Just kidding, but seriously?  Hands down the most beautiful state in the country.  And the nicest people to boot.  Today we went to Canyonlands National Park, which was, um, AWESOME.  Check out our views from this arch we hiked to at Islands in the Sky:

Aunt Heather and her favorite niece:

But the most amazing part of our day was the hike to Delicate Arch, back at Arches National Park (which we visited again today because it was simply amazing yesterday).  I CANNOT believe we almost missed this hike.  Delicate Arch is probably the most incredible natural structure I’ve ever seen.  Actually, the entire hike was unbelievably gorgeous; it was one of the neatest hikes I’ve EVER done in this country (only competing with the ones we did in Grand Teton National Park).  The best part was that you had to hike 1.5 miles up steep rock to finally see why you were hiking…Delicate Arch.  It’s not that it was a particularly challenging hike, but add 3 toddlers to the mix and a walk from a parking lot to a trailhead could become challenging;)  It’s all relative!  After climbing the snowy, thin part of the trail, you turn a corner and see this:

Freaking incredible.  Our kids truly amaze us; the boys both hiked several miles of this trail, and almost the entire uphill portion!  Honestly, we screw up on a VERY regular basis as parents, but one thing I am really proud of is that we seem to be passing on our love for the outdoors, enthusiasm for exercise, and enjoyment of physical challenges.  I don’t know many 2 or 3 year olds that can hike 3 miles, but ours can.  It’s not our accomplishment, it’s theirs, but we’re really darn proud of them for it!  When we reached the top of the climb, Jack asked that our little family put our hands together (don’t ask me where he’s seen this; I’m pretty sure Saved By the Bell hasn’t entered our living room yet!).  [Note: these family pics are courtesy of Heather!  Thank you Aunt Heather, this is such a gift!]

Shane had a GREAT day today.  He’s such a good climber and hiker, and I think he feels satisfied with himself for that.  We make sure to give him tons of extra praise for this type of thing, since he usually relishes his time lounging around being the Golden Pig!

We’re so glad Aunt Heather could be here with us.  It was the perfect weekend getaway, and I think she enjoyed it a lot too!

As Jack said “When Shane’s happy, everyone’s happy.  When Shane’s grumpy, everyone’s grumpy!”  SO thankful he was a happy happy happy boy today!

What happened to my Finley?  I blame Fancy Nancy for some of it, though I know sass is just part of who this kid is:

Holy cow…only 9 days till I find out if I matched, and 12 days till Match Day!  I’m so glad we’re doing things to take my mind off all that!  There’s no place I’d rather be right now than out here enjoying my many blessings.  Tomorrow is another adventure…

Guess who’s 1 year closer to 21?  Happy 20th birthday Heather!!  We had an awesome day with Aunt Heather in Moab, UT.  We are staying in a GORGEOUS condo in a canyon (for the same price as the local hotels – feel free to ask me about it if you’re planning a trip and interested), which has 3 bedrooms.  On our drive from Colorado, we were telling Heather she’d have her own room, at which point she said “oh, I don’t mind if you want to put Finley in my room so you guys can have YOUR own room!”  Well, that little pisser overheard us (since she spies on EVERY conversation and never misses a thing) and interjected “No, I don’t want to sleep with Header.  I want my OWN room!”  Who the &$*K does she think she is?!  We all got a pretty good laugh out of that.  But she’s so damn cute when she’s sleeping!

We went hiking in Arches National Park today, which was breathtaking.  Here are my favorite pictures from today.  This is Balanced Rock:

This is Landscape Arch, one of the most famous natural structures:

Here’s Aunt Heather with her niece and nephews:

Daddy and his girl (btw, the other day, someone asked if Finley is a daddy’s girl.  I turned to her and said “Fin, are you a daddy’s girl, or a mommy’s girl?”  Of course she responded “DADDY’S GIRL!”  But then Jack jumped in and said “I’m a mama’s boy!”  I have a feeling he won’t readily admit that for too many more years to come, so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts;)

I love this picture:

Heather offered to take a picture of me and Travis near Balanced Rock, so I attempted to leap into his arms…I wound up accidentally slugging him in the face on my graceful landing, causing him to drop me, and me to nearly pee in my pants.  And Heather caught it all on “film”

We had Heather’s birthday dinner at Moab Brewery tonight.  About 5 minutes into dinner, Jack rhetorically asks “is this place great or WHAT?!”  When Heather’s dessert came out, the whole wait staff sang to her, which the kids loved.  Jack asked “Aunt Header” for the candle, which I figured he’d just lick.  I forgot he had it, until a few minutes later when he yelled “yum, this candle is goooood!”  He had LITERALLY devoured everything but the wic.  I see constipation in his future (and hopefully nothing more than that!).

