Laura's 29th Birthday

For my 29th Birthday, Mike arranged to have dinner with 18 of our dear Ann Arbor friends at one of our favorite restaurants in AA, Pacific Rim! We had a great time! It is sad to think so many of these friends our leaving town in a couple months after finishing residency. Fortunately many are staying around for fellowship next year!

The interview trail took us to Vail...

As many of you know, we spend much of February-April interviewing. I just finished my 11th interview, and Mike still has 3 more to finish off his 15. We were lucky to make a mini-vacation out of one of our interviews, Denver, CO, and spent the weekend in Frisco/Vail with Libby and Jeremy, Mackenzie, and Annie! We arrived Friday night, drove to Frisco, skied Vail with Mackenzie (and her TC friend Libby), spent Saturday evening with Libby and Jeremy, Mackenzie and Libby, and Steve Howe (who flew in for the weekend too) at Kemosabe, an excellent sushi restaurant in Frisco. Mike and I stayed up late and caught up with Lib and Jer, such great times! The next day, we headed to The Butterhorn for brunch with Lib and Jer before heading back down to Denver.

We were so lucky to meet up with dear friends from the Cottage, Amy (Goetz) and Justin Rzepka, and ski a few runs with them. It was also fun to see Amy's sister Laura for a few minutes. Such a small world, we had no idea we would both be at Vail the same day!

We finished off the weekend exploring Denver in 60 degree weather! It was great and so relaxing. We were also able to meet up with dear friends Annie and Lindsey (past graduates of U of M med-peds and peds residency) who are now fellows at U of Colorado/Denver Children's. Thank you so much Annie for hosting us! I wish we had pictures to document our visit with them. The interviews went well for both Mike and I, and we headed home.

Over the course of our interviews, we will have traveled to Detroit, Royal Oak, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Cleveland, Columbus, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Rochester (NY), and Denver. We are exhausted, and so ready for a break, and to find our where we will be going for fellowship. Match day is May 19th for Laura and June 16th for Mike. Wish us luck!

New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans on Friday 2/26 for the AAAAI (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology) Annual Conference. I was presenting my research that I have been working on for the last year.

After we settled in, we headed to Bourbon St. to watch some live jazz.

The big poster presentation....

We enjoyed as much Creole food as possible during our brief 2 day stay in NOLA.

Dinner our last night at K-Paul's....

Big Sky, Montana

Lone Mountain, Big Sky, MT....

beautiful picture taken at sunrise by Mike.

We headed out to Big Sky, MT, one of our favorite places to visit, to join Laura's parents for a week of skiing. We arrived on 2/21/10 and were greeted by this beautiful view of Lone Mountain.

And a cold Fat Tire....yum!

Cocktails at Lone Mountain Ranch...before dinner at Buck's T4.

Our first day of skiing was sunny and beautiful!

Drinks at Andiamo, mountainside, then we headed to MR Hummers. Classic Big Sky restaurant, owned by Bernie, long time friend of my Dad's.

Skiing day 2: we couldn't wait any longer and headed up the Tram to the top of Lone Peak...the views were beautiful and the skiing was great!

Tuesday night we had dinner at Rainbow Ranch, and a beer and watched the olympics at the Corral.

Another beautiful Big Sky stop, the Pinnacle.

Wednesday night, cocktails at Moonlight Basin, and then had home cooked spaghetti in the condo!

Mom's traditional picture at Moonlight...

4th day of skiing, 3rd and final time up the tram, this time we headed down Marx....awesome!

Lunch at Moonlight

Moguls...

Dinner at the Cabin...love that place!

What a fun trip had by all!

Welcome back to MI Mom and Dad! (they were lucky enough to stay 2 weeks!)