ROAD TRIP!

Yall all know how much we love baseball and going to various ballparks. Our goal is to go to all of the ballparks (one day). Well we decided this year we would check out Coors Field in Denver. All of our other ballpark trips have been leave on Friday and come back Sunday. Not this one. We left Kansas City Wednesday after work and got back Monday afternoon. We had a blast, and here are a few of the pictures. (I didn't want to post all 500 of them on here haha).

So we left Kansas City about 6:00 pm on Wednesday and drove to the middle of no-where Kansas. This helped break the drive up. I didn't take many driving pictures but don't think that Eric is actually enjoying the drive. I think he was laughing because I was taking a picture of him. Then on Thursday morning we drove to Colorado Springs, CO.
This was the view from our hotel room. Is that not gorgeous!!!! We drove up to Manitou Springs to go in a cave. We didn't take pictures here. We weren't too impressed with the actual cave, but the views from the outside were beautiful. Then we drove over to Garden of the Gods to do some hiking. Now we went all out to prepare for this intense hiking we wanted to do. We bought hiking boots, a camel pack, and a hiking back pack from bass pro shop.


This was the sign near the trail we decided to hike. We didn't see any bears :(

It took us about 2 1/2 hrs to hike about 4 miles. The original trail we were going to take was about 3 miles however we got on a detour. The first part of the trail was awesome. We were climbing over rocks and all sorts. It wasn't just a flat trail. Then Eric saw some lady climbing up something and he wanted to go there, so we got off of our trail to go over there. Well the map we had from the visitor station was different from the maps they had along the trails. Our map had about 3 trails listed where the maps on the trails had about 20. Needless to say we had no idea what trail we were on or which one we needed to get back to the car. haha So it took us a little longer, but we still had fun.

Just taking a break on the rock.
Eric decided he wanted a picture at the top of this rock.
Can you see him up there?

After this adventure we walked through down town Manitou Springs which was a really neat area with a lot of fun shops. Then it was back to the hotel to figure out where we were going to eat dinner.

Friday morning we got up and drove back to Manitou Springs. We had coffee at a "hippie" coffee shop. I had some "Mate Drink" which I thought was there way of saying latte. Well my drink definitely did not have coffee in it. I'm not exactly sure what it was but it was good. haha Then we were off to the Cog Railway station to go up Pikes Peak.

Any time Eric is in charge of the camera, he always seems to snap a picture of me.
I've learned to just smile so it doesn't become an embarrassing picture of me making a funny face haha. The train ride was about an hour and ten minutes each way. It was nice not having to drive up the curvy roads, but we didn't see any wildlife.

It was so cold up there. I think the wind chill was 10 degrees with wind at 54 mph. We were out there long enough to get pictures and then headed back into the gift shop.

This was inside the gift shop. Doesn't Eric just look thrilled to be there?

After getting back, we drove up to Denver for the main reason for our trip. BASEBALL!!!
The field is in downtown Denver and had a spectacular view of the mountains in left field. The Rockies were playing St. Louis, so we enjoyed getting to watch Albert Pujols play. Unfortunately, the Rockies lost. It was still a fun game!
So we always get a picture of us behind home plate when we go to the ballparks. This was still about 30 minutes before the game started. We were walking down and one of the ushers stopped us to see tickets. Eric said well we were just wanting to get pictures, do you mind taking a picture of us. He was an older guy and he said sure why not. Well he took one picture and then he decided it wasn't good enough. He grabbed hold of the arm rest on an isle seat to sit down on the concrete. Well lets just say, gravity worked against him. He fell kind of hard and nearly fell over backwards, but he was very pleased with this picture he took. haha Sweet old man! Thanks!