Shane, unfortunately, refused a nap today, so he was a WRECK at dinner.  He muttered and did the old man grumpage thing, and lost his ice cream because of it.  That part sucked.  But otherwise, he had a great day, hiking and riding in daddy’s pack.

We’re looking forward to another adventure-filled day with Aunt Heather tomorrow.  Happy 20th birthday Heather!!  We love you!

For the record, I’m still in my 20’s (for another 2 months anyway, but who’s counting?!), it’s just that my body creaks like an 80 year old’s.

Over the holidays, I decided what I really really wanted for Christmas was some dental care.  I have been uninsured since 6 weeks after Finley was born (and was uninsured leading up to becoming pregnant with her), and have not had dental coverage since we lived in DC.  So, it’d been about 4 years since my last teeth cleaning.  If you know me, you know I am OCD about my teeth.  So, that’s what I asked for. 

Then I learned there was a dentist in St. Augustine, FL who did teeth whitening for super super cheap.  So, being the practical person that I am, I decided maybe Travis and I should get each other teeth whitening for Christmas as a substitute for real dental hygiene since it would be cheaper (than x-rays & cleanings) and would at least guarantee us teeth that LOOK clean…just until we have real insurance and can afford actual dental care.  Well, the dentist took a look at Travis’ mouth, gasped, grabbed his little camera, and took a few pictures of the gaping HOLES in his teeth.  He took pity on us and decided to throw in x-rays for free because he was worried about our mouths.  It was then that he discovered Travis needs 4 root canals for his rotting teeth.  After I finished dry heaving in the corner, I asked him how much that would cost.  After he punched me in the gut with the figure, I burst into tears. 

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

He later told me, when I asked why dentists have such low job satisfaction despite it seeming like a pretty sweet gig, that my reaction is EXACTLY why dentists commit suicide all the time.  I felt kinda bad for HIM at that point.  But then he did MY x-rays and found that I, too, need a crown or possibly a root canal.  So yeah, dentists’ offices = misery for all.  Poor bastards.  He was SO sweet though and pretty much took care of us at cost; he advised us to get our procedures done at the local dental school here in CO.  It’s cheap, so there’s that.  Since that visit, a teeny tiny piece of Travis’ front tooth (which had been reconstructed, or whatever the dental term is, when he was a kid and banged his face on something for the millionth time) has fallen out.  It’s not noticeable to anyone other than me, but all I want for next Christmas is Travis’ new front tooth! 

Anyway, I hope by now you all know we are able to have a sense of humor about this kind of stuff.  Travis’ bacteria infested mouth has made for lots of jokes around here.  Remember that line from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, “he has termites in his smile, Mister Griiiiiii-INCH!”?  [And Lynn, mom, Yiayia, Grandma, etc, if you’re reading this, don’t worry about us!  Just laugh along because it is pretty funny.  We’ll be more than fine, and someday we’ll be able to afford the shiniest new teeth on the synthetic grill market…we’ll probably even be able to afford gold ones.  Let’s all just pray I match.]

So, our newest endeavor is P90X.  Heard of it?  It’s a kick ass workout plan that’s 90 days long.  We started last week and have been waking up at 5am to have our butts whooped by some dude in spandex.  We’ve been walking around holding our backs, unable to lift our legs, and hunched over like an 80 year old couple!  I almost peed my pants today during our “Ab Ripper X” routine because Travis’ body kept popping and cracking and I couldn’t hear the exercise instructions on the TV over the sound of his decrepit parts.  We laughed SO hard I don’t think we needed the actual ab workout dvd.  We’ve also started running again, in preparation for a marathon / half-marathon we’re running in April.  It feels awesome to be working my body hard again…even though I am realizing it might have limited mileage left if I keep this up!  I have a feeling our 30’s are going to be ROUGH;) 

Well, that was a random post.  Anyway, Heather made it to Colorado today and we’re off to Moab super early tomorrow, so I’m off to bed.  Can’t wait to be in Utah!  I doubt I’ll have access to my blog, but I will be using twitter so you can follow our adventures there if you’re interested.  Hope you all have a great week / weekend too.  Tomorrow will be 14 days till Match Day!

