In Limbo

So we left Boston 2 months ago and came to Utah while we wait move to Cortez, CO. My official start date is August 4, so only one and a half more weeks until I join the wage earning public.
We've had a lot of fun up here. Ezra plays with his cousins, Megan has played with her friends and family, and i have rock climbed...a lot. I'm actually not sure what I want more, a paycheck, or more free time to climb and trail run.
We've had some adventures, and I'll post pictures soon, but for now, if anyone happens to be in the 4 corners area, look us up. I assure you, we'll welcome the company.

Graduation

So we finally did it. We made it to the end. I won't bore anybody with the details. Just be glad you weren't there to hear our commencement speaker. I think the highlight of my graduation was the robe I got to wear. I thought about buying one, just so I could wear it around the house and to parties an stuff, but they wanted $800 for it.

Graduation started out with a brunch. We got all dressed up (doesn't Meg look hot?) and spent the morning with friends and family.




Graduation itself was cool too. Here's Ezra showing how much he enjoys it.


So, after our commencement speaker finished his incredibly boring address, we finally got our diplomas. Check out the size of these things!

My friend Peter and I were so excited to graduate, we could hardly contain ourselves.





Now I'll just throw in some random pictures of us with friends.

Pre-Graduation

It's been a while, so there's a lot to catch up with. We'll start with my mom and dad's visit to Boston.
On the May 11th, we blessed Travis, unfortunately, we don't have a picture to commemorate the occasion, oops, but we had some good friends help, including: Peter, Mat, Nick, Dave, Jason, and my dad. Thanks to everyone.
Sunday was also Mothers' Day. It was special, because we got to celebrate with Megan and my mom. We even made them a special breakfast.With my parents in town, we decided to do all the stuff we've been putting off for 4 years. We started with the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA. It was a really cool museum with lots of scrimshaw and history of whaling.
We could hardly tear Ezra away from the wheel of the whaling boat mock up.
The John Adams house was another highlight of the trip. I think Ezra's favorite part was the trolley ride around Quincy, but the houses are nicely restored/replicated. The house in which he was born is a replica, but is on the same property. A second home, the one where John and Abigail lived out their retirement, was still in the family through the mid seventies, when it was donated to the parks service. Everything in there is original, including portraits and 250 year old china.

This is the library built for John Quincy Adams to house his and his father's library. It's very impressive.












At the end of the day, we all knew what was the highlight for Ezra, as he made a bee line for the
trolley.

Travis enjoyed the tours too, he showed his appreciation for them by sleeping throughout.













We also went to Salem together. this time, instead of doing witch stuff, we visited the Peabody Essex Museum (which, by the way, is a very cool museum) and learned about maritime history.

This picture pretty much summarizes life with Ezra. He constantly goes at full speed, with others trying (or not trying, as in the picture) to keep up.




We took a tour of a replica of the merchant ship Friendship. She was originally built in 1796 and served as a merchant vessel to the East Indies. The original was captured by the British in the war of 1812.





The saturday before graduation was spent in Newport, RI. We met my uncle Steve, aunt Stacey, and their kids Christian and Haley. Haley has always been Ezra's favorite and they were able to re-kindle the romance on this trip.





We all had fun:



Rolling down hills,



Doing somersaults,









Playing: "1,2,3 Jump!!!"








And just relaxing.

We had a great time, we're sorry to leave the east coast, where Steve, Stacey, and Haley have been a significant part of our lives.

Back by popular demand

Here is the recipe for the cookies from the last post. I had so many people ask for it, I thought I'd make it public. It comes from the Best Recipe Cookbook, by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C plus 2 tablespoons all purpose fluor
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 C light or dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 t vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips

1. Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 325. Line 2 lage cookie sheets with parchment paper (we just put them right on the pans).

2. Whisk fluor, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl, set aside.

3. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in chips to taste.

4. Roll scant 1/4 C dough into ball. Holding dough ball in fingertip of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and with jagged surfaces facing up, join halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth dough's uneven surface. Place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving 2 1/2 inches between each ball.

5. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and from front to back) until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy. 15 t0 18 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets. When cooled, peel cookies from parchment (or just scoop them off the pan.)

Perfect

So I made these cookies last night. It's hard to tell from the picture, but they are 3-4 inches in diameter and 3/8 inch thick. they have almost as many chocolate chips in them as there is flour and they are absolutely delicious. (I cheated and used our good calebaut chocolate.)
The thing that makes them special, though, is that they have granted me temporary immunity from any wrong doing in the eyes of my wife.
As she was eating one, she told me, "This is what will be waiting for me with Peter at the gate of Heaven. I'll be resurrected with one of these in my hand."
So I have achieved perfection in her eyes, at least as far as cookies go.

Finally done

So we finally did it.
This week I finished everything for dental school so I'm officially ready to graduate. Graduation is in two weeks on the 18th. I have been looking forward to this for so long it's hard to believe we're finally here. I also found out I passed my licensure exam, which I took two weeks ago. I was really worried about it and it was a huge relief to pass. It was the last thing I needed to be able get a dental license. Someone's looking out for us.
Because we've been here 4 years and we're nearing the end, I think I'll post some highlights of our life in Boston.

In February of 05 there was a blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow on Boston and 1/2 - 1 inch inside our windowsill (we had some pretty rattly windows)
Nice intro to new england winters. Our first winter, we had 2 weeks were it never got above 10 degrees F and a monster storm.
Ezra was born March 12 2005
Acadia National Park as a family. Ezra's having a great time.

It didn't take us long to find someplace to climb. This is our local ghetto wall. Urban climbing at its finest. If you look closely at the lower left of the picture, you can see a little graffiti. It is 1/8 inch thick in some areas. You pretty much figure if there is paint on your foot holds, you can up the grade by about half a number grade.
Here's a better picture of some graffiti with Megan showing off her "huge" pregnant belly. We were amazed at how much she was showing.
Halloween is always fun. I carved a pair of dentures for this poor pumpkin. He lost his teeth in a tragic accident involving a kitchen knife.
Giddy up.
We always tried to climb as much as possible. I'm not sure how Ezra felt about it. Here we are in Pawtuckaway, NH. Meg's cranking in the background.
This is what happens when you take a 3 year old climbing in New England in December. Who knew my down coat was made for 2?
sometimes the stress just gets to you. My friend Peter cut this mohawk for me after our last exam of dental school. We both passed and no, this was not a cry for help.
Ezra got to hang out with his cousin Ian in Texas. It was fun to have the whole family together again. It had been a long time.
Travis was born on March 19 2008. Everything was going well until he started vomiting forcefully about 3 weeks ago. We took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with Pyloric stenosis. The opening from his stomach to his small intestine was obstructed and he had to have surgery so he could get food through again.
Ezra's a pro on his bike.
So after 4 years, here we are. Our family is twice the size it was when we moved here, we have no money, and all we have to show for it are 3 letters. DMD.

Travis

For those of you who do not know, we had our second baby boy 5 weeks ago. His name is Travis Michael Lingard. He is still too small to do any tricks, but every once in a while you can catch him peacefully sleeping. I don't know what it is about a sleeping baby that is so magical. Maybe it's the innocence, or the unworried expression. Or it could be the little sucking motions he makes when it looks like he's dreaming of his next big meal.
Here are a couple of pictures to keep Grandma Jeanne happy.
Look at me! I have a huge head and toothpick arms!
Brothers.

Our First Blog

Ezra's first first ascent.
On Friday, we went into the Blue Hills to scout out some new boulder problems. Ezra found some boulders just his size and put up a couple of problems. It was fun to be out, there is a wealth of pint sized boulders out there perfect for pint sized climbers.

The first climb he put up is called ABϞCD. We got him some Mad Rock Mad Monkey children's climbing shoes and they're really cool. I'm actually jealous because he's so light, those shoes will stick on even the tiniest crystals and edges.
This is documentation of Ezra's first climbing related injury. He got scraped up on this fall because mom was spotting while also holding baby Travis. Dad abandoned her so he could get a sweet photo. Unfortunately, the photo didn't work out, and Ezra got scraped on his leg, side and arm. The things we do for sweet photos.
Here he is working his latest problem called Half Pint. It's a tricky lay back to a good edge with a sloping topout. He'll get it next time.
Ezra's favorite descent route.