103 Days Until Dr. Mara!

We've almost hit the home stretch. Roughly 100 days until Dr. Mara Syring! We were talking about what she'd want as a graduation gift and she decided on a nicer camera (a DSLR). Allison had gotten one she did the research on, and Mara really liked the picutres it took, as well as the ease of use and automatic settings (since we are pretty green in the area of photography). We picked up a Nikon D3100 and have been filling up the SD card on a regular basis...:) A lot of the pictures are random...mostly us playing with apeture, shutter speed, f-stop, etc. We have also taken a TON of Rohan; as if his life wasn't well documented already. We've been really happy with the pictures, and can't wait to take it outside, into the mountains!
Speaking of mountains, we capped of this weekend with a hike in South Mountain. Mara's Uncle Mike, and cousin Steve were in town to visit Mara's grandpa (who had a stroke last week, but is doing AWESOME now!). It was a nice way to cap off a weekend of hiking, climbing, running, working out, raquetball, and friends having babies!
The latter was due to BOTH the Caldwell's and the Fritz's having babies. Pete and Beth had a boy (Chayton Richard Fritz), and Greg and Nicole had a girl (Mila Emmaline Caldwell). Both parents sound like their doing great. We did get to meet baby Mila, and Rohan has her name down pat now. He was really curious about her and like to poke her and say "Baby". We can't wait to meet Chayton too!

Mila Emmaline

Chayton Richard

Not much happening this week. We have the PGA tournement (Phoenix Open) next door, so that's always fun...:) Next week Michelle comes out, so we'll have some great hikes and runs planned for then.
Not a TON of pictures since we sucked at getting any with our camera and Mila, and the new camera has been used mostly experimentally...there will be more, I promise!


Rohan playing with a flashlight when he supposed to be taking a nap...:


Rohan Climbing At Amberwood Park before we met the family for supper:

Marathon Recovery, Climbing, Body Worlds & Enjoying The Weather!

This last week was fairly low key. We've been invaded by all the auto-philes in town for the Barrett-Jackson car show. I helped out the TGen Foundation last year when they started a colon cancer fund with Craig Jackson, but I was unable to go this year. The cars parked on our soccer fields across the street so we couldn't run around there too much with Rohan and the dogs. It will be even crazier next week when the PGA's Phoenix Open is here, and right next to our place. They are already blocking/fencing things off in preparation. I'll be working the world famous 16th hole Tuesday and Saturday, and hopefully going with Mara on Sunday next week (sans Rohan).
Rohan has been loving the tee ball set Sasha got for him (much to my delight!). He asks to play almost every night and he really smacks it well. Mara got tons of cool pictures last weekend too.
We haven't been running since the marathon, just to let our muscles heal a little. My foot is still sore (probably tendinitis), but we've been walking almost every night we don't climb.
Saturday I had a symposium to attend with TGen at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. It was more of an attempt to spur more collaboration between the two institutes, but it was really pretty interesting. I had two posters to present on proteomics and epigenomics which drew some interest from researchers, so it wasn't a total waste of a Saturday morning! :)
After the symposium I meet Mara, Heather, Grandma Hansen, and Rebekah (who Heather mentors) at AZR and climbed. Heather & Rebekah did great for their first time climbing! They both made it to the top of a route or two, and Rebekah really seemed to like it! Hopefully they'll be back soon!
Sunday Mara, Rohan and I went to the Phoenix Science Center for their Body Worlds exhibit. It's the 4th time we've been to it since our honeymoon in 2005, and it still is absolutely amazing. We see something new and cool each time (especially with Mara learning more everyday and me picking some of that up too). We REALLY encourage anyone and everyone to go, at least once, to get an up close view of the human body in it's most exposed and vivid presentation.
The rest of Sunday was spent watching the Packers and Steelers win their conference championship games to go play each other in the Super Bowl. Should be a great game! Mara spent some time at Starbucks writing a paper and studying, then we went for a good walk to get us and the dogs some outside time. With the weather being absolutely gorgeous, at 75°F and sunny, we can't pass up the chance to enjoy it!
Hope everyone had a great & active week/weekend!


