A weekend of big and important things....

This first little tidbit is not exactly earth shattering news...but still pretty important in our own little "stay-at-home world"...the fountains at our favorite park are back on! 

This is one of our go-to summer spots. Max was ecstatic to be running through the water again. Eli was present for our many visits last year but he was only a few months old, so this was the first time he was really able to participate. He likes to observe from a distance so far. 

Fun get together with friends!

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My brother and sis-to-be graduated from medical school on Friday! 

Brother is officially an orthopedic surgeon and Jenny an OB/GYN, impressive achievements, we are so proud of them! 

We were very sad to miss out on their big day, but I was able to watch the live stream, nothing marks graduations like watching robed scholars march around to "Pomp and Circumstance". 

We are excited for them to start their residencies in St. Louis and look forward to our trip out there in November. 

Congratulations Chris and Jenny!

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I was very grateful for technology on Friday.
As soon as the graduation finished, it was time to cheer Tejay on in the time trial in the Tour of California. 

Since he was leading the race, he was the last to go...by the time it was his turn Julian was home and he took the boys up to the play room to watch on his phone so I could watch on my computer with. no. interruptions. 

Yes, I am a hard core like that. 

Well, his feed somehow got a couple minutes ahead of mine, so I heard him cheering upstairs while I was holding my breath for the finish. 

At least I knew it was a happy ending!

Tejay and his new baby girl! Google's photo. 

Tejay won the time trial and today he won the entire Tour of California. 

We are so very proud of him.

No we wait for the Tour de France to start...

And Max yells, "GO Uncle Tejay" at the most random times.

Good boy.

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Finally, I got to spend some time with my dear friend Amber this weekend. 

She just got an awesome new camera and is interested in photography too, so we met at the Denver Botanic Gardens to catch up and take some pictures. 

It was a new experience for me to try to take some nature pictures. 

I mean, 99.9999%  most of my pictures are of my own kids. 

When I first became interested in photography, I asked a photographer friend of mine how to get started. He gave me a quick run down of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO...things that meant nothing to me at the time, although they do now. 

But what he said that stuck was," Always ask yourself this: What do you want to capture?" 

I take pictures almost every day, and I still ask myself that question often. 

It was nice to capture some little bits and pieces of spring beauty. 

Also, nature is a much more obedient model than my two little boys. 

oddly enough this is my favorite picture of the day.

Dr. Amber!

Amber and I have a long history of team work, we quickly became study buddies during our first year of graduate school, where we were both working towards PhD's in MCDB (molecular,cellular, and developmental biology). We always reviewed for tests together that first year, we would practice our MMB's together (a talk once a year where you present your work to the entire department...I still have nightmares about having to do this), and we spent literally scores of hours preparing and quizzing each other for our comprehensive exams (which we both passed with flying colors on our first try, woohoo!). 

We have continued to get together about once a month since I left the department almost 4 years ago, I always appreciate our time together and I am so excited for us to collaborate again...this time on something more fun! 

After a long winter...I happily greet these long awaited hallmarks of spring .  

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I am so happy for all of the awesome achievements and successes that have been happening for friends and family lately, very exciting times!