Awesome Weekend!

This weekend had just a TON of stuff packed into it, but it was so much fun! Mara finished her last family practice rotation on Friday, and took her first Shelf Exam on Thrusday over the last 2 month of her clinic rotaions. Friday Rohan, The puppies, and I picked her up from the hospital and headed up to the Coconino National Forest in Camp Verde, just south of Flagstaff. We found an awesome place to camp and beat the heat. We found an area next to a good size stream which was nice and cool (80°F compared to Phoenix's 116°F!). We camped right at the base of Cedar and Black Mountains but the trees were so thick you couldn't even see them. Kind of a nice change, and reminded us a lot of camping in Northern Wisconsin at Copper Falls State Park. We had a nice evening of conversation over wine and cheese after Rohan went to sleep. We packed some brie and camembert cheese and brought a box of wine. Before you laugh, the box is actually designed for camping and recycling, made by Three Theives, we highly recommend it. We got up nice and early and hiked part of the West Clear Creek Trail which was very surprising. It went through the canyon between the two mountains hiked a long the stream the whole way. We took a little detour for lunch and climbed up out of the stream bed and up to the canyon floor. Mara, with Rohan in the backpack, climbed up and down about 20'. We were very careful with footholds and loose rocks, and made sure the dogs were well out of the way. Lunch was really nice at the top, with beautiful views of the canyon walls. The ants were pretty happy to see us too. The views were awesome and the water was really nice to cool off in. Schroeder even found another hiker's dog to play with. Rohan especially loved all the water time! Be sure to check out the video of him and the water...the end is really fun to watch.
Here is a little story to get your nose itching Michelle. I put my hat back on after lunch and had 5 stowaway ants climbing in my hair. But it gets worst (don't read any further Michelle). When I went to pick my backpack up (testing it out for next weekend) there were literally thousands of ants all over the back. I didn't have any food in there and it wasn't even near an anthill either, they were just streaming down the hill towards the pack. It must have been the sweat that attracted them. Since there wasn't anything breakable (even if there were) I just slammed it up against a rock a dozen times to get them all off. I didn't think to get the camera, but it was such an amazing sight with all those ants, I really wish I had. I'm just glad I looked before I slung that pack on!
Saturday night we came back to Phoenix and hit up REI to get the final bits for Greg and I's backpacking trip next weekend. We are doing a 50-mile trip along the Highland Trail in Payson. We can't wait! Other than that, we just tooled around the mall and enjoyed a low key night.
Sunday we got a hold of Greg & Sasha and set up a trip to go check out the indoor rock climbing place near out house called AZ on the Rocks. After a short video we headed to the wall, got orientated and we were free to use the facility. We forgot how much we liked climbing, and with this place so close (and cheap!) we'll have to get over there more often. We ended up climbing for over 3 hours, with taking turns entertaining Rohan and belaying. All our hands are cramping since we haven't climbed like that in a while, but it's well worth it!
Rohan has been getting around even more now, and even crawling on all fours pretty regularly. He's still faster Army crawling, but not for long we think. He has been SO ACTIVE lately which is very good, but also keeps us very busy as well, as all the parents know. He's even managed to high center himself into his toy box a few times. We had to get the camera before we helped him out...:) Enjoy all the pics & vids. There are a ton from such a packed weekend!
Camping In Coconino:


Climbing At AZ on the Rocks:


Rohan Gets Caught In His Toy Box:


Schroeder Plays With Duncan:


Rohan LOVE LOVE LOVES The Water!:

The Hardest Mile...