Rohan...Yoga Master:


Rohan's New Pen From G&G Syring:


Our Little Godzilla:

Marathon Complete!!!

When Mara and I set out running almost 3 years ago we never thought we'd run a half marathon (13.1 miles). We've run 3 halves, and now the unthinkable. We thought 13.1 was long, but not unreasonable anymore. We started training for the full marathon back in July (in the desert heat!), and did very well in training until we hit our 3 week European vacation. We ran ~18mi over those 3 weeks and ~30mi in the ~2 weeks after we got back and before the marathon. Sunday we set out on a 26.2mi journey. The route took us from Downtown, North to Camelback Rd, East to Camelback Mountain, and South to ASU's Sun Devil Stadium. We were doing awesome, running about a 5hr marathon pace, until around mile 17 my right knee started locking up. It had bothered a little for the last few miles, but after a water station it hurt bad. I got some ice and tried running a little more, but the knee said "No". Mara was nice enough to hang back with me, and I really appreciated it. From the beginning we've run together, and our goal is to finish and feel good, not focused on times. We tried jogging a little bit here and there, but ended up walking it in most of the last 10mi. But coming around the corner and seeing the finish about 50yds ahead, I jogged through the pain and we finished (at 6hrs 18min). After we stopped running and got back to the car and sat for a bit my knee felt fine. Must have just been irritated running. My left foot hurt a little from compensating for the knee, but other than that we both feel GREAT! We feel like we did after our longest run (18mi prior to the marathon). We are very thankful to Heather & John for taking Rohan Sat night & Sun day. Rohan has also been a big part of our training, putting in over 1000 miles since we've been in Phoenix!
Last weekend we also celebrated Rohan's 2nd birthday with a small party at the Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. Rohan got some awesome gifts including a noise cube and a tee ball set. He has always watched baseball, but never really played with a bat and ball, but he took to it like he was a pro! He plays outside with it about every other day now and can really smack the ball! So fun to watch! Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!
Rohan has also had some additions to his climbing wall. We go stickers from all the country's he's been too, as well as some running/climbing ones as well. We have a few more to get too since we weren't in Luxembourg long enough to get a sticker, but he's got a stamp in his passport!...:)
We had some time to watch the BCS game with Rohan last Monday. We got him a cupcake for his late birthday gift which he devoured in typical Rohan fashion. He also entertained us with some sweet dance moves during the singing of God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner...never a dull moment with that kid...:)
We are VERY proud of ourselves for accomplishing our marathon. We really had to fight some demons to attempt it (especially after our training fell off in Europe!). To think about a marathon 3yrs ago was a joke, even 5 miles was a HUGE feat when we did it without stopping. It's been nice to have Nike+ too so we can track our progress. We'll look back someday and see how insane we were...or still are! We'll probably take a short hiatus from running to recover, and fill the void with climbing instead. We'll get back into it soon. One thing we've set out to do is make running enjoyable. By running slower, talking, and running in new and beautiful places, we've made less of a chore and more of a exciting adventure!
Hope everyone had a great 3-day weekend!


Rohan's Birthday Cupcake:


Super Rohan!:


Rohan's Interpretive Dance:


Rohan Plays Baseball:

OK...FINAL Final post...

Here are some cool panoramas we took along our way...Enjoy!

