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!

Thanksgiving with the Tanis fam

Wednesday, November 21st

All the planning, preparation, and effort that went into making this Thanksgiving a memorable one sure paid off as the whole Tanis fam came out to visit Tom and I in Colorado. Mom, Dad, Joe and his girlfriend Katie (after Joe and Katie had run the Philidelphia marathan hours before) began the adventure in NJ, where they picked up the RV and headed down to North Carolina to pick up Jim, Dawn and the kids. The next day all 9 of them took the 40 hour drive cross country to Colorado. From their arrival in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Thanksgiving extravaganza was in full swing.

Wednesday was full of a whole lot of catching up, laughs and great food. It had snowed the night before so needless to say some sort of snow ball fight was in store.

Here are some snowball fight highlights. By the end we all had snow down are shirts and in our ears, even the girls were in on the action.

Family dinner!

The rest of the day was spent doing a little shopping in preparation for our trip to the mountains on Friday and getting food ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday, November 22nd

What a great day! The girls helped me prepare quite the Thanksgiving smorgasboard. The morning was spent working up our appetite in a 4 mile Turkey Trot put together by Colorado Athletic Club. Tom actually worked the race and cheered on the runners. Great pictures Tom, by the way. The afternoon was spent cooking up a storm, from sweet potatoe pie to a new cranberry recipe, we had some good eats! Tom and Dad carved the turkey, awsome job guys! And of course delicious desserts were in store as well, Amy's personal favorite was the jello shot (one for me, one for them...)

These are some highlights of the turkey trot. Joe and Amy ran together (left) and there's always time for family photos (right).

The "sassy teapot" pose by Tom, Amy, and Joe

These are some fun family shots at our house and in the RV.

Later on Thursday, all 11 of us headed west to the Rockies. We rented an RV site in Breckenridge, a quaint and beautitul mountain town. We got there and it was 10 degrees and so cold! And temperature regulation wasn't the easiest in the RV, so we all bundled up.

Friday, November 23rd

In the morning Joe, Kate, Jim, Dawn, Tom and I got our ski and snowboard gear and headed to the mountain. Dawn and I skied and the others snowboarded. We hit the slopes all morning. It was perfect conditions and so clear and picturesque. Poor Dawn suffered from altitude sickness in the morning but she toughed it out and joined us after lunch. Later that night we all ate a delicious steak dinner prepared by Mom and Dad and then played Cranium and laughed hysterically all night long (Dad Tanis-name 3 things that remind you of Las Vegas....gambling, girls, and Elvis...you had to be there).

These are a few of the pics taken from our day skiing at Breckenridge. It was chilly but awe-inspiringly beautiful!

This picture just makes me laugh. I look like a 1985 ski model with tight-elastic pants and a super puffy coat doing my sexy pose on the slopes! Everyone else looks like their in the 21st century though so you know it's from this weekend. We definitely had a blast.

Saturday, November 24th

We got up early so that we could get a few family photos with the majestic mountains as the backdrop. Here's just a few...

And finally the infamous RV that made this whole trip the adventure that it was. From dripping water into the dining area when the ice was melting on the roof, to the table edge falling off, and despite all the ricketing and rattling, it was quite a fun home for a few days spent with a great family!!

Catching up (our first 4 months in Littleton)

November 10, 2007

Better late than never....

This post is just a random assortment of pictures from our summer and fall here in Littleton. Amy starting her internship at LLAC, Tom starting his job at Colorado Athletic Club and everything in between.

Here are the people I spend more time with than my husband...my internmates. They are all great and I love them dearly. We are a great team and without their help, I'd be in trouble!

Dave, goofing off in ICU. He's the only guy intern this year and has done a great job putting up with so much estrogen!

Kaylan, our Canadian, striking a pose in Griffendor (the name of our desk)!

Becky, the bat catcher. Yes, there were bats living upstairs this summer.

Alani, picture time! We love her, even though she's from Fargo :)

Me, hamming it up in anesthesia. I'm very camara shy, can't you tell.

Here are all the girls at Cristina's bachelorette party. We went out to dinner at On The Border and then next door to dance at Lodo's. Unfortunately the DJ was terrible, but we made the best of it and had fun!

This collage is just some of the procedures that we've done since I've started. The top left, I'm emptying a cecum during colic surgery; top right Dr. Gaughan and I are lancing a peri-anal abscess; bottom left is a laceration I sutured up on a 3 year old (unhandled) mustang; bottom right I'm taking digital pulses on one of our post-op colic patients.

My internmates have become my family and I love these girls. We try and have fun outside of work: going for walks with their dogs, Starbucks in the mornings (when we don't have rounds), going out to dinner (we love Nono's restaruant), and breakfast rounds at Panera!

It would be an even tougher year if we didn't try and make the best out of our long hours. Laughing and taking funny pictures is what we do best. Here are just a few of the smiling faces at LLAC!

We've had some very special patients during our first 4 months here. You spend so much time with the horses and put so much energy into getting them well, it's difficult not to get attached. Some of my favorites so far have been these guys: Cuba (top left), Bambi (top right), Bud (bottom left), and Hap (bottom right).

More cute horses that we've become attached to....Sam, he didn't make it and we miss him dearly (top left), Nona (top right), Jackie (bottom left), and of course all the mini foals.

Here are some pics of our dear little kitties enjoying their Colorado home. We like to dress them up and show them new things like snow. They are definitely snuggley and Chai is still our "sassy squeeze box!"

Here are a few pictures that Tom took of where he works. I finally got to visit 4 months after we moved here and everyone who met me said, "so she does exist." It is a beautiful gym and Tom works with some nice people.

Catch Up To The Present

November 10, 2007

Hello, it has been a while. We have been enjoying the cooler weather and been busy as always. Here are a few pics over the past few months. In no particular order....

We took a drive to Winter Park on Amy's weekend off in the end of September to go for a hike. We didn't realize that it snowed the night before and we ended up enjoying the winter wonderland 11,000 feet up by Berthoud's Pass.

We started in Littleton with 55 degree weather at 8am. As we reached the summit, the temp had dropped to 28 and the view was awesome. Here we are at Castlewood Canyon State Park. We went for an hour hike and the view was amazing. The canyon was fun to run through and do some rock climbing!

There were huge boulders throughout the canyon's floor so Tom had to climb a few of them. I believe this is category 5 on the climbing scale...although a turtle climbed the same boulder minutes prior...

After our visit to Castlewood Canyon, Amy had a riding lesson with Jenny at the Colorado horse park. She practiced a lot of technical terms that Tom was unfamiliar with but the outcome was pretty cool. Amy did some caveletti polls and trotting and cantering and had a blast riding "Mikey." One day we plan to take lessons together!

In October, Tom ran the Denver 1/2 marathon with his boss, Kathy. The day was cold and rainy but everyone had a great time. Kathy and Tom kept up to the elite runners for the first 15 feet but couldn't keep the blistering pace. Oh well.
Tom with his boss, Kathy pre-race.