We are excited to live so close to the temple again. One warm summer evening we drove over to walk around the grounds and show the kids our new temple.

Happy 4th of July!
Kev mowing the lawn for the first time

More Like IT

Kevin came home from his first real day at work and said "THIS is more what I expected from residency." Last year he had some long days and weeks and he learned a lot about being an internist, but they still didn't grill him to the same extent they would have if he had been going into Internal Medicine. And compared to lots of our friends who were experiencing 100+ hour weeks, which are technically now supposed to be illegal, as the norm during their intern years, Kevin was doing a transitional year with several electives and 80+ hours was the on the higher end for him. Needless to say, it's been, and is going to be, a sharp learning curve this year. The ophthalmology program he's in, and most ophthalmology programs, has "home call." That means he can stay at home, receive his pages here and then come in when necessary. The catch is he never gets a post call day to recover. So, for example, this weekend he is on call Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday he went in at the usual time in the morning around 6:15. He worked the day and then his call began at 7:00 p.m. and he stayed until around 11:00 p.m. He got no calls that night, which was good. The next morning he went in at 7:30 and didn't get home until midnight last night. Then he got called back in at 3:30 a.m. and didn't get home until 6:00 p.m. He ate some dinner and we spent about an hour with him and he got called back in. It's 9:30 and he's still there, and on-call, for now. Technically he's on-call until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, when he will also be expected to report to work, whether or not he's gotten more than those two and a half hours of sleep he got last night, or a shower. He also has a required surgery lab tomorrow night, for which he has to stay late. Late being any time after 7, 8 or 9, as they've been finishing between 7 and 9:30 every night. Then Tuesday he has a dinner after work with one of the surgeons. So, I think we're finding out home call isn't quite what it's cracked up to be:) And please, if you're working the ED or the floor and think to call the ophthalmologist who doesn't want to come in at 2:00 a.m. for a consult "lazy", just remember, they aren't going to get a day to sleep it off later:) (FYI, no one has said this to Kevin. There's just a different jab for each specialty so everyone can feel like they picked the best one:) It's so silly.) At any rate, he's learning a ton, and paddling those legs 100 miles an hour under the surface to stay afloat. He's on the Retina Service now so that's where he goes for part of his days when he's not on call, which happens to be one of the most challenging and most competitive for fellowships, so we'll see if he likes it and feels like it's something he'd want to do long term. After 4 months of retina it's on to occuloplastics, another super challenging one, but if anyone can handle it, he can. To be honest, I think it actually feels really good to have this rigorous schedule. Really exhausting but also good in a way. Residency, and residency in his specialty, has been looming ahead of him for so long now. He's finally in the thick of it, working really hard, and learning what will be his trade. If he had sailed right into position in a great job without having working his tail off for it, he might have felt robbed. All his friends would tell their crazy residency stories and he'd feel left out, right? :) We'll see what he says when he reads that for a response:) He's got some great attendings with whom to work and some great second and third year residents, too, who are all complementary and seem to remember what it was like to be a new resident. I can't think of anything else to say except "Go Dad! We're proud of you! And we still love you even if you don't know everything about the eye yet!"

Family Photo Shoot June 2010

A week or so before our move I found out our friend from St. Louis who is an amazing photographer was going to be in Connecticut as part of a New England trip to photograph several families. I was disappointed to find out she was coming in the night of the day we were planning on driving south. Since we'd already rented the truck, let people know we were moving that day, etc. it didn't really seem practical to change our plans. It did however motivate me to finally get the family up early for a beach shoot. We attempted to do it Sunday morning but woke up to rain. Kevin had to work Monday and Tuesday so we ended up doing it in the wee hours of the day we were packing our moving truck. The sun rises SO early there at this time of year...I kid you not, there were some days our whole family was up at 5:45 because it was so bright upstairs in our little cape style house. So we woke up and were on the beach by 6:00. It turned out to be a little overcast so we didn't have to worry as much about the light as I had worried we would. We were there for almost three hours. It was a good learning experience, read somewhat frustrating:), to try and figure out lighting, exposure, settings, getting myself in the picture using the timer and trying to get the kids' attention and cooperation. I am grateful Kevin agreed to participate so willingly and was so helpful in getting the kids to LOOK at the camera. (whoa, the pros make this look so much easier than it is!!) Talk about indulging your crazy wife! I do realize there are LOTS of husbands who would never agree to such a venture on the morning of moving day. It just makes my heart happy to have a few family pictures at this beach that became such a big part of our time in Connecticut. So here are way too many pictures of our family. I just had to include all the ones I wanted to have in book one day.

Like I said, lighting was pretty frustrating. I'm sure there were SO many shoots to be had that I just couldn't get because I wasn't quick enough/knowlegeable enough to make happen. Oh well.

Couldn't choose a favorite!

Jill has taken to calling Peter "Duck-duck" on occasion. Not sure why. They were playing in the tub this morning and Jillian says "Mom, I think I just fell in love." I look over and Peter has his arms around her neck so tightly that she's fallen over:) So glad they love each other like they do.

Kevin claims he isn't that interested in photography but give him the camera and he goes nuts:)

Look at that Angel Baby face!

Tell me how you really feel guys.

How at least 50% of our shots turned out

hopefully

jill has been predicting we'll have a baby girl for long before we knew we were even going to have a baby this time around. and she was right! so this morning when she said "a few months after we have our baby girl we're going to have a baby boy" I just had to hope she was less accurate:)

i'm brewing up a post about our move...i just keep putting it off, but it's coming.

Happy Birthday, Girl!

We wanted to have a party for Jillian's birthday with friends in Connecticut before we moved and she didn't know many kids her age yet. It worked out perfectly that Addie and Caden also had birthdays in June. Here are some of our good buddies from CT.

Angie organized several games that were a hit
Duck-Duck-GOOSE

Red Light Green Light

Jill LOVED being the one to determine when people started and stopped

Pinata

Can four years really have passed that quickly?!

Cupcakes by Liz

Presents!

Note to self in the future: The day of the party I think Jill had had dance class and then she played with Addie all the way up until the party. She was pretty maxed out and a little emotional having had such a long day and then being the center of attention. I think she had a great time but in the future I need to help her get some rest before she is on the spot like that.