October and November 2011

Well, 2011 is over and I realized that I did a terrible job blogging this year. Luckily Patrick kept us a float with his occasional posts.  Here are some pictures wrapping up 2011.

October:

Andy and his friend Aleia carving his pumpkin.

 Halloween is one of my Dad's favorite holidays. He loved taking his children trick-or-treating and now he loves taking his grandchildren. This was Andrew's first Halloween at Granddad's. It was a blast. He ran door to door with his cousins all the way down his Granddad's Street. At the end all the little one were about tuckered out they ran so fast. I really enjoyed watching them and so did my Dad.

Sweet little kitty cat and almost terrifying dragon. 

Leta looks like she needs to eat some more prunes.

Look at those comb overs.

Ava all tuckered out!

November:

Legos with Grandma.

 For my birthday Patrick took me to Monterey without the Munchkin! Our first over night date since Andrew was born. Thanks to my parents and my sister!

 We decided to Celebrate Andrew's Birthday early since we were in Sacramento and thought it would be fun to have his cousins there. We went to my parents cabin. Andy loves it up there and so do the rest of us.

My first attempted at the dotting frosting technique, I think it turned out well. Thanks Leta for helping dot and Mom for making the frosting!

First Shooting lesson.

My mom made me pie!

Pulling the string on the Pinata.

More string pulling!

When all the strings where pulled and each kid had a turn at hitting it with a stick, it was Pat's turn to destroy the pinata. 

New Bike!

Ending the night with Marshmallows! 

Patrick had to work on Thanksgiving... ALL DAY (He left early in the morning and got home at about 1am the next day.)! So we did Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. It was Yummy!

I still need to download December's picture from the camera, but I am sure this is enough to digest until I do. 

And the winner is...

Two games of bowling and shoes for a family of three - $21.00
A hamburger, philly cheese steak, and chicken tenders for lunch - $18.00
Watching your uber-competitive wife get stomped by a distracted 3-year old - Priceless!

Disneyland and Safari Park

Wow!!! I am a SLACKER! The last post I wrote was in January!! Luckily for me Patrick has picked up some of the slack but I have really missed out on recording our family story in 2011. Well I guess it is time to play a little catch up. I think I will start with the most recent and work my way back. Well here we go October which vanished before my eyes. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons but autumn in San Diego is different than autumn on the East Coast. I hardly noticed the season had changed.

We met Phil, Erin and crew at Disneyland on October seventh for Mickey's Halloween Party. Andy was so excited to see Mickey Mouse and of course his cousins! He has become quite the Mickey Mouse fan over the last year. Mickey, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Mini, Goofy, Pete and even at times the Giant often go along with us to our different errands. I even have to buckle Pluto in, the rest have hands and can do it them selves....thank goodness.

Andy trying out Patrick's costume in the Hotel before it was time to go.

Look at those muscles!

So excited to take a picture in front of a build with  Mickey on the clock.

Andy choose our costumes this year. He wanted to be a dragon,   I was a princess,  Patrick was a knight.  His story was he was going to catch mommy and daddy would have to save her. Then they would both win. 

Andy wanted to dance with Pluto so bad but he was a little shy.  We spent  at least a half hour trying to dance with him.

The beginning of the Parade.

Enjoying a churro and watching for Mickey and other favorite Disney characters. 

We road the Buzz Light Year ride at least five times in a row.  It was Andy's  favorite and there was no line  at  the end of the night.

 Andy is a real trooper I didn't think he was going to last until the close but he did and enjoyed every moment! Then crashed as soon as we got in the car! Such a fun night!

The next day Phil, Erin and crew followed us to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We had a good time but we were all pretty much worn out from Disney land. Patrick had the Camera so we have a lot of pictures of animals but none of us. Okay, he got one of me but it wasn't a good one so I opted not to post it.

I guess that is only two days of October but my munchkin has found a place on my lap and I no longer have the will to continue at this time. 

Navy Doctors

Since we're still trying to catch up on our blog, I thought I would post a couple pictures of my group of Navy Interns. I must say that, although devilishly tricky to keep clean, Navy whites look pretty sharp!

The Naval Medical Center San Diego's Intern Class of 2012. Impressive (by the way, let's play a game of "Find Patrick". Winner gets mad props)!

NMCSD's General Surgery Interns. Now, that's a good looking group of doctors!

Singing Scarborough

The next one-hit-wonder, singing "The Door Locked"! Enjoy.

Catching Up - Go West Youngish Man!

The next step in our busy lives after graduation and my commissioning was to load whatever the movers didn't pack, my wife, son, mother, father, and plenty of Coke Zero into our new van and set off across the country. We left on June 3 and had to be at our new house on June 7. Needless to say, there wasn't much time for anything but driving. We took the time to stop by Carthage and Nauvoo, although we'll have to make more time on a future trip. We had a great time on our trip and are extremely grateful for Mom and Dad's assistance and willingness to sit with a cranky 2-year old and even crankier 34-year old for over 2,200 miles!

The packed-to-the-brim van immediately before leaving the Bronx. If you look carefully, you can see actually see Andy's arm in the middle of the picture.

Despite being packed like a little sardine, Andy mostly enjoyed the trip. He especially liked the fact that our snake and turtles were riding right next to him.

Mom and Dad at one of our rest stops. This was early in the trip. Later, they looked a little more travel worn!

A teetor-totter somewhere in Illinois. Andy insisted.

Papa going down a slide at the same park in Illinois. Once again, Andy insisted. The things you'll do for your grandkids!

Safely at the bottom! Thankfully, my CPR skills weren't required.

The room in Carthage, Illinois where Joseph Smith was killed. A humbling experience.

The door that the mob shot through to get to Joseph.

Outside of Carthage Jail. I was very glad we were able to stop by. It was good to connect with early Church history.

Mom and Dad at Carthage. Looking a little well-traveled!

We were only able to stop in Nauvoo for an hour or so. It was great to see the temple, however. It's an amazingly beautiful building.

Mom and Dad at the Nauvoo temple. Next time we'll actually have time to go inside.

The best way to deal with a never-ending drive? Just sleep!

It's funny, but once we hit Wyoming I felt like I was back home. I guess I'll always be Western at heart!

At a rest stop in Utah. There was a small army of prarie dogs running around everywhere, which fascinated Andy to no end.

Grammie, Papa, me, and Andy at the rest stop before we dropped the folks off at the airport so they could take the shuttle back to Idaho. I was so glad they drove with us. It made everything much easier and helped me realize that my folks can actually be fun to hang out with!

The van during our stop at Grandpa and Grandma Nelson's in Utah. As you can see, we were in survival mode!

The last part of our trip was from Utah to San Diego. I didn't get any really good pictures of that part of the journey. They would have been the same, though, so you're not missing much. We arrived safely and I started my Surgical Intern year the next day. As the saying goes, "No rest for the wicked"!