Coney Island Fun!

About a week and a half a go, we got to go experience the fun of Coney Island. We had such a blast! We met our good friends Jeff and Mel there and their sweet little daughter Elle. First we took Jackson to the aquarium and he had so much seeing the fish, seals and sharks! He really liked the show the sea lions put on. He even learned to say "fish" by the time we were leaving :)

Afterward, we walked up to the boardwalk and explored Coney Island a little bit. It's so cool in the summertime. Just like a carnival! We enjoyed a Nathan's famous hot dog and finished it off with some deep fried oreos!! I had never had any novelty item deep fried before so I was a little nervous, but they were amazing :)

Jackson enjoying the seals


Not too sure about those sharks!


At Coney Island!


Deep fried oreo goodness!

Out and about...

After SEVERAL rainy days in New York... and I do mean several.... the sun came out long enough for us to embark on a little adventure up to Brooklyn to meet our friends at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It was so beautiful- a little piece of nature in the middle of the big city. We always have a wonderful time seeing our friends, and any day that Jackson can get outside to play is a great day for him! Just look how happy he is :)

We are in NY!

Sorry it's been SO long since I've made a post. Seems to be a common thing for me :) Anyway I am going to make an effort to keep this up now that we are here. We have settled in to our condo in Rockaway Park, NY nicely. Todd is working a full schedule at Coney Island Hospital doing his rotation in surgery. He's gone a lot, but he really seems to be enjoying it so far.

Jackson and I are having fun exploring the neighborhood and meeting new people :) NY sure is different, but I think we're adjusting well. Jackson had a tough time at first adjusting to his new schedule, but now he's doing really well with it. Having the beach and bordwalk right outside our door has been a major bonus!

And the biggest news of all... we are expecting again! Todd and I are expecting another Baby Curtis in January 2010, which puts that baby and Jackson two years apart exactly. I think we timed it pretty well, although we're really going to have to squeeze to make all of the events fit in to the month of Jan!

Here are a few pictures of Jackson playing at the beach! More to come!

The latest and greatest...

So to start you off, here is a recent video of our little guy! I was going through old videos we took of him in Grenada and I can't believe how much he's grown up since then. It made me realize I hadn't taken any recent video of him in a while, so here you go!! :) He's growing in to quite the little man and he has such a fun personality. Todd and I are so blessed to have him in our lives. Jackson has been enjoying himself a lot! He loves to play outside and play with his grandparents, aunts, and uncle. He's been having a great time figuring out different animal sounds, and figuring out how to communicate with us. He still loves music and loves to dance, and is really getting in to sports! He loves throwing the ball around with his dad, and can even kick his soccer ball to hit a target! He also has a great love for animals. We were able to take him to the Spring Puyallup Fair. He ran immediately up to all of the animals and tried to communicate with them in their own language :) Here is a fun pic of him with his animal friends...



Todd took the Step One of the US Medical Licensing Exam in March, and found out he passed several weeks ago! He did a great job on the exam and I'm so proud of him. Since then, we've been able to spend so much quality time as a family going on hikes, walks in the park, and lots of visits with Grandparents. I have been truly cherishing this time as a family, and know we probably won't have another opportunity like this again. It's been wonderful!

We also found out recently that our appeal to go to Michigan was denied, and Todd will be starting his rotations at Coney Island Hospital on May 26. We were pretty disappointed at first, but now we are looking at this as an adventure! NY will be a fun and exciting place to live, and even though it's not what we had in mind, I'm sure it will be great! Anyway, we are heading out there mid May, so I guess that means our time in WA is coming to an end... something I am not quite ready to come to terms with!

Well that's it for now! More blog posts soon, I promise! :)

We are alive!

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything! We are home in the Seattle area safe and sound and we're all so happy to be back before taking off for our next adventure!

SO much has happened! We had a wonderful Christmas with family. It was so nice to just be back with everyone and celebrate.

Todd and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on Jan 3. We got to get away and go to one of our favorite restaurants. It was a wonderful time.

I turned 26 on Jan 19th. That's not very exciting though. haha.

Jackson turned one on January 24th! I can't believe that it's been a whole year. He's grown and changed so much and he's becoming such a smart little guy!

Right now, Todd is studying for the first step of his medical licensing exam. It's a full time job for him, but it's nice because he's able to do it online in the back bedroom of our apartment. He takes the exam on March 5th so we're both really looking forward to having that behind us!

