Halloween at the Crookston's home

This year Andrew was a dragon. It took him a few doors to get the hang of it, but he liked getting presents from the neighbors. Too bad he doesn't like candy.

Early Snow Storm at the Crookston's Home

My Halloween photos are stuck in the card reader, so here are a few "early snow storm" photos that took place towards the start of October. Notice that the leaves had not even started to turn. It is crazy because today was one of the warmest Halloweens on record.

Trip to Silver Lake

I have not mastered the art of matching text with photos but I will do my best.
Andrew enjoying some fantastic yogurt in the great outdoors.











Andrew reading the nature signs as we walked along the trail.










Family photo opportunity (left) Andrew hiding as we were working on some kitched drawers.

This time of year is one of my favorites- some leaves are green and some golden. Some folks are young and some molden. (I thought of doing a fall Haiku but I will refrain and get back to business:)

Since the national forest is about a 4 minute drive and the top of big cottonwood is only 25 minutes, we decided to leave the moving boxes to themselves this weekend and take in some fall scenery. As most of you know I am more of a photo guy so I will include some photos. I only had my wife's point and shoot but the shots didn't turn out to badly.

Fun pictures

Home at last!

I need to start out by saying thank you to all of you who helped us to move into our new home!!! I was a little nervous about moving without being able to lift more than 50 pounds but family and a few friends and some Elders from the ward come through. (Proof that prayer works) So to those of you who took time out of your busy schedules thank you, thank you ,thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Yes, we do now have a new home to enjoy. We are still unpacking boxes and looking for things, but it feels like home. Alina is enjoying all the green growing things around the neighborhood. I forgot how dry Herriman really is until I moved to a greener section of the valley.

The ward is great. We have had lots of people drop by and visit and welcome us into the area. In sacrament meeting today I talked a little about how Alina and I felt like this was where we were supposed to move to. I said I didn't know why exactly we were lead to this particular home but we were happy to be hear. After sacrament meeting one the the members informed me that they had had a special fast for new members to move into the ward. It is interesting how God works to answer two prayers at once. It nice to realize again that God knows us individually and cares about the little things like where we should move.

The job is going great! My new official title (besides physical therapist) is an Electroneurophysiologist. I do nerve testing during pediatric surgeries like spinal cord dethering, scoliosis correction, brain tumors, cochlear implants and all sorts of interesting procedures. My job is to let the surgeon know if he is getting to close to a nerve (like when they are digging around during a brain tumor removal), or if they have compromised the blood supply to the brain or spine so it can be fixed before the surgery is over. It is still a little stressful at times but for the most part I quite like the atmosphere and find it very intellectually stimulating.

The PT aspects of my job have changed as well. I spend my time doing pediatric ortho and working with babies that have torticollos and/or plagiocephaly. I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with kids.

The cat is running around the keyboard so I assume that she wants to say hi as well. I will try to get some new photos up when we can connect the camera to the computer. Cords seem to get lost during moving, funny how that happens. It is getting late so until next time....

Andrew's favorite video of himself

This is Andrew's favorite video of himself. The last 10 seconds are the best. The best part is listening to Andrew laugh hysterically at himself every time he watches it.

New House?

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Big news! We rented our house out in Herriman and have an offer in on a home in Cottonwood Heights. After 3 months on the housing market our home was toured incessantly, but no offers. We decided to take advantage of the much hotter rental market. It took about 10 days to find really good renters.

Technology is an amazing thing, it allows us to feel guilty about not writing in our journal in so many new and advanced ways. I hope that this blog will be a means of communication and not an albatross about my neck.

Life is crazy now days! I just started a wonderful new job at Primary Childrens Medical Center. After having one too many 300 pounders fall on me and having two too many detached biceps tendons, I decided to do a little career switch from physical therapy to surgical neurophysiology. Now I monitor the brain and nerves of children during surgeries where there is a chance of nerve damage (spinal surgeries, brain surgeries and fun stuff like that:) So I don't totally forget my former profession, I still get to do physical therapy one day a week on infants with torticollis and plagiocephaly.

The commute is getting to be a bit much so Alina and I are renting our home out and buying another home in Cottonwood heights. I don't look forward to hauling our stuff across the valley.
Just the thought of all that lifting makes me tired.

Andrew is now 18 months old and loves to play in the local splash park. I don't think they have one in Cottonwood heights so we will just have to send him outside and turn on the sprinklers.

Alina is keeping busy by taking care of Andrew and singing in a Russian performing group.