Brad, Kjirstin and Charly Roberts

How to Eat Birthday Cake

2012-01-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

How to eat Birthday cake. By Charly.

Make sure you relax before the party

Listen while they sing the Birthday song

Take it slow at first, just stick your fingers in the frosting for a lick

When you know you like it pick up the entire cake for a bite

Get some big globs of frosting on your face

Examine before consuming

Offer some to Dad

Smash it between your fingers while you stick it in your mouth

Take plenty of time to play with it

Make sure you get some stuck in your eye lashes and up your nose

Finish it off with some milk

The Nose Wrinkle

2012-01-10T18:17:00.001-08:00

Charly started doing this cute nose wrinkle smile. Once she got comfortable with my family they got to see it and they loved it. Then they would try all day to get her to give the smile, and she just loved the attention. I finally got a picture of it at the end of the month (and no her teeth are not crooked she just moves her bottom jaw to the side also when she does this smile).

Red Rocks Ampitheater

2012-01-10T18:01:00.001-08:00

So I have been to Red Rocks several times, mostly since out high school held graduation there and I attended all of my brother's graduations there and a was a junior escort the one year no one from my family graduated. But I actually never have gone up just to go hang out, and that is what we decided to do one day while we were home (plus I thought it would be a good place to take engagement photos for my brother.) There is a little museum there that shows all the bands that have performed there. It was pretty cool to see a list that included The Beatles, John Denver, U2, R.E.M., Dave Mathews Band and many others, and then be able to say that I have been down in the dressing room area (since I also performed in the band in high school we would put our instruments together down there before the graduation ceremony). Next time we go back we want to take one of the hikes because it also has some beautiful rock formations in the park.

My brother Brody and his fiance Lauren

My brother Brock and his wife Mallory

No Snow Here

2012-01-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

A year ago here in Milwaukee we had huge piles of snow, even days where cars were stuck and you couldn't get down the street. This year we came back to Milwaukee to find no snow in sight. I guess it was a good thing we took advantage of the world's best snow when we were in Colorado.

Austin Sheard

2011-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Introducing my new nephew, Austin Dwight Sheard. I was the first one to see him on our side of the family (and I brought his Mom some Chipotle) so I think he might grow up to like me the best...

Pueblo

2011-11-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

We have been in Pueblo Colorado for half a month now and I have only eaten their famous green chili three times (I am sure I will get much more of it before we leave). Brad has been busy in the ER here, he almost acts like a real doctor there since they aren't used to having students. I have enjoyed being able to go running (leaving Charly with Grandma) and having the beautiful mountains as my backdrop.

When we first got here we decided to take Brad's parents motorcycles and ATV out for a spin up in the mountains by them. The snow slowed us down a little but it was still lots of fun. This little cabin was near the end of our trail, that would be an amazing place to stay.

We also went and walked around the reservoir, I had heard so much about it I finally had to take a look for myself.

Yeah that is Pikes Peak in the background there.

Seeing who is better at skipping rocks

Charly wanted to try too

Down on the Arkansas River they have the longest mural in the united states (that is at least what Brad claims)

There is also a kayak course that they have set up that someday I totally want to go down.

Here is a little taste of what I see on my morning runs

This I learned is Walking Stick

And this is Rabbit Brush

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

So this year for Halloween Charly was a Cowgirl (thanks Necia for the costume). We didn't think we would even get to do anything for Halloween so I had her dressed us all day when we were running errands. Of course all our cashiers thought she was too cute in her costume. At the end of the night we decided to go trick or treat at some of Brad's old friends houses, and at his old house. So most of Brad's pictures growing up consist of his Halloween costume and always in front of the same door in their house. So we thought it would be funny to ask to take a picture of Charly in front of the same door too. They happen to be remodeling the house so we didn't get the door, but there is still the door frame. I am sure this picture is a keeper.

Here is one of Brad's pictures (I am guessing this is middle school)

See the matching door frame...

Oh and of course we carved pumpkins.

Sophie

2011-10-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

I took some pictures to practice of our friend Sophie. I forgot how hard it is to work with someone that can't lift their head. This shot was my favorite.

Go Cougs

2011-09-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Brad was so pumped for this season, he had read new articles all summer awaiting the new arising team. Well we have not started as well as hoped, but we are still true blue and we will cheer to the end. Go Cougs!

Apple Picking

2011-09-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

One nice thing about living in the Midwest is that there are family farms everywhere and so you can always go pick the freshest fruits. This week we went apple picking on Brad's day off. It cost a little more than we expected because you had to buy by the bag, but you could sample all you wanted (and we took full advantage of that). After sampling we also let Charly have a try. She was loving sucking on the apples (probably more sugar than she has had in her life) and I loved that I didn't have to pick them up every time she dropped one.

Action shot of Brad looking for the best apple.

This is definitely the best smile I have caught on camera for Charly.

There was also a pumpkin patch there so we let Charly hang out with the pumpkins. She was all smiles here too except for when we tried to do a family pic.

Just hanging out but if you look close you can see Charly's first tooth.

There were tons of goats there that you could feed, check out Charly poking this on in the eye.

Come on Ride that Train Yeah.

Twin Cities

2011-09-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

So first off I have to say that our stay in Minneapolis was awesome. We owe a big thanks to TKO for letting us crash her place for the month. Now since it seems like all we do now is talk about where we could end up in the next year, I thought I should post some pictures of our month for anyone that may be considering the move to our neighboring state Minnesota.
Minnesota seems to have the same feel as Wisconsin, still that same friendly Midwestern atmosphere. We even saw neighborhoods of the same cute little square houses that they have here.
In the middle of the city (I think this is the middle of Minneapolis) they have this huge waterfall and hiking paths up and down the river. It is really pretty and you wouldn't even know that you are in the middle of the city.

There is a free zoo and conservatory in St Paul (with free parking too now that is amazing). We went on a saturday so it was packed, but on a weekday I think it would be a great get out of the house trip. (I also have a picture of this sweet vending machine that is stuck on my camera at the moment, but it is the ultimate mommy vending machine complete with diapers, pacifiers, baby food, and so much more)

I don't think Charly appreciated the zoo to much as you can tell she couldn't really see much of the animals.

And how can you talk about Minneapolis without mentioning the Cherry on a Spoon? It is actually one of the scuptures at an outdoor sculpture garden. Anyone who visits need a picture with this.

It is none other than the Mississippi River that runs though the cities and with the power of this large water bodie came the start of these twin cities. It was once the worlds flour milling capitol, with two large mills on either side of the river, you might have heard of one of them before...

Also in St Paul is the Mall of America. Now don't get too excited over this, really it is just a big mall. Apparently it is so big that there are even two of the same stores in there, now that is just silly to me. But besides the mall they do have exhibits that come there, that is where we saw Body World a couple years ago. And this time we went to the Aquarium (the largest underground aquarium apparently). And it did get Brad's seal of approval, which means a lot if you know Brad.

One of my favorite parts was the jelly fish exhibit, they had neon lights on them and they looked really cool.

If Fred knows your going to Minneapolis he is going to tell you to eat a Juicy Lucy. There are two places that serve this hamberger that is stuffed with juicy cheese, we decided to try the Nook.

Also just like in Milwaukee a half an hour drive outside the city gets you into farm country. We happened to be there during blueberry season.

I had confrimed to me many time that this really is the land of 100,000 lakes. There are lakes everywhere. It was really nice to be able to walk to the lake at night and walk around or wade in or just enjoy the sunset.

We also took some day trips which will have to come in later posts because this one is getting to be super long...

7 Months

2011-09-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

Here are the latest pics of Charly. I really want to do this background with a tutu, I just have to find the time to make one.

The Dickson Wedding

2011-09-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful wedding! The day turned out so nice and I actually got to spend the most time with the couple because I was the photographer. What a fun loving couple they make too. I am super excited to have Isaac in the family and can't wait to hang out with this newly married couple. I wanted to post a couple of pictures of them, but I had a hard time picking only a couple that I loved (that should be a good sign that it went okay I hope).

Where in the world are the Roberts?

2011-08-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well this week we are back in MN. I realized when my brother calls and the first thing he asks is Where are you right now?, that we have been moving around a lot lately. We have really enjoyed out time in MN so far and Brad assures me that if we want to live here for the ext three years there is a good chance of that. We also had some good family time in good old Colorado. Brad's sister's wedding was really nice and we are excited to have Isaac in the family now. I was super stressed about wedding photos, but I think I got some good shots, now comes the real work editing. I wanted to post some pics of what we have been up to, but half of them are still on my camera and I don't have the cord to download them, so here are some from the first half of the month.

We had a little day trip with the girls at the beginning of the month to Duluth.

We found the perfect book for Charly.

This is our 80s boy band pose.

Rapunzel let down your hair...

Brad is always so lucky...he even got to meet the real Lucky at the GM picinic.

Charly helped me practice taking pictures at the temple

More time with Great Grandma Sheard

Top of Pikes Peak, Charly's first 14ner!

And of course the wedding.

Taking the Plunge

2011-07-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

So I was having lunch with some of my old coworkers today, first to finally show then Charly and second to get my recommendation letter signed. I needed 5 recommendations from Professional Engineers to be able to apply to take the Professional Engineer Exam. I was telling them that I was planning on taking it in April when they proceeded to encourage me to take it in October. "Just take it once to get an idea of how it is, if you pass it great if not no one cares" and on and on in that manner. Well I don't know how they convinced me with that jargon, but they did. This afternoon I signed up to take the 8 hour engineering test on October 28th. If I don't pass it was a $287 mistake (but Brad told me not to worry about the money since his next test costs over $1,000). Talking about taking a plunge, it has been so hot here that I decided one afternoon to fill up the baby pool so that Charly could cool off, she was too cute. It was a little cold for her you can see from her face, but it worked to get her out of the house.

