Utah

Lincoln is in his fourth and final year of medical school which mean he is applying to residency programs. Most fourth year students spend the majority of the year doing audition rotations with programs they are interested in. We are hoping to get an Air Force residency, so Lincoln decided to do two rotation with them. Both were 4 weeks long and back to back. The first was in Biloxi Mississippi and the second was in Omaha. 8 weeks away from home is a LONG time. As a result Bennett and I decided to go to Utah for a few weeks.

Sorry for the picture overload...

Dropping Lincoln off at the airport two weeks before we went to Utah

Bennett was out before the plane even took off

Who doesn't love hot tubbing at 7am?

First time meeting cousin baby Zeek

Snuggles with Aunt Lillie

While we were there Lincoln Grandma Albretsen turned 80! We had a girls night and went to see Peter Pan

It wouldn't be a vacation if someone didn't get sick. Poor guy

Bennett loves helping Grandpa Torman in the garden. Here he is washing off the potatoes we were picking

We had a chance to hang out with some of our favorite people. The Strupp family had just moved back to Idaho (from Chicago) so it was fun to see them again.

More hot tubbing with the Larson Cousins

For Labor Day we had a pool party with the Andreasens.

Great Grandpa Andreasen showing Bennett pictures of when he used to drive tanks.

Learning to ride a scooter at the Larson house

Playing up Logan Canyon

Bradley loved reading books to Bennett

More swimming with the Torman Cousins

Bennett has no fear when it comes to water. He was not afraid at all to go off the diving board!

Playing in the sand box with Aunt Lillie

White Sox Autographs

"Back in July the Brookfield Zoo was having a White Sox day where you could get a few of the players autographs. Bennett loves going to the zoo so we decided to take a baseball and see if we could get it signed. It was a pretty long line so we decided to ride the carousel  while we waited.

This is Zach Putnam

And this is Eric Surkamp both are relief pitchers.

Bennett was scared of the Southpaw so this is as close as we got.

Family Night Singing

Bennett has finally decided to join in the actual singing.  Good for family home evening (not so much for good-night lullabies).

Recent Adventures

Recently our city held it's annual Heritage Fest. I had to work but Lincoln was able to take Bennett and have some fun.

Of particular interest to Bennett were the commuter trains zipping past the site of the actual carnival

Don't judge, the purply pink convertible was the only one left childless when we boarded

Lincoln's marginally successful attempt at showing that they did, in fact, ride the carousel

Tasked with choosing a carnival treat, Bennett picked a caramel apple much to his father's chagrin (note the gritted-teeth, forced smile)

Bennett making quick work...at least, of the caramel/sprinkles again much to his father's disappointment (I mean, come on, the deep-fried oreos were available!)

Two carnival rides were plenty...for Lincoln's wallet (Bennett wanted to do more granted he's still too short for most of the cool-looking ones); they opted to explore/watch everything and then ventured to a (free) playground to wrap up the evening

Bennett has surpassed his Andreasen grandparents' skill in iPhone photography

Lincoln just finished his Step 2 Boards, so we were able to go on a few family outings. We enjoyed exploring parks and the beach.

First time Tracey ever caught a frog (toad)

Cloud watching

Building sand castles

Bennett and Lincoln mournfully stare off into Lake Michigan after USA's devastating world cup loss

Bennett enjoyed all the open beach space (it was an unusually cooler Summer day); Not pictured: Bennett chasing flocks of seagulls around

White Sox Game

Lincoln and I had our fourth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, so we decided to celebrate by going to a White Sox game! It worked out perfect because we got to see our favorite pitcher (White Sox ace, Chris Sale). We sat in the 'K-Zone' (K for strike out) and got free t-shirts and banners to hold up every time Sale struck a batter out. We had so much fun, it was our best anniversary yet! I should probably mention that we have never actually spent our anniversary together..but still!

I'm totally cheesing it, but this is one of the rare moments that we catch Bennett with a good smile.

One of the signs that we got to hold up

Bennett spent a good amount of time shelling and consuming peanuts (look close!)

It was an afternoon game, so we didn't eat lunch before we left just so we could fill up on the goodies at the park.

Bennett fully enjoying his hot dog!

This is something I like to call Heaven in a Helmet.

I love nachos!

Bennett fully enjoying the nachos, too!

Yep, we ate them all

Bennett's prize for eating all the nachos

Baseball games can be kind of slow for a two-year-old, so Bennett and Lincoln went exploring and found this statue of South Paw. Bennett was a little scared at first.

Who knew Mickey was a Sox fan?

As for the game itself, it was a good one!  The White Sox hit 2 home runs (Bennett liked the fireworks) and held on for a 7-6 win over the best team in the National League (SF Giants).

Millennium Park

This is a little old, but my cousin Steve is in town for work, so Bennett and I went downtown and had lunch with him. I took Bennett's swimsuit and let him play in the fountain at Millennium Park.

More camping

Here's some videos of our camping adventures.