I’m procrastinating.  I finished 1 of the 6 chapters I’m authoring for that derm textbook I mentioned, so 5 more to go and they have to be done in ~2 weeks.  Eek!  I started with a topic I know well since I published a paper on it last year, so the others will probably take me more time.  I know it would be wise to get them all done asap, especially since Heather is coming to visit this week and we’re taking her on an adventure about 6 hours away from here for her birthday this weekend!  [Note: every day is an adventure with 3 toddlers, but this will be a particularly exciting one because, not only will we be traveling with them in tow, but we’re also going someplace amazing!]. 

3 clues to where we’re headed: 1) Polygamy Porter, 2) Mountain bikers’ paradise, 3) Dinosaur fossils.  What do they have in common, you ask?  Utah!  The particular area we’re headed represents extremely unique terrain for hiking, cycling, and mountain biking.  Last time Travis and I were in Moab was prior to kids, and we went there to mountain bike (we biked Slickrock, and Travis did Porcupine Rim without me, since I didn’t have a death wish)!  It was spectacular and the rocks are made out of sandstone, which has unusually strong grip such that you can climb what would appear to be a vertical rock without slipping or spinning your tires.  I left a LOT of skin on those rocks the last time we were there, but it was worth it!  Although we’ve since sold our mountain bikes, we are so excited to go back there and share those gorgeous landscapes with Heather and our kids.  It is going to be an awesome weekend.  We’ll be doing lots of hiking and playing this time!  This was our life before kids:

That was me in the above photos; this is Travis below:

Another VERY exciting thing going on in my life right now is a little company 2 friends and I have started up.  I met 1 of my “business partners” (whose blog has a giveaway going on right now!) through the Vietnam adoption community a few years ago.  She and I have become really close friends (yes, IRL), and her sense of fashion, crafting / sewing ability, loyalty, and reliability (plus the fact that she’s super fun to work with and to be around) led me to asking her if she’d come on board to help me get an invention off the ground.  Our other “business partner” is my best friend through medical school, who I’ve blogged about before.  The 3 of us have a product we are launching.  We had some help with an idea early on (Sheryl, you are amazing), when we started working on it way the hell back in 2008, and have since turned it into an adorable solution to a problem that MANY of our kids have in common. 

Sorry for being cryptic, but we’re planning on launching it very soon and I promise you will be among the first to see its unveiling!  And of course, you’ll have dibs on winning and reviewing our invention.  Currently, we’re working on our product packaging (if you have experience here, we’d love some help!), logo design, web design, and all the final touches.  It’s a REALLY fun project and I’m super proud of our product.  I’m hoping we can get it off the ground before I start residency in June.  I never knew how much goes into developing, marketing, and selling a little invention!  Initially, we hope to sell through our website, in kids’ boutiques, at craft fairs, etc.  You know, start there and eventually land in T@rget.  Hey, a girl can dream…but stay tuned and you’ll see what I’ve been working on in my free-time lately; it’s pretty neat. 

Oh, and only 14 days until I find out IF I’m going to be a dermatologist any time in the near future…and 17 days until Match Day!  Ok, I’m off to dip my gnawed off fingertips in a tub of aquaphor again;)

First, I want to thank those of you who commented on my previous post regarding my friend who is BRCA 2+.  I found your comments to be very insightful, and I think she will too. 

In terms of our family’s news, Grandjoe is in town!  We’ve packed these last few days with fun stuff to make the most of our time with him, and it’s been really awesome.  Today we rode the Light Rail to Littleton, where we walked around and ate lunch, then headed back.  The train was a huge hit with the kids! 

