Betty Brinn

On April 12th I offered to drop Kenny off at his Alpha Omega Alpha induction luncheon (YAY Kenny!) which just happened to be held at the Coast restaurant which is also in the same building as the Betty Brinn Children's museum. That way, we have a great excuse to visit the museum, and we help cut down on parking costs. Which would have been great...except that when we returned to our van, I discovered a $35 parking ticket for parking in a loading zone!

(I guess I shouldn't have thought that I could beat a parking garage with the strangely open spaces nearby with a large truck blocking the NO PARKING sign...bugger.)

Regardless, we spent a good 3 hrs at the museum playing, exploring, laughing, and eating. This is definitely a top 5 destination for us! Meanwhile, Kenny was recognized for being the amazing student that he has been in Med School and got a tour of the Milwaukee Art Museum-so we all had some great culture that day! :)

The Domes

A few days after the visit to Discovery World we hit the Domes for a quick visit before preschool. Mondays are free for Milwaukee residents, which is always great-but this particular day was packed! Lots of school groups and people trying to trick their minds in to believing that the snow still falling outside was not really happening. It was still a nice trip though, they had a fairy tale theme in the show dome and even a few trains running around.

Kids tour of Milwaukee

With the comfort and stress of having Match day come and go, and learning that our time here in Milwaukee is now limited, I have been trying to go down the list that I made a couple months ago of things that we need to do before we are no longer Milwaukee residents. There really is a lot to do with kids here and I know we are going to miss it.

First up, Discovery World. We bought a membership last May for an awesome price and have enjoyed this museum, the Discovery Gateway in SLC a couple times and even OMSI in Portland, OR. It was a great investment.

The best part of this trip was that we had no where else to be, and both kids were very interested in seeing everything and were very well behaved. Gotta love it when that happens!

Audrey was hilarious when it came to crossing the bridges in the aquarium rooms. Portions of the bridge have glass that you walk over while the fish are swimming underneath or above you...she was really leery of that. She would walk around the border that still had carpet, or climb up on the stroller to get across but would not take one step on the glass.

Cheers!

Can't you just see the uncertainty on Drey's face?

She was completely enamoured with this box fish though!

Audrey wasn't afraid to take a rest on a bed of nails either. Nolan-not so much.

See they really do like each other!

How to pay back our Med school loans...

I think I've figured out a quick solution to pay off our Med school debt. I think I'll contact Nutella's advertising department and offer to allow them to use the following photos to advertise their delicious product. I think these photos should easily bring in a 6 figure amount!

Mmm...yummy.

In case you hadn't heard...

We MATCHED at the MAYO CLINIC in ROCHESTER, MN for Kenny's Radiation Oncology residency!! We're so excited with the results and as I'm sure most of you who read this already know that was our first choice. We'll be moving to La Crosse, WI in June for Kenny to complete his Intern Year training at the Gundersen Lutheren Hospital which is a wonderful regional hospital, that has great training and benefits, and we'll only be about an hour away from Rochester so when the time comes for house hunting we'll be a short drive away. Then in July 2012 we'll make the move (and hopefully be purchasing our first home) for our four year stay in Rochester.

For as much as we've been anticipating this huge event in our lives you would have thought that I would have blogged about it sooner eh? Well, what can I say, I'm just not great at keeping this as updated as I'd like. I write posts in my head...I just never get them online. Any who..here is a few photos of our big day. We had our friend Jocelyn babysit the kids, who had a wonderful time at her house while we were at the Match Day activities at MCW. I don't think they missed us one bit really! Then after we picked them up and told Nolan where we were going he was so excited-Rochester was his first choice too-he loved it there. He talked about it non-stop the rest of the day to whomever would listen.

We met up with our pals Todd & Jessica Pitts and their two adorable girls Haley and Malia at Stonefire Pizza company to celebrate. We enjoyed the buffet, watching the kids play and mostly just the relief that the day had finally come!

Here are a few pictures that we remembered to take. We also had a friend take a video of us opening the letter, and our reactions are priceless (to me at least) but I couldn't get my camera to transfer them over the correctly so guess I'll have to figure that out later.

Us, about 5 seconds before Kenny ripped open the envelope!

This is what the inside of Match Day Activities look like-lots of bodies, excitement and cheering-it was great.

Todd & Jessica Pitts-they are heading to San Antonio, TX for Todd's Orthopedic Residency. We are definitely going to miss these guys.

Malia and Audrey at Stonefire's water table- a favorite destination for them.

Drey trying her hand at face painting.

This was the highlight of the day for Nolan-he's been dying to go on the "Up, up, up, Down, down, down ride" for a long time! Kenny was a good sport and accompanied him-he looks so big compared to those kids! :)

December 2010 Continued

Sure enough Santa came, and having four kids to enjoy Christmas with was a blast! That was a wrapping paper mess like none other! We took tons of pictures, but instead of posting all of the pictures (we wouldn't want people to actually SEE how spoiled our children are) I'll just be sure that everyone on the Whittaker side who didn't take like 200 photos themselves gets a copy of our 200 photos. :)

We had a great time in Utah and got in lots of family time. Then before we knew it we were in a rental car making a very treacherous 12 hour drive to Richland, WA to visit Kenny's family for the big New Year's party at the Kurtzes!

Not a fun drive-WAY too much snow driving. My husband has the most amazing ability to drive in the worst conditions with way too many distractions and still get us all there safely. So thankful for that!

Mercedes & Nolan vs Allyson & Audrey on Mario Kart Wii

This is where Nolan's Wii addiction started, and only got worse as the month went on!

Nolan & Shelby getting ready to do calendars

Tyler and his little shadow

Audrey teaching Great Grandma Wing how to load up the Nerf assault weapon

We enjoyed quite the spread of yummy food, these poor little penguins didn't have a chance of survival.

Deep conversation with Great Grandpa Wing & Nolan

Giving loves to Great Grandma Wing before we headed off to Kelso.

December 2010 Part 1

I flew out to Utah on December 4th with the kids. LONGEST PLANE RIDE EVER! Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't have bodily functions that were out of control the entire day. I think we made 8 or 9 trips to the bathroom on the plane alone. I was so glad to fall into the loving arms of my parents when we got off of that plane.

We spend pretty much the entire month in Springville with my family, while Kenny was out traveling around the midwest interviewing for residency programs.

We had lots of time to catch up with my immediate and extended family. But the most fun was having the cousins around each other to play. Nolan is the oldest and only boy at this point, and then Audrey, Maggie and Mckenna were all born just a couple months apart. It was crazy at times, but we loved every minute of it.

Playing Spies with Uncle Lance

The girls had a pie eating contest

Getting that wind-blown look from the Discovery Gateway

Audrey rediscovered binky usage. I love that hers is upside down.

Maggie is showing her the correct binky positioning.

We got to play in Aunt Merle's basement full of wonderous toys!

Took the kids to their first visit to Temple Square. Where we helped reunite a little lost boy with his parents, lost Audrey's boot, and then found it again in the parking lot by our car.

Papa & Nolan played with the interactive Temple thingy for quite a while.

And all of the girls couldn't stop pointing at the pretty lights and the castle...in between mini meltdowns.

We made a countdown for Kenny to get there.

When he finally did we all loaded up and drove to the cabin to spend our Christmas weekend.

There were 8 adults, 4 kids, and all of the Christmas we could handle! That was a LOT of trips on the snowmobiles this time!!

Both Nolan and Kenny couldn't get enough speed and powder.

On Christmas Eve we had a tree to decorate! Here's Maggie and Uncle Jason

Nolan being SO careful.

Audrey getting a little boost from Papa.

An even BIGGER one from Dad!

Then we opened our Christmas PJ's

Posed for some pictures...

Makenna, Audrey & Maggie

Handsome Nolan

Me and the Hubs

Jason & Alannah and Mom & Dad Whittaker

Then waited to see if Santa would come...and of course he did!!