Christmas in Utah

So we once again made the trek to Utah for Christmas. I have vowed never to travel again for Christmas after the hassle of trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas early to avoid bringing more things on the plane than necessary but we have had a great time. The kids were great on the trip out so we can't complain about the traveling and no delays was nice.

The kids have been having a blast visiting their grandparents. Grandpa has all sorts of toys that Ethan loves. And by toys I mean the bow that Ethan got to shoot and the 4-wheeler. Ethan has had such a great time. Even Taylor has gotten into riding the 4-wheeler. She doesn't like to be left out.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday again with the family and Ethan loved the attention, and the cake.

Taylor is a huge fan of Cricket, Peyton's dog. I think Cricket was pretty ready to go home after all the attention she got from Taylor.

Peyton was such a great cousin. Ethan couldn't wait for him to come over and play. He was so patient with Ethan and Taylor.
Christmas was the day of the Pillow Pets. The kids have been begging for them for months so we gave in and got them each one for Christmas. The kids haven't let them out of their sight for more than a few minutes. I guess that means it was a good present. I love this video of them and their pillows.



Ethan pretending to be asleep on Taylor's Pillow Pet.

So we decided to try and take a family photo before church on Sunday. No wonder we don't have any family photos. What is Taylor doing with her face? That is her new look when she is making a "mean" face. Why would she choose it for the family picture?

"The look" up close.

Oh that is nicer.

This week we also checked out the museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had fun running around and looking at everything.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First of all the Good, last night we found out that we are moving to San Antonio, Texas to do an Emergency Medicine residency. San Antonio was our first pick and we are really excited. I really enjoyed my rotation there, I got along great with the residents and staff, I like the set up and the construction that is going on to improve the hospital. I really hope the parking garage is done before we get there though. Also there are some great affordable housing options, the city is awesome with all kinds of things to do for the kids, and right now here in Christiansburg it is like 15 degrees so Texas heat sounds great.

Now for the Bad, I got the results of my scan done last Friday. There was some uptake in the front part of the neck which is expected, also some in the liver, again expected because that is where it is metabolized. The bad is there was some uptake in my left chest. The radiologist wasn't able to determine if this was from a highriding stomach which would normally have some uptake or if it has metastasized to my lungs. Either way the treatment for this is to have an ablation dose of radiation.

Now for the Ugly, the dose of radiation that I had last Wednesday was supposed to be an ablation dose. However the doctors office put the orders in wrong and I only had a scanning dose. So all the arrangements to have Meredith's parents watch the kids, and me taking my vacation month this month instead of in May (if it was May we could have found and bought a home in San Antonio where we are going for EM Residency, did I mention that, because that is where we are going and we are super excited) were for nothing. So right now I will have to do the ablation dose of radiation in January. This means we have to rearrange my schedule, and arrange to have Meredith's parents watch the kids again.

Lastly this post was meant more to inform everyone that we are really excited about going to San Antonio, the rest of it is just FYI. I also would like to say that I'm feeling perfect, I have some bad days but there aren't many. So be excited for us going to San Antonio and don't worry about the other.