In May we are scheduled to move to New York, but we have put in an appeal to go to Michigan instead. The cost of living is much less, and our little family of SGU people have been placed there, so we'd really love to be able to stay with them.

Anyway, I could ramble on forever, but instead I'll just post some pictures of what's been going on!



Jackson getting his first pair of shoes!



Catching up with my sisters and cousin!


Christmas morning



On his first bday!

Our last week in Grenada!

Wow, I can't believe that one week from right now, we will be in the air en route to Miami. So much has happened this year. We've gone through some really hard times, and we've had some really wonderful times. Although I'm really looking forward to our departure, I find myself having mixed feelings about it. Closing one chapter of your life is always bittersweet. It's always exciting to move on and see what's next but hard to close the door on any chapter of your life.

So many things to write about! I guess I should have posted individual blogs for the things that happened last week but we've been so busy I just figured I'd group them in to one HUGE post for today. Lucky you!

Last Thursday, we found out that Todd scored second out of 400 students for the BSCE 2, which is a cumulative exam of everything they've learned in Medical School thus far. Wow! I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard in school and he has his awesome grades to show for it :)

Also, last Thursday, our little monster decided it was time to leave mommy and daddy in the dust and take off walking! Scary! He was in the kitchen and had figured out that the remote did things to the TV, so he grabbed it, stood up, and proceeded to walk 7 feet over to the TV and turn it off! I was flabbergasted! Now, only a few days later, he is perfecting his walking and only crawls about 50% of the time. He's going to be running by the time we go home next week!

On Friday, we found out where we're headed in May.... well at least where the preliminary placement for Todd's clinical rotations is. Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. We were a little shocked, as we didn't even put it as one of our options, and honestly we were a little disappointed because we were hoping for Grosse Pointe or CA, but we are there for a reason and are excited to see what's in store for us there. Rotations start the third week of May so we plan to head to NY eary May sometime to get settled. I had never pictured us living in NYC but if you asked me two years ago if I ever pictured living in England or the Caribbean, there's no way I would have said yes!

Alright, now on to the list. The thing I will mist the MOST about Grenada are my wonderful wonderful roomies. They have truly become a family to us in England and here, and it's really hard trying to imagine not being able to see them next year. (They were all placed in MI) It's going to be very hard to say goodbye to them. They are all such amazing people and I can't wait to meet their little bundles of joy coming in February and May!

The number one thing I will NOT miss about Grenada- BUGS!!! I HATE bugs. Always have. But they are EVERYWHERE here. Any type of bug you could every imagine, in mass quantities and ususally larger than normal. I have been wearing pants in my own house for the whole year because of how bad the mosquitos are. And those suckers will even bite you through your pants! We also have some lovely cockroaches in our bathroom, cupboards, you name it, they are there. What's kind of sad to me is that it hardly even phases me anymore when I see a huge roach. It's hard to even imagine not having to worry about bugs!

Alright.... that's about it! I may make another post, but most likely not. We have way too much to do! Next time you hear from us..... we'll be in the US of A! :)

Now here are some recent pics of our little goofball for your viewing pleasure.

2 Weeks!

Wow, I can't believe it's already time to make my 2 week post. In two short weeks, we will be at the Point Saline airport getting ready for our flight to Miami. Unbelievable. We are so excited, but we still have so much to do! (anyone want to buy a 4Runner in Grenada??!!!)

Yesterday was fun. We drove up to Grand Etang natural reserve at the top of the island and it was beautiful! It was a completely different Grenada than what I had seen before. It must have been at least 10 degrees cooler and the rainforest was absolutely beautiful! We even got to see a monkey! Jackson loved him :) It was a lot of fun to just be a "tourist" yesterday and to really enjoy this part of Grenada we hadn't seen.


Now, on to the list! The number two thing I will miss about Grenada is the great community of people we have all around us! Not only do we live with friends but we have friends and great neighbors all around! I have never truly experienced community living as I have here, and it's wonderful. Everyone truly looks out for and cares for eachother, the same way an extended family would. I am really going to miss everyone here a great deal.

The number two thing I will NOT miss about Grenada- things breaking and going wrong on a daily basis. That's right. I know that anywhere you go has it's share of that, but not like here. Just in the past week, our power has gone out a couple of times, the water pressure has been shut off, our internet has gone out, our hot water has stopped working in the evenings, etc. It's just a common thing here for some reason. On a positive note, however, I think it has made us far more patient in general!