Prairie Dogs and Motorboats

I'm finally done with anatomy! Now I get to focus on our "Biology of Cells and Tissues" class, which is a mix of biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, and histology. Sounds like fun! We have a test on Friday

We had a great visit from Kristen's parents this past week.

They got here late Saturday night/early Sunday morning so they met us at church. They were very excited to see Ethan and I'm sure he was excited to see them!

On Monday, we (apparently) really needed lots more Ethan clothes so Kristen and her mom bought out all of the Kohl's stock for boys aged 0-12. Well maybe not quite that much but they definitely found lots of stuff! We also went to Prairie Dog Town at the local park, which is a "prairie dog preserve" just in case the prairie dog decides to go extinct. I know you will all make the trek to Lubbock to see the prairie dogs now that I've got some pictures of them up on the blog!

Eating prairie dog food aka weeds/plants

Hanging out

Kissing

Ethan was enthralled by the prairie dogs (sitting on grandpa's lap!)

After all the excitement of the day, we were too worn out to cook dinner so we headed to Red Lobster!

Tuesday, we went to the Lubbock Lake Landmark. It's a dried up lake. The more interesting part is the surrounding area where Native Americans used to hunt for food. They have found lots of stuff through various archeological digs. There is a museum set up with some of the artifacts and explanations of the lifestyle from 10,000-12,000 years ago. Afterwards, we ordered dinner from Domino's pizza from the store right next door to our apartment.

On Wednesday, I had class for most of the day but Kristen, Ethan, Mark, and Jan met me on campus during my lunch break for the tour of the Health Sciences Center. After their own lunch, they headed over the Texas Tech Museum where I met up with them later on. The most interesting part of the museum was some intricately carved ivory tusks they had on display. We had some steaks for dinner back at our apartment.

Kristen's parents left on Thursday for a quick stop in Denver before heading home.

Ethan has been doing well. We think he might be teething so he's drooling lots and sucking on anything he can get his hands on, including his own hands.

Eating his fingers

Wispy short red-haired faux-hawk

Ethan's new noise. Sounds like a motorboat to me!

Warning: Lots of drool in the video!

All Ready for Church!

Ready to go to church!

Visit from Grandpa and Mimi

We had a lot of fun with my parents last weekend. I'm glad we have Ethan out here to lure them to Texas! We got a few square meals out of the deal so it was worth it!

They came in on Wednesday night and we decided to go to the airport to surprise them since they weren't expecting us to show up there.

I was busy in class with long days on both Thursday and Friday so Kristen and Ethan entertained my parents. I heard that they had a lot of fun! One day they went shopping all over town and the next they came and met me on campus during my lunch break. I took them on a tour of some of the buildings and then they headed over to a ranching heritage museum across the street. I did get to see them in the evening as we enjoyed some nice dinners together (sometimes with a fussy 5-month-old who wanted to be walked around!)

On Saturday, we went on a drive around town and went to lunch together. I had to go to campus later on in the evening. Sunday was conference then heading to the undergrad campus of Texas Tech for a walk around. Quite the impressive campus that feels quite a bit bigger than BYU although they have similar attendance numbers.

It's too bad that it was a pretty busy weekend even by med school standards so I couldn't spend more time with them during their visit.

Reading with Grandpa

Reading with Mimi

Making faces!

Looking her over

Smiling at Mimi

I wanted to show Ethan's hair color

Even more talking

So in case you can't tell from the many videos we've already posted, Ethan is a very talkative and loud little guy and he is pretty much all day.  Sometimes we can't even hear each other talking.  When he learns a new sound, he will make it over and over again for days until he learns a new one.  This one in the video is his most recent favorite.

We are very excited and looking forward to a visit from Jeremy's parents this week.  Jeremy will be busy studying, but will still be able to spend some time with them.  I think Ethan is looking forward to having someone else to hang out with all day besides his mommy.