Also, I certified my rank list this week, so it’s a done deal!  All residency programs participating in the Match had the same deadline, so their lists are finalized too.  I feel really good about it and it’s nice to have it out of my hands!  Now I just have to sit tight and hope I still have fingers left (or at least a few that survive the gnawing), come Match week (see ticker timeline on the top left of my blog)!  I also got a great offer from a dermatologist who interviewed me at 1 program.  She’s asked me to write 6 chapters in a derm textbook specific to pigmented skin!  I am flattered and thrilled to have the opportunity…the only downside is that the deadline is in 2-3 weeks, so I have to get crackin on that! 

Here are some pictures from our fantastic day on the train.

Shane had a serious case of the grumps on the way home.  He wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, but that would have blown his nap…so Travis bounced him, tickled him, and basically annoyed the hell out of the poor kid to keep him from passing out!  He did NOT enjoy the ride home.

This kid’s always ready for a party:

We got up close to a skid steer and a mini cement mixer that Jack could’ve watched for hours.  He was MESMERIZED.  Nothing makes for better photos than Jack’s “mesmerized face!”  Travis thinks the picture I edited below looks “trippy,” but I think it’s cool; looks like a sketching of Jack and Grandjoe:

This is Shane’s “too cool for school” pose:

I LOVE this picture of Shane-Bug:

This is Shane’s impression of someone doing serious business on the potty (for the record, he was not pooping in this picture; it’s just that his “poop” face doubles as his tired face!):

First of all, anyone is welcome to weigh in on this.  I am hoping, specifically, my friends in medicine will also comment, and anyone else out there who may have personal experience with the dilemma faced by a woman who learns she is (+) for the BRCA 2 mutation.  My friend, S, is not looking for medical advice per se; she has a doctor.  But she is interested in hearing a lot of perspectives from people who have a sense of what this all means – the surgeries, the grieving, the tradeoffs of prophylactic surgery versus surveillance versus chemoprevention (tamoxifen, raloxifene)…if you’ve taken care of patients who have been through this decision-making process, or taken care of them on the post-op end, or known someone close to you who has been through this, your input is specifically requested!

For those of you who are not in the medical field, the BRCA gene is a breast cancer susceptibility gene and there are inherited genetic mutations that result in a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.  My friend S was given these stats by her genetics counselor:

• breast cancer by age 50 is 33-50% (vs. 2% in the general population)
• breast cancer by age 70 is 56-87% (7% general population)
• ovarian cancer by age 70 is 27-44% (<2%  general population)

Basically, my friend is pretty comfortable with the salpingo-oophorectomy part.  She is not planning on having biological kids and is ~40, so she is confident in her decision to have her ovaries & tubes removed prophylactically.  She is more torn about the mastectomies.  Understandably, she is concerned over the gravity of that operation, the post-op recovery, etc.  She is interested in hearing how other people would go about processing this type of news and making such a huge decision.  It is obviously impossible for most of us to say for sure, if we’re not REALLY facing this decision, but speaking hypothetically, what do you THINK you would do?  And why?  Thank you in advance, on behalf of my good friend S, for contributing / commenting on this post; no matter who you are, your input is greatly appreciated here.

Shane’s barber had a little mishap with the clippers this morning (the guard fell off!), and the result is a toddler who looks like he survived brain surgery.  He has a stripe down his head where his hair was BICKED.  Since his barber was Travis, I gasped, tried not to laugh too hard, and then pleaded with Travis to just bic the whole thing.  He refused.  When I said “but he looks like he had brain surgery,” Travis’ retort was “if I bic his WHOLE head, he’ll look like he had chemo.”  It was a dead end discussion, so I let it go.  Shane’s hair grows faster than a pothead’s though, so I think this patch will replace itself soon…like before CPS gets involved.  It’s really, really bad.  I’ve never seen such a bad haircut in my life; not even the one my little sister gave herself just weeks before she was the flower girl in our wedding.  I’m pretty sure if crop circles could be seen from outer space, Shane’s hairless rectangle can too.  Poor kid.  I’m just thanking God this happened at age 2 and not age 12.  I fired the barber, so it shouldn’t be an issue when he is old enough to notice his haircuts.  Since words just don’t do it justice, feast your eyes on Shane’s hairless patch:

He was all about playing with magic wands tonight and casting spells.  I’m betting he put one on the barber.  Either that, or he was trying to poof us back in time.  I actually think the exposed scalp makes him run faster…

Good thing he doesn’t need his hair to be cute.  In spite of the haircut mishap this morning, Shane had an awesome day.  He is just talking up a STORM these days, and PROMPT therapy continues to do wonders for his speech.  We are really excited about his progress. 

