The Hill Family: January 2013

As part of our New Year's resolutions we are trying to stay more up to date, so here we are. The pictures are from our visit to the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show, which is a big deal in this area of rich and expansive farmland. Between seeing prize-winning cows, live pig auctions, and the most massive geese we had ever encountered, we also experienced fresh-from-the-cow-to-die-for-chocolate-milkshakes. Grayson loved the large farm equipment on account of the gargantuan wheels on the tractors. Other pictures are from our visit to the DC temple. Medical school presses on, and I'm currently in the midst of the neurological and behavioral sciences block - maybe I'll learn what disorder leads people to choose a medical career. I actually have enjoyed the block so far.

This goose may not seem too impressive from afar, but it was truly a sight to behold.

You can't really see the impressive detail here, but this is made completely of Land-O-Lakes butter.

Two from DC

We are alive and well, although you may have doubted. Yes, it is true that our last post was nearly six months ago, and much has happened. Let me explain- no, let me sum up: our beloved Hyundai Elantra (in which Tia and I first met) died in May, we bought a minivan, became minivan lovers, Tia's father came out for military training and just barely missed Ava Lynne Hill's birth on June 7 at nine pounds even, Tia's mother came and went as well (although all but 2 days of her three-week stay was pre-Ava's birth - we wrongfully expected Ava to come early), I spent the summer "working" doing about 10 hours of research per week and playing with Grayson on the playground while the two girls cooled off inside, we attended an awesome Hill family reunion in Mendocino, California and stopped in on Tia's family in Colorado on the way home, Tia stayed in Colorado for a couple weeks while I started year two of medical school and helped lead our ward's young men on a two-day 30-miler on the Loyalsock Trail, then we endured together through hematology, cardiology, nephrology, pulmonology, and gastroenterology, interrupted by a nice Thanksgiving break down to Virginia to visit Adam and Karen where Grayson was in heaven playing with his cousins, and then Christmas break came, providing us with a wonderful escape to Colorado to stay with Tia's family, a drive to Utah to spend a belated third anniversary and see our friends Jeffrey and Kara get sealed in the Salt Lake Temple, and then a week down in southern Colorado at Tia's extended family's cabins for Christmas and snowmobiling.

Pre-Ava