Rejoing, but only for a couple of minutes

2011-06-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

We had no doubts that Jimmer was going to get drafted and even pretty quickly. But when I heard Brad yell from the other room yesterday "Guess who drafted Jimmer?" It was my third guess only after the Jazz and the Kings and only because Brad followed with you will never guess it. I will admit that I did get really excited and even contemplated getting season tickets for this next season. Then a couple minutes later Brad yelled again, "But he already got traded...." Still Milwaukee stepped up the cool ladder for me even if just for a couple of minutes.

New Lens

2011-06-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

So after I was asked to be the photographer for my sister-in-laws wedding (and after I stopped stressing out about it) I began to do a little research. I soon found myself wanting a new lens, and now I had a really good reason to, right? Well I was lusting over the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, but it was a little too much to reason with Brad that I really needed it, so after some more research I found a comparable lens, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF (also one of the cheapest prime lenses you can get). Today was my first time outside with it and I can say that I already love it, and even Brad said "oh I do see the difference in this lens." My other lens will still be loved because it is so useful, but this is my new favorite portraiture lens. Click on the picture to see it in its full glory.

Starved Rock

2011-06-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

We decided that we needed to get out for another Roberts adventure this last Saturday. I decided on this place in Illinois that I have been wanting to go to, and with all the rain lately I thought a perfect time to see the waterfalls. It was a long drive down there, but nice to be out and doing something. Charly was a really good sport for us for the most part, we did have to take a break after the first hike and chill in the car with the AC on full power while she took a nap and cooled off. I am hoping she has Brad's mosquito proof skin because I came away with 10 mosquito bites (maybe more because I still am finding them) and she only had one. On our drive down there Brad understood why people from Illinois are called "Flat Landers." This place called Starved Rock in Illinois is really deceiving, you would never guess these cool canyons and waterfalls are there in the middle of farm country.

Let go Hiking Dad!

They called this area the Council Chambers

This was the first waterfall we found...

Charly was not too interested at this point

We got really close to this waterfall

Charly found the best way to hike, asleep while Mom carried her.

I want some more!

2011-05-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

Charly is loving the solid food, she has eaten everything we have given her so far. Some come with the what is this that you are putting in my mouth face, but she eats it all. She even asks for more by licking it off her bib. This is pureed chicken noodle, yummy...

Midwest Tulips

2011-05-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

After going to the Tulip Festival in Utah I have noticed that the tulips out here in the Midwest (or at least in Wisconsin) are huge! They seriously are bigger than my hand. I love how everyone has them planted in their yards too, we love to walk around with Charly and look at the flowers so beautifully blooming this time of year.
We finally went to the Botanical Gardens in Milwaukee, they were pretty but if your looking to go down there I would wait until the summer because all the roses and other flowering plants are still yet come out.

Okay so Brad's hand is bigger than mine, but almost as big as Brad's hand.

Brad was lost in a sea of ginormous leaves...

Charly's Laugh

2011-05-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

Charly has started to have some laughs and we love it. I am kind of embarrassed to post mine, but Charly is so cute I had to post it.

Best Of...

2011-05-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am so upset at blogger for loosing the post I was working on, all you get now are the best of pictures from the last two months...

Here's Charly meeting her Great Grandma Sheard.

Yeah for Jenny's Graduation (and yeah for us going back to Provo, we spent not enough time and too much money in the BYU bookstore)

We will have to take this picture again after we convince Charly she wants to go to BYU...

The best family pic yet taken at the Tulip Festival

Three Generation Photo with the Roberts/Fowers

Brody using Charly as a football in Packer's stadium

We finally got some real Chicago hot dogs at Hot Dougs

Quick stop at Wrigley Field. I bought an ice creme cone at the McDonald's parking lot we stopped in because I felt bad for parking there to take the picture.

Having fun at the Bean again.

Charly hangin out with Uncle Brody

Having fun in Madison, you gotta admit these are some sweet jump pictures

And Charly is now eating solids, stinky diapers here we come...

2 Months

2011-04-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

Wow two months have gone by, and now almost three. It is crazy how much time I don't spend on the computer anymore because Charly thinks she needs to be the center of attention and somehow knows that when I am on the computer she has competition. Mostly we take things day by day now. Brad is able to spend more time at home not studying now that he is on a research month, when I have very much enjoyed his help. We mostly are just waiting for spring to come here as the weather taunts us, but it is still too early to put the coats away yet because even if it looks sunny there is still a chill in the air. I thought I would post some more pictures because Charly is growing so fast. We have tried to get her coos on camera but she is camera shy so far so we don't have any good ones.

Here Charly is with her Grandparents in front of a lighthouse

This is what Charly usually looks like when we go out places though.

Charly cheered along with us during March Madness

Brad likes to spend time showing Charly his fish

And this month I finally caught a little smile on camera.

Blessing

2011-03-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

We were really lucky to have lots of family come in for Charly's blessing. She when out and did more things this last week than she had done in the first two months of life. She got to meet lots of Grandparents, an Aunt and Uncle and even her cousins. Thanks to everyone that came!

Uncle Brandon and Aunt Crystel with Sulu and Torrie.

Grandpa Roberts

Grandma and Grandpa Sheard

Charly wore the dress that I wore when I was blessed, my mom made it for me out of her wedding dress so it is pretty special. (Charly left, Kjirstin right)

1 Month Stats

2011-03-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

I know I am a little late on this, but it has been hard to find time to sit down on the computer when I would rather be making up on sleep. Up to her one month appointment we were on a 3 hour feeding schedule. Then she had gained enough weight to show she was eating well and the doctor said we could feed on demand. Since then I think her schedule has been all over because I let her sleep when she wants to, but then she has been not sleeping well at night (when I want to). I think she just finished a growth spurt, so that is our new goal, to get her schedule so that she will sleep better at night.

For all those breastfeeding Moms in Milwaukee: I also learned from my Pediatrician that there is a nursing room in the mall. It is in the family bathroom that in upstairs in the food court. Being new to this breastfeeding thing it has been nice to know that I can go out and still have a private place to nurse.

Her one month stats are:
Height: 21.5 in
Weight: 8lbs 13.5oz

She also likes to play now, okay playing is mostly staring at the toys that I put in front of her or holding on to what we put in her hand, but that is progress right?

This one she actually grabbed the binky herself, problem is she pulls it out instead of putting it in.

One Moment in Time

2011-02-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it has almost been a month since my life has drastically changed. And I can't believe how much Charly has changed in that month too. So today I decided that I needed to take some pictures of her while she is still small and has her chubby little face.

This hat was one of those purchases where I knew I shouldn't spend as much on it as I did, but isn't it so cute. It is still a little big on Charly so I will sure be using it again.

Go Pack Go!

2011-02-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

Gotta give a shout out to our Packers who won the Superbowl on Sunday. Green Bay Packers 31 - Pittsburgh Steelers 25. Charly's first team has won the Superbowl, I wonder if that makes her a cheesehead for life?

The Big Storm

2011-02-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Yes we were one of the 17 states affected by the big snow storm this week. It started tue night, and it started with thunder. I asked Brad if he had ever heard thunder in a blizzard before, nope, so maybe that was a warning it was going to be a bad one. By 3 am the wind was blowing like crazy (pretty much sideways too). The next morning Brad left to go to the hospital, but came back in after a while. He had been trying to shovel his car out of the snow when our neighbor told him that even if he could get his car out he would not make it down the street, we were definitely snowed in. I think we were supposed to get 20 in, but what made it so bad was the drifts from the wind. Luckily when he came in he had an email from his resident telling him that the snow was bad so he should not come in. It took the guys in our apartment complex a chunk of the day to shovel out all the cars (and luckily the plow finally came too). I would have gone down the street to take more pictures (because there are still cars that are covered in snow) but I find myself attached to the house and this little girl of mine so I just have pictures outside our apartment.

Brad and Brian shoveling out Brad's car.

Here is the drift that was outside our window, blocking my spy window.

Here is the road that Brad wasn't going to get down.

Here is Brad's car still covered in snow.

Here is our driveway.

At least we had a path cut out for our sidewalk.

Closer

2011-01-29T16:10:00.001-08:00

Having a baby has brought me and Brad closer together in ways I never thought it would. He has seen more of me now that in the four and a half years we have been married (how many times do you get to see someones insides?). I knew having a baby would change our lives but I didn't know how much that included our relationship with each other. Having Brad studying medicine has allowed me to open up to him about things that are happening to my body post pregnancy. It has been so nice for me to be able to ask him questions and get his reassurance about things with my c-section recovery, side affect with my pain meds, and even new mom pains. Plus seeing him as a daddy has made me love him so much more. I always knew he would be a great dad, but to see him when he gets home and he is so excited to have his Charly time even with his studies, make me know that he will always make time for our family.

Staring contest, looks like Charly won this one.

Brad is in charge of Charly's tummy time

He also likes to cuddle with her (don't worry Brad is not asleep here, you can tell by his smile)

More photos of Charly's big day

2011-01-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

Here is a little collage of pictures from wed. (click on it to see the pictures better) My goal here is to write out our experiences from the day, but i am coming to realize how tiring this is to wake up all night long and have my only chance for typing during the day be with one hand. So it may be a while...

Charly is Here

2011-01-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a little teaser as we are here in the hospital recovering.

Charlotte Pearl Roberts 6lbs 12oz 18.5in

Brad coming to show off his new daughter to Mom (I am hiding behind the curtain)

Proud new mommy seeing Charlotte for the first time

Proud Father

Proud Grandmother

The Day Before

2011-01-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

It is so weird to think that tomorrow life as I know it changes. It almost feels like I have gone through this moment before, in fact it was May 4^th, 2006. I have prepared for this day for a long time, you could even say since I was a child envisioning my future, and now that it is here I feel like all I can do is let everyone else take care of things and try to remember everything that happens. How is it that knowing that you will not get much sleep the next night in fact keeps you from sleeping the night before? This time I believe it will be due to leg cramps and bathroom breaks in addition to the feelings of anticipation. I think it is funny when people ask me “Are you ready?” We have diapers, clothes, the car seat, the crib, we have taken the birthing class and I even watched U-tube videos of breech c-sections (probably shouldn’t have done that one). But is anyone ever really ready for becoming a new parent? I think being ready includes knowing that you aren’t ready and that she is going to change your routine (or what you thought was going to be your routine) and challenge you in new ways every day. I liked the advice I was given recently, just take it one day at a time. It is much easier to think, I might not get very much sleep tomorrow than to think I might not get very much sleep for these next three months.

