11 December 2012

Canada & Michigan

T-Rex at the ROM
November was a crazy month. Owen took his Step 1 exam at the beginning of November. After that, we finally had some free time. We took 2 weeks and headed to Canada and Michigan. Owen's good friend/best man in our wedding lives just outside of Toronto. We hadn't seen Chris in a while or spent any time with his fiance. We were fortunate that they had the weekend free and we were able to stay with them. On Saturday, we headed into Toronto for a day of exploring. There was a dinosaur exhibit at Royal Ontario Museum, so of course the boys couldn't pass that up. It was actually pretty cool, I especially like the lighting on the dinosaurs, made for some cool pictures.  Aside from that, we went for a hike, cooked a lot, and had a relaxing weekend catching up with them.

After Canada, we headed to Michigan for Thanksgiving and catching up with Owen's family. We had 2 very nice Thanksgivings, one with Owen's dad and stepmom and one with his mom and sisters. We saw several of his extended family members for dessert that night. It was a little strange not to host Thanksgiving after doing so on the island the last 2 years, but I did get to do some cooking. Aside from Thanksgiving, we went rollerblading at an indoor place, went to a kid's science museum, watched a bunch of movies, Owen did some mountain biking with his dad, lots of shopping, and a lot of hanging out with family. We also made it out to his Grandparents' house on the western edge of Michigan, near the lake, which was really nice to spend a little time "in the country." We also had the chance to meet up with some friends from the island who are doing clinicals in the Detroit area. It was really nice to see them, one of whom did rotations in England, so we got some good insight from him. Looks like clinicals will be a lot better!

By the time we got back from our trip, November was over. We drove straight through the night back to CT and went out with my brother, his girlfriend, and our good friends to cut down Christmas trees. Pictures of that and the holidays in CT to follow in the next post. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are having a great Christmas season so far. Thanks again to everyone in Michigan for hosting us and to Chris and Andrea in Canada.

Giganotosaurus at the ROM
Us, Chris & Andrea, Madeline & Andrew

CN Tower at sunset
Sugar Spiced Pecans, an old recipe from church dinners
Testing out homemade cranberry sauce
The Spread

Owen's little sister inside a bubble
At Impression 5 in Lansing

Owen's Grandparents
Birdwatching at his Grandparents' house




Some nice sunsets
Traffic on the highway in PA was stopped while a helicopter rigged up some guys to do work on the power lines.

02 December 2012

Fall in the States

Well we are a little overdue for an update so here's what we've been up to on the first part of our break from medical school. This will just be a quick post of the highlights from September/October. A more detailed post, with school updates, and more recent happenings/pictures will follow soon.

Highlights
  • Spending time at my family's lake house - waterskiing, bonfires, movies on the lawn
  • Camping, hiking, backpacking
  • I went to NYC for a day with some friends
  • 5K at my college homecoming with a good friend
  • Pumpkin carving party at our friends' place
  • Planted lots of mums
  • Went to the Keene pumpkin festival
  • Tried Maine lobster for the first time
  • Owen cut down a bunch of trees in the backyard
  • Lots of relaxing and spending time with family and friends
Jumping the wake
My bro trying waterskiing

Owen's Sweet Wipeout


Waterfalls on our hikes
NYC
Roof top sculpture at the Met
Times Square
Alison and me at the Gordon College Homecoming 5K
In front of our Freshmen Year Dorm
So many mums!

Pirates of the Caribbean ;)
I love New England Fall

View from the Lake House in the fall




Drew from Property Brothers! Filming Pumpkin Wars special
Maine Lobster (we thought the caribbean was actually better)

Fall hike at Pinnacle


The result of the trees Owen and my bro cut down with chainsaws

10 October 2012

Photoshoot


During our last few days on the island, we had a friend (another spouse) take some pictures for us to remember our time on St Maarten. Trisha is just starting to explore photography and has been doing portraits for several couples; she is getting pretty good at it too! So if you're still on the island, make sure to get some photos done by Trisha Wright Photography! We loved several of the photos she took for us (even though it was 95% humidity, just about to rain, and we got splashed by a wave right at the very beginning :) ). Here are a few of our favorites. At least one will end up framed and on a wall in our home someday (when we eventually have a home) to commemorate our island life. 
Thanks Trisha!

Definitely getting this one framed



love this one too!