St. Louis

To finish out my first week of vacation during internship, we headed to St. Louis to visit Jonathan & Christina, who have recently moved there to attend Covenant Theological Seminary. We of course went to see the St. Louis Arch...the Gateway to the West. We first visited the museum and then all crammed into a tiny claustrophobic elevator and went to the top to view all of St. Louis.
We then went to see Martin Luther and beautiful Concordia University...because they find it prettier than the one they actually attend...
In addition, we went shopping at the large Galleria, had dinner with some of Jake's cousins I had yet to meet, ate at Blueberry Hill and just did a lot of hanging around--which was very nice!

Jake's parents and Joel came to visit for Thanksgiving...and we had a nice time doing a lot of shopping. Well really them more then me as I was working...and not crazy getting up at ridiculous hours! Sadly it seems we didn't take any pictures.

Since then we have returned to the grind. Jake has just finished his first semester at Rice and is now taking finals and I have returned to the public hospital for several rotations--including newborn nursery and the wards, which I am enjoying very much! Sometime in there we also made a very very quick trip back to Utah for my friend Jessica's wedding. Though a quick trip, it was great to again get to see my niece and catch-up with many of our college friends and at the wedding I had the honor of watching Texas win a big game along with their truest fans the Tottenhams! In addition due to being on call, staying up way too late catching up with friends, and going right back to being on call...I caught a cold (likely RSV) from all my sick babies :( Thankfully I am now getting better....and I think we are now caught up.

Milcreek Canyon

One of the joys of getting to go home is getting to hike...in the snow! And to top it all off there were still a few trees with beautiful fall colors still in the city

Elli's 1st Birthday

Little Miss Elli turned 1 a couple weeks ago, and during my vacation, I was able to go to SLC and celebrate with her.
She enjoyed all the attention she received, but wasn't quite sure what to make of the cake...

Her very favorite present was a baby doll with a bottle Sydney gave her

She also got to hang out with the family

The baby doll remains a favorite...she likes to feed the baby, then burp the baby...as well as give her hugs and kisses

She also really likes to read, especially this nursery rhyme book
and ride her rocking Caterpillar
I can't believe how fast she's grown!

A Little Behind

We've been busy and gotten a little behind in blogging...the happy news is we are working on some new posts...and maybe we will post them before Christmas :)