Colorado in the spring

Spring has sprung...

Ok, so this lack of posting has gotten totally out of hand. I just am bad at keeping up with it since my Sarah isn't here helping me (sigh). But I am determined to catch the blog up on our lives over the last several (ok like 7) months...

LLAC...with the internship end in site (yah!!) our spring in Colorado went by so quickly. Easter was early this year, and I actually had the weekend off! Here is the one picture of Tom and I from Easter 2008 (so sad, plus it's not a very good photo of either of us!) but I did make Tom and all my internmates easter baskets to semi-celebrate Easter, even though everyone else was working.

Some other pics from March, these are from the mornings we had doing rounds with Dr. Swanson. This day we were practicing joint injections.

April was exciting since Tom and I knew we were headed back east. Don't get me wrong we LOVED Colorado, but being away from family made it tough to be so far away. Here are a few pictures from when Tom visited MD to find a place to live and look for a job. His parents, Vicky and Will, met him there to help out...they are great. Plus it was their anniversary!




There was a parade in Easton that day...aren't the Clydesdales awesome!


LLAC in April was also fun...the girls went to dinner with Cheryl (our Colorado Mom) at our favorite local restaurant NoNo's. It was right down the street from the clinic and had a great atmosphere and New Orlean's style food.

I know all of us internmates miss our Cheryl!!



This is a random picture where I felt like I looked like Lady from "Lady and the Tramp" even more than usual...c'mon it's true, I am totally Lady with that hair! I do look a little scary though.


Later that month, we FINALLY had our Princess Bride Party with a bunch of the girls from work. Becky had originally planned our "PBP" as we coined it in August 07 and it took us til April to actually get together!! Sad, but that's the way the year went...you couldn't really plan anything! Anyway, we had a great time at Unger's house. She made the best dinner and we all brought sides and desserts...Yum! And you can never go wrong watching The Princess Bride!

The part of April that was my favorite though, was that my mom and sister, Emily, came out to visit on their spring break. It was so absolutely wonderful to see them, since work was super busy and I missed home!

Here is us at Noodles and Co, one of our favorite quick eateries of the year...and it was right down the street.



Emily even got to go riding! Jenny was my absolute favorite trainer of the year! She is the sweetest person, greatest teacher (she gave me lessons when I had any spare time), and has a great group of school horses. Always a good time at the Colorado Horse Park.




Katie was there that night too, riding Chili, the wonder pony.



It was always fun with these girls! Here's Katie, me and Jenny.


May was extra fun because I had Memorial Day weekend off!! Tom and I visited Leo and Cristin and we all ran the Bolder Boulder, which is one of the largest races in the country. It's a 10K and I think they beat their old record by registering over 53,000 people this year. It was fun...and my knee actually held up to the challenge, the most I had run in 3 1/2 years!

Here's some pics at the race.

Here's the collage Tom was most proud of...catching all the port-o-potty action.

After the race, we all went back to Leo and Cristin's for a BBQ and some corn-hole (or corn-toss...depending on where you're from). There were actually a bunch of people from FL there and it was fun to reminsce about our old times in G-vegas, tailgating for the Gator games and playing some fierce games of corn-hole. We miss those days!

Kevin and Leo

Group shot!


There were several LLAC events that also made the month a fun one. The first was Margaritaville II at the Gaughan's. Apparently this has become tradition (since last year's party was a hit), so needless to say, we were excited to attend. I tried to get pics of everyone, especially of them making funny faces or doing crazy things...here goes:










Of course, we had to play our camara game, thanks for the great photography Tom ...the players: Hailey, FTB, Carrie-Margarita, me, & K-Zuti

Pics of our intern dinner and the KY Derby are coming up...sooner than later I hope :)

LLAC feb

donnie&dor vist

February 2008

June 8, 2008

Quite a spring…

So now that I figured out how to log-in to the blog again I can start filling in the gap from February to June. Clearly a lot has happened since then and both Tom and I have been super busy. I’ll try and keep up now though, since we’ll be moving in two weeks back east (and I’ll have a long car ride to blog).

To start off the month of February Dr. Story had us all over for the Superbowl…which of course was a must-watch for Tom and I (mostly me) since the NY football Giants were playing the undefeated New England Pats. Anyway, we enjoyed good food and friends and cheered NY to victory…what a game!!

A group shot of all the girls and Dr. Story's boys...this picture makes me happy!

It’s always fun to go to the Story-Brown house since her boys keep us entirely entertained. Nathan is going to be a buckin’ bull rider like no other of the bull he named “Dental Floss.” It’s the cutest thing to watch him on that bull in the living room.

Go Nathan!

Dr. Story and her husband, David. He made us homemade, awesome pizzas!

