Wahoooo, A New Car!!!!!

Here it is, our new car. We decided to get a new car before one of ours kicked the bucket. We got a 2005 Toyota Corolla. It is silver as you can see and is in great shape. It gets great gas mileage compared to our other cars and it is much zippier than the Jeep or Pathfinder. Oh and in the background is the Casa Del Sol fine apartment living.

In other news, Dave is still learning about the brain and spinal cord. It has been one of the toughest classes because of the amount of information and the amount of important details with the brain. Dave is also managing to find time for Frisbee on Wednesday nights with other med. school students as well as flag football on Saturday mornings.

I on the other hand am learning lots about physics and developmental psychology. Physics is hard because it is a completely new way of looking at things and problem solving things. It has been very time consuming to study but at least Dave has a study buddy now:) Psychology has been interesting so far. We have mostly just learned about the different learning theories out there. Our first paper is comparing and contrasting different theories of development. Work has been going well. They have been extremely flexible/accommodating with my school and work schedule so I could not ask much more from them. All in all, life has been good here at the Casa Del Sol. We are staying busy but enjoying ourselves as well.

Randoms Pics...

so, dave and i have been very lazy with posting things, but here are a few updates. i have started taking a few classes as pre-recquisites for physical therapy school (although i am not applying until the fall of '09 for the following year b/c then dave will have an idea about his residency). i am taking physics and psychology. i am very busy since work has stayed steady throughout the summer and into fall. dave is busy starting his second year of medical school and learning lots about neuro-anatomy....the BRAIN!!! ahhhhh. we are both busy but still managing some fun and of course ROCKIES! we went camping over labor day weekend and caught some yummy trout for dinner. i posted a picture of dave and the celestial tea factory in boulder. he loved the beard net:)

dave with a creepy 'stach... no he is not on cops or america's most wanted.

the sunset from out balcony.... colorado is beautiful!!!

so, the DNC was just here and it caused denver transportation hastles as well as a huge influx of cops into the area. we rode our bikes to a rockies game during the dnc and look at all the cops....it is not that great of a pic but you can see the full gear and fbi peeps.

i hope this blog helps to update you all on what we're up to.

Leadville Camping/Hiking a 14er

This weekend we went camping outside of Leadville, Colorado. We camped with our friends Ty, Tam, and Amanda. The first night we camped at Turquoise Lake, a beautiful mountain lake where we did some fishing and caught quite a few nice fish. The next day we went on a hike and camped at the base of Mount Massive, a 14er (it is more than 14,000 feet above sea-level). We got up early Sunday and hiked to the top of Mt. Massive. It was the first (and probably last) time Gwen and I had hiked a fourteener. Gwen got a bad case of altitude sickness and threw up at least seven times on the way up and down. As horrible as she felt she didn't quit, she was a real trooper and we pressed on for the four hour hike to the top and two and a half hour hike down. She even left a piece of herself (mostly a peach she had just eaten) at the top.

The view from the top of Mt. Massive

Gwen sick at the top

All of us at the top

New York, New York

Gwen and I recently made a trip to Connecticut and New York City to visit some family, see the city for the first time, and see Yankee Stadium before it closes at the end of this season. We enjoyed staying with Francie and Butch, Gwen's aunt and uncle, and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gary accompanied us and were our tour guides in the city.

The reason for the trip.

At the Branford Yacht Club.

A jellyfish I snatched out of the water.

Gary and I being rebellious.

Gwen chowing hot dogs in Times Square.

Intro to Aerospace Medicine

I just got back from two weeks of "Air Force Camp" in San Antonio, Texas. Technically, it was the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, but it was definitely more like camp than school. We learned about some of the opportunities we will have as docs in the Air Force, but we also did a lot of fun stuff. We learned how to land without breaking your leg when you are parachuting, went to Sea World (where we got in for free because we are "heroes"), went tubing down a river, and went to Houston to tour NASA. Unfortunately, I was too honest on my medical eval and admitted that I had migraine headaches as a kid. Because of that, they wouldn't let me go in the hyperbaric chamber or do the centrifuge (where they spin you around to see how many G-forces you can take before you pass out). Overall it was a pretty good time, and certainly was much more enjoyable than last year's training was.

Parachute Simulator->

Before floating the river

Mock bullet to the shoulder

Commitment Ceremony

On Saturday, June 7th, Gwen and I had a Commitment Ceremony to celebrate our marriage together. As you probably know, we were married on August 25th of last year. We "just signed those papers", as I am fond of saying, so fast that we didn't get to celebrate or share the experience with our family and friends, which is why we wanted to do this celebration last weekend. My parents and many others worked really hard to get their backyard ready to host the big event, and it looked great. Many of our friends and family members were there, and we were really pleased with the way it went.

Flyball Frenzy!

So... Dave and I went to the Rockies game on Monday and the Rocks actually WON! Wahoo... finally they won another game. But that is not the big news. Dave won a free round trip airline ticket with Frontier by catching two fly balls between the 5th and 6th inning. Every game they pick someone out of the crowd and between innings they go down on the field and launch two flyballs to them. If the fan catches both balls they get a round trip airline ticket from Frontier. Dave has been to hundreds of games and on Monday he actually got picked! He caught both balls and was on the jumbotron, it was really exciting. Here are some pictures of Dave doing his thing. He's like a total rockstar now!

Catch #1

Catch #2

Winner! Round-Trip Tickets!