. We have some more news - Liz is pregnant again. This will make #5. Crazy, we know.



-Strawberry waffles for breakfast - a general conference tradition






-We met with Peter's family sort of half way - Estes Park, CO. The kids, and gramma, all had a blast on this slide.










-Liz's garden in it's first blooming season






















-Liz with her favorite birthday cake on her birthday.

-First daddy-daughter bowling tournament. Daddy barely won.

Oskosh Airshow with Uncle Coco. The kids all wanted to get their hands on some controls. John was not satisfied. He just wanted to drive grandpa's airplane.

-Molly's first tooth loss. At her request, this was done via the door slam/dental floss method.



This was a neighborhood party. A fire truck came and the kids all got to play fireman.







A trip to Whitewater State Park. Sariah may not be growing much in size, but her attitude is definitely getting bigger. This water was icy cold but it didn't stop anyone.







John's # 3 B-Day. Note the similarities to Liz's birthday cake.

Until April 2009...

Biannual post

The body part picture was Molly's production from school. She proudly brought it home and showed me where the kidneys and bladder (and other parts) were. She was very surprised to learn that there are kidney doctors and even more so that I am one of them.

Afton made a little snowman (she likes anything and everything little). She then used her foot-in-the-door technique to get me to bring it in the house, then to the kitchen table where she ate it for dinner.

"Sizzle," or hot brownies in milk, an old mission tradition that has become a Sunday staple.

Sariah has a thing for things that crinkle, like newspaper.

This is our biannual post so I guess we're covered until October. The pictures are in no particular order.

Northern Minnesota paradise

After 5 months of slogging it out in Rochester with 4 kids, we decided we'd had enough and it was time to let out some steam. We have not really taken a real family vacation in what seems like ages. We had a good referral from our friends and booked a cabin on Bay Lake at a resort called Ruttger's. The clencher - buffet meals included in the package. This meant no cooking and no cleaning up kitchen mess. We had 2.5 glorious days of this. The tradeoff was that we practically ran ourselves ragged with activities. On the drive up (about 5 hrs with traffic) we discovered a lake that was almost comparable to Bear Lake in size (and was rather breathtaking) named Mille Lacs lake. It is an Indian name as it is on a reservation. After arriving at our resort, we went swimming, canoeing and kayaking. We got an unseasonably warm day on Saturday so even swam in the chilly lake for a few hours. We got to stay in a beautiful, new wood cabin and got to see a lot of fall colors. This was honestly the most fun we have had in years (other than seeing family of course). The kids could not get enough. The highlights were the barbeque pork ribs, calm still lake framed in fall colored trees, the continual smell of campfire in the air, cabin with a lakeview, indoor pool and hot tub and wood-framed bunk beds in the cabin.

We finished the trip off with a wild goose hunt for the Aitkin, Minnesota Branch of the church. We wanted to go to church on Sunday so drove a few miles out of our way. We had to ask for directions at a gas station. Luckily, the cashier knew right where the Mormon church was. We drove to this address only to find it was a new church building under construction. We then got new directions out of a local phone book and ended up at a senior citizen home. One of the caregivers came out and gave us our final clue - the branch actually meets in the high school. The missionaries had stopped by just the week before so this was fresh on her mind. We drove to the high school, but sadly found the lot empty. Apparently our meeting time was wrong. Well, we didn't find the church but we got to see a lot of Aitkin, MN and had a good adventure trying.

August in review

This month we've mostly been trying to survive while I spend all of my time in the hospital trying to scare the pee out of very sick people. We have had a couple chances to get out of the house.

First climb

Molly and Afton made their first real attempt at climbing. Molly shot right to the top. Afton got some good use out of her new helmet, knee pads and elbow pads. John tried free climbing. He made it about half way up before Liz could get to him. Liz got to try out her new birthday climbing shoes. This is only about 15 minutes from home so we'll probably get some good use out of it this year.

First attempt

I finally decided to get on board with the blogging since I figured this could also double as our family journal and I kill two birds...So, I guess I'll start with this last week. Here are the exciting parts.

Molly - Went to Korean Camp with her friends next door (one girl is an adopted Korean). This involved Tae Kwan Do lessons, Korean music and dance and home made kimchee served for lunch daily. She can even say a few Korean words. We have never seen her so excited about anything in her life.

Sariah - Was blessed in church on June 24th. We were lucky to have Joe, Carol and Elise Oliphant stop by and be a part of this on their marathon drive back from Utah to West Virginia.

Everyone else - We all tried our first family rock climbing trip. We picked a cliff about 15 miles from home with some beginner routes. I tied harnesses for the kids. Molly and Afton both got about 2 feet off the ground, with Liz's assistance, froze with fear, and swung into the wall and hit their heads, then got lowered down balling. I guess maybe 5 and 3 years old is a little early. Next time we'll try a climbing wall and make sure to have helmets.

We also had a flyby of hotair balloons as part of the yearly balloon race that is part of the Rochesterfest festival. They were so close we could hear the passengers talking. The kids streaked out of the bathtub to see them.