This was the view from our seats of the mountains. Baseball and mountains. :)

Saturday morning we got up and drove north through Boulder up to Estes Park.
We were wanting to hike through Rocky Mountain National Park, so we were super excited about this part of our trip. Right as we get into Estes Park, Eric spotted a Moose. I was unable to snap a picture of him :( We stopped at the visitor center to get a map and talk about trails. (apparently some of the roads were closed due to snow). We told the Ranger what we were wanting to hike and he asked, how are you with snow? We said that's fine and then he asked if we had snow shoes, um no... Do we need them? He asked what type of shoes and we said waterproof hiking shoes and he looked at us and said you should be fine but if you start getting cold or feel like you can't go just turn around. haha ok

Eric found me a hiking stick right when we got started, so that helped out a lot. You can see the trail behind us. It's just snow.
So we started near Bear Lake on the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. The first part of the trail was fine because the snow was really well packed due to the high traffic. We made it to the first stop, Alberta Falls at 0.8 miles.
Most people turn around here and don't go on because the next stop was Mills Lake about 2.0 miles out. Since this trail isn't as busy, the snow wasn't as packed. There were times where your foot would just drop into a soft spot. At one point the snow was all the way up to my hip, and I was stuck. I had to have Eric help me out. That was when we decided ok we can't make it any further.

We went about 1.5 miles with an increase in elevation about 850 feet before we decided to turn around. We really enjoyed the hiking, and definitely want to do more hiking.
We saw Elk everywhere. We would see them in large herds just like you would see cows out grazing and then you should see a few. We loved seeing them.

I would usually get out of the car to go get a picture. Eric stayed inside the car to take pictures of me haha. Look how close I was!

Then we decided to drove up Trail Ridge Road, or how far we could. They had it closed due to the "fog/clouds". This rock was only about 20 feet away, but you couldn't see. There was also about 15 feet of snow on the side of the roads. It was crazy!

Then on Sunday we slept in and took our time to get on the road. Then we drove back to meet some friends in the middle of no where Kansas at the lake to camp Sunday night with them and fish. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong to fish so we just enjoyed camping. This really helped break up the drive. We had so much fun our vacation and definitely want to go back to Estes Park.

Fishing!

So Eric and I have anew hobby together, FISHING! For his birthday this year his parents got us both rods and reels, tackle box, fishing license, and goodies to go into the tackle box. We were both so excited!

We live less than 2 miles to this large park with a lake/pond in the middle, so we've tried

fishing out there. Lets just say we haven't been too successful. I don't know how many times we've fished out there but we've only caught 2 fish! Eric caught the bass and then I caught the little shad. (notice the hook is in his back not even his mouth.) I must have snagged him as he was

swimming

by.

Then one Saturday we went out to Lake

Olathe. Found a pretty good spot but I think the water was still just too cold. Eric did however catch a Crappie. We'll go back out to this fishing spot now that the waters are warming up.

We went camping out at Lake Perry outside of Lawrence, KS (town of KU). We actually did

pretty well. We both had a lot of fun with this one. Saturday night the fish were just jumping all around of us and we finally started catching. Eric caught 2 bass and a Walleye or Sauger. Not sure which. I finally caught my first fish, a bass. So excited!!!

Then Sunday morning when we woke up about 100 or so crappie were in at the banks spawning. (not sure if that's how you spell it but pretty much laying eggs) They were so fun to watch but they were not interested in eating. We tried everything. Oh well they had better things on their mind I guess.

This is such a fun hobby, and I'm glad we get to enjoy it together.

What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

Sunday: Joshua Center fundraiser at Next Door Pizza in Lee Summit. YUM!!!

Monday: Mi Ranchito with some awesome friends, o ya and $2 margarita

Tuesday: Roast, potatoes and carrots

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Sandwiches and baked sweet potato fries

Thursday: Shrimp Tacos

Friday: Buffalo Burgers and Corn on the Cob

Saturday Morning: Le Peep (I've got a groupon for that!!!)

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Had To Do!

Today was a rough day for the Adcock house hold. I have never had to do something so emotionally difficult. We gave Bauer away. Bauer is our dachshund that I've had since August 2005. He was my baby and helped me get through many lonely nights up here in Kansas City by myself. So here is what happened.

Last night Eric was playing with him on the floor like they always do. For whatever reason, Bauer bit Eric. I guess maybe he felt defensive or vulnerable for whatever reason. He bit Eric on his nose. It was bad enough that we went to an Urgent Care center. He had to get a tetanus shot and prophylactic antibiotics. Luckily he did not need stitches.

This was kind of the last straw for Bauer and his biting. In the last year he has bitten four friends. One was a friend who Bauer has played with many times, and we even stayed with her when I had a busted pipe a year ago. He knew her and she loved him! He then bit Eric's co-worker who came over. He was just washing his hands in the bathroom and Bauer bit his leg. He has also started snapping at us when we try to discipline him or if he gets in trouble.

