Things to Do in New Mexico

As you probably know, I have had a long break since mid-November since our schedule during the fourth year of medical school is rather flexible. As we will be leaving for San Antonio in just a couple short weeks, we have been trying to fit in as many New Mexicany things as possible for our family to do. We have gone to the zoo, aquarium, and botanical gardens numerous times, spent time at the NM Museum of Natural History and at Explora, and gone trekking at the top of the mountain. We also went to Meow Wolf (an immersive art experience) in Santa Fe and to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Here are some photos!

MEOW WOLF

The lines to get into Meow Wolf were a little ridiculous.

I guess everyone wanted to be a green spikey-headed creature being threatened by his giant, sadistic, cybertronic rat-friend.

Playing music on the ribs of a glowing pink dinosaur:

Meow Wolf was pretty amazing. If we didn't have kids with us, we could have spent all day there trying to solve the mystery of The House of Eternal Return. There are portals throughout the house where you can easily get lost. In fact, Joey did get lost for a few frightening minutes. Neither me nor Kiley saw him leave the room where we were at, and we only found him when I finally got scared and started crying for us. Oops.

Look at this strange giraffe-necked, flat-faced, llama-looking creature. 

Me and my boys sitting on a couch in a cave.

Here are some other photos that I borrowed from online (since I was too busy chasing my kids to take them myself). If you like art and interactive museums, I would definitely recommend this place. It's a bit pricey but worth it if you have a few hours to look around:

KASHA-KATUWE TENT ROCKS

This gem of a hiking spot is about an hour outside of Albuquerque, between here and Santa Fe. There is some amazing hiking, and it is very interesting to see history through the rock formations left behind. You can see all the different layers of the rock, including intense ash layers from massive volcanic eruptions.

I'm very proud of Joey, who hike over 2-miles all by himself!

What is it about boys and rocks?

This little cave used to be the home of an ancient caveman. You can still see the black scorch marks on the ceiling of the cave from fires lit in the center of the cave. 

Look at this cool tree! Awesome photo-shoot opportunity.

Too bad we didn't have some to take a photo of our entire family in front of these roots...

Joey's a great hiker! Can't wait to go on outings with him once he's a Boy Scout.

And of course, to emphasize the point that boys love rocks, here is a video of these amazing kids. Why do they have to grow up so fast??

Well, hope you enjoyed seeing a snapshot of our outings. More blog posts to come!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hi Everyone!

I want to wish you a Happy Mother's Day, but especially to my amazing wife Kiley. She always goes above and beyond, and I am grateful for her companionship and love. Plus, she always takes the time to blog about our family for keepsake purposes! For Mother's Day, I'll be trying to add some posts about our recent adventures (so Kiley can have a break). Here are some fun photos of the boys to give you a smile on this lovely day:

And, of course, we can't forget about the video of the kiddos pretending to be puppies. Joey used to do this funny like bark all the time. He's grown out of it since, but it's still fun to watch his pure joy as he plays make believe with his brother.

Dear Joseph,

Four years ago we became parents, and not only that, but parents to you! Time has flown by, and yet I can hardly remember life without having you. This was a good year, and I've learned quite a bit. Your speech has really improved, and I can understand most of what you are trying to communicate to me (unless you are hysterical or being silly with your language). We decided to see if you could receive services through the Albuquerque Public School system, and they did some testing and it turns out you meet the "educational criteria" for autism. I don't think it's a full diagnosis, but it has helped me as a mama to be more mindful and patient with you.

We tried potty training you, and you were doing fairly well (as long as I forced you to sit on the toilet), but I think we both started getting lazy. That, and knowing you could have autism, I decided to wait until you are ready for the transition. But some other new things you can do: pedal, slide without coaxing, dress and undress with a little help, unlock our front door, and play simple games. Speaking of unlocking doors, we have to be careful about that. You like to wander out without adults at our apartment and a couple days ago we could not find you anywhere! Of course you were in the last little corner of the complex we didn't check. I'm trying to figure out how to teach you about safety.

You love your screen time and you've taken a liking to many shows. From your third birthday to fourth, you loved Curious George, Super Why, Little Einsteins, then...PAW PATROL. Puppies and firetrucks, you are smitten. The theme song is really the only song you will sing at the moment (but your singing is so cute). You have Paw Patrol toys, blanket, body wash, clothes and shoes. We'll see when you grow out of it, but it doesn't seem like it will be anytime soon. Your love for cars or things that go haven't been diminished, though. And your brother is following in your footsteps with that love.

You and your brother. I'm hoping you are gaining some sort of a relationship, but right now you have typical big brother tendencies. Eli is always bothering you in some way, even if he is ten feet away from you or sitting in my lap. However, we babysit a little boy around Eli's age once a week and you love this baby. He even does the same things Eli does. It's actually funny in a way. You don't like Eli for the fact that he is your brother. You are always wary of any actions of his, thinking all of them are malicious and intentionally annoying. We'll figure out how to get you to to get along one day. You have friends and cousins that you don't mind playing with, although you tend to still like playing by yourself.

Another show you love is the Magic School Bus. Because we were able to get services through APS, you now go to to a preschool that combines speech, occupational, and physical therapy. What you were most excited about was riding the school bus there! You were happy to go to school for the first week, and then the excitement wore off. Little do you know, buddy, that you will be going to school for pretty much the next 20 years or so. Since we are moving to Texas next month, we'll have to figure out school for you. I'm not considering home schooling, but the hardest part of your going to school is having a couple hours in your day that I am not a part of. I don't really know what you do at school, who your friends are, or even what you ate for breakfast. It's hard to see my Joey begin some of his life without us!

