"Winter in Houston"

some photos we have taken this month...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

NYC

I finally was able to drag Jake to NYC for vacation last weekend.

We had a great time...walking around the city, catching up with friends & seeing the sights...

including walking the Brooklyn Bridge

Times Square
Radio City Rockefeller Plaza...where they were putting up the huge Christmas tree and ice skating Top of the Rock with our great friends, the Sokol's!

We also ate an abundance of good food at famous NYC sites

...we thank everyone for the suggestions!

After waiting in a much shorter line at the Brooklyn TKTS booth, thanks to a tip from our friends, we were able to see a couple great Broadway shows. We especially liked Promises, Promises with Kristen Chenoweth and Molly Shannon.
One night we also went to a pretty awesome Jazz Club and enjoyed the music and watching people dance...apparently Emma Stone was there...

And on Sunday along with enjoying the wonderful fall colors in Central Park, we were able to see Jake's very favorite man, Tim Keller....preach in the flesh!
All in all a really great trip!

In other exciting news, I have officially survived 5 weeks of Pediatric ICU!

Utah Part 2

Later in the week, Jake was able to join me and we had more adventures.

We got to spend a day with Jake's parents and brother, before heading to Duchesne for my 10 year Class Reunion and to visit my dad.

We again headed to the lake and enjoyed some of my favorite activities...
We have yet to convince any of the additions to the family to try skiing...

but I got to ski with both of my siblings
and we even convinced my dad to ski, which I don't think he's even tried in years! Jake spent some time learning to drive the boat...in anticipation on my hope that we one day own one :)And it was the best time of the year for visiting Duchesne, as the Duchesne County Fair was underway...and we got to go the rodeo! A favorite activity of Jake's...he even dressed up for the event

Utah August 2010

Recently I was able to spend some time at home in Utah visiting family.

It was an activity packed week and we did many fun things together.

We went hiking in Milcreek Canyon a couple times and saw lovely views of the city and nature

We went to the Hogle Zoo

We went to Lagoon where little Elli enjoyed all the rides

We went to the lake and enjoyed the water and the sand

and just in general enjoyed my super cute niece and getting to be together

San Antonio

Any time I get both days of a weekend off, a "golden weekend," I always feel like we need to do something exciting and use it well...as they are so rare for me during residency. So this past weekend we had the opportunity to go to San Antonio with our friends Kyle & Beth.

in front of the Alamo
a really old tree within the Alamo
hanging out along the riverwalk
a pretty view of the riverwalk riding in a riverboat
eating at Mi Tierra
the pardilla for four we ordered for dinner the first night...which I think could have fed eight!
We stayed at a nice B&B type place right near the Riverwalk and spent much of our time wandering along the river, we also ate entirely too much, learned all kinds of crazy things about each other, and overall had a really great weekend!