Happy Valentine's Day -- 2010 Year in Review

Hello to our Friends and Family!

We are wishing you a wonderful Valentine’s Day and (in the same tradition as last year) taking this opportunity to catch you up on our 2010. We love keeping up with y’all and would like to hear from you about your adventures, too! Our new address is below- be sure to scratch out a note when you can.

The big news for 2011 is that we have moved back to Texas – specifically to Fort Worth! We are sad to leave friends and family behind in California but we are excited about being close to our Lone Star loved ones again. Plus, it gives us a chance to wear our cowboy boots more often! : )

Lynn completed her nurse anesthesia graduate program and is currently studying hard for her national certifying exam. She is really excited about starting a great job at Huguley Hospital (just south of Fort Worth) this Spring. Matt has been interviewing with hospitals in the Fort Worth area and should accept an offer soon. Rossi and Chloe are doing well - making new friends, running around like puppies and enjoying the park and woods near our apartment.


 

 Living in California was great, too. We were renting a house in Highland, about an hour east of L.A. It was a blessing to be only a short drive away to visit with Bob Bob, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Alice in Palm Desert. Over the year, many family members came out to visit. We always ate well and had a blast together!


Besides being close to family, one of the advantages was our proximity to so many great activities. We travelled to the Tournament of Roses parade, Temecula wine country, preseason football in San Diego (Cowboys/Chargers), a Jay Leno taping in Burbank, a movie premiere in Hollywood and celebrated the Fourth of July on Huntington Beach. Lynn’s TCU classmates were always up for fun, and we made new friends in Kee, Jina, Ashley and Jerry. What started out as restaurant sampling (including a chic frozen yogurt store and even trying ‘boba’) turned into varied field trips: seafood and kite flying in Redondo Beach, tandem bicycles on Venice Beach, and a memorable camping trip at Big Bear Mountain.

We had setbacks too. Lynn’s knee had been responding to physical therapy but scar tissue made it feel tight. So in April, we came back to Texas to get it cleaned up. Things went well, but the very first day Lynn began her clinical rotation in San Diego, a knee infection gripped her with pain. She was hospitalized twice and went through three surgeries and home therapy with a PICC line before she was clear of bugs. It was mid-September by the time she got back to San Diego, but Matt and Lynn’s Mom came out to visit her on Coronado and enjoyed sightseeing and fun bike trips to the dog beach. We made new friends there and fell in love with Del Mar all over again! Maybe someday we’ll have a house on the beach… : )

October was Lynn’s…um…second 29th birthday and she wasn’t quite ready for it but it came anyway. As it turned out, the day arrived in style. With a little clever planning by Matt, his parents and Lynn’s Mom, we treated the Birthday Girl to an exciting long weekend in Santa Barbara that included many wineries, cute brunch and dinner places and even a guided Segway tour.

We ended the year with a great ski trip, and two great Christmas celebrations (one combined with New Year’s Eve!) and a move halfway across the country to boot! (pun intended)

After a well earned graduation in December, we celebrated with a truly incredible trip - sailing the British Virgin Islands on a 46’ boat. Part of a five-boat flotilla, our crew bonded quickly during northerly swells, mooring exercises, dinghy trips and sailing wing-on-wing. After a few days on dry land in Puerto Rico (sitting by the pool and touring the forts) we got back stateside to unpack in our new apartment.

If you’d like to see pictures of our adventures, we’ll be slowly but surely updating our blog at www.LynnAndMatt.com. And we’d love to hear from you – Facebook updates just aren’t enough for some of us! So call or write us when you get a chance, and have a great Valentine’s Day and a fantastic 2011!

Sunny San Diego...round two

I finally made it back to San Diego for my OB anesthesia rotation at the Naval Medical Center.  Many of you know that at the begining of my first rotation in May, I got a septic knee infection and was admitted to the hospital, had three surgeries and was definitely out of commission for a while.  Thanks to some great great care from doctors and nursed (my husband, included!) I am much better now and was really looking forward to being back in San Diego!

Matt and I rented this cute little Spanish bungalo in Coronado for the month.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay.  It has two bedrooms, which was perfect because my mom came down to stay with me for two weeks.  And you know what they say...location, location, location!  It was wonderful--in one direction we were four blocks from the San Diego Bay which overlooks a beautiful city skyline and in another direction we were eight blocks from the Pacific and its powdery sand beaches.

The day after Mom flew here, we went garage sale-ing to find her a bicycle.  We found a great one for 50 bucks (and then turned around two weeks later and sold it for $40- what a deal!)  We had some time to ride together, but she spent the majority of her days toting the pups in their Burley all around the "island", especially back and forth to the dog beach while I was working.

 The pups always LOVE when their grandma is with them!

I am so behind on blogging but I hope to be able to catch up sometime soon...
Thanks for checking in on us!

Hiking

I am so far behind on my blog posting. Hopefully I'll take the time during my recovery to catch up on some of our California adventures!

Last month, on April 10th, Matt and I took an impromptu trip up the mountain for a little hike around the lake with the pups. Matt wanted to really hike, but I was more interested in taking pictures of our beautiful surroundings. The dogs loved playing fetch in the lake and I loved the light as the sun set behind the mountains. We didn't get much exercise but I hope you enjoy the view!