Also, guess what we got to do this weekend?  Hang with the Stickley family!  We’d planned on a big weekend in a tiny mountain town, called Cripple Creek, that has an ice festival this time every year with cool ice carvings and festivities.  But it was snowing pretty hard and we decided mountain driving wasn’t a smart move, so we drove down to the Springs and hung with them for the day.  It was a BLAST, not just for the 5 kids 3 and under, but for us big kids too.  We always seem to have a great time together, and our kids get along SO well.  It’s really adorable.  Emilie had a cookie-making station all set up that was a HUGE hit with the kids.  Below are Jack, Nova, Finley, Juneau, and Shane decorating their sweets.

Below is Nova enjoying her creation:

Jack, Shane, and Juneau:

The other big hit for Finley were the dogs! 

Look at the intensity of Fin’s “gnarly patch” in the next photo:

My family was sitting around the dinner table over the holidays and my dad was jokingly labeling his adult kids…Alex & Jer are “talkers,” Christy’s an “idealist,” and Travis and I are “planners.”  Our reaction was one of surprise.  Taken aback, we responded “WE’RE planners??”  Everyone turned and stared in wonder at our apparent lack of self-awareness.  I’d always thought we were “spontaneous.”  [cue laughter].

Fast forward to my January interviews…I think I was told, at every single place, some variation of “damn, you are a planner.”  A lot of interviewers would ask questions about how I plan on pursuing derm and getting through residency with young kids, or what it will mean for my husband if I match, etc., and for every question like that, I had a very thought out and thorough answer.  So apparently we’re planners.  But I like to think we’re the type of planners who can roll with the punches when things don’t go as planned.  At least, I hope we are.  Because the outcome of the derm Match is NOT something I can plan, and there are about a zillion scenarios that could play out the week of March 15th (if I match, Match Day is March 18th).  Everything from Colorado to New York.  There are scenarios that involve 2 moves within a 1 year period, scenarios that involve a move somewhere for a year and then a return to Colorado, or staying in Colorado for 1 more year and then a big move somewhere else (RI, WI, KS, PA, DC, NY), scenarios in which we’d move this June and settle someplace like Wisconsin, Kansas, DC or rural Pennsylvania for our entire training (4-5 years).  The possibilities are endless.

I have a sense of peace about the outcome, as long as I match (which is certainly NOT a guarantee).  The reason is because I have direction.  I guess I’m a planner, but what I really need to feel is the security of knowing I’m on a path, towards a definable goal.  Probably the hardest time in my life was when I veered off the path and didn’t know what direction I wanted to go.  It was when I became a mom.  I wanted to be the best mom I could be to my kids, and to me that meant putting my career plans on hold until I figured out the rest.  I had learned, very late in medical school (like all the way at the end), that I wanted to be a dermatologist.  That specialty wasn’t realistic at the time, so I came to a crossroads – I had to decide if I wanted to settle for a field that wasn’t what I wanted, or take a leap.  But in the meantime, my Littles needed me to just be home and focus on them.  And I, too, needed to be with my Littles and just accept an uncertain career path.

I doubted myself for awhile and it took me a long time to muster the courage to go for it (derm).  I’m risking failure, which isn’t comfortable for anyone, much less someone who likes a definable path.  When I think back on my decision to pull back the reigns, take time to be home with my babies, and grow the guts to change my career path, I know I was where I was “supposed to be” at that point in my life.  I followed my gut and wouldn’t be where I am now, with a shot at a field that was totally beyond my reach back then, if I hadn’t veered from my initial path.