Just Like Mommy

2011-01-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

So if we were keeping track of how many things our little girl did that come from mom or dad, I would be winning so far. First of all she is a girl so sorry Brad that just makes her more like me from the beginning. But this week she is starting life the same way I did, breech. I went to my regular appointment on thursday thinking it would be the same as the others: come in, say I am doing fine, have the regular baby checks on size, heartbeat and...position. When my doctor checked the position he felt the hard lump on the top of my tummy, had a concerned look on his face and said he was going to check my dilation and to see if he could feel the head from the bottom. Well I am dialated to a 1, but he did not feel the head as he suspected. I had to go over to Children's Hospital then to get an ultrasound to see how much fluid was around the baby to see if my doctor could turn her around. (now if you have never tried getting from Froedtert East clinics to Children's without going outside it is really confusing, luckily I looked lost enough that I had someone walk me almost the entire way). I first had a technician come in and look at the baby, she measured her weight at approximately 6 lbs 8 oz. She told me the baby was Frank Breech, which means her legs are curled up by her head and her bottom is positioned to come out first. She then left and next to come in was the doctor, who came and looked at the same things. It wasn't until the doctor left and was gone for a while that I realized that things were not as easy as I was thinking they were going to be. The ultrasound Doctor consulted with my OB Doctor and it was decided that it is too risky to turn the baby. Two major reasons, my fluids are too low and and the baby's head is in an upward tilted position. They do not was to risk getting the umbilical cord wrapped around the neck or causing stresses on her that would cause me to need an emergency c-section. The doctor asked me if I had any questions and I felt so overwhelmed and was wishing Brad was there, she let me call Brad to have him come up and she explained the whole thing over again to him. (Luckily Brad was at Froedtert and after telling his residence that his wife was in labor and delivery and needed him there, they let him go pretty quickly). So now what this comes down to is that I most likely will have a little girl on the 19th now. A week earlier than I was counting down to, but also luckily my mom had not bought her plane ticket yet so she still will be able to come in time. And Brad and I have some things to buy today to get ready for reals.

Christmas in Milwaukee

2010-12-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas by ourselves was still filled with friends and family. It was much more relaxing to not have to deal with the airport and we still got to see family (thanks to good old webcam technology and Google chat). I was happy that I didn't have to miss my favorite family tradition, my dad reading the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve. Luckily too we had many friends around here that also were away from family and invited us to some yummy dinners. The weather was nice enough on Christmas Day that we went out hiking, I also had to take some pictures because I knew what my Christmas present was going to be, Adobe Lightroom, and I wanted some new pictures to use my present on.

Here is Brad getting ready Christmas morning to open presents.

Here are pictures from our hike.

36 Weeks

2010-12-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

She could come any time now.

Here is my timeline so far, what scares me is it look like I am growing exponentially, and I still have 4 more weeks to go.

More fun with the Parents

2010-11-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

The second day my parents were here we took a trip north. I figured they needed to see why half of my fantasy team is from the Green Bay Packers. Going to see the stadium and learning the history behind the team turns you into a real fan. We also stopped at this little family run cheese factory and they gave us a personal tour.

Here they are measuring out cheese that they will press into blocks.

Now that is a lot of cheese curds

They even gave us little hats when we finished out tour

The Famous Lambeau Field of the Green Bay Packers

Their three Lombardi trophies is one of my favorite parts of the Hall of Fame

My Great Great Great Grandfather George Sheard

2010-11-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago my parents were able to fly out for a visit. My Mom has been wanting to visit this cemetery just outside Burlington WI ever since she found out we had ancestry buried there. So we took a day to journey down to Burlington to see if we could find the gravestone of my Great Great Great Grandfather George Sheard. George was born in England and traveled to America, ending up in Wisconsin as a farmer. He son moved to Kansas where 3 generations later my Dad was born. With my Mom's research on what two roads the cemetery was located on and my understanding of how Wisconsinites name their roads we actually found the cemetery with little difficulty. As we walked around my Mom began to get excited as each headstone we passed had names on it she recognized from her genealogy research. We soon found many headstones with the name Sheard on it, this was actually pretty cool to me. Sheard isn't a very common name, in fact I never have met anyone outside my immediate family with the last name, so seeing so many of our relatives in one place was exciting. Dad was the one to find his Great Great Grandfather first, his headstone being carved into the shape of a tree, with a book leaning on the trunk with engravings for his wife and two kids that died at a young age. Soon after our findings an older couple drove up to the cemetery to see if we needed help, of course my Mom got to talking with him about who we were looking for and we found out he was a decedent of our grandfathers brother. He also told us to go visit another couple down the road that took care of the cemetery. So we paid an unexpected visit to the cemetery caretaker and his wife. They welcomed us in and spent an hour with us pulling out all the records and photographs that they had and sharing stories that they had learned from growing up there. They also told us that the farm that used to be in our family was right down the road, what a cool trip to be able to visit the farmland that used to be farmed by my own Great Great Great Grandfather, who knew that it was so close to where I am living now. I am so grateful to my Mom's dedication to finding our family history. It was a really neat experience to be apart of and makes me especially grateful for family today.

The Great Great Grandson and Great Great Great Granddaughter

My Mom looked at every headstone in the cemetery (luckily it was a pretty small cemetery)

This was my favorite document, showing the Sheard family coming over from Liverpool to Boston.

30 Weeks

2010-11-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

So another picture is overdue since I have been getting more and more comments about my belly size.

I also have to thank all those who have commented to me about my job, I wanted to let you know that we know know that we are at least working to the end of the year (which really relived our insurance concerns) and they are trying to place us in different departments right now (hopefully I know in the next week if I will be working in January).

End of the Ride

2010-11-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

So my boss said to me the other day "This job has felt like a roller coaster ride," I thought about that statement and I totally agree. From sitting in anticipation at the beginning waiting for the ride to start, to being in the middle going so fast that you don't know where you are some days and when or if you can even stop. The last couple weeks we have been going up and down and up and down and even been through a couple loops. We didn't know how much longer the ride would last, and even lost most of the riders with us. Well on Friday we got the word from the man that runs the roller coasters that the new manager of the amusement park did not want our roller coaster to continue running. So it looks like the end of the ride. This next week I will be looking around for a new ride to ride, maybe the teacups or the ferris wheel.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/107396773.html

Flight of the Umbilical Chords Second Release

2010-11-07T15:25:00.000-08:00

The singing duo has gotten back together again and this time with commentary. This time it was for a humanities credit for Jordan's the surgery rotation. Since Brad was actually doing his rounds during the performance time at the school they got together and taped the performance and provided the entertainment for the night after we carved our pumpkins. To Brad's credit on this he only practiced it with Jordan twice before we taped it since he was busy in his pediatrics rotation and some of the lyrics came out impromptu. So sit back and enjoy the second performance of Flight of the Umbilical Chords. Also Brad asks that you click the link to YouTube and watch the video there too so that you can up their view count.

Pumpkins and More!

2010-10-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

We were lucky to even get our pumpkins carved before Halloween this year with our schedules so busy. We were able to pull some friends together last night and have a little pumpkin carving fun. Brad has been expanding the pumpkin carving tradition over the past couple years and trying out new fruits and vegetables that he can carve. He went for his biggest challenge yet this year, a pineapple. Cleaning the pineapple out was pretty juicy, but he actually did a pretty good job of carving it. You have to wait till next year to see what he comes up with next.

P.S. Nov 2nd is election day so don't forget to go out and vote! (This years vote could really affect me)

24 and 25 weeks

2010-10-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Okay I have promised some pictures so here they are below. So far I have felt pretty lucky to be feeling so good during the pregnancy. I feel this is a blessing because I have been working some long hours lately and sometimes will be out in the field all day. Needing to throw up in the middle of a meeting with a property or business owner would not work out well for me right now. There are just little annoyances that are starting to come out now as I progress through the pregnancy. First is the increasing number of times I have to use the restroom throughout the day. I am starting to memorize the gas station bathrooms between Watertown WI and Madison WI since I have to use them every opportunity I get. Second is the the pain in my upper back, whenever I sit for a prolonged period of time it kills. Brad tried to show me some exercise I could do to strengthen my abs (since they apparently help hold you up too) the only problem is I don't really feel like I have ab mussels in the front that I can strengthen. I hope this pain doesn't progressively get worse. I need some advice on how to sit property while you are pregnant apparently. Though besides that I really feel great.

This is 24 weeks.

This is 25 weeks.

Our New Crib

2010-10-17T08:09:00.001-07:00

It has always been a dream of Brad's to build his first child's crib. At first when Brad told me that we wanted to build a crib I was wondering when he would ever have the time to actually do it. When he kept bringing it up I decided I would just peruse the internet to see if it was actually feasible. In this search of crib plans I stumbled across a blog showing a crib a husband made for his wife over one weekend, and I fell in love with the crib too (click here to see our inspiration.) So we decided to build this crib while Brad was on his easier month and had the weekend to dedicate to it. Little did we know how much effort really would go into it and finally a month and a half later it is completed and ready for our little girl.

From the pictures on the website and after looking up codes on cribs I drew up some simple plans.

Then project started with a late night at Lowe's buying wood.

This is the man who helped us for hours picking out wood and cutting it to size.

Then came sanding (we recruited Katie to help out with this)

and more sanding...

and more sanding...Brad was being a good example and wearing eye protection.

And then more power tools for assembly.

Can't forget the measuring.

This was a good excuse for Brad to get a new Jig Saw.