There is a saying that says the hardest mile is the first...well we tried hard last night to prove its the last. With 3.99 miles run on our iPods we had only 1.01 more to go for our 5 miles. About 0.03 into our last mile I went down. Let me preface that with my new shoes. We think a lot of my leg pain was due to the new Nike's I got, and their lack of arch support was probably causing my foot to pronate causing me to run on the arch of my foot and not the flat part. This can cause severe tightening of the anterior tibialis (shin muscle) which is what was hurting me before. I've been running in an older pair of running shoes in which the laces are stretched out pretty long. Turns out too long. I had double knotted the laces to shorten them a little, but after 4.02 miles I found out they weren't short enough. My left shoe got "roped" by the loop in the lace of my right shoe and I took a flying leap 5'10" down to the pavement. No major injuries (besides the embarrassment of doing it at a busy intersection). I did have to do some minor surgery to remove 2 rocks that had embedded themselves into my palm, and my knee has a nice strawberry on it, but nothing major.
After I retied my shoes (with triple knots), we looked at our iPods and they said we had run 4.02 miles total, so it was really only 0.03 miles into the last mile. About 0.04 miles later we enconutered a large pothole (on a sidewalk transfer) which sent the jogging stoller into the air, as well as our iPods which were in the cup holders. We know we have tendencies to drop (and destroy) electronics, so we were glad we had gotten the hard plastic cases for the iPods. However, now the iPods have hit the pavement and the cases were strewn on the road and sidewalk. Rohan, of course, didn't wake up through the whole thing, so that was nice.
After picking up the pieces (literally) we ran the remaining 0.94 miles without incident, but we kept waiting for that next obstacle so it felt like a little longer mile.
Glad all miles aren't like the beginning of that one or we wouldn't be running anymore! :)

Fun (Full) Weekend

Mara and I started our weekend off on Friday with a nice dinner at Bombay Spice for our anniversary. It's a nice Indian restaurant, and they had a great dinner special with wine, appetizers and deserts. So much we actually ate for 2 more meals on it! Rohan was schmoozing the waitress and she thanked us for bringing him in when we left, so that was pretty funny. Rohan was trying all sorts of new foods. He has two types of hummus, tofu masala, mint chutney, raita sauce, carrot soufflé, and mango sorbet. His favorites were probably the tofu and sorbet.

On our way to Heather & John's on Saturday, Rohan continues to schmooze people, this time literally stopping traffic. Rohan was chatting to himself in the back seat and we noticed an SUV next to us with everyone inside pointing and smiling at Rohan. Rohan, of course, cheesed back. All the while the SUV had a green light, which they sat through looking at Rohan. The three cars behind them didn't find it that amusing though...:)

Saturday and Sunday I golfed with John & Jordan (and Kurt on Sunday) at Vistal Golf Club. It was a little humid with the rain, but upper 90's felt awesome! We played a really fun tournament that John suggested. Since we were playing the same course 2 days in a row we played a 2 day best ball, so you take your best score on a hole. There were several times I had 8's on Saturday, only to get 4's on Sunday! They were both on putts off the green too...:) It was a lot of fun to add that dimension to the game. The tourney came down to the 17th hole where Jordan picked up 3 strokes from Saturday to beat John & I. I had a blast.

Mara and Heather hung out with Rohan and went to a park to jog 4 miles. Mara said the park was beautiful with lakes and mountain views. Heather later suggested giving Rohan an Eggo waffle to teeth on. Turns out it's like giving crack to a baby. He chowed it down! We tried it again last night and MAN does that kid love waffles! He gummed an entire waffle, eating only about 1/2-2/3 of it, but still funny as hell to watch.

Saturday we also went over to Greg & Nico's to grill. Turns out they were putting ceiling fans up on their porch to go along with the mister system Nico's Dad & Greg had installed. Nico's Dad had wired the porch while they were down last weekend. The combination of ceiling fan and mister system will almost assure the Caldwell's will be our "summer home" next year...:)

The rest of the weekend was spent chasing after Rohan. That kid is all over the place! He's taken to climbing over anything he can get to, whereas he used to stop or go around before. That includes dogs, pillows, parents, etc. It's pretty fun to watch him concentrate so hard on climbing. He's usually out of breath afterwards since he's working so hard to get those chubby legs to climb.


Rohan Punishes An Eggo Waffle:


Rohan Climbs Over Dad:

Happy Anniversary!!!