The Last Europe Post...Paris

Paris is gorgeous. It has all the history, all the mystique, and all the traffic you can imagine. We took of early from Bechhofen and headed across the German/French countryside, taking course through the Champagne region of France. We arrived at our hotel (Holiday Inn) in Bougival, a Western suburb of Paris. We got the kids ready and headed out in search of Paris. We hiked along the Le Parc Naturel Urbain in Rueil-Malmaison. After about 2mi we hopped on the underground and took a "bullet train" to the heart of Paris. We grabbed Lunch/supper at the Hippopotamus Hippo Club before we began our epic night in Paris. The journey to the bathroom of the Hippo Club was something else. 3 flights of stairs below street level and you enter a hallway that resembles the Catacombs of Paris...really cold and really cool...
We began by walking towards The Louvre we had some neat view of Saint Eustache, Saint-Germain, and countless other attractions. The Louvre was breathtaking in size and architecture. We took in all we could of the former Palace and upgrades such as the giant glass pyramid. Heading out of The Louvre we got to see the Obélisque de Louxor, as well as La Grande Roue ferris wheel. We walked along the Seine River to Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris (1578!), and across to Notre Dame, which is also pretty old; 1160! We really with the Crypte Archéologique would have been open!
We walked a little bit further and caught another underground train this time to the Parc du Champs de Mars and the
Eiffel Tower! The grandness of the tower was pretty impressive, more-so than I was expecting. The trinket peddlers were a little annoying, but eventually we learned to ignore them. Debora did manage to get the boys a helicopter to play with...:) We crossed over to the Trocadéro, through the Palais de Chaillot, before heading North to the most amazing roundabout I've ever seen...Place de l'Étoile. 12 roads converge on the Arc de Triomphe! An amazing site. We walked under the Place de l'Étoile to check out the Arc de Triomphe. It was an awesome structure and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was very cool to see as well.
After an exhausting 6 hour hike around BEAUTIFUL Paris at night we hopped on a rail to La Défense then catching a bus back to our hotel. What a night! But it wasn't over yet. Mara and I wanted to do a run, and even though it was 1am, Holly looked after Rohan and we took off into Bougival. We ran a long a really cool, and all uphill, street past another Notre Dame...very cool views of the valley to the North. We ran back a street called Rue de la Croix aux Vents that was INSANELY steep and icy...lots of fun at 2am. Actually, it was fun since we were on vacation in Paris! :)
The next morning, Dan & Holly took Rohan while Mara and I went on a walk (the other direction this time). After walking the rain for a while, we finally found a somewhat ghetto coffee/lotto cafe called Bar Brasserie Les Ecus. We were really wanting to find a nice area to walk, but really didn't find much. Then the adventuresome Mara took a turn down a cool street and we found one of the coolest Farmer's Market we've ever seen (and we've seen a lot!). It was centered around the Paroisse Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul church and had dozens of tents and tons of vendors. We found a great cheese tent and picked up some Camembert to bring back to Germany. We also found a brownie for Thomas since it was his 3rd birthday that day! It took us forever to get a toy from another cake put on his cupcake (language barrier), but we finally got the little red axe. After everyone got moving we headed South to the Château de Versailles. First we ate at an awesome crepe place called (ironically) La Place Creperie. The Palace at Versailles was absolutely stunning in its immense size. Seriously cannot convey the grandeur, inside or out, effectively, you just have to see it. The painting, the statues, the rooms...everything was done bigger than anything else in the world. Just amazing. Because of the fog we couldn't get a taste of the immense 3 sq miles of gardens behind the Palace (there are 2 other palaces back there too!!!). The grounds should be on the list of modern wonder.
The drive home was a little interesting...:) We got off the highway at the worst possible spot...Champs-Élysées...at rush hour (4:30)...with no way out. We drive right at the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, and our drivers, Mara & Josh, can say they've conquered the 12 road Place de l'Étoile! Unfortunately the only "easy way out" was to traverse Paris, driving along the Seine River for about 2 hours to reach the other side of Paris. Made for a long trip home, but wouldn't have traded the trip for anything!