Assembly actually took place over a couple weeks and in different locations.

We were excited here to actually get something together.

Finally put together, teddy is testing it out for us.

The now comes the primer and painting.

The blue was fun to spray on but we found out harder to cover then we expected.

Three coats of white paint and a little bit more sanding to antique it.

The complete project! Now my mom can start her project, sewing the bedding.

Now that it is done I love it, but as a caution to anyone else thinking of building a crib, it takes more than one weekend.

Fall Colors

2010-10-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Brad and I got out for a quick hike on Saturday in Grant Park where we were able to enjoy to fabulous fall leaves. Fall is definitely my favorite season here, the weather is perfect and the leaves changing colors are beautiful (and this year we don't even have to rake them).

Brad loves to sit and watch the water skeeters, while we were stopped taking pictures of them four different groups of people asked what we were looking at.

Door County with the fam

2010-09-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

We were lucky to have Brad's family come out and visit this last weekend. Mostly Brad told them September was going to be the only month were we may have a free weekend so if they wanted to see him to do it then. It was almost perfect timing, the leaves were starting to turn colors the temperatures had just started dropping and Brad had half of Friday plus the whole weekend off to spend with them. The only thing was the wind decided it too was invited to our little party and had to cancel the kayaking trip we had planned. Besides that though we found some nice places to visit and it was still a beautiful time of year to be out here. It was nice to be able to take a little break and spend it with the Roberts family. Plus they brought us presents and now we have our first little girl outfits and some baby blankets that were made by Brad's grandmothers (these are a real treat.)

Our first stop was the Kohler Design Center where we checked out sinks, showers, toilets, and all the other things you didn't know that Kohler makes.

When we got to our cottage the first night there was a cute little patio with a fireplace where we decided to make s'mores.

Jenny loved the water, even when it was super windy.

We did slip away into the state park and did some hiking.

Half way through the day we decided it was okay to take the ferry over to Washington Island.

We saw some lighthouses (this one from the ferry)

We stopped at a cute little Danish Bakery for lunch.

We found the white sand beach (too cold to get in though)

Brad still stopped and had a try at a sand castle.

Then we found this really cool church that was designed after the old Norwegian churches.

On the way back to Milwaukee we stopped at an orchard, apples are in season right now so we romped about the orchard and picked some delicious apples to take home with us.

Brad and Jenny found the grape vines that they use for the wines (don't try to pick the grapes and buy them separately though, apparently you aren't supposed to do that)

This seriously looked like the best Carmel Apple ever.

Gender

2010-09-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

We found out the gender of our baby this week. If you can't tell by the new background it is a GIRL! We are super excited, especially me because I get to start planning for her now and making cute hair (or bald head) accessories.

There she is.

Looks like she has her Halloween outfit ready.

It's confirmed.

Oh yeah and for all who requested prego pics here is a 20 weeks pic.
The angel fish already is interested in being her friend.

Brock's Wedding

2010-09-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I know the wedding was back in July, but this is not just me being slow at posting lately. I had to wait to get some photos from their photographer so I could actually post pictures with me in them. I used Brock's wedding a sort of a practice session for myself on taking wedding photos. I had fun following them around and taking pictures, but no pressure at all for how they turned out because I was not the real photographer. So I wanted to post some of my faves. The ones with me in them are from their real photographer which I will give credit to here.

On your Mark, Get Set...

2010-08-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Brad and I were watching some seagulls on the beach and I loved the position I caught this bird in before takeoff.

Wisconsin State Fair

2010-08-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

So one of the largest events in Wisconsin is the Wisconsin State Fair. People wait all year for this time to indulge their taste buds with an assortment of different, yet all fattening, foods (most of which you can find on a stick). We finally attended the state fair this year to find out what all the talk was about. Brad had already picked out what delicacy on a stick he needed to try, chocolate covered bacon was top of the list. He said you could literally feel it clogging your arteries as you ate it, but it was so delicious that you couldn't stop. I on the other had am still feeling anti anything greasy from pregnancy so did not feel like eating anything at the fair. We also walked around the animals. Brad wanted to find a cow that he could milk (apparently they let people do this at the Colorado state fair), but no one here would let us milk their cow. We also went into the convention center where Brad wanted to watch the people sell their products (like hundreds of in person infomercials all in one place), we almost wanted to buy this steam vacuum that we thought we now couldn't live without. At the very end of the night we found what we had been looking for the whole time, the flavored milk stand. You can get milk here for 25 cents in 5 different flavors: Banana, Strawberry, Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate and Root beer. This was probably the best chocolate milk I have ever had and now I crave it everyday.

Here is Brad's chocolate covered bacon on a stick and deep fried PB&J on a stick.

We were looking for belt buckles and I found this belt, classic.

We also watch a pig race, my first.

Brad saw this vibration machine that claimed to help you loose weight (that is one of the research areas he worked on in undergrad). People were actually trying it out, I don't believe they were loosing any weight though.

We got Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate, and Banana milk for only 75 cents!

I tried to do a chocolate mustache in this pic, but it didn't come out very well.

New Family Picture

2010-08-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

Okay so the real new family picture will come around January 26, 2011.

Bad Day

2010-08-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is my unwinding to anyone who cares, or who doesn't but still reads our blog, because Brad is not here to listen to me complain after a long day. I know people my age do not attend public meetings regularly if ever, but some day when they have a house and live in a community for a long time they will. I am asking everyone I know to never ever ever ever yell at a state or city employee. It is rude, it accomplishes nothing, and I definitely don't get paid enough to be treated so rudely. That is why we leave comment cards so people can get their comments in a public record and not have to personally attack someone because they are working for the project. It is also amazing to me that the people that make the most money are only worried about how something is going to increase their taxes. Ahhhhhh! And someone stole my front hub cap today, why?!?

When it Rains it Pours

2010-08-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

So the last couple weeks we have had some intense rain storms around here. One day after work I was talking on the phone trying to get something organized for church, when Brad comes rushing in, changes, and is going about the house all crazily then he spies me in the back room and tells me I need to come down to the basement because it is flooding like crazy. Well after finishing my phone call (I figured Brad was just exaggerating a little) I found my way down to the basement to which I see water pooling right as I get to the bottom of the stairs. As I come around the corner it just keeps getting deeper and then I notice Brad at the windows trying to stop the waterfall coming through to the basement. After about a minute of walking around trying to think through what we should do, Brad decides we need reinforcements, so he runs around telling our neighbors and comes back armed with buckets. The water was coming into our basement so fast that the one drain could not handle the flow and that is why it started pooling. But you can't really blame the drain because water was seriously gushing in through 4 or 5 windows and a crack in the foundation. After a few more minutes of crazy what do we do to stop this the group broke up into people outside trying to stop the water from coming in and people inside taking buckets of water on the floor and dumping them into the washer drain to help the one drain handle the flow. In the mean while the tornado siren went off and the whole complex was down in the basement (first time I had actually heard a real tornado siren and I didn't even know there was one close by). Although flooding is never really a good thing, it was kind of fun to get everyone together and might I say we even had fun in the process.

We tried to just let the buckets hold the water, but those filled up quickly.

Jeff is showing how deep it is, too bad Matt had to ruin the effect by walking in the pic.

Diligent flood crew

The one drain working hard to keep up to the water

Activity Days

2010-07-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

So I got an additional calling as Activity Days leader. I don't know why it seems that every time I get a new calling I get a feeling of inadequacy. I guess it won't be until I have had every calling in the church that I will be prepared for anything. Well it was just about the time were I was telling Brad that I loved being a nursery leader and thought we had it all figured out, when I got asked to be the Activities Day leader. 8-11 year old girls are a lot different then 2-3 year olds. 2-3 year olds will love you if you just hold them on your lap or you play kitchen with them. 8-11 year olds seemed to me like they may be expecting more out of me. Well 2 activities down, and though it may be work (not more just different work then with the little kids) I think I am getting to really enjoy being around these girls. I loved the pics from our first activity of acting out the story of Ammon. Then we just had a daddy daughter activity which included making pineapple upside-down cake in the dutch oven.

Beach

2010-07-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

So last week we took a last minute trip to a beach north of the city (about an hour north). We got ready for hiking, playing in the water and beach bar-b-que in like 20 minutes. But by the time we got up there we hiked and got attacked by mosquitoes (so the hiking didn't last too long after that) and then a storm rolled in so we headed down to the beach to check it out before getting rained on. We just had to wade in because the water actually looked clean here. Don't worry we still had the bar-b-que just back home in our friends back yard after driving through the storm. We did get some nice beach pics though.

We were talking about how we would pick berries when we went hiking in Alaska when we found raspberries all along the trail. There were kind of small, but that didn't stop Brad from continually stopping to pick raspberries the whole way.

At the beach you can see the storm moving in to the left, it gave some pretty cool light variations across the water.

Not your typical 4th of July Post

2010-07-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

So our 4th of July this year did include the normal fireworks, parade, bar-b-q, and most importantly day off of work (for both me and Brad!) But this year also included an emergency trip to the dentist too. We were watching the community 4th of July parade with a group of friends. I was chatting away when Brad comes up to me and interrupts asking me to look at his teeth. When I do my mouth opens wide and I bring my hand up to cover it. Brad had a huge chunk of his front tooth missing. As I told him what it looked like we look to the ground to see if we can see a piece of the tooth, but after a second we know that is a hopeless effort. The parade is over at this time and some of our friends are coming over to see Brad's teeth. As he talks he tries to cover it with his upper lip, but this is just too obvious. When I tell him he looks like a hick, he responds with I can't see my patients at the hospital like this, we need to get it fixed today. So next comes phone calls to his dad the dentist and then to our friend in the ward who is in dental school. Some hope comes when our friend tells us to come over and he will look at it and maybe he has the stuff to fix it. So we rush over to his house, our hopes we crushed but then restored as he didn't have the right tools to fix it, but he told us what needed to be done and how it would only cost in the couple hundreds not the thousands and that we could call around because some dental clinics had emergency lines. So we proceeded home to make phone calls to any dentist we could find. Brad had remembered seeing a flier for such an emergency dental clinic that claimed it was open 24-7. So as I roamed the internet, we went through our trash to find the flier. His work payed off before mine, as I heard him scheduling an appointment for the afternoon. Yeah! We are now grateful to the dentist that had to work on Monday when everyone else was off. $150 later, Brad had a beautiful smile again.