Happy Anniversary Mara! 4 years? It seems longer than that (but in a good way!). It feels like we've known each other for decades. I decided to update one of our favorite wedding photos to include Rohan & Schroeder. Such a nice family photo...:)

Happy anniversary to Both our parents too! You were the whole reason we picked August 21st as our wedding day.

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Phoenix has been monitoring speeders on the highway with traffic cameras that EVERYONE hates. They have signs that tell you they are coming in 300 feet so everyone slams on their brakes, then speeds up right after them. Well, we got a little note from the traffic office. Someone in our family got busted earlier this month...:) For some reason there isn't a payment due so maybe they gave us one for free.

The funniest part...they send you the picture:

There is a video of it online as well. Gotta love/hate technology...:)

Even Viral Croup Can't Slow Him Down!

This last week Mara and Rohan have been fighting off a cold, but during our run on Saturday night, Rohan started to cough and wheeze a little. Sunday morning he was really laboring to breath so we took him into the ER where he was diagnosed with croup, which is characterized by a "barky" cough, which he definitely had. They gave him some steroids and that seem to take out much of the inflammation. We've been humidifying his room and the cough is seeming to break up a little bit. He's been sleeping quite a bit, so we know its kicking his butt. It's probably just viral croup, something the ER physician had seen quite a lot of in recent days. In case you were wondering, parainfluenza is the most common cause of viral croup...:)

But even with all the coughing and sleeping, the kid is still going nonstop when he's awake. He's getting much better at crawling and learning to stand and walk along the couches and coffee table. He's also getting stronger arms and shoulders and tries to pull himself up onto things, but still needs help for the high stuff like couches. He did stand up on Mara for the first time when I was talking to Michelle the other day. Since then he can't stop trying to climb over Mara, we even got a video of it. Rohan's tooth is poking through quite a bit now, and he's been using it to shred Mara's shoulder. Hopefully he doesn't bite as much as his cousin Jackson! :)

Sorry for the poor video quality. The codec our computer uses to convert the videos was misbehaving, so this is as good as I could get them. :(

A Little Game We Like To Call: Fishing For Rohans:

When Rohans Attack!:


Rohan Scaling Mt. Mara:

Getting Close To Almost Thinking About Walking!

We'll probably regret this, but we've been working with Rohan more and more with walking and getting around. He's really doing well with traversing the coffee table and couches (as long as we get him standing up). He can stand for quite a while when he's holding onto something, so he'll have some good, strong legs when he's ready to walk!

Other than that not much else has happened. There are some pictures of Rohan at a restaurant Greg & Nico introduced us to near their house (Raul & Theresa's). We went there last Monday when they flew back in from IA and Mara was sent home since she was sick. Worked out that we could have a nice lunch! :)

Rohan also likes to play with his wet rag when he's done eating so there is a little video of him and I. I did this for about 20 minutes before the video, you can see his hair is wet from it. The game didn't wear him out either, he would have done it until his nap! Fun times with everyday objects...Enjoy!

Rohan Traverses The Couches:


Fun With A Rag:

Fun Weekend

Mara and I had a nice, relaxing weekend. Friday we watched the movie Hangover (hilarious) and sipped on some nice wine. Saturday we were out and about all day, with an awesome stop at an outlet mall to pick up new running shoes. Mara didn't find any she liked, but I found an awesome steal on Nike REAX for $22 (regularly $85!). We also stumbled upon a Columbia outlet and picked up some awesome hiking gear for stupid cheap. Everything was half off clearance so everything was in the range of $6-$10!
Sunday we joined Heather, John, Jordan, Kailea, Matt, & Hailey tubing down the Salt River. Sasha came over after her morning bike ride and watched Rohan for the day. We floated for about 3 1/2 hours and had some nice weather. The temp was probably around 105°F, but didn't feel too bad. The water was nice and chilly so that felt great!
Rohan has been ALL OVER the place lately with his new crawling skills. He's even been really close to pulling himself up onto things. He can do it from a seated position, but not quite from his stomach (see video below).
We don't have too many pics from this week, but we got tons of video. Hope you enjoy!