Alani and Matthew

Nathan loves taking pics of us all watching the game...

Kaylan and Becky lovin' the pizza

Later in February, I went on an east coast tour looking for a job. I flew into Raleigh, NC where I got to see Jim, Dawn, Ella, Meg and Cody. I also got to see old friends from NJ, Darren and Nicole Flynn and their baby Madison. I then went to Delaware, Maryland, NJ to see the fam for a night, up to MA and finally to VT where I flew back to CO. I got to see Kitty Milton (Kerri Mitton for those of you who didn't know her) and stay with her family in MA. Here’s a fun collage…

After getting back from a whirl-wind trip driving from NC to VT in 5 days, Dorothy, Donnie and her fiancé (then boyfriend) Aaron came to visit since I had the rare weekend off. It was such a blast…we just laughed the whole time whether it was at Starbucks taking funny pictures, at the grocery store, or at home playing the laughing game. We also watched practically the entire first 3 seasons of The Office thanks to Dor.


Random funnies!

Tom, Greasy Gina from Jouwsee, and Amy

Amy, Donnie and Aaron
Amy, Kevin and Tom when we played beer-pong at Kevin's house. Poor Tom hates being my partner because I don't drink beer so he gets it all :)
Aaron and Donnie are getting married on October 4th 2008...yah!! Congrats! Soon they'll be Aaron and Lauren Watson.
Aaron, Donnie, and Dor...

The people at Starbucks pretty much thought we were crazy :)

And of course I worked a lot, so here’s a few fun photos to remember the good times at LLAC…it’s always easier looking back on the months past and saying that they were “good” since at the time I was really suffering from work burn-out. None-the-less, time has flown and now the internship year is almost up!!

Jeff, Nick (the horse) and I after surgery

Kaylan, Dr. Unger and Dr. Bain sitting in Griffindore (we named our desk area)

Here's an assortment of pictures I love to remember...

Ash and Chai say bye-bye for now...

January 2008

January in Colorado…

The first month of 2008 has been a busy one, but as always we try to make it as fun as possible!

January 1, 2008
Happy New Year!

I was primary on call that week so needless to say my New Year’s Eve was less exciting than most years. It was a freezing night in Littleton and luckily I didn’t have any calls to go out on. So instead Becky, Jordy, Alani and I had a dance party up in the “leaning tower” (what we call the apartment above the clinic that Becky and Jordy live in, it’s literally falling over). It was just the 4 of us, but we had fun. Becky and I learned the “Soulja Boy” dance and Jordy showed us a few of his signature moves…hysterical!

Fun in the Kerscher's apartment with Alani, Becky and Jordy

Becky, Alani, & I

Stacy and Matt at our apartment

Tom went out with Matt DelPreore and his girlfriend Stacy who were visiting from NJ. Matt went to the same highschool as I did and then wound up being Tom’s freshman roommate at Rutgers…it’s a long story but it’s kind of through him that we met. They went to dinner and then came home in time enough to say “happy new year!” to me as I was in bed already…I’ve decided that this year doesn’t count when it comes to holidays or having any sort of life outside work.

January 10, 2008
Starbucks

Amidst a schedule that doesn’t allow much time to enjoy each other’s company outside of work, my favorite internmates and I look forward to any morning we can get away to Starbucks for some coffee. We are “regulars” at a local `Bucks just down the road from the clinic. It’s so fun to get away from the clinic, even if it’s just for a few minutes in the morning…although it’s becoming an expensive habit!

Me & Kaylan

Becky & Alani

That's a serious white chocolate mocha Kersh...
Alani can't wait for the table...she's also drunk in this picture.
Kaylan is so excited for her awake tea! (like she needs to be more "awake")

January 12, 2008
WEEKEND OFF!!

Since I only have a few weekends off for the rest of the year, Tom and I try to go exploring somewhere new. We were going to visit Glenwood Springs, but traffic was so bad we decided to go somewhere closer. We wound up driving up to Fort Collins, which is where CSU and the vet school is. It was a cute town and we found a beautiful park overlooking the reservoir. It was a lot of fun to hike around…and we can’t resist the photo opps!

This is one of my favorite pics...isn't the sky amazing!

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary (sort 0f) by going to coffee at Starbucks and enjoying some QT hiking in the trails near the reservoir in Ft. Collins.

SASSY TEAPOT LIVES!!