Northern Wisconsin

2010-07-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

So we decided since we didn't want to spend a lot of money to fly and since we aren't going to live in Wisconsin forever (two more years for sure but that is all for my vote) that we would take our vacation as a road trip to Northern Wisconsin. This was your typical Roberts trip including camping, hiking, kayaking, and backpacking. It was very pretty up north, lots of forests and still very green. If you have heard that Lake Superior is cold, it is still almost freezing still at 40 degrees, we know, we got in. Instead of going through our trip itinerary (if you want to know you'll have to ask) I wanted to show all the FIRSTs that we had on this trip.

First waterfall we saw. The color of the water is a copper tint because of all the minerals found in the rocks. This is the same for all the other waterfalls in the area, trust me we saw a lot and they were all this same copper color.

This is the first time Brad has played with the color accent mode on our camera. We happened to have a picnic in this beautiful field of orange flowers.

Our first mishap of the trip was a flat tire. Luckily Brad can change a tire almost completely on his own, and more luckily we were in a town that had a tire repair place.

First mouse even in my car! It was hiding between the passenger door and the car. Brad did not believe me when I screamed there is a mouse in the car, but I got pictures to prove it.

Here you can see him finally escape after Brad repeatedly poked him with a long screw driver. Still don't know how he got in there.

First time ever going to the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. Located in Hayward, WI if you ever want to visit. Brad would have spent hours there, luckily for me we got there 1/2 hour before it closed.

First time to kayak through sea caves. This part was really cool, you could actually go in the caves with your kayak. I might post more of these pics later.

First time camping on an island. Here we are when we first arrived to our campsite. We spent the night just right under those trees.

First time playing croquet on an island. The next day we kayaked to another island that had a lighthouse on it. The lighthouse tour guide had set up croquet for anyone to come play (he said people come from miles around to play here).

First tick! We noticed a tick on Brad's leg after backpacking. He promptly burned the tick (to death, along with some leg hair). Luckily the tick hadn't burrowed in very far, but unluckily it was not the only one Brad had on him this trip.

First amazing sunset while camping on the beach off the mainland. We were pretty much isolated at this location to enjoy this sunset by ourselves.

First time backpacking on the beach. Okay this was only for about 20 feet while the rest of the 4.6 miles was through the forest.

First time strawberry picking at an orchard. And for two people who love strawberries we couldn't believe it was our first time.

First picture with the Tallest Indian.

First time I have ever backpacked in the rain. Not such a good idea after all since I got eaten alive by mosquitoes and we ended up spending all night in our little backpacking tent just playing cards and watching the lake of water pool up around out tent.

First time ever that I used a bear pole. We stuck a poncho over our packs so they didn't get soaked over night (it worked pretty good). I think the rain kept the bears away more than the bear pole though.

First time using our water filter on Wisconsin made water. We also used it in Lake Superior which made for nice cold water to drink.

First time in the Upper Peninsula (Michigan). Here we are at the Porcupine Mountains, to some they still might laugh at the 'mountains', but this is probably the best we have seen out here. Below is the Lake of the Clouds. Supposedly the clouds will sit over the lake, but the first day we were there it was rainy and the second there weren't many clouds to be seen.

First porcupine I saw in the Porcupine Mountains.

Not the first waterfall, but really the last one that we saw on our trip. But the first waterfall we got someone to take a picture of both of us.

First time on Lambeau Field. We took a tour of the Green Bay Packer's stadium, what else do you do in Green Bay. The tour was pretty sweet because you got to go up into the box suites and then down through the players tunnel onto the field.

First time seeing a real Lombardi trophy.

Okay if you have made it this far through this super long post I guess you are craving some more, so here are a couple clips that you can watch.

(hiking in we were really tired and did not believed that this was only 4.5 miles and we thought we were lost half the time, apparently we were right the next day we got back and the sign said it was 4.6 miles. It still felt like a long hike)

Post to come

2010-06-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

So we have so much to post about with our little road trip we just took, but I find no time to do it. I am thinking that I will get more of that once Brad starts his surgery rotation at the end of the week. So for now just a little teaser with a new pic at the top of the page.

Hiking

2010-05-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was Brad's mini break between finals and boards. We decided we wanted to go hiking, but only had a couple hours between soccer and the ward talent show to do so. We found a nature center less than 1/2 hour away and decided to scope it out. The nature center had different little loops that would take you to different habitats (meadow, woodland, marsh, beach). We ended up hiking almost ever loop they had, but it made for a fun hike. The most exciting part was finding the wildlife, as we said to each other on the hike who knew we would actually see wild turkeys in our lifetime. The only time we saw turkeys growing up was thanksgiving. We know living out here that they have a lot more moisture than back west, and this is included in the hiking as we had to wade around mud puddles every 20 feet in the trail.
We saw frogs,

wild turkey,

a deer,

sleeping ducks,

turtles,

and birds.

There were also lovely flowering trees every once in a while that smelled wonderful.

With so many loops we were always hitting slits in the trail and having to decide which direction to go.

Here is my way of crossing the mud puddles and Brads way.

We found this random door and decided to explore the secret forest on the other side.

One of the many towers they have so we could see the view over the trees.

Brad showing off his rock skipping skills.

Backyard Deer

2010-05-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was sitting in the car in the driveway after my long day of work, writing in Brad's card for our anniversary (yes very last minute), when I looked up and I noticed a deer sitting in our neighbors backyard. It seemed that she was staring strait at me, but didn't even budge when I opened the car door and made a move for the house. I decided then that I wanted to see how close I could get with my camera without her moving. So I dashed for the camera and back outside. I snapped a million pictures as I slowly moved closer and closer to her. Hiding behind my camera seemed to camouflage me since she continued to stare in my direction without movement. It wasn't until Brad decided to come out and see when suddenly she decided the situation had become unsafe and made her move to leave. Don't worry we weren't too mean, we decided to back off and ten minutes later she was found sitting again enjoying the shady grasses in our neighbors oasis.

SPRING is here!

2010-04-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have been working lots lately, so I didn't even notice that spring came until today. The barren trees are starting to green and even better flower. We have this cute little tree in our front yard with beautiful purple flowers on it. I got home today and decided I needed to take some pictures of them because their color is just gorgeous. Our neighbor also has a tree with a million little white flowers on it, beautiful, but that is also where our ginormous ant friends live before they decide to invade our house.

2010-04-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do follow our blog (I as assume some people do because we do get wonderful comments from them) you might have wondered what has happen to us. Well I am glad to announce that I have switched jobs to one that has me busy again and I find myself with no time to spend in the blogging world as of lately. I am now an employee of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation working on the High Speed Passenger Rail to go from Milwaukee to Madison planned to be up and running at 79mph by 2013 and at 110 mph by 2016. This may seem like a long time from now, but the design will be finished by this time next year, construction starts in October and we have absolutely nothing done at this point in time (plus no one has ever done such a large rail project in the states history). So needless to say I will be pretty busy in the months to come, but I am pretty excited to be apart of this project. As Brad knows I love alternate modes of transportation. Also I am back to the cubical world and have already come home with stories of random conversations I hear from my cube. In the meantime I have made it through another birthday without trick candles (you would be surprised at how few that is been in my life) but somehow ended up with four different cakes in our house (I have been trying to lay off the sweets but this was just too tempting especially since three of them were chocolate).

We also found time to dye Easter eggs before Easter was over.

We didn't have any red dye but came out with some pretty shades of greens

Brads Trip to Honduras

2010-03-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I don't usually post on these blog things, but due to popular demand I wanted to share some of the awesome experiences I had in Honduras. We lived at an orphanage in a small place about an hour and 1/2 from the capital called Nueve Paraiso. It was awesome, we got to play with the kids there a bunch. We had fundraised and bought all the meds we used with us prior to coming so we brought enough stuff to give every patient vitamins, a toothbrush and toothpaste, lotions, soaps, deworming meds (they need them down there) and any other meds they needed, usually for acute stuff like anti-inflammatories, anti-biotics (saw lots of ear infections), anti-fungals (saw tons of crazy fungi growing on them), and more. So, day 1 we just toured and played with the kids and went to this boys ranch like place and played soccer with them. Day 2 we started brigades. We drove another hour and 1/2 to this really rural village. I worked in triage where we did an initial interview of the patients and took weights, temperatures of the kids and blood pressures of the adults. They then went on to see the doctors, followed by the pharmacy, and the dentist and eye station as needed. My dad went with us, so he was the dentist there. I was told we pulled 317 teeth in all and did a number of fillings. I even got to pull an infected tooth out- way fun! The first patient that came in that day reminded me of the dad with the kid sick of the palsy on Finding Faith in Christ. I really didn't know what to do, but we interviewed him and did the best we could. We treated 252 patients that day. The 3rd day we were supposed to go to a village even further away but the road had washed out the night before so after driving forever, we couldn't make it. They then called another community and asked if we could come. They then emptied out the school and put us in there. That day I translated for Dr. Tumpach. I really don't speak much Spanish, but I guess enough to translate what the patient said and what she said back and forth. We treated 250 some more patients that day. The 4th day we had to walk after we parked outside the next village because our bus couldn't make it up the hill. As we were walking we saw this huge crowd of people lined up probably 5 people wide of a line lined up for 100 yards or so. As I just saw that this car drove up with the this guy in bad pain. The lady in the drivers seat told me he needed a doctor real bad and she didn't think he could make it. He was flopped over on the chair moaning in pain. I ran and got one of the doctors to see him. Apparently his appendix had just ruptured and he needed immediate care and to be taken to a more surgically ready clinic. But we got him there. That day I worked with my dad doing fillings and pulling teeth. I also worked at a little teeth station for the kids where we taught them to brush in circles and floss and gave them a fluoride treatment. I also got to work with Dr. Munoz, an amazing doctor who could connect with these people. He told one lady who was really depressed to put all her cares on Jesus Christ and God in such a religious sermon that I wondered if the Savior wasn't almost there himself talking through him to her as he talked about that to her. She cried. Afterwards I told him "I didn't know you were religious..." his response was "I'm not, but she apparently needed that". Really cool. He also was able to tell another child who was having a rough time his life story of growing up in Puerto Rico just like he did and gave this kid the hope to make it- he connected in such an amazing way to this kid- in a way I had never seen before- gave him new hope in life. We treated almost 500 people that day. Day 5 we went to a much closer village. That day I worked in the pharmacy. It was lots of fun being able to review stuff from our pharm class and see them really work. In the afternoon that day I also translated again for another Dr., another of the students dad who had come. An experience I remember there was a lady who came in with knee pain. We looked and saw a lipoma (we think) the size of my fist in her knee pit. There was little we could do but treat the pain. She was so happy though, she hugged us all and told us how much she loved us (we were able to also treat her acid reflux problem of like the last 5 years). Then we all went home. That week I saw everything from babies being born to people about to die (of old age and others) and everything in-between. Nasty fungi, beautiful smiling kids, the worst teeth and mouths you could ever imagine, blood pressures over 220 systolic and their treatment, laughing, crying, - it was an amazing chance to see the miracle of life.