Neuschwanstein Castle

While everyone was recoving from our epic trip to Paris (post coming soon!), Mara, Rohan and I borrowed Josh's car (THANKS!!!) and headed out on a 5hr, one-way, roadtrip to Schwangau, Germany. Schwangau is the location of Neuschwanstein Castle, which was the model for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. We got some great tips from Josh about driving on the German Autobahn. It really is very nice to drive. Some drive very fast, but we usually sat at around 130 KM/Hr (~82 MPH). It was a nice trip through other larger towns such as Mannheim, Heilbronn, Stuttgart. We didn't get to explore those cities, but it was nice to see them, as well as more of the German countryside. On a side note...we stopped at what we thought was a rest area, but there were no bathrooms at this one, just a wayside. What was there was a couple getting "frisky" in the car...ahhh, the allure of the Autobahn...:)
To get to Schwangau, we had a breif stint through Austria, but were quickly back in Germany. The Alps really started to jump up around the area too...part of what gives Neuschwanstein Castle it's appeal. We ate at Hotel Müller Cafe before we got in line for the horse carriage to take us up the 1mi, very steep, road. After waiting in line for almost 30min it was clear we'd be late for our tour start time so we hauled ass up the hill with Rohan in tow. We made it with about 20min to spare...and didn't have a single horse carriage pass us! We took some time to explore the courtyard and entrance before our tour. The castle was smaller than I expected, but it also was only about 20% finished before the king died under mysterious circumstances. It was also VERY foggy which kept us from seeing the surrounding hills, waterfalls, and bridges (which we heard are beautiful!), but the fog did add some mystique to the castle...very creepy. Pictures weren't allowed inside, but I did my best to keep it nonchalant...what are they going to do? Deport me? :)
After the tour we stopped at the Hofbräuhaus (original is in Munich) for some Belgian Snowballs and a nice cold beer. The mug somehow made it home with us...strange. We had a blast on our road trip, and a HUGE thanks again to J&D for the use of the car!

Heidelberg & Bernkastel-Kües

When we picked up the Bacon/Aho clans from the Frankfurt am Main airport we piled everyone and their luggage (literally) into the rental van and met Mara, Debora, Rohan, and Lucas in Heidelberg. Heidelberg is a very old city (traced back to 400 AD!), and the acrictecture and design is very interesting.
We strolled down the main road (Hauptstraße) checking out all the little shops and taking in all the new sites. We ate lunch (for Josh's birthday) at Zum Weissen Schwanen for some excellent German food and a little bit of bier too. We continued down the street until we came to a square below the Heidelberg Castle. After tons of pictures, and a couple of Schneeballen from Diller's we drove up into the foggy mountain to the castle. It was in relatively good shape for being ~800 years old. It was really cool to look down from the castle wall and see the city below!
Later in the week we went to Bernkastel-Kües, a town on the Moselle River. It's very similar to Heidelberg in architecture, but was smack dab in the middle of wine country. The vineyards on the hillsides were awesome to see. We parked by the flooding Moselle and ate another great meal at the Altes Brauhaüs before walking around the quaint, and very slippery, streets.

Pictures from Heidelberg:


Pictures from Bernkastel-Kües:

Family Time In Germany!

We had awesome hosts while were were in Germany. Josh and Debora (and Thomas & Lucas) did a great job with food, entertainment, tours, and pretty much every other facet of hosting 6 adults and 3 boys!
We took tour to Heidelberg, Bernkastel-Kues in Germany, and Paris in France, but we'll save those pictures for another post.
Bechhofen is a quaint town in SW Germany and served for many quite midnight walks and a few late snowy jogs. It was great to have xmas with all the boys. There was sledding, climbing, outdoor fires, birthday parties (Josh, Thomas, & Scott), snowmen making, and TONS of playing with the boys!
After the Bacon/Aho's left for the states, we celebrated New Years with Josh & Debora's friends Peter & Ana Maria.
We had a blast with everyone, and hopefully, maybe, make it back before they leave. Thanks again!!!