This sass is for you Joe and Kate (by the way congrats to them for getting engaged)

January 18-20, 2008
National Western Stock Show

Traditionally, LLAC works the National Western Stock Show every year. So…the interns rotated staying in a hotel in downtown Denver and being the attending veterinarian at the NWSS for the month it was in the works. It was work of course, but it was also a lot of fun. Tom got to come and stay with me during some of the time. Heather is one of the vet assistants that works at LLAC during her school vacations, who also came along for the fun. We got to see everything from Western pleasure and performance classes, to Hunters, Jumpers and rodeos! Lots of horses doing every job you can imagine! But it’s not just horses at the stock show (hence the name), it’s also like a state fair in that there is everything from steers and heifers to chickens, goats, and rabbits being shown. There are also art exhibits and a huge trade show where fair food (yum!) and too many vendors to describe. It was an awesome event…here’s some pics.


We're off to the races...

I don't know, it looks like Heather is doing more than racing...does she need a bathroom? :)


Dustin, Dr. Dunbar and Heather watching horses warm up in the warm-up arena.

The vet truck parked outside the extraordinarily scenic area in the far corner of the facility where we had our luxurious office (that's a joke by the way). Heather's givin the thumbs up for how much fun we had... we were actually pretty slow most days but got to watch a lot of the shows.

The "kid's" petting zoo...we must be kids at heart since we spent a lot of time here!

Awwe...is that not the cutest little face. He loved to suck on our fingers

Rodeo nights at the stock show were fun. The best was the "mutton bustin" where little kids get put on sheep and hold on for their lives as the sheep make a run for it. Then they all get trophies that are twice as tall as they are. So funny! The other events are exciting too...the bucking broncs are always fun to watch and the shows that are put on in between events are pretty entertaining.

January 24th, 2008
Visit to Glenwood Springs

My first job interview...yes first real job...was in Glenwood Springs, CO. My internmate Becky is also applying for the job so we went together for our interviews. What a gorgeous town tucked up in the mountains. It had a really cute downtown area where Becky and I had lunch. The clinic was really quaint and nice too. It was a treat to be away from the clinic! Here's a few highlights of our visit.





Glenwood springs...Becky and I at the cafe, some mountain views, and a picture of the clinic

Christmas

Twas the night before christmas and the cats were excited, for their parents were home and they were delighted!

The morning came quick as Queen Sass (amy) had to rise, and the drive into work 2 hours fore the sunrise. The snow it was falling and would continue you'll see, the first white christmas for the youngest Tanis family.

The horses were nesseled all snug in their stall, as we left the clinic amidst the snowfall.
On prancer, and Amy and Tom through the snow, to Dr. Gaughn's house for dinner with "family" below!
The cats were our guards for the tree was ginormous, a 3 foot red wood in our house oh how glorious!
The cats were hung by the tormentor with care, while visions of no internship soon would be there. With Amy in her pj's and I in mine too, we missed our family and friends so much, never again to be blue. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

AAEP - Orlando, Florida

AAEP – December 1-5, 2007

The American Association of Equine Practitioners has an annual international convention held every December. This year, through the best of luck, I was able to attend the conference in Orlando, FL…it was like a trip back home! Only 2 interns from LLAC were able to go and Kaylan and I were drew the long straws.

Kaylan and I at the airport

The theme of the trip for me and Kaylan must have been getting lost and making the best of it. To start out, our rental car place was off-site from the Orlando airport. Well we got on the wrong shuttle bus, which took us to the wrong rental place, so we had a nice tour of the airport’s surrounding scenery! And we were so happy the first time we found the shuttle, we had to get a picture in front of it…and then after getting on the wrong one, we had to document our finding the correct shuttle!

Wrong shuttle...
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Correct shuttle....

We finally got our car...Kaylan couldn't contain herself
I got to meet up with some great friends during the short hectic stay in Fla. It was mostly UF alums that had also made the trip for the equine conference. But Marcia and Kelly made some time to squeeze in a drive to come and see us. It was so fun! On Tuesday, Kerri Mitton and I escaped at lunch and joined Marcia, her mom, Kelly and her baby Michaela at the Millenium Mall. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and took pics in front of their glorious tree. Baby Michaela was just precious! She didn’t cry the whole time as we passed her around the table during lunch.

Kitty Milton, me, Marcia

Collage of vet school friends

Posing in front of the tree...

Some of the technicians from LLAC got to go too. Here's all of us at dinner one night.

Sarah, me, Kathy, Jess, Kris and Kaylan


Kaylan, Sarah, and Kathy

And we did manage to go out a few nights for dance party!! Dr. Toppin and the ladies posing here. He was the only one brave enough to hit the town with all us girls.

Oh yeah, and I did actually go to lectures and learn a bunch about the career I’ve just entered. It is a weird feeling now, being away from the clinic – not on call or being woken up in the middle of the night, getting up at 4:45am for treatments at 6am….and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately after this little rendezvous I have only 4 more weekends off until June 20, 2008 (not that I’m counting!)….let the job search begin!