Amber waves of grain

I took my nifty new camera out the other night because I wanted to capture the beauty of Iowa. During this time of year, Iowa truly is breathtaking. I don't think I did it justice, but here are a few that I got:

Home Again

The great thing about trips is that no matter how much fun you have, it is always wonderful to come home. And after staying in a hotel room for 5 weeks straight, let me just tell you that it is WONDERFUL to be home again.

The last few days of our vacation was filled with seeing family. It just so happened that the day that we left Denver, Joseph's twin brother Christopher was flying into Denver to start HIS externship in anesthesiology. Although our schedules didn't quite click, we were able to meet up for a quick lunch. Jake loved seeing Uncle Christopher and at random points in our car trip home he kept blurting out, "I love Christopher."

On our drive home, we made a pit stop in Wichita to see my sister-in-law and her beautiful family, and we were able to meet their newest and sweetest little guy, Simon! We had such an amazing time with them just letting the kids play and soak up the sun in their pool.

Jake loved his pink floaties! They came complete with a little lace finish along the edges. Nice!

Eli has become quite the little momma's boy. He is pretty much constantly wanting to be held if I'm around. As annoying as that can be at times, I secretly love that he loves me so much. Jake never really cared about me holding him, so it's fun to have a baby that I can cuddle.

Sunday meant saying goodbye to the Zepps. It was so sad to leave, but after they showed us the great set-up that they have out there in Kansas, we must say that Wichita is on the list of possibilities for a future dental practice. Wouldn't that be so much fun?!

The Kiddos

The men and their babies

On the way home.

And so (deep breaths) that was our Denver trip. Did I mention that it's good to be back? Because, as cliche as it is, there's just no place like home.

In his element

This past weekend we decided to hit up old Denver Fire Department Museum. It is an old firehouse that was built in 1909 but in the 1970's it was turned into a museum.

You would have thought that Jake had died and gone to firefighter heaven. There were all kinds of old fire trucks, hoses, ladders, poles, masks – basically anything and everything that has to do with putting out a flame from 1900-present.

In one area they had child-sized firemen gear that the kids could wear. And this wasn't just your run-of-the-mill firefighter dress up. This was the real deal in was in a miniature version. They had real coats, gloves, boots, masks, and of course, a fireman helmet for the kids to wear as they climbed into the real fire truck and talked on real walkie-talkies.

Eli had fun dressing up too!

Jake has asked every single day since then if he could go to the Fire Museum. There really isn’t much more that could make a 3-year-old boy happy. On second thought, maybe if they had a train there too…

The blind shall see

Remember how Joseph spontaneously got his wisdom teeth removed around Christmas time, without informing me first? Apparently that sent a precedent for having major surgeries done on a moment's notice. At least this time around he checked in with me before he went ahead and decided to get LASIK done!

Since we've been out here in Colorado we've been checking out the local Groupons for some good deals on family activities, and one day they just happened to be offering LASIK for an unbelievable price. He's been considering having it done at the University for quite some time, so when this opportunity came up and would cost way less than it would at the school, he just couldn't pass it up. He bought the Groupon, went in for the consultation the next day, and that weekend he went under the laser!

It all happened so fast, but Joseph was completely calm throughout the whole thing. Right before he was about to go in, I asked him if he was nervous and he said, "No, but I am little hungry..." Typical. I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. The doctors kept assuring me that they had done thousands and thousands of LASIK procedures, they even did it on John Elway (to save yourself any embarrassment, let me just tell you that he was the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, Joseph was horrified when I asked who that was). Everything went perfectly, though.

I actually watched the whole thing, which took about ten minutes from start to finish. In fact, from the time that we stepped inside the office to the time we left, it was less than an hour. It really was amazing. The next day his eyes were 80% healed and they said it should be completely healed within a week. He went from having 20/200 vision (yes, twenty/two-hundred) to seeing almost perfectly within a matter of 24 hours. Have I mentioned we LOVE Groupon???

And so, he who once was blind has received his sight. The recovery plan? Doc's orders to wear sunglasses inside for 24 hours after the surgery and just outside after that for a week.
Thank goodness I have good eyesight, because I think I would have a heart attack on the table if it were me going under the laser.


Oh, and on the way back from having surgery we saw this across the parking lot:

So basically it was a good day for all.

Photo-op!!

Have any of you noticed a recent improvement in the quality of my blog pictures lately? For my birthday (27, can you believe it?) Joseph caught on to the many hints I was dropping and bought me a beautiful new Canon Rebel! I am so excited to have a decent camera that isn't taped together that will take nice pictures of the kids as they grow up. And so, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures that I took recently of the boys. As it turns out, they (and by "they" I mean mostly Jake) are not the most willing subject for photographs, so I didn't get very many, but I did get a few.

Love these boys!

More adventures in CO

We have been loving our time out in Colorado. The more we are out here the more I am determined to make Joseph start a practice here. We'll see how that goes, seeing as Denver already has tons of dentists. It seems as though every other dental wife in the nation had the same idea that I do!

Almost every neighborhood has a beautiful playground for the kids. Jake has especially enjoyed visiting the different parks.

We went to a wildlife animal shelter a couple weeks ago. It is essentially a refuge for large animals who have been born into captivity whose owners can no longer care for them. For example, people buy tiger cubs thinking that they will make cute pets, but then realize that a tiger is not a pet and then they have no place to go. Many of the animals are abused or have never seen another of their kind, so the animal shelter rehabilitates them, then eventually they are put on acres of land where they can interact with others of their kind. There are lions, tigers, bears, wolves, camels, cougars, panthers, and more. It was very interesting, and neat to see the animals rescued.

In our most recent adventure, we met up with some friends who live in the area and went to the World of Wonder Children's Museum. We had so much fun!

Jake pretended to be a pirate on a pirate ship:

And a red dragon conductor of a train:What cute kids!!This is how we left - Jake in tears because he didn't want to leave:And Eli sleeping in the stroller. Sounds about right.

Adventures in CO

We have safely arrived in Colorado, and let me just tell you that that was no small feat. Our car has been in the shop not once, not twice - no, not even three times- but FOUR TIMES in the past two weeks. Cha-ching. With our car being in the shop most of the time we've been here, we've had to stay local and see what the quiet town of Firestone (which is about 20 miles north of Denver) has to offer.

We've hit up the local rec center where they have a surprisingly super-fun pool:

We have gone for walks and enjoyed the beautiful CO scenery:

We have played at some fun parks:

We visited the local lake (which was actually pretty smelly and not good at all for swimming, but still scenic)

Hopefully our car troubles will end soon (it's in the shop as I write this...fittingly). Once we get it back, we look forward to getting into the city and checking out all it has to offer besides semi-knowledgable mechanics!