Snowmen:


Sledding:

The London Impromptu Vacation

Our European trip got started off great on the 16th of December!  Rohan slept the WHOLE 9 hours to London, waking up just on landing.  We had a great couple next to us from Northern UK and their sons Oliver & David.  We slept almost as much as Rohan and we were ready to go when we landed on the 17th at London's Heathrow Airport.  Due to somewhat icy conditions we were on the tarmac for almost 2 hours.  The pilot was great and let us roam and snack while we were in line (AKA queue), we were the 15th, and last plane that was in line and allowed to land.  They opened up the cockpit for tours and Rohan loved the lights and buttons (so did Dad!).  Oliver was very nice and shared a lot of his toys with Rohan.  They had a whole airport map and setup for him and Rohan loved it.  We'll definitely have to get something like that, although Rohan is content with Dad's shitty drawings of train tracks and road on napkins for now.

Since we were only supposed to be in London for 90 min, we missed our connecting flight, which turns out, was grounded anyway.  Then the fun started.  We waited in line for our bags for almost 2 hours.  The signs didn't list our flight for which bag area to go to, but most people were at carousels 8 & 9.  Mara walked around with Rohan (now in his backpack) and saw carousel 5 had our flight listed, but there were only 4 bags on it...all from different flights.  We waited there, then started walking around.  Mara happened to notice a passenger from our flight with his bag, and he told us our bags were at carousel 10, and sure enough they were! We got them, passed through customs (which was just a hallway that said customs...no agents, no stamp...just a hallway).  British Airways (BA) told us to get a hotel for the night by using the terminal's hotel booking kiosk, adn they would reimburse us £200 (about $300 US). We waited in line for 3hrs before we found out they only had hotels for £400-600! Bullshit. We hit up the Marks & Spencer Simply Food and got a fairly healthy snack of peas, cheese, pineapple and mango, and whole wheat bread. It was pushing midnight so we just found a nice cozy spot of tile and crashed. I got about 3hrs sleep, Mara about 2, and Rohan also about 2.  We got in the rebooking line around 2:30am on the 18th, which opened at 5:00am.  They did bring us some blankets (which we used throughout the trip to keep Rohan warm in the backpack), and also some water.  There were even clowns at some terminals...yeah...

I should preface this next part by saying the BA staff was VERY nice and friendly.  There wasn't a single person that was crude or mean for our entire ordeal, even with the more irate customers.  We waited in line until 5:00am...then 5:30...finally 6:00am they opened the rebooking lines.  The only problem is only 3 people showed up for work that day.  Keep in mind, there are ~70,000 people in our terminal alone (Terminal 5).  I talked to an agent who said they were either not coming in for the weather (more on that in a sec), or they just didn't want to deal with people yelling at them all day.  I can't blame them.  99% of the people were annoyed, but dealt with the delays well.  1% however were yelling and being generally pissed off.  Around 10:30am (8hrs in line) they shut the lines down, and told everyone to "Go home".  That's when they brought out the armed security.  Like I said, most were fine, but some were a little on "edge".  Surprisingly, we were in great moods, just happy to be on "vacation", and the experience was something we'll learn from for sure.

Josh, our proxy tour guide, set us up in a hotel in London.  The reviews weren't great, but the price was right, so we hopped on the train to Paddington Station, which was about a mile from our hotel.  We hiked, while dragging our luggage through the snow, with no map, or phone, but a rough idea of where the hotel was.  Mara spotted a nice Indian Restaurant, Flavors of India, so we stopped in for some awesome food. Rohan even got some Xmas chocolates from the owner...:)  We continued down a really beautiful street, lined with old townhouse mansions, and ended up taking the long way to the hotel, but that seems to be our mantra.  We got to our hotel, Hyde Park Towers, and the staff was great.  The room was a little small, but overall, we were just glad to be out of Heathrow!  We wanted to call Josh from the hotel, but our phone didn't work for outside call, so I went to the pay phone downstairs.  I tried using Josh's calling card, but it was a rotory phone, so it wouldn't take it, and I didn't have any UK Pounds on me, since we were only going to be in London for an hour or so!  I headed out and found a currency exchange place and headed back to our hotel and called Josh.  We spent most of the night on our phones using WiFi to try and rebook a flight, but we also looked at renting a car, taking a train, or even a bus.  We found a train ride that would take us from London, to Paris, to Saarbrücken (near Josh), but it was filled in the short time it took me to fill out my info.  On a side note that turned out to be a good thing.  St. Pancras Station, where we would have left from, had a 5 hour line wrapped around the outside of the building.  It made BBC... We took a walk to find some food and ended up at a pub called The King's Head for a Guinness for me and a glass of wine for Mara. We check fares when we got back and FINALLY we found a ticket from London City Airport, flying into Frankfurt the next day on Lufthansa Airlines.

