Family Visit April 2009

On our way to Los Angeles we stopped at my parents' house for a couple of days & then flew back to Richmond, VA to visit with Ryan's family & then we headed to Washington, DC to see my brothers & nephew.

Ryan got to help my Dad fix his computer.

Loki made himself right at home.  One day we went up to Elephant Bute Lake and went fishing on my Dad's boat.  Unfortunately there was nothing biting that day.  

My grandparents came over for dinner & we got to see their new house.

We spent the first day in Richmond doing some shopping with Jeannie, Noah, & Anna.

Noah got tired on the way back from running errands and passed out.

The next day we took a trip down to our storage unit.  Oh the memories of all of our stuff.

The next night we went out with Dwayne & Norma to celebrate my birthday.

On Friday we took a ride through some civil war battlefields.  One of them was Fort Bradley. 

Here we found Bradley the frog.

Friday night we went to Jeannie's to have dinner with Jayson & Kristen & all the kids.

It was great to see all the kids again.  I can't believe how quickly they've grown up.  

Saturday we took the train up to DC to visit with John & Andrew & Jeff & Lucas.

Lucas was very fond of the Star Wars Legos.

John & Andrew made different pizzas from scratch.  They were very yummy.

On Sunday we walked through Georgetown.  It amazes me how cold it was when we were in DC and when we got to LA it reached 100 degrees within the first week we were here.

 

On Monday we went with Dwayne & Norma to look at some plantations.  I can't believe I lived in Richmond for 12 years and never visited any of them. 

Monday night we went out to dinner with Nana at Carini's (still the best lasagna anywhere).

Like I've said several times it really was great to see everyone and just sad that we didn't have more time to visit.  We hope we'll be able to visit again soon!

Los Angeles, CA

We're heading to Los Angeles, CA for our next assignment.  I'll be working at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  We're very excited as I'll be working the day shift while we're here.  There will definately be more things to do than here in Tyler so we'll be updating the blog lots more often.  We're also excited because we'll be visiting with all of our family in between Tyler and Los Angeles.  Can't wait to see everyone!!!

Goodbye Tyler, TX

Well, our time here in Tyler, TX is about to end.  We have about two weeks left here.  As you can tell from the lack of pictures there's not much to do here in Tyler.  The biggest thing that happened was pretty traumatic for me.  We had to relocate Loki for three months due to a no pets policy at the apartment complex we stayed at.  Thankfully my parents agreed to keep Loki for us, only to have the complex change their policy three months later.  We were grateful to have him back and even happier that the ordeal didn't bother Loki at all.  I was more traumatized by the whole situation than I think he was.  He has gone right back to his laying around, shedding, and occasionally vomiting. 

Here are some pictures of when we picked up Loki from my parents' house.

And here's Loki back with us getting comfortable for a nap.

Tyler, Texas

So our next assignment is going to be in Tyler, TX. It's a small town about 90 miles east of Dallas. Course we did just learn a valuable lesson. We should research the cities we're thinking about moving to before accepting the contract. We just found out Tyler is located in Smith County, which is a dry county. After a little more research we were glad to see they serve alcohol at restaurants, but just don't sell alcohol in like grocery stores or liquor stores. Apparently Fat Dog is the closest liquor store to town. We;'ll be here from November 7 - February 8.

Jeannie Visits

Jeannie came to visit and we had a really good time. We took her down to the Cove, only to find out they got rid of all the seals. They turned the little beachy area that they all hung out on back into a swimming area for people. There was one large rock that a couple of seals were playing around, but it was really sad to see them gone. Seeing the seals was one of my highlights of San Diego.

We went down into the Cave at the Cove. Let's just say there were like a million steps.



We went walking down at the harbor and saw the air craft carrier, some cruise ships, and some old ships as well.




We just barely made it to Sunset Cliffs before the sun went down.



We went to the zoo. The meerkats were way cute.

Las Vegas 2008

So after our trip back to Richmond we drove to Las Vegas and met up with Dwayne & Norma. We went downtown and had a blast.

They had cool music and video show that played every half hour. Plus all down the side walk was little vendors selling stuff, there was a comedian, people spray painting pictures, a band playing, etc.

The second night we were there we just wandered around for awhile and then went to go see Cirque de Soleil: Ka. It was really amazing. Highly recommend it to anyone, especially their show called Mystere. After the show we went to NY, NY where we found a dueling piano bar.

Trip to Richmond

So we took a trip back to Richmond and we had a really great time. It was really good seeing everyone again. We were really bummed out that we didn't get to see Jordan and Cam. Hopefully we'll make it back sooner for our next visit and get a chance to see them. I couldn't believe how much Anna & Noah have grown up.








We wish we had had more time to hang out with everyone.














We were really happy to get a chance to see Nana as well. Hopefully we'll make it back to visit more often and we always welcome people to come visit us where ever we are. Hope to see everyone real soon!