Rohan Gets Hung Up On His Boppy (Fun Stuff):


Rohan's First Stand (Caught Us Off Guard!):


Rohan Splashes Around In The Dog Water:


Rohan Got Tired Crawling Around And Stopped To Watch Baseball:


Abby Isn't Too Sure About Rohan, But Rohan LOVES The Biz!:

More ρ

Not much happening this week. We are just being defiant of the heat. We are training for the Nike Human Race 10K on October 24th. We hope to get as many people as we can to run (even just a good walk) that day. It's a good day to promote a healthy existance. We've been waiting to run until it hits 100°F, so we've been running the last 4 nights at 10:30 or 11:00. It's still pretty rough (with lots of H2O stops), but we're just tired of running on a treadmill!
Rohan has been enjoying his runs as well. He just sits back and watches the world go by, eventually falling asleep. Rohan has also been SUPER mobile. We are getting used to not leaving him for more than a few seconds at a time. Before the crawling we could at least be in the next room, but now he's across the room when we just run to the bathroom or let the dogs out. He's pretty close to sitting up on his own, although he isn't doing it on purpose. He's just getting stronger and more able to push himself into position. His new favorite toy is one of the boxes Michelle sent baby clothes in. We got some great video of him playing under the box.
Rohan has also barely started to break a tooth through. You can feel the protrutions, but it's still hard to see much. We'll post some pics when it's more visible.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!


Rohan & Schroeder Play:


Smartest Baby Ever Plays With A Box:


FYI: The Title Is "More ρ" (The Greek Letter Rho, & Our Knickname For Rohan)

Cooling Down!

Well, July was offically the hottest month EVER in Phoenix! The average temp was 98.2°F, over a half a degree higher than the previous record of 97.6°F. Considering it only topped out below 100°F twice and those same days the low was 79°F. The heat really isn't bad, unless you have to work or play in it. Mostly going from car to store isn't that bad. I'm sure next year the novelty will have worn off and we'll hate the heat...:)
Friday we met Sasha & Ali out for Sushi & happy hour. Rohan scared us for a second when we started choking. He's been chimpmunking food (storing it in his cheeks) and he decided to try and eat it all at once and it got stuck. Mara gave him a quick pat on the back, and everything pretty much came out on our backpack/diaper bag. Scary, but it's always good to have several future doctors nearby...:)
Saturday I golfed with Brian at ASU's home course, Karsten's. It was warm, but I'm getting used to the heat. Staying hydrated makes it much more tolerable. Brian and I had a quite a few awesome holes, but a few implosion ones too. Brian shot about 84 and I was around 92 (I lost the scorecard before we could add it up). Then we meet over at Sasha & Ali's for Ali's birthday party. It was nice to see everyone since they've all be busy with rotations and no one has the same schedule. Rohan was a little cranky since he hadn't slept but 3 hours all day, but he was a trooper and hung out until 10. He's slept about 10 hours through the night the last 2 days which has been a big bonus.
Sunday was pretty low key. Sasha came over and we hung out in the pool for a couple of hours. When it cooled down to ~98°F we went on a 4 mile run. It was brutal, but frequent stops helped us get through it. All in all it was a great weekend, and a nice relaxing one with friends after the first round of clinical rotations!

Rohan did receive Jackson's Nuks the other day from his No More Nuks Party. It was funny how everything was covered in frosting! Rohan loved the excess tape used to seal the box, and that was by far his favorite part. I don't think he's played with tape before so it was a new texture to him. Rohan's been crawling more and more every day. That kid is going to be fully mobile in no time, and then the fun begins! Enjoy the pics & vids!

Rockin' Rohan:


Rohan Crawling For His Book (Sorry For The Crying In The Beginning):


Rohan Takes A Nose Dive: