Boston & Chicago

Brianna and I have been on the road for the last couple of weeks. I have been at training camp in Rochester and Brianna went to an anesthesia conference in Boston. She is currently in Idaho visiting family.

This is a picture of Brianna presenting here poster at the conference:

When she was in Boston she was able to go on a tour of the city. Here's a picture she took with her phone:

This past weekend I was in Chicago for our first preseason game. We ate some deep-dish pizza and walked around downtown:

This is a picture from Soldier Field before the day of the game:

It rained the entire day of the game which made our new jerseys (which are all white) a complete muddy mess:

Next week we'll both be back home in Orchard Park and back to our normal lives of school and work.

Idaho (& Utah) Trip 2011

We recently returned from our trip to Idaho. It was good to spend time with our family and friends. I was even able to spend a couple of days in Utah with our friends from BYU.

This year our trip home was extra special for several reasons. It was the first time in over 4 years that my whole family had been together, which made a great opportunity for a family photo. It was also Bubba's baby blessing.

We were also able to spend some time with Karlenn and her family before they left for China.

We were also able to witness Dylan's baptism before they left the country. Brianna was especially grateful for the chance she had to be with her Grandpa Spracher.

I was going to do a complete post about the trip, but seeing how most of our other siblings have already blogged about the events (see blogs by Jenny, Mindy, Warren/Becky, Natalie, etc.), I thought I would just post a couple unique pictures from our vacation.

Bri and I were able to check off another baseball stadium from our list... kinda...

Bubba would fall asleep every time Bri tried to hold him:

Warren and Greg doing some sort of choreographed fighting:

Jakob and Dylan being themselves:

Richard being a sea monster (Richard is one of the most photogenic people I've ever met, so it is rare to get a picture of him without a perfect smile. This was one of those rare moments.):

We couldn't determine who was more excited for this year's parade, Milo or my mom:

The one-legged sharp shooter:

Monkey pooping from wall position:

Milo getting the camera strap caught on his diaper:

Maxwell scared for his life atop the climbing wall at Blastoff:

Gage and his lizard tongue:

And Kylie scolding the selfish goats:

We had a great time seeing everyone. As always, it went by too fast. We'd like to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to be with us. It is the most precious week in our whole year and we can't thank you all enough for making it so memorable.

Anniversary & Unveiling

Last Thursday was our fifth wedding anniversary. The last couple of years we weren’t able to celebrate on the actual day of our anniversary because of football and work. Brianna still had to go to clinical in the morning, but afterwards we were able to go out on the exact day. We went to a movie, hit balls at the driving range, and also went out to dinner.

These are the flowers I sent Brianna while she was at clinical. They are similar to the roses we had at our wedding.

Brianna surprised me with my present while we were hitting balls at the driving range. I was just about done with my bucket of balls when I noticed that I had two new clubs in my bag.

For the past month or so I have been putting together pictures and writing a book for Brianna about our first three years in Buffalo. I used the same program (Blurb) as I did a few years back when I made our blog into a book.

The next day we unveiled our new uniforms to the public. Since we couldn’t have the players model the jersey (because of the lockout) we had members from different divisions of the armed forces wear the new uniforms for the grand unveiling. Click the link below to see photos from the event.

http://wgr550.com/Buffalo-Bills-introduce-new-uniforms/10200180

This is the only picture of me at the event that I could find. The paparazzi are always trying to snap photos of my backside….

So far the response to the new uniforms has been pretty favorable. If you ask me, they’re a lot better than our old ones.

Old:

New:

We look forward to seeing everyone later this week!!

Brady and Mia are a little miffed that they have to stay home again.

See you all soon!!!

We're Still Alive

It’s about time that we updated this blog….

We have decided to make a renewed effort to blog more often. Here’s a quick update on what’s going on with us:

Brianna is in the midst of her CRNA graduate program at the University at Buffalo. Four days a week she does her clinical work in the OR putting people to sleep. She goes to class one to two days a week, and then on weekends she has been picking up a couple shifts at Mercy Flight. Needless to say, she’s real busy.

As for me… I’m not so busy nowadays. Usually I would be having mini-camps and OTA’s with the Bills, but with the current lockout I have been given some additional time off. I’ll go into work two to three times a week based on what events we have going on. For example this Friday we are launching our new uniforms.

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Bills-to-unveil-new-uniforms-at-Uniform-Launch-event/04ea0376-c126-407d-b9c6-9ab1ce0e9f6e

I finished my MSA graduate degree about a year and a half ago. I am currently in my summer break, but when classes resume in the Fall I will only have three more courses and my capstone project before I’ll be done with my MBA. Earlier this year the Bills signed me to a contract through February 2013.

Brianna will graduate from her program in December 2012. She’s really enjoyed working as a flight nurse for Mercy Flight. The pictures above are of some of the kids she helped save during one of her calls. They came back to visit the base at Mercy Flight to thank the crew that helped rescue them.

Our fifth wedding anniversary is this Thursday and next week we will be traveling to Idaho and Utah to visit family and friends.

Well, that’s about it for a broad overview. Like I said, we’ll be trying to update this blog on a more consistent basis from here on out.

Oh yeah…. Brady and Mia are doing just fine too.