Road Trip!!

This past week Ari and I went on a Midwest road trip to visit many friends that we had not seen for a very long time. First stop: Iowa City, IA. We went there to visit Bob and Gwen, friends from medical school, and their three kids Eric, Charlotte, and Layla. We had not seen Charlie since she was a baby and she is 3 now! Layla is the newest addition just born in January. We had so much fun catching up on their lives and of course playing with Charlie who has SO much energy.

Next stop: St. Louis, MO. We had a full itinerary in St. Louis.

Monday night we had dinner with Tracy, my mom, and John

at a winery in historic St. Charles call Little Hills. Our food was

delicious but the service was awful! Tuesday, we took my mom

out to lunch, did a little shopping and then headed to Busch

Stadium for the Cardinals v. Pirates game. We met Laura, Tim,

and Audrey there. It was doubly special because this was Audrey's first Cardinal game! She was all ready in her Cardinals gear and was very lucky to see a victory. She did amazing; the fireworks didn't scare her, she shared lots of smiles, and she made it though the whole game! At the game we also had to meet up with our friend Grant who was in town visiting his brother and Mrs. Bennish, an old family friend, got to meet Ari for the first time. Wednesday, Ari went to work with Dr. Crane while I went to have my teeth cleaned. Dr. Crane is an emergency medicine doctor turned sports medicine guru who does cutting edge therapy on joints and tendons. Ari had a great time playing in his office for the day and injecting people! I did not fare as well at the dentist's office. Chris was so nice to fit me in for a cleaning, something I had been neglecting since the start of residency. She so nicely told me that I needed to step up on the flossing. Then Dr. Weber came to take a look... when he took his explorer and it stuck in one of my teeth, I knew that was a bad sign... my second cavity! He asked me to come back Thursday for some fun with the drill :( Mom and I then were off to the little cafe across the street for some lunch. Wednesday night Ari and I met up with another medical school friend, Holly. We got to see her fun apartment in U city and then went to Cicero's for pizza, a favorite hangout of mine during high school. Afterwards, we made it through a couple of rounds of dominoes before calling it a night; Holly was post call and I had a date with drill! Thursday morning it was back the the dentist. My cavity was so shallow I didn't even need Novocaine! Once I was fixed up, it was back in the car.

Third stop: Springfield, IL. Okay this was only a pit stop but we did get to enjoy a sub at one of our favorite sandwich shops in medical school: Head West. The hippies were the same and the subs were still delicious! Fourth stop: Peoria, IL. There we met up with Tim and Michelle our friends from med school and their two adorable daughters Elizabeth (3) and Lauren who is one and a half. After playing doctor for a little bit we went to meet Dave and Amanda, more med school friends, for dinner. We had a great time catching up with everyone and then went out for ice cream. We spent the night with Tim and his family then got back in the car and finally drove home. Our kitties were so glad to see us!!