Happy 2011!

Owen (5): AKA “Muchacho” is still the adorable family baby/mascot. He absolutely loves kindergarten and is excited to be a grader next school year. Owen loves to draw and color and is now also playing the piano. He had a great soccer season even though he spent most of the season running away from the ball. Except for his very picky eating habits Owen is probably the most normal member of our family

Zachary (9): His most favorite moment of the year was catching the only walleye on our boundary waters trip. He incessantly reminds everyone, including strangers, about this feat. While playing in one of Iowa’s pure clean rivers Zachary contracted E coli gastroenteritis and ended up spending the weekend in the hospital with bloody diarrhea. Almost a week later Zachary claimed he wasn’t feeling well enough to play in his baseball game. Jared assumed he was feigning illness to stay home and play with his visiting cousins. So, the good doctor ordered a full tank of Gatorade and, in overbearing parent mode, told Z in stern language to buck up and play ball. However Zachary wasn’t feeling well because he was severely anemic (Hgb <6), with low platelets and in renal failure. (That’s hemolytic uremic syndrome for the medically inclined.). He wound up in the hospital for another weekend avoiding dialysis but requiring blood transfusions. Fortunately there appears to be no permanent sequelae, except for a permanent ban on Iowa river swimming.

Hillary: Now that Hillary has both boys in school she has used up all her free time volunteering. Hillary simply can’t say no. The severity of the volunteeritis steps way beyond the reasonable bounds of this seasonal update. Hopefully there is some cure in sight. She has taken to joining the ladies for golf more regularly and will probably be besting Jared on the course soon--forcing him to take up another hobby. Her favorite moment of the year was a journey with some close friends to Hong Kong. Yes, Jared finally takes Hillary on a trip (sans children) to one of the most romantic cities in Asia only to make her stay in the YMCA. (Sadly, I am not making this up.) Other trips included: Florida Keys, Canadian Rockies, Boundary Waters, Utah, San Diego, DC, and a couple trips back to sweet home Chicago.

Jared: Had sort of a mid-life crisis when he realized that he was almost 200 lbs. This triggered some sort of a primal awakening to become a lesser man and he set out to lose his “freshman 15”. Actually he dropped both the 15 from undergrad and the 15 med school in about 6 weeks using his austere 3rd world diet. You don’t really want to know what the diet consisted of but he assures us that it did not require parasites. Professionally things are going very well. In fact he has become busy enough to take on another retina partner. He is fortunate to belong to a great group and is looking forward to another year of poking people in the eye.

Jared, Hillary, Zachary & Owen