State Fair

We had never been to the State Fair before so on Veterans Day Jason happened to be off so we took Willem and Ellie to the fair and met up with the Baldwins. 

We expected crazy crowds but it was actually fairly empty and way cleaner than we expected.

The first activity we saw was the Mallard duck race. I almost walked past it but the kids were completed entranced. They explained these are the World's fastest ducks out of New Mexico. They asked for volunteers for the race and whole bunch of kids volunteered. Lo and behold Willem was selected. He needed an adult to go with him so Jason went down with him. The duck whistle sounded and they released their duck and within 5 seconds that duck had won. 

Willem won a medal and a chance to compete in the finals. 

Round 2 Ellie went down as well and once more their duck brought home the grand prize. 

Willem proudly wore his duckbill hat the rest of the day.  Later in the day there was a similar contest for lemurs I believe. Again he was selected and once more he won the grand prize. It was Willem's lucky day!

Ellie liked going on rides with Jason and I. She tried the bumper cars solo and declared she never wanted to do that ride again. It made no sense to her as to why people would bounce cars into each other. (I concur)

The petting zoo was a hit- so many animals!! Ellie was in heaven. 

Rick the Reptile Man had visited Villa last year so the kids were quite familiar with him. He put on a show at the fair and the kids were able to pet this humongous snake. They loved it. 

Fantastic 1st experience at the State Fair!!

ACS Conference- San Francisco Getaway

This is Jason's chief year of residency and one of the perks of being a Chief is you get to attend the Annual College of Surgeons conference. This year the conference was held in San Francisco which was great since my best friend Christina lives there. 

Christina had the genius idea to attend the Neil Young Benefit Concert. We had no idea what an amazing show that is. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. Highlights- Seeing Eddy Vedder perform, Florence and the Machine, Neil Young, Brian Wilson and so many more... We literally went straight from the violin recital to the airport to the concert and didn't leave the concert until 2am. We then headed out to dinner as we hadn't yet eaten. The CA life!

We passed the Google campus on our walk back to the car and had to try out the Google bikes. 

Neat park across from the hotel.

The next day Christina and Jeff took us sailing. Amber and Jim were able to join us. My 1st sailing experience and one that I will never forget. The water was beyond choppy once we got out past the bridge- we're talking crazy high waves. We eventually turned around but Jeff's sailing skills definitely were tested and proven that day. 

We ate such good food on our trip! My new favorite dish- ramen soup. Could eat that every single day. 

Banner attendees. Each night we met up with the Banner posse to explore the nighlife. Sumeet and his class had lined up quite the itinerary of fantastic restaurants and really cool bars to check out. We tagged along and had a great time.

We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. What amazing views!

I met up with my good friend Shelley Higgins- one of my first friends in Arizona and my first surgeon's wife friend. She had her husband relocated to Washington a few years ago so it was nice to catch up as we walked 5 miles around San Francisco one day. We ended up going to Coit Tower and exploring China town before meeting up with our husbands. 

The World Series was going on during the whole conference with the final game happening the night I went out to dinner alone with Christina. Riding the subway back into town that night was an experience to say the least. 

It would have been nice to stay longer but we flew back on Halloween to get back in time for trick or treating. The past few months have been insane. Between various work commitments, Jason interviewing for fellowship and the kids activities, we were ready for downtime at ACS. 

Halloween

Audrey was really into trick or treating this year and went up to each door with the kids. We opted for trick or treating with Bertolinos this year which made it even more fun for the kids. Willem had been set on Darth Vader all year so that was easy but Ellie was a flip flopper. First she wanted to be Doc McStuffins and the week of Halloween pulled out a Cinderella costume we already owned and declared it was the right costumer for her. Audrey carried on the tradition of wearing the Dr. Weiss costume. I tried to convince them to do a Wizard of Oz theme but was not successful. 

October 2014

This month started out with me going to my first ARCA convention which was held in Laughlin this year. It was hard being away from the kids for a week but they had fun at home with Mom and Jason. 

I golfed with my Dad and vendors 2 days in a row. That is enough golf for me for the year. Laughlin was beautiful though, I really enjoyed my time up there. 

Jason took them to the train park one day. Of course they loved it. 

Willem celebrated his 3rd Suzuki Birthday. 

Rachel took Willem on the Cub Scout Hike up South Moutain. 

Willem making Audrey breakfast in bed- so sweet!

1st round of Halloween costumes

Storytime

Annual ASA workshop at Orangewood Church. Willem had a Master Class with Louise Scott this year and enjoyed the group games they played. There was a singing class where they learned Raindrops on Roses from Sound of Music. That is one of our favorite movies right now so he had fun knowing the words already. 

Grandma brought the girls by for the final concert. 

We began decorating for Halloween. The kids got creative this year.