We thought you had pinkeye on your birthday, so we took you to the doctor (turns out it was just bad allergies). But we got your weight (35 lbs) which is a 7 pounds heavier than last year. You (and your brother) have been terrible eaters lately, but your favorite foods at the moment are: yogurt, fruit, corndogs, goldfish, jelly sandwiches, soda, pizza, and water. Typical picky eater diet. You got your first cavity this year too, along with your first ER visit. Some of your favorite things include: puppies, the zoo, the aquarium, the beach, Explora, Jeep Grandma (Grandma Hobbs), Chicken Grandma (Grandma Kartchner), Dion's, firetrucks, garbage trucks, police cars, buses, and cousins. Some things you don't like are: scary scenes in movies, most food, sharing, doctors and dentists, using the potty, and going to bed.

If you ever feel you are just one person in the world, remember you mean the world to us. You really do. You are a happy little guy who's learning so much. You became a Sunbeam this year and I'm excited to expand your gospel knowledge and sing all those songs with you. I hope Christ influences your life and that His Light shines through you. This year will be a big one for all of us, so let's make it fun and meaningful. You are so loved.

Love, Mama

My LONG Break

Thanks Kiley for always being so awesome and updating our blog! You rock. I'm so glad I married you.

I decided that since you had a nice update on our family in general, I should tell you what I have been up to the past few months. I think you already saw the table I built for Kiley, but there is so much more!

Poster Kiley and I made to show off the places we've visited together. Looks like we have some traveling to do...

As you probably know, I am a commissioned officer in the Air Force, and my medical education is being financed by the government. There are many great benefits but also some drawbacks. One benefit (and drawback) is that my funding will end, according to my contract, upon graduation or upon completion of graduation requirements if that precedes graduation by 45 days or more. Since I have finished all but one elective block (4-week course) for medical school, I was planning on taking a bunch of electives during my last semester. As it turns out, I couldn't take the electives because the military would end my living stipend. When I emailed about the issues, I was told that the Air Force wouldn't pay me to take a long vacation at the end of my medical education, but I found it strange they didn't mind paying for a four-and-a-half-month vacation in the middle of my fourth year of medical school instead of letting me to take meaningful courses that would help me be a more well-rounded physician. Not that I'm complaining!

Here I am at the Klondike Derby, where I camped with the 11-Year-Old Scouts in my Dad's ward. In the morning, I helped run the first aid station and had a blast! Hopefully I'll get a calling in the Young Men's program one of these days...

I didn't think I would be prepared for the cold weather, but I realized my Air Force ABUs were perfect! I even went for a 3-mile run in the snow at 5:30am, heard coyotes howling, and saw some bear tracks. Pretty awesome...

My dad making breakfast burritos before the competition! 

This was the First Aid station where the Boy Scouts had to care for a car crash victim (the scenario progressed from a simple arm wound to unconsciousness, vomiting and aspiration, and cardiac arrest)

A troop trying to figure out what to do (it was a hard scenario for everyone! Except for maybe the team of girls, who ended up beating out every single Boy Scout troop in the entire competition...)

This was an awesome homemade PVC sled that could be disassembled in a jiffy

I had a number of goals for my time off, including working on family projects (such as building the dining room table) and writing a sequel to my book Memoirs of a High School Dropout: Secrets to Success. I was tempted to entitle my new book Your Doctor Dropped Out of High School, but settled on Doctor in the Making. I am still in the editing process, but overall I think it's a success! Sure, it won't be a best-seller anytime soon, but I am happy to leave my life story little-by-little for my kiddos.

The first proof of my book arrived! Wow, it actually looks pretty good...

And finally, Match Day arrived for 4th Year Medical Students! Medical students around the country (and foreign graduates around the world) compete for residency positions during their last year of training. This is part of the reason why we have so much time off (we jokingly call fourth year "the most expensive vacation of our lives"). Match Day was March 17th at 11am. It was a great celebration! The amazing Dr. Robert Melendez spoke, as well as a number of faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and it went great. 

UNM School of Medicine Class of 2017 - can't believe we're all doctors now!

Here is a map composite showing where we all matched. Can you find me? Probably not, due to the low-quality image...

 In case you haven't heard (if you're not on Facebook or something), Kiley and I matched! Being in the Air Force, we matched back in December but haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now. I matched at the San Antonio Military Medical Center/Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, where I will be doing my intern year in General Surgery and then my residency training in Ophthalmology. Woohoo! It was my first (and only) choice of residency and program, so we are very excited! We are going to be Texans, moving to San Antonio in May of this year!

Our Crazy Boys

 Our life with these boys are never dull. Here are some random pictures just to update on their shenanigans.

Eli's obsessed with cars. He has them parked along this container lid.

We watch our friends' baby while they are in school. 

I don't know what was happening, but I thought it was ridiculous enough to snap a picture.

We got to visit a fire station. Joey LOVED it.
Eli wanted to wonder around and that was hard.

This is my circus and these are my monkeys!

Joey started getting into photography. Not bad, eh?

Selfie!

This picture melts my heart!

Eli is soo clumsy. He slips and trips and falls regularly.
His head met this cement park bench
 and the result was a good goose egg.

Doesn't stop him from getting back up and causing mischief wherever he goes. 

Joey at our St. Patrick's Dessert Auction

These brothers. I think they like each other. They follow each other around at least. But Joey is pretty mean to his brother and still pinches, scratches, grabs, pushes, pokes, kicks, and even bites him. Any suggestions on preventing this behavior?