Happy Equinox Day

2010-03-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

So my brother calls me up this morning and tells me to go get an egg from the fridge, random I think. Then he proceeds to tell me it is equinox day so I should be able to balance the egg on its end. Does it matter which end, I enquire. Either will do he says. So I take my egg and try to balance it on its fatter end (this will be easier I think to myself). I try for a couple seconds, I can feel the center of gravity of the egg is just off to let it balance correctly on the tip. I am thinking this might be a joke, but my brother reaffirms my concerns and tells me to try another egg. He couldn't get all of his to work, but had two balancing at that very moment. So I continue through my supply of eggs, I only have half a dozen so I hope one is feeling the spirit of this egg holiday. As I take the second to last egg out and try to balance, score, I balanced an egg on its tip and it happened so easily. So just in case you still don't believe me after this story and the photos to prove this is what Wikipedia has to say about it..."An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator." So be ready with your eggs on the next one, it will happen on September 22/23.

Love notes from Brad

2010-03-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

So Brad is gone for a whole week in Honduras for Spring Break. I could not go this year due to lack of vacation time available from work. So I am left alone here in Wisconsin, luckily the weather is giving us a beautiful week here and melted all the snow! So that I didn't feel too lonely while he was gone, Brad has hid notes around the house for me. He also left me a snuggle buddy, which I find hilarious and actually comforting when I am home alone at night.

Here are the flowers he left to cheer me up in the morning.

Doesn't my snuggle buddy look kind of like Brad?

Madison Winter Festival

2010-02-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

This last weekend my friend Necia and I went to the Madison Winter Festival. They brought in truckloads of snow and made a cross country ski course around the capital building. When we were there we watched some cross country ski races. One was pretty big because people had come from Canada and across the country for this race. They also had an area open to the public and areas for little kids. Also set up were some rails which people were also competing on we watch some little kids snowboard on the rails and some teenagers ski on the rails. Also open was the Wisconsin History Museum which we took some time to learn about the early Wisconsin settlers. It is a pretty good little museum right there by the capitol if people are ever in Madison looking for something to do.

Here are the x-country racers

Here you can see the street covered in snow, they had is from 6-12 inches thick.

There is more than just dairy in Wisconsin's history but I thought these milk glasses were pretty cool looking.

Here is the rail competition.

Flight of the Umbilical Chords

2010-02-16T16:12:00.000-08:00

So the medical school here has a talent show every year called the Variety Fest. This year Brad got together with our friend Jordan and put together a song parody of the Flight of the Conchords. They decided they wanted to do something that no one would expect from them, so they decided to rap. I don't want to say they put it together last second, because they did practice (I even got several days of Brad performing while he showered), but it changed up to the last second, even the one on stage was different (and one fumble on words). The song is even funnier if you understand the medical lingo in it, I had Brad explain most of it to me. There are a couple parts where they say to be more professional, that is because they are always telling the students that they have to learn to be professional before they are doctors. And the wine and cheese party is a real thing they do here with the dean. If you need more of the medical terminology explained you will have to talk to Brad.

Kohler

2010-02-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we took a trip up to Kohler Wisconsin. They were having a winter festival with ice carving and also we had heard the design studio was a pretty cool place to check out. When we first got there we checked out the festival around the shopping area. There was a little ice skating performance on the lake, we had just missed the polar bear swim, but we watched some snow carving, and got a free 15 minute indoor golf lesson. Then we headed over to the design center, which turned out to be really cool and defiantly could have spent more time there then we had. They had lots on display, toilets, showers, faucets, sinks, bathtubs, even lawn mowers!? (they apparently make those too). On the upper level they have several designer bathrooms and kitchens that you can tour, and on the lower level (which we only did a quick run through) they have the history of Kohler. I would definitely suggest this for anyone any time of year. Also if you want to see more snow sculptures Lake Geneva is hosting the Winterfest and United States Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition, 15th Annual on Feb. 6th.

Here are some of the snow sculptures

Here I am looking at the designer sinks

Now that is a lot of toilets!

And sinks!

Brad is figuring out how this shower works

And here is the innovative C3200 toilet (with hidden bedet, seat warmers, and remote control)

Here I am in one of the designer bathrooms

Ice Climbing

2010-01-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

So you know those weeks where you are just dreaming of going out and doing something adventurous? I have been in that state since the new year, luckily I have people around here that think of me when they want to go do something crazy cool like ice climbing. That is really all Byrd had to say and I was in. The poor med students wives we are entail that we didn't just spend hundreds of dollars on clinics or gear of our own, we went to this ice climbing demo day put on by the climbing gear companies like Petzel and Black Diamond, it only cost us a day to drive up to Green Bay and $10 to get in. (They don't really have mountains in Green Bay just a gravel quarry which they put the ice routes down the sheer cliff walls) The downside of this event was that they didn't expect many people to show up to this little event (who really from Wisconsin is into ice climbing) but there were over 100 people there and half of them trying out the demo gear. So we were sitting around waiting, watching people climb, and just chatting, a couple hours seriously went by and we were thinking we would have to leave without even getting a try. But randomly this guy that saw we were waiting asked if we wanted to try his shoes and crampons so that we could climb. They were a little big, but what the hay anything to get us on the ice. As we proceeded to switch around boots he informed us on the techniques to ice climbing. It was easier then I thought it was going to be, but really wore me out quick too (guess I gotta work out my forearms more). We each only got 1/3 of the way up the entire ice face, but we didn't start out on an easy route so that makes it a little better. And we got some sweet pics out of it! Really I think I want to get into this more someday.

Byrd, Marcy and I showing off our stuff outside of the Ice Pit.

Here you can see the different routes they have to climb, they had smaller ones over the the right of this too.

Here we are just watching in amazement

Up close to the wall

Here I am climbing

And some more climbing

Here we are after climbing

(I swear my helmet was a kids size and makes my head look big)

Matchy Matchy Green Squared

2010-01-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

This really was not on purpose. I got this new green sweater for $5 at the outlets and so I wanted to wear it on Sunday. I was in the bathroom when Brad walked in wearing his green tie (he has more then one green tie and he happen to choose the one that almost perfectly matched) and it made me think back to college when we used to quote "matchy matchy green squared" all the time.

Fufilling our Snowboarding Need

2010-01-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

So we have been anxious to go snowboarding since we didn't go at all last year. We looked into going while we were in Colorado for the holiday break, but the extra expense of either paying to fly our boards or renting them there made it just a little too much to fit into our budget. On our return to Wisconsin we were met by a big snow storm. The timing was perfect, Brad only had been back at school for 1 week so his load hasn't fully returned quite yet so this would be the best day to take off for snowboarding. Now we were quite warned by several people that Wisconsin ski resorts were nothing compared to our west. I found a resort with a 500 foot vertical drop (not much but there are even smaller to choose from). We woke up early and drove west, only it felt different because we never increased in elevation, in fact there was a time we thought we were lost because we were driving on a little country road passing farm after farm. When finally we got there we were surprised that the size wasn't as bad as we thought. Though Brad could probably get down a run in 2 or 3 minutes, it took me a little longer especially when I fell. Though the terrain was perfect for me to practice my carving, in fact I was snowboarding the best I ever have before. I almost felt like I was pretty good as there were actually other people there that were learning and falling more than I was (as compared to in Colorado where you are always past up by these 10 year old snowboarding masters.) We had a lot of fun and hopefully it filled us up enough for another long drought.

We took our camera but it ran out of batteries so these are from our cell phones

Christmas

2010-01-05T14:26:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else I feel like I still wanted to post about the Christmas break even though that was so last year. We had a wonderful time in Colorado and were grateful to see both our families. I have to thank mother nature for the wonderful weather we enjoyed, I didn't even put my coat on until I returned to Wisconsin. For the most part we just enjoyed being with family by playing a lot of games (thanks for making some up for us Bro-dog). It was a good break for Brad, I think I only caught him studying one or two times (now it is nose to the grindstone as we countdown to boards). We did also get a chance to go the the Aquarium in Denver (by my parents promise since we took them to the Sears Tower). If you know Brad you know how long we spent in there. His favorite part was hand feeding the stingrays, and my favorite part was still the flash flood that comes at you and is stopped by a glass wall (I watched it twice). Our goal was to get our Christmas cards out at least by new years (since Christmas was out of the question), but we even failed at that, so if you were thinking we forgot you sorry, we really just forgot everyone. Thanks to those that sent us cars they are on our fridge (I can say that because I know you read our blog). We are thinking maybe valentine cards or easter...

