Maryland Goodbyes, St. George, Ryan's Birthday and Our New England Vacation
Letter from Lisa - June 6, 2001
Chris is on day 3 doing Anesthesiology. It’s a lot lighter load and he enjoys beating the rush hour traffic home. After another week and a half he will start a week of Preventative Medicine which is actually the start of his 4th year curriculum. It will be with all the 4th year students at USUHS. It is going to be like a little reunion. Chris is excited to see all his buddies, talk about their 3rd year rotations and see what specialty everyone wants to do for residency. A few of them are already planning on playing basketball at the gym every morning before classes start. It should be an easy week and he will be able to get lots of odds and ends done to secure his 4th year rotations.
We are getting excited about our New England vacation as soon as we’re back form St. George. June 29 - July 7. We just went and got some maps and tour books of western New York and Massachusetts. We hope to spend a couple days in Boston and then drive over to Palmyra and camp there for a few days while we visit Niagara Falls, Palmyra and see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It looks like there is a lot to see. We will probably be spending the 4th of July at Niagara Falls. And then we’ll celebrate Katie’s birthday at the pageant.
Ryan has been saying some funny stuff lately. At the playground the other day, he climbed up something all by himself and then declared, “Mommy, I’m so big”. I confirmed by saying, “Yes Ryan, you ARE so big”. Then he says, “Ya, I are so big”. He says this all the time. This morning he shut the door so he was hiding in the closet. I said, “Where is my boy?” He opened the door and with his arms outstretched he said, “There I am”. He is so funny. Lately he has wanted to do ‘exercises’. That’s the 8 minute TAE-BO tape. I put it in for him and he really stretches, kicks, jumps, punches and even does the cool down. It is SOOOO cute to watch. Chris even video recorded him doing it. I’m sure he’ll laugh at that in the future.
At the dinner table we occasionally have to try and get Ryan to eat a couple more bites. We usually pick up the spoon and say “Is this a train or a plan or a boat” and let him decide. It works like a charm. He almost always picks boat because he likes to hear me say, ‘splash splash splash’. Now we’ve come up with a whole new genre. “Is this Woody or Buzz or Jessie or Zurg?” He immediately picks one and we recite a little quote as he gobbles it iup. At dinner tonight he decided to do it to himself. He picked up his spoon of rice and said, “This is Woody” and as the spoon got closer he said, “Howdy, theres a snake in my boots”. Then before he actually gets it to his mouth he chuckles at himself and in the process shakes the rice all over the place. “Uh-oh”. We couldn’t help but laugh.
Geneva and Carter (age 2) and baby Hanna came over a while ago to give Katie a “Get Better Soon” balloon. That was sweet. On the way over Geneva kept telling Carter that they were going over to see Katie but Carter kept saying “Ryn, Ryn”. He absolutely loves Ryan. Geneva kept saying, “We’re going over to see Ryan and ?” and paused so Carter would say Katie. Instead Carter thought for a minute and said “Ryn and … Buzz and Woody”. As soon as he came in he handed the balloon to Ryn and then went upstairs to Ryan’s room to get Buzz and Woody off his bed. He is a funny boy.
Katie is standing up so good. 20 seconds is her record. Yesterday she got to a standing position by herself for the first time. She gets so proud of herself. She’s also proud of herself when she helps put the legos away. She picks one up and puts it in the container. Ryan says, “Yeah, Katie, you did it” and claps for her and she gets so excited that she pats herself on the chest with both hands. It is so cute. And then they do it again. Katie is starting to say Mama. It has replaced Dada but she does not know what it means. She is only experimenting with new sounds. I can’t believe she will be a year old a month from today. She is 18 pounds which is about the 20th percentile. She’s a tiny little girl.
We had a fantastic Visiting Teaching Conference last Sunday. The theme was “Chicken Soup for the Visiting Teachers Soul”. They had a lot of cute skits, handouts and awesome talks. It’s always so fun to go to Relief Society.
I’m reading the 2nd Harry Potter book. They are very entertaining.
Lisa, Chris, Ryan and Katie
Saying Goodbye to Geneva
We lived in Maryland from July 1998 to the summer of 2001. While we lived here, we made some amazing friends. Our best friends were Jared and Geneva Chugg. We were actually in the same married ward at BYU for a time, but we didn’t really get to know each other until we ended up living close to each other in Maryland. At the beginning of our fourth year of medical school, we both left Maryland to do rotations in other places. Before they left, Geneva brought over this letter and we took a few pictures, said goodbye and started sobbing. We were both very emotional. It was a sad goodbye. We will really miss living close to each other.
Dear Lisa,
I just wanted to let you know what a great friend you are and how much I look up to you. You are such a great gal and talented in so many ways. I have appreciated our friendship and all the things you have taught me. Most importantly how to be a better wife, mother and daughter of God. I of course love all the scrapbooking, cooking, sewing, decorating and fashion ideas you have shared with me as well! I love your positive outlook on life and hope it has rubbed off on me. I will miss you terribly and can’t imagine my life without keeping in touch with you. Jared and I will always look back and have fond memories of our medical school years; especially our friendship with the Johnson’s. Thank you for teaching me so many things and for sharing your life with me. I will miss you and all the great times we have spent together.
Love, Geneva Chugg
Letter from Lisa - June 21, 2001
A week ago Friday, Chris and I had a fun ‘date night’. We got a babysitter and then went with Jared and Geneva out to Baja Fresh for dinner and then over to the driving range to hit some balls. We had a great time.