By the time we woke up the next day (December 19th) our flight was already cancelled...FFS. We talked to Josh and he tried calling BA to rebook and the queue was 630min, 10 HOURS! We found another flight, leaving the next day from London City, but we had the whole day to explore London. We headed out to Paddington Station and while we were in line for train passes 2 women came up to us and gave us their all day passes! We headed out to the Museum of London, free of charge that day!  I forget that the USA is a relatively new country, and seeing the vast history of London was amazing!  We hit up the Pret A Manger across the street for Lunch, and they gave Rohan a balloon for being so cute (which he quickly lost down the subway tunnel)...:)  After lunch we walked down to St. Paul's Cathedral, which was amazing in it's size and architecture.  We strolled around inside and saw a pretty weird manger scene (see pics).  Afterwards we walked down to the Millennium Bridge and got great views of the Thames, the London Eye, and the Tower of London up and down the river.  While we were waiting for a train, Mara was studying the London Underground map and saw that there was a train station (Bayswater) less than a block from our hotel!  It beats walking the mile to Paddington!  Turns out it was right next to the currency exchange place I hit the first night but my blind butt didn't see it...  On a side note, what I did happen to see was a plaque on our hotel that stated it was Jimmy Hendrix's first London home, called Stone Free...:)  We made frequent trips to a mall called Whiteleys near our hotel for coffee breaks at Café Rouge, to warm up, and to check in with Josh periodically.  We capped off the night like most Londoners...with tea and crumpets from Tesco or M&S Markets