Here are a couple pics that we got of the random activities that we did.

Brad showing us how to feed the stingray

The stingray coming up to the side because he can smell his food

Brad and I infront of one of the huge tanks.

My fam after $1 bowling, Brock killed us again.

Here we are showing off our iron on creations that we made together.

Now we didn't take any pictures of Christmas in Colorado but we did take pics of our own little christmas we had together.

We do have a bigger tree I just ran out of time to put it up so we pulled out our very first tree we had together (not all those presents are for us half of the got packed)

Brad got me these picture frames he saw me dreaming about at the store

I got Brad a nose hair trimmer! (okay I also really got him an aquarium fish book)

Lets Play!

2009-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Brad finished off this semester on thursday! So it is time for us to play before the next semester begins. Once again the guys did a bead growing competition from Thanksgiving to the last final. We got together for a big dinner at Chili's to vote for the best beard and to enjoy being over with one more semester of school. The countdown to boards begins now. Also on friday we got to go to the Nutcracker! The milwaukee ballet did a really good production of it and it was a very enjoyable evening except for the parking ticket we found on our car at the end of the night (who knew that the meters around the Bradley Center were in effect till 9 pm even when there are no games). Well after Brad ranted about how he hates parking tickets I did tell him I had good news, we are going to save over $50 a month on car insurance. Really our insurance agreement just expired and after some good recomendations for Progressive Insurance I got a quote and starting today we will be saving a bundal on car insurance.

Here is Brad's beard this year

Here are all 3 Brads and their beards

And the group of beards (now that is a lot of facial hair)

And here we are after the Nutcracker, we didn't get a chance to take a picture at the theater.
(and notice clean shaven on the next day)

Sheards in Wisconsin

2009-12-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

So we were lucky enough to have my parents come visit us here for the first time last weekend. My dad had a work conference in Michigan so they drove over afterwards. The first full day here we took them to Chicago, you can tell from the pictures that it was cold enough to start busting out our winter gear that weekend. We went up to the Sears Tower (now called Willis Tower) which used to be the tallest building in the world. It was pretty cool to get a new view of the Windy City. And best of all they just built these glass boxes that stick out the side of the building so that you can look down onto the street. This is my new favorite spot in Chicago. My next favorite is the Bean, which of coarse we went to, and can't miss famous Chacago Pizza. Brad even took the day off studying to go down with us (which he is making up now by studying for finals on his B-day). I took monday off of work so that I could take my parents around Milwaukee, not quite as busy but just as cold. We went to the Pabst Mansion which was all decorated for Christmas, out to the art museum and the lake, to a lighthouse, the bronze Fonz, and on a Sprechers tour. And best of all my parent took Brad out to dinner for his B-day to Claim Jumpers and we got the biggest brownie I have ever seen for dessert, lets just say that it was so big that we took some home with us. Thanks Mom and Dad for visiting!

Here is the view of the magnificent mile from the top floor.

Here we are in the glass box over 100 stories above the ground.

I told Brad that I was confident they over engineered the glass structure so here he is jumping in it to prove his trust for engineers.

Here we are looking down.

Proof that my mom did step out on the glass.

Reflection in the Bean.

Parents doing a typical Bean pose.

Brad's excited to be here jump (he gets those mad hops from when he was a skater)

True Chicago Pizza, we finished it all.

Here the Pabst Mansion is behind me, we couldn't take pictures inside.

Here we are outside of Milwaukee's Lighthouse.

My mom wanted to see Lavern and Shirley when she was in Milwaukee, when we went on the Sprechers tour they had a bottling line that looked just like the one on the show, so close enough for her.

Roberts Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

We we lucky again this year to have the Roberts family fly into Milwaukee to visit us for Thanksgiving. As you can tell from the picture above we had an awesome time with them here! And the weather was fabulous for touring Milwaukee.

Here we are starving before our wonderful feast.

Dad was designated turkey carver, and boy was it some good turkey this year!

The next day we traveled around Milwaukee first stopping at Marquette campus to see the Saint Joan of Arc Chapel.

Too bad that campus was closed so the chapel was closed too, so we just took a picture outside.

Luckily though the art museum on campus was still open. I made sure that there was a new exhibit showing (cause the last one was so weird). This time they had this sweet sculpture that you could make music when you moved the rods together, that is me playing above.

We also found the Bronze Fonz (I figured Mom and Dad Roberts would have actually watch Happy Days)

And then we stealthily made it into the secret Safe House for lunch. The Safe House is a spy theme resturante with all this cool decor, here is a piece of the Berlin wall.

That night we went to the Domes (indoor gardens).

They had the show dome filled with Christmas flowers!

The next day we went hiking at Lapham peak, even though there are no more leaves on the trees the weather was nice and turned out for a nice little hike.

Last stop was at a Decorative Arts museum located in an old mansion on the lake front. I have been wanting to go here for a while so it was a nice excuse and turned out to be a pretty cool place.

They have this enormous backyard garden that leads down to the lake that we wondered around.

Here is Jenny showing off the plaza in the middle of the house.

Lastly we watched the BYU/Utah game, of course. Go Cougs! That was a close one.

Chig-Town

2009-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Even though we live pretty close to Chicago we haven't really gone down too often, but this last weekend some friends were having a reunion in Chicago that I couldn't miss. The weather made it up to a fabulous 70 degrees (surprising since the week prior was high of 40s). Shelly made a wonderful tour guide for only having lived there now a couple months. The best part was just being able to enjoy spending time with friends that I don't get to see a lot.

Here we are outside the cultural center (I had to represent WI)

We took a stroll through Millennium Park

And of course had to take some sweet pics at the bean (my favorite part of Chicago)

When we were walking by the Art Institute they had a cooking show being filmed so we stopped to have a look and a taste. They even filmed us as we tried some Crepes of the Future, so look for us on TV some day.

This guys had his own portable crepe maker

Then we got front row seating on a Vertical Horizon concert promoting their new CD

See how close we got!

Next stop was the Zoo

We were trying to get a picture with the Cougar, but then we found out it wasn't even a cougar

This was the biggest Gorilla I have ever seen

And we tried to get a shot with the lion but he was camera shy

After some misdirections and lots of walking we found ourselves walking across this bridge (that really was closed to pedestrians), but it had a pretty sweet view.

But we did make it to our destination eventually for the night

The next day we walked the Magnificent Mile, and saw the cutest little kid drumming

We had famous Chicago Dogs for lunch (mine probably not as famous because I opted out of all the toppings)

Brad meet us on Sat night so the only pic I got of him was our pit stop at the boarder on the way home

Here is a little clip of Vertical Horizon (sorry small format makes it not too clear)

Pumpkins and Fall

2009-10-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year in Wisconsin, all the trees are burning with bright colors and the weather is cold enough for hot cocoa but warm enough that we still haven't succumbed to turning our furnace on yet. It is football season and Brad has started on his 2nd year of MCW intramural flag football. So when I was watching his game this weekend I was then inspired to go out and take some pictures of the beautiful leaves, and after Brads test was over I go him to come out with me to take some pictures together (he was so good to indulge as I dragged him out for a photo shoot). We also managed to round up people two days before Halloween to carve some pumpkins. Brad actually choose a squash this year, which shouldn't surprise anyone. Now that our pumpkins are ready I feel officially ready for Halloween this year.

Here is from the football game and my inspiration

The leaves under this bright yellow tree were the perfect colors

Here are some pals that stopped by to carve it up!

Happy, but Spooky

Brad's creative juices flowing on this one

This was the sweet yoda "white pumpkin" by the Nances that actually had yoda's texture too

Pumpkin friends

Midnight Soccer

2009-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

It made me feel non-sensical. My whole life I have been very practical, even in collage when everyone else was out having fun I had to get my homework done before I would let myself join the party. And even more important is getting an adequate amount of sleep; I would sleep 9 hours every day if I had the time. Brad knows that I am a stickler for getting to bed at 10:30 sharp, there is nothing to talk to me about after that time because all I can do is watch the clock and count down how much sleep I am loosing. So playing a soccer game starting at midnight? This is something I have never imagined I would ever do for fun. But here I find myself deciding to throw my good senses out the window and do something irrational , something that I don’t have much time in my life left where I even can do it, and put that before my precious sleep. Though this was my first time playing real indoor soccer I already felt too old and out of shape for it (or maybe that was because it was midnight and my body was trying to sleep), luckily this quick pace game includes lots of subbing. I learned last night sometimes it is okay to do what you enjoy in the middle of the night even when you have to get up the next morning and go to work, at least you are living and not just working.

P.S. and Brad did score a goal for me

Saturday Corn Maze

2009-10-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

So I am notorious for being busy around here, and last Saturday was one of those days were both Brad and I just went from one thing to another without a chance to even catch our breath. I tried to explain to Brad that this happened because there are only so many days that he is not studying so I try to take full advantage of them. In the morning Brad was speaking at a Republican sponsored Pro Life conference (as President of the Pro Life interest group at MCW). And I ran a 5K run/walk sponsored by the Relief Society. From that we took a trip to the Temple (and for anyone going down there the construction is still bad). Being late because of the construction we headed strait for the corn maze with the Kagies and didn't get there till right before it got dark. With enough light to explore the pumpkin patch, barn and farm animals it was pitch black when we started the corn maze. We were lucky enough that they had some flashlights we could borrow. This was the first corn maze Brad and I had done, we have been to them before and just played around and we have been to many haunted corn mazes, but this time we actually did the maze. It was pretty fun, but I found myself being scared that people would jump out at me (too many haunted mazes I guess). We finished off the day with watching our favorite Cougars play.

We found some pretty crazy looking pumpkins (okay squash)

The sun setting behind the corn

There was also these crazy turkeys that were posing for us

This is when we started (we came out an hour and a half later)

Marquette Campus

2009-10-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

So last week we went and did some sightseeing around Marquette campus. Thanks to Meghan’s post about free museum day on Saturday we decided to hit up the art museum on Marquette campus and then explore from there. We learned two things about the art museum there; first it is always free so you can go anytime you want and second, the current exhibition is called Jump Cut Art featuring social/political/historical issues inspired by the Pop Art movement (let’s just say we weren’t in there for very long). There was another attraction found on campus though, the Saint Joan of Arc Chapel. The chapel was built in the 15^th century in France, rebuilt several times and shipped to the United States and eventually ended up at Marquette. The legends say that Joan of Arc prayed at this chapel. It was actually a pretty spiritual experience to be inside the chapel so rich in history.

Here is an example of the art found at the art museum...

Here is the inside of the chapel

Brad is standing at the entrance looking knightly

Here is "Mr. Marquette" in front of the chapel

And this is just one of the buildings that I thought looked cool.

Bountiful Harvest!

2009-09-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

It's getting closer and closer to being fall and that means its time to harvest the garden! We have done minor harvesting already but more and more things are getting ready so we did a little bit bigger harvest this afternoon. We grew lots of different kinds of tomatoes (cherry, grape, big boy, and beefsteak-the bigger variety are still mostly green), peppers, and cucumbers.

We also grew a bunch of herbs and spices in our pots. We grew basil, chocolate mint, parsley, and chives (in the first pot) as well as oregano, sage, and lemon balm (the other pot). They make a pretty good meat loaf!

It took us a lot of work to get the garden in. The original garden area was full of weeds and on a slope so it took a whole day working in the heat to level it out and get the ground all ready with the weeds pulled. Then we built a little retaining wall out of bricks that we found on the side of the house. We also found these little white fences in the garage and put those up around it. But this delicious home grown salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, and lemon balm from our garden was well worth it!

Hiking again

2009-09-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday morning I knew Brad was going to be in study mode again so I decided to go on a run/hike (inspired by my friends blog post). I really enjoyed getting outside again. I will have to admit that I probably hiked more than ran, but I liked saying I was hiking and not walking, he he. And I loved this flower pic.

More Body Than Any Body Can Take

2009-09-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend we decided to take a road trip up to the Twin Cities. The theme of the day was “More Bodies than you could ever want to see in one day Saturday” which included a performance from some local body builder, the Body World exhibit, and watching with a million other bodies the BYU game. It really was the most body that I had ever seen all jam packed into one day! The body builder’s performance was needless to say “interesting.” But what can I say they did have more muscles than I knew possible. The performance was at the Minnesota Sculpture Gardens so we also got to check those out and coolest we got to see the spoon and the cherry, I was not disappointed. After that we headed over to the Mall of America, this I do have to say really is just one big mall with the crowds to match, but that is where the body exhibit was so we cruised through. Brad was our wonderful tour guide through the inside of the body (combination of Brad’s love for being a tour guide and extensive knowledge about the body was to our benefit). And then ending the day with such wonderful displays of athleticism from the BYU football team made it all the better. Thanks Team!

Here we are holding up the cherry

Here are some back muscle poses

We are tying to show off our muscles for Ponce

Here are our super hero muscles too

And more bodies (no pics inside sorry)

14-13. Go Cougs!

Three of Three

2009-08-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

So our last trip of the summer was to Washington DC, we saw family, more family, and old roommates (yes there were lots of reasons to go besides that we just wanted to see DC). We stayed with my Aunt, toured with Brad's family and I extended my stay to chill with my roommate Camille. DC was almost the complete opposite feel from our west coast adventure, defiantly a more conservative feel. We rented bikes the first day to see all the monuments at the Mall the first day (good idea because it was super hot and humid that day, riding the bikes helped give us a breeze). We also spent time in some Smithsonian museums, the White House, the Capital, Mt. Vernon, and the Pentagon. Brad always loves museums, but he was even more excited because he just finished reading 1776 and was all into learning all he could about George Washington now. I loved the patriotic feel that you get just from being in the city, it is just in the air there. And we will definitely have to go back some day because there is so much to see that you can't do it all in just 3 days.

Here we are ready to go on our bikes

We found Colorado at the WWII memorial

Classic tracing the name at the Vietnam memorial

Standing in front of the wall of names

Pointing to the tip of the Washington memorial (really it is much bigger than it seems here)

One picture, Two Abes

Brad is reading outside the library of Congress

There was also lots of security checks to go through all day long

Here I am outside our nations capitol (congress was out of session so there was like no one there)

Wow we found Brigham Young at the Capitol

Also found Lady Liberty (who is much taller)

We tried to find Pres Obama, but he wasn't home

Brad found lots that peaked his interest in the American History Library

Brad is ready to fight with the troops

We also spent some time with our childhood friend Kermit

Brad with the eternal flame that is still on in the rain (it may not look like it but it was raining) that is lit over JFKs grave

We also went to Washington's home (he was also not there)

But a statue of him was

Iwo Jima was much bigger than I thought it would be

The FDR memorial was full of water fountains and statues depicting quotes from his life

Thanks for following us around DC and actually making it through all those pictures.

Locks for Love

2009-08-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

I did it again, third time donating my hair to Locks of Love. The first time doing my hair after my haircut (awesome job by Sarah) I realized that it really is the shortest it has ever been. But I was encouraged by the response from Brad, who before the cut was sceptical about me going short.

San Fran

2009-08-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

Brad got 4 weeks off this summer from school and research so we are using this time to fit in 3 fabulous trips. Trip one Brad already took a week to visit Colorado and do a sweet backpacking trip with his old roommate, he still has to post that one since I wasn’t there. Trip two, San Francisco. I would name this itinerary ‘tourist and beyond.’ We took transit everywhere, well besides the taxi Brad and I had to get from the airport in the middle of the night. We saw the Golden Gate, the Warf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli square (and got three pieces of free sample chocolates), rode the cable car, and did all the typical tourist in San Fran things to do. But in addition we had food culture day: Japantown we had a Japanese bakery treat made with some sort of ground up rice, The Mission we ate at a taqueria, Chinatown we had an eggy custard cup, in Little Italy we had gelato, and even the hippie district (Haight/Ashbury) we had wonderful crepes. We also visited my work and got to see the traffic wall up in action. We visited the Golden Gate park and tried to get in a beach day, but as warned the nor cal beaches just aren’t as warm as so cal. Even though we didn’t end up changing into our swimmies we still made sure our feet got wet. There were two things that I failed at for the trip, first our hotel was in a pretty bad area of town so we got to enjoy hearing the shady characters outside our hotel all night, and two I didn’t get Alcatraz tickets in time. So next time you plan a trip to SF make sure you get your Alcatraz tickets before hand because they do sell out. So instead of going to Alcatraz we took a sail boat tour which went by it and under the Golden Gate Bridge too. All in all it was nice to see our friends again and show them the real Sco.

Above is a pic of the device that changes the lights for the fire trucks (this is what I worked on when I was there and so I got to see them actually constructed)

Here we are at the Full House Park and also a sweet view of the city

Shad and Brad on the Cable Car

Here we are chowing down on our burritos

Here is the Chinese Custard Tart

The corner of Haight and Ashbury

Brad found a new hat at the park

And of course Lombard Street (no car though so we only walked down it)

Brad still loved playing at the beach

We were lucky that there was no fog the day we went to see the bridge!

Here is a nice city line pic from our sailing tour

And of course proof that I got some sweetness gelato for TKO

That Was Awkward

2009-07-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

So Brad and I have each had a kind of awkward experience lately and I thought it would make a good post so that you can see some of the everydayness of our lives. First, I said “That was awkward” to Brad and some friends after returning to the table from the lady’s room. We were eating dinner at Giordano’s, Chicago’s most famous pizza place, after a temple trip. They are acclaimed to have the best deep dish pizza, which is funny because we found out we had eaten there before with Brad’s family when we randomly chose the closes pizza restaurant while walking around in Chicago. Anyways, so the awkward part takes me back to inside the woman’s restroom washing my hands, when a young teenage boy walks in and starts heading towards the stalls. I look at him with probably a puzzled look and I am thinking ‘is that really a boy’ and then respond with “you know this is the woman’s restroom?” The boy responds to me like I am the weird one with “yeah I am waiting for my mom” and continues to enter the stall. I look around all confused, there are only two stalls in the bathroom and I just came out of the other one, then I walk out to see if there is for some reason a long line at the men’s room, nada. That is when I walked back to the table still trying to figure out why I had just experience what I just did…I don’t know what is wrong with some kids these days, he is just lucky that I was so confused by it all or else I would have had some words to say.

Awkward number two, for Brad. Brad has been doing a week of externship, which includes getting paid to follow around an internal medicine doctor. Brad has really enjoyed it because the Doctor lets him go in and do all the initial interviewing of patients all by himself, then he reports to the doctor and takes his guesses on what is wrong. So the other day we both returned from work to a house with no electricity. We decided that this must mean we should go get fast food for dinner, so we opted for our local Taco Bell so that Brad could prove that you really can get lunch for $3 (from an earlier discussion of ours). As we were sitting there eating, we spent more than $3 but it is true you can get three tacos for $3 still, Brad tells me to look over at a lady sitting across the restaurant and says “Wow, that is awkward”. So I look over and take a unsuspicious scan at the woman that he is talking about curious to see what is so awkward. I think to myself as I am looking at her that she looks pretty average compared to some of the other people there at Taco Bell, this one is past 60^th St. if that helps you know what kind of people are around. As I am still looking at the lady in my peripheral Brad says to me that he knows more about this lady than probably anyone else in around right now. I flash another puzzled look, and he continues to explain that he just did her interview in the clinic, really she must have also come directly to Taco Bell after also (this was really coincidental since the clinic was 30 min away from where we were at). Brad was trying to decide if he should go up and say hi or if that would make the situation weirder. Since I didn’t think the woman had looked over and recognized him we hurried and slipped out of the restaurant and Brad decided to ask the doctor what he should do in that type of situation in the future.