We had decided that he was for sure gone once we decide to have kids. Well after last night we decided it was time to go. It was the hardest decision and resulted in a TON of tears. I emailed about 15 rescue shelters between last night and this morning. The first response I got back was from a foster home based shelter. She agreed to take him regardless of the bite history. She was up in Polo, MO (about 90 minutes north of us). Eric and I drove up there this morning. Lets just say that was one of the most awkward car rides ever.

The shelter is HALO, Helping All Little Ones. They will board Bauer for a few weeks until he gets comfortable with his new care givers and realize they are the ones taking care of him. They will also start working with obedience training. Once they feel he is safe, he will move on to a foster home. Here they will really work on training until he is safe for adoption. Once he is safe for adoption he will be adopted out.

They feel that the aggression is based on the change in the house hold when I got married including a male and a dog. She thinks this is something that can be overcome with proper training. She will try to get him into a home that is a single person home or husband and wife without kids. They have had a dog with a similar story a few years back and after lots of training is doing great.



I'm so happy we were able to find a shelter instead of having to do the alternative. I really hope this works out for him as he was my baby. This is such a hard situation for me to be in. I miss him dearly and can't believe he's really gone.

Paging Dr. Adcock

I am happy to say that I have decided on what I want to be when I grow up.

Drum Roll Please.........

I'm going to be a Child Psychiatrist.

Ever since I wanted to go into medicine, I knew that I wanted to do something with kids. I just love the little ones. Well then I really enjoyed my psych lectures and started thinking why not combine the two. I did an elective rotation for a month in Child Psychiatry and loved it! Now you're probably thinking but how can you handle that.

That's the thing. These kids need someone to advocate for them. During my month I saw a wide range of illnesses. I saw a lot of ADHD. I also saw a lot of PTSD from kids who were abused or sexually violated. We had a 16 year old who was addicted to cocaine, in trouble with the law who 2 days prior to his appointment revealed to the rehab center he was at that he was sexually violated by his uncle when we was 7. He had been keeping this a secret for 9 years! I look forward to helping these kids.

Another love of mine is the autism spectrum disorders. I don't know why but those kids just get to my heart. Well I found out about a non-profit organization here in Kansas City, Joshua Center. They see autism, aspergers, tourette syndrome, and ocd. They have a therapist for the kids as well as social skills classes to help these children learn every day things such as phone etiquette, how to have conversations in public, how to react to every day situations, etc. Well I met with the director yesterday, and I'm very excited to start volunteering with this organization. They have a summer camp that I'm going to try and be a counselor for as long as my school schedule permits. I will also attend some social skills classes. Super excited!

It's such a relief to finally know what I want to be when I grow up! Now if only I knew where residency will be.....

Going Short!

So I made a bold decision this weekend. I chopped my hair off!!! I haven't had it this short since my first two years of college. I am loving this short hair!

I have had two patients this month ask, so what are you 19 or 20? Really!?! I'm hoping the short hair might make me look a little older. We'll see.

What do you think?

What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

Sorry I've been MIA lately. The last rotation was crazy and this one is just as intense, but I do have something exciting to share after a meeting tomorrow. Look for a post tomorrow.

As for meal planning. I've been doing the meal planning bit for awhile now, and we love it! I was able to cut down our weekly grocery bill 33%. I still wanted to find a way to cut down the bill even more without the time requirements of coupons. I don't have the time or patience to clip through coupons and keep them organized until that item goes on sale and then to remember that I have that coupon. haha That's just not me.

A friend introduced me to E-Mealz. It's an online site that posts meal plans along with the grocery list for that week. The meals are created around whatever is on sale at the grocery store you pick. This website does cost $1.25 a week to subscribe. You pay 3 months at a time, and then if you don't want to renew you don't. It has helped me save another 20% on our weekly grocery bill. That means our grocery bill is down 50% from when we started. WOOHOO! I also have gotten some really good recipes from it as well. Check out the website!

What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

Sunday: Orange Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

Monday: Shredded Pork Soft Tacos and Black Beans

Tuesday: Blackened Tilapia

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Greek Chicken and Red Potatoes

Friday: Date Night

Saturday: Shrimp Tacos