We’ve had several Doctors appointments in the last week. Katie’s nose seems to be healing well. The ENT doctor is pleased. We have to go back in another month and then in 6 months. Katie also had another VCUG. That is where they empty the bladder and then watch it through an xray machine while it fills up again to see if she has reflux (urine going back up the ureters to the kidney - which then causes pyelonephritis (infection of the kidneys) which is what she had the first time she was admitted last September. Anyway, she has no reflux on the one side and just a tiny bit on the other side so that is good news. She is still taking medicine every night and it seems to be doing the trick.
My kids were so cute in church on Sunday. Katie sits on Daddy’s lap for most of sacrament meeting. She was sitting on his knees holding on to the bench in front staring at the chorister. She started waving her hands just like her. It was so cute. Also in Sacrament Meeting, Ryan drew his first real face complete with circle, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. I made such a big fuss over it that he continued to draw them all over the page. It is so cute. Then I asked him “Which one is Katie? … Ryan? … Grandpa? … etc.” He was so excited to tell me who was who. It’s definitely a keeper.
Last Thursday I hosted a ‘bow making get together’. Lots of the girls in the ward wanted me to teach them how to make the bows I make for Katie. There were seven ladies and a whole bunch of kids so it was a very full house. I like to host things though. It is fun to get together with friends.
Last Friday some of our close friends who moved to Kentucky in January (the Currans) came back for a visit. We got together with our 6 best friend couples (with no kids) and ate out and enjoyed a night of talking and catching up. The boys went golfing prior to that. It was a fun night and a great way to celebrate Chris’ last day of 3rd year. Boy does it feel good to be totally done. He is now doing a week of Preventative Medicine and playing basketball every morning with all his 3rd year friends. He has been getting home between 1:00 and 3:00 pm so it’s been nice to spend the afternoons together.
It was my turn for preschool on Tuesday. We are continuing to do it through the summer. For their art project, I practices with each one individually to write the letters in their name. Ryan’s turned out really cute.
I went to girls night last night and it was the last one with everybody. So sad. We stayed up until 2:45 just talking and talking. Tonight we have enrichment. It’s going to be a fun one - how to take cute pictures of your kids and yummy summer recipes. Sometime I need to pack too! Yikes, we leave tomorrow.
Love, Lisa and family
St. George
We were able to fly out to Utah to go to St. George with the Johnsons. We had free flights from our trip to Seattle last summer and this was the perfect use for them. We had a fantastic long weekend doing all of our favorite St. George activities … golfing, eating out at the Pizza Factory and Pasta Factory, hiking, visiting the St. George temple grounds and playing at the pool. The boys all played games with Ryan’s new water balls. The gals suntanned and watched the kids play in the pool. Ryan loved swimming with his water wings on. Katie loved floating around in her little yellow boat. We took advantage of the pool several of the days we were there. It is so nice to cool off in such hot weather. We love St. George!
Ryan’s Birthday
Saturday we had Ryan’s friend birthday party. We had a great time. Ryan was so excited just getting ready for the party. He helped Daddy make cupcakes and he loved the Helium balloons that we put all over the living room. It was so cute to see how excited he got when his little friends came to the door. He invited Jace Breinholt, Kennidy Creswell, Ethan Carlson, Carter Chugg and Elise Cummings. They were all so excited to give him their present and some wanted him to open it right that minute. During the course of the games and decorating cupcakes, almost all of the kids had already told Ryan what their present was for him. It’s just too hard to keep it a secret. It was so funny. He got a great Toy Story 2 set with figurines of Woody, Jesse, Bullseye and the Prospector. It is adorable. He also got a baseball mitt and ball, some matchbox cars, a magna doodle and a Flip Top Doodler (great for all our travels this next year). Then we got him a wooden trian set which he absolutely loves. Every time we come home and he sees his train set up in the living room he says “Oh Daddy, look at my beautiful train”. He is so excited to have another birthday party in St. George. He won’t be as excited for Katie’s party, I’m afraid. He thinks all of Katie’s Christmas toys are his. It will be hard for him to just watch Katie open hers. Yes he is definitely three - or ‘fee’ as he says it.
Rhode Island
We had planned a 2 week epic vacation throughout New England. We started out in Rhode Island, which was so much fun. We enjoyed seeing the huge mansions in Newport, the picture perfect views of the ocean and the quaint little shops in town.
Boston
Next we headed to Boston. It was a beautiful hot day. We took the T from our hotel right into the Boston Commons, the oldest public park in the United States. Here we started the ‘Freedom Trail’. We saw ornate churches, an old marketplace, neat Boston streets and the burial grounds of people such as Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock. We took a ferry ride and saw a gorgeous view of the Boston skyline and harbor. One of our favorite things was touring the USS Constitution, the Navy ship used to defeat the British in the War of 1812. By 4:30, we were exhausted and decided to have a relaxing dinner at the Chart House. We had lobster! We were sure it was the Boston thing to do.
Just as we were finishing our dinner, the sky turned gray. We ran through the streets, dirt getting in our eyes. Ryan and Katie didn’t know what was going on. Trash was flying around the ground and I screamed once as a newspaper attacked me from behind. I’ve never seen anything like it. I couldn’t keep up with Chris pushing the stroller, partly because I had just eaten, but mostly because I got the giggles. It was crazy. Once we were on the T it started to pour. We waited a while, but finally decided we should just run to our hotel through the storm. We put Ryan in the back of the stroller with Katie and we ran. The puddles alone got us soaked! What fun memories we have of our day in Boston.