We slept like rocks until 9am on the 20th.  Josh had us flying out at 7:10pm, so we had the whole day to check out London!  We mapped out Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, London Bridge, and the V&A Museum of Childhood, walking a lot of it, and really enjoying taking in the city.  It was really cool for us to see these sites we've only read about, and to get a little bit more of an idea of layouts and the areas surrounding them.  We thought we'd do something for Rohan since he was a super rock star this entire trip!  The Museum of Childhood was fun for him, although he wanted to play with all the antique trains and toys.  Luckily they had some out for kids so he was really happy to run around (and we were more than happy to accommodate!).  Before leaving, we hit up a tavern called Taylor Walker and got some fish & chips and a Guinness.  We checked out of Stone Free and headed out to London City Airport.  Long story short...Flight was pushed back further and further, and eventually cancelled at 9:30pm, after we had been at the airport for about 5 hours (trivial compared to our ~48hrs at Heathrow).  Rohan did play really well on a table with his trucks and planes, and when we got our bags back, the armed guards were back out to restore order (this being the 3rd day most people were stuck).  We talked to a couple gun toters and they were super nice again, even joking around with us.  We headed back to London after Josh found us another hotel, a Comfort Inn, right next to Victoria Station, on Buckingham Palace Rd.  A Very nice area.  We lucked out again and 2 police officers pointed us in the right direction since we started heading the wrong way.  Our room was very nice, but we were hungry, so we headed out to find a pub or grocery, but it was 11:00pm, and Europe shuts down early.  We ended up getting a Chicken Tikka sandwich at a train station kiosk called Upper Crust...it was surprisingly good, but at 12:30am anything would have been...:)  Mara even found a balloon on the ground for Rohan (best parents ever, we know).  Josh, being our saviour again, was able to rebook us to the country of Luxembourg (since Frankfurt was shut down until the 27th!!!).  Both are about 90 min from his house so it worked either way.  This time we were flying our of our 3rd airport, Gatwick, which was ~45 miles south of London.  We took a shower in the awesome shower at our hotel, and got a great nights sleep!
December 21st brought rain, but no snow!  We didn't fly out until 6:30pm so we had the whole day again, and the rain wasn't going to stop us!  We grabbed some continental breakfast and headed out to explore the Westminster/Belgravia neighborhoods of London.  We first hit up a coffee shop (of course) which we found the previous night scouring for food.  The Belgravia Sandwich Bar loved Rohan too, and he was charming them the whole time. We ended up walking ALL over Lower Westminster, past quaint parks and townhouse mansions, and even through a UN Embassy/Consulate row. Before we left we ate at one more Indian restaurant called Spicy World.  We caught a 30min train ride to London Gatwick Airport, through the UK countryside. We had a sick feeling when our plane was delayed a couple times, even though the weather was fine, just raining, but only slightly above freezing.  Most flights were leaving, but some were cancelled, so it left us uneasy.  Amazingly, we were able to take off and land in Luxembourg less than an hour later...that's right...4 days in London waiting for a flight that took less than an hour.
Josh was awesome and drove in dense fog to come pick us up.  Rohan DOVE at him as soon as Josh was close.  I think 4 days with M&D were enough...  We got back around 12:00am on Dec. 21st and ate like kings at their place.  Debora had chili and tons of other food for us.  We stayed up until almost 6:00am catching up and recanting the blog post above.  Hope you enjoyed this part of the journey...there is still a TON more to come...:)
While we weren't anticipating a 4 day layover in London, we felt like we explored the city as more than just tourists.  We were really happy to have the time to dive into cafés and pubs off the beaten path.

Rohan being a trooper while waiting in line for 12 hours:


Rohan's Gift From The Indian Restaurant:


Rohan showing off his talking skills:


Rohan giving money to the orchestra trio at Whitley's:


Rohan following the model train at the Museum of Childhood:

European Vacation

It's going to be a bit before pictures are up, but we had an ABSOLUTE BLAST in Europe.
We had ~1500 pictures and 40+ videos of our trip, so those are being weeded out and organized so we can do real posts rather than saying "Here's 1500 pictures, enjoy!".
We are all recovering fine, just a little tired.  Actually feeling better than expected.  I'm sure we'll be back to "normal" by this weekend.
I'll try and get some of the pics and videos up of our London excursion by this weekend, and maybe Paris too, but just be patient and we'll get there...:)
Hope everyone had a great New Year/Xmas!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Rohan!

It's amazing how quickly 2 years has passed and how much he's constantly changing, growing, and learning!

For fun we added up a few things he's done:

Countries he's been to: 7 (US, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Austria)

US States he's been to: 12, lived in 2

Airports he's been in : 13 in 4 countries

Trains he's been on: a lot, as much as he loves them he normally sleeps through it

Buses he's been on: 2

Years he's been walking: 1+

Mountains he's hiked in a backpack: 8

Words he can say: >100 and adding more by the minute

Timeouts he's had: 100's :)

Climbing routes he's done: none yet, but oh so close!

Times he's hit his head: no idea, but a lot! (3 times yesterday, hard)

Miles he's jogged in a stroller: well over 1000

Amount of cuteness: immeasurable

Trips to the ER: 6

Med school attended: 3 weeks

Rohan has been loving trains lately, especially since we bought him one for the trip to Europe (which we then left on a plane on the way home...bad parents) and then when we got to Josh & Debora's and he got to play with all of Thomas' trains. We bought him a small trainset with a figure 8 track and a few train cars. He LOVES them, it was so cute to see his face light up when he saw them. Also for Rohan's birthday Mike & I treated ourselves to a beautiful 10 mile run while Ro was at daycare:) We're sure Rohan approves.

Rohan Gets His Train Set: