Half way through fall now, we are starting to enjoy some days below 90 degrees :) Erik surprised me with a wonderful birthday gift, we enjoyed some fall travel (Jersey and Colorado) and we are both 3/4 done with our first semester down here in Arizona.
So we had our very first friends visit us! Dana and I worked back in Bozeman at Bagelworks. She and her husband were driving through Tucson from Tx back to San Fransisco. So we enjoyed a day together! We went to the Tucson Desert Museum. There was a tarantula there.....gross! Jeremy rocked the "Bat ears" and before they left we enjoyed a refreshing trip to Sonic. Its wonderful how in life, our paths will cross with people and recross with them at the most peculiar times.
Well the Curfman family finally broke our long overdue absence of a reunion and all of us (Les, Lar, Eryn, Molly and Annie) got together. 7 years since we've been all together! Eryn and her husband Mehdi and their two girls came back to the US to renew their visas so they could continue to live in Saudi Arabia. Since they were in New Jersey getting all their paper work done, we all met there.
Les and Lar flew in first and then Molly (and Johnathan) and I came in afterwards. It felt so good to have all of us sitting around the table for dinner. I didn't realize how much absence can weaken the heart over time. But when my whole family, all 5 of us, sat there together, my heart grew. I felt so blessed to have such great family time there. I LOVED spending time with Mari and J-ri...Eryn, I abbreviated there names if you couldn't tell :) My two very beautiful nieces and my nephew Jonathan. We spent some long walks, and enjoyed the beginning of a Jersey Fall. One afternoon, we met up with some of Eryn and Mehdi's friends and enjoyed very authentic Indian Festivities. The food was fantastic. Molly and I also got henna drawn on our hands. It was quite fun!
Dad with Jonathan! Les, Lar, Mol, J train and I on the Jersey side of
the Washington Bridge, NYC in the background
Of course time went by quickly and we soon had to depart. Eryn and Mehdi are now back in Saudi Arabia getting settled in Ha'il (spelling E?) and Eryn is starting a new teaching job there. I think Ha'il will be better for them. Its in the mountains and has cooler weather, if that's possible.
For our trip to Colorado, Erik and I flew to Boulder and enjoyed the wonderful wedding of our friends Cameron and Keely. They got married surrounded by aspens and with Crested Butte int eh background. BEAUTIFUL! We were able to meet up with lots of friends, the whole Crandall Gang! as well as the entire Harpel family. Fall in Colorado....wow. It was breathtaking. We had quite a fun time spending time with Chuck and Barb too!
After our world wind adventures, we enjoyed celebrating my birthday (the big 2-5!) by riding our bikes over to a small bar to listen to Martin Sexton. He's one of our favorite musicians and we had seen him in Bozeman before. The neat thing about this time was there were only about 40 people there and it was just Martin by himself. He didn't have a play list and was taking suggestions. So I naturally requested Angeline....love it. The time was great! Erik is very good at gift giving. I am told that I am quite good at gift receiving. The perfect match ;)
Leslie opened for Martin...she was great. Look! Is that a halo above Martin's head ;)
On the less eventful end, weather is SLOWLY cooling down. We did have a week of weather in the 70's and we thought Fall was making its way down south. But for the last couple weeks it has remained in the 80's and 90's. Not that I am complaining, it is just hard to get used to wearing shorts and flips all day :)
Erik is in his neurology block right now and has been working extra hard. There is quite a bit of stuff to learn. Who would have thought, right?! But he loves it. He has been working in the cadaver lab (preserved dead bodies). They have been dissecting and it has been an amazing/weird experience for him.
He loves school, even though it is TONS of work. Thankfully he has been finding time to go running. We are both training for our first marathon (Erik) and half marathon (me). We are running it in December. Kylie and Zach are coming down to run it with us. We have been running at night since it has been cooler then. Erik runs with a head lamp in front of me. It has been quite fun and adventurous. On one run, we spotted our first javalinas (wild bores)!!
Lastly, I am enjoying a somewhat rhythmic pace at school. We had Homecoming last week. Everyday at school was a theme. My favorite was Neon Day. I scored a sweet neon suit from Savers and rocked it with some neon shoes that I am pretty sure gave me athlete's foot. Oh the price for fashion :) We won our football game against Pueblo and was graced with the presence of a streaker (wearing a jock strap). He was later arrested and suspended. High schoolers....gotta love 'em.
Well that is all for now. Hopefully I will be better at this but it probably wont happen. I hope you enjoy the updates. Next one hopefully won't be as long...hopefully.