Anyway, Travis and I have until February 24th to finalize my rank list.  I added a countdown until Match Day on my left sidebar, in case you’re interested in following.  I will feel a burden lifted as soon as we hit “certify” & submit, because at least then it’ll be out of our hands.  Plus, there is something unique that each of my options has to offer from the others- something at every place I would be very excited about.  Travis and I have gotten into a nightly routine of putting the kids to bed, making ourselves a few drinks, and sitting down to debate the rank order.  Some nights are really fun, and other nights are a tad stressful.  For the most part, we are at peace with where things fall, and the first few positions on our rank list are pretty obvious to us.  But every now and then one of us comes up with a reason to stir up the order and then we are back to the drawing board.  It’s nuts, but oddly thrilling at the same time.  We’re really trying to enjoy the present, especially because there’s a strong likelihood these will be our last few months in Colorado, but we’re also anxiously awaiting Match Week.  Oh, and Match Day is the day after Travis’ birthday, so hopefully this year we’ll be in a more celebratory mode than last year!

Well, Travis just poured me a drink, so I know what time it is!  In the words of my youngest trouble maker, “peace out baby.”

I have a few cute videos that have been sitting on the flipvideo for awhile, one from my phone of Shanie singing, and another of Fin from yesterday morning telling me she’s “fusta-wated.”  She’s back to her spitting and biting routine (I swear this kid is the devil’s spawn, but she’s so damn cute), so this morning, after she spit orange juice at everyone, I confiscated her sippy cup.  I knew she was going to react dastardly, and I wanted to catch what I could on camera, so I started recording AFTER the part where she tried to bite me, but in time to hear her little articulation of how she was feeling.

Here’s one from weeks ago of the kids pulling movie quotes.  There’s a line from the movie Ice Age that just cracks my kids up.  It’s when Sid’s family ditches him secretly in the night and he wakes up and says “Uncle Fungus?”  You can hear Finley’s impression of that line.  Additionally, Jack is quoting Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch.  Then you can hear Travis prompt Shane’s favorite saying for when something is super cool; it’s from the Christmas movie Prep & Landing.  He says in a falsetto voice “that’s so tinsel!”

And here’s Shanie’s rendition of Twinkle Twinkle:

A few more funny things -

Jack has been having very vivid dreams and has been asking to draw pictures of those dreams.  He has become an amazing drawer.  I’ll have to take some photos of his pictures, but he draws lots of flowers and rainbows.  Also, yesterday I was asking him to do something he didn’t want to do and he turned around and gave me another Sid from Ice Age quote, “I choose LIFE!”  I had to laugh and give it up to the kid.

Every morning, Finley asks for “sausage, bacon, or French toaster” (French toast).  She always spills things or gets crumbs trapped under her chin, in her neck fold.  She calls it her “necklace,” and will scream “mom!  get it out of my necklace.”  Yesterday, she somehow looped her legs through the baby gate and got stuck hanging upside down by her legs (it was hilarious and not dangerous like it sounds).  She was yelling “I’m dying here.”  I have NO IDEA where she got that, but the cutest part was that I thought she was crying wolf & being dramatic, so Jack actually got to her first.  He put his hands under her armpits to support her weight and try to help her out of her pickle.  So cute.  Oh, 1 more Fin story.  A cat followed us home from our walk to the park the other day.  I thought Finley was going to hyperventilate to death from excitement.  The cat followed us all the way to our porch, so I read its tag and called its owner (who didn’t give a crap that her cat was blocks away and annoying another resident).  It’s tag said “Felipe,” so I told the kids the cat’s name and Fin has been talking about “Leafay” ever since.

Shane has been struggling still with sleep and also acting out a little bit.  He’s taken to Finley’s technique of biting, only he doesn’t do it when he’s mad necessarily so it’s hard to predict.  He’s gotten Jack a few times over the past few days.  When he’s mad, he’s been feeling his oats and hitting (pretty much only Jack; I don’t think he’d dare hit Fin out of fear of her retaliation).  I don’t know why, but he’s also not sleeping nearly enough.  Yesterday he refused a nap, and eventually woke Jack up.  He later passed out on the carpet downstairs and woke up when Fin jumped off the couch on him.  I hope he gets over this hump soon!  On a positive note, he has been chatting up a storm!!  He has said more sentences than I can count, and repeats, or tries to repeat, almost everything we say now.

Hey all – wanted to announce our Faber-Castell Young Artist Texture Painting Set giveaway winner.  Random.org chose comment #6, which was left by Shawna!  Enjoy Shawna!  Don’t despair if you didn’t win, I have another giveaway I’ll post this week.  Sooner or later, you’re bound to win one!