Costa Rica

Emily and I went on a one week get away to Costa Rica after the match for my residency.  We had an amazing vacation.  I will post a video in my family videos library.  Highlights of the trip were doing a zip line through the jungle canopy in Monteverde, walking in the rain forest, watching lava roll down the face of the Arenal volcano, soaking it up in the hot springs resort from lava heated streams, sun baking on the beach, and surfing on Playa Grande.  There were a few downfalls - someone stole our cameras out of our bag on the bus (from under the seat they cleaned out the entire bag that was between my legs - what skills!) and Emily got stabbed by a sting ray (a small flesh wound, but extremely painful).  On the latter, I thought she was elastagirl fighting a shark.  The first thing that I did was high tail it for the shore - not really.  I ran to help her and we ended our beach session for the day.  Otherwise, the vacation was great.  

Hunting in the city

We set a "small game trap" the other day, and Mikey was the first to find the big catch. Emily is terrified of 20 gram quadrupeds dead or alive, so she didn't even look to see if we had caught anything. I was just waking up, and Mikey ran into the other room with the stealth of a rugby player to check for any wild animals. He shouted out with pride: "Wook mommy, I found a mouse... (a short pause as he ponders), I need to cuddow it (the big brawny guys always have a soft heart)." Emily squealed, and I popped out of bed and ran in with a smile knowing partially what was happening. Spencer and Mikey were in awe because it was the first one they had seen. They were hunched down with their fingers pointing at it, eyeing it down to the tip of its long grey trophy length tail - 134 mm! Mikey confided in me, "I wuv mice daddy." We are going to have it stuffed and mounted so the boys can keep it in their room (don't tell Emily).

First time home buyers

I think all the sellers we came in contact with could see "novice" written all over our faces, but that helped make friends so we took advantage.  I am still finishing up school, and we had to have some vacation time, so we only had about 4 days to buy a home.  We had been looking for a few months now on the internet, but it is just not the same.  We took our whirlwind road trip to Iowa City with the kids and set out to buy a home.  The place we ended up buying was the first place we saw.  While we may have been suckers, the realtor told us that this place was just posted and a looked really great - yeah, we fell right in.  We saw about 25 homes total, but we ended up going back to the first.  Before we started, we set a goal of how much we would like to pay, and then we put a limit which was a little higher.  Bad idea - the higher priced items almost always look better so we too ended up at the top of our budget (or should I say bottom).  Homes are more expensive in Iowa City, so we ended up buying half of a duplex.  It is very nice, it has a great yard with nice trees, and it is very close to biking/running trails, a gym, a nice mall and children's museum, and only about 3 miles from my work.  So we are really happy, and things have worked out well.  Here is a snap shot.  While I have pictures of the whole house, you will have to come visit to see.  We will have a 4th bedroom, so you will have a space to sleep.  Our side is on the left, and our neighbor is an orthopedic surgery resident that happens to be mormon, and has some smaller children (ironic, we did not plan it that way at all).  The two car garage was an essential to keep me from chipping ice off my car windows at 4am when I go to work.  It is always the little things that make a difference.                                    

Getting started

I have really enjoyed reading the family blogs, so I decided that it was time for Em and me to break out of our shell.  Here is a little update on big things that have been happening with us.  Recently we had match day, and here are a few pictures showing what took place.

Waiting patiently.  

Emily looked great.

Here is a picture of me with some of my good friends, and their wives who are Em's good friends.

The envelope of fate sent us to University of Iowa for orthopedic surgery.  This was the culminating point of medical school - what I had been working for during the past three and a half years.  It is really one of the best programs for orthopedics, and I feel very lucky that they chose me to train with them.  We are very excited as a family, but sad at the same time to be moving far from my parents and Jaimie and Aaron.  Texas has been great to us, and we would love to come back when the time is right.  When I asked Spencer where he wanted to go, he said he wanted to stay in Texas near Dallon, Dawson, Stetson and Banner.  We will make a big effort to come back as frequently as possible.  On the other hand, it will be nice for Emily and the boys to be closer to her family for a while.  So that is the big news.  To come, I will tell you about our home we just purchased and our get-away to Costa Rica.