Matt at 9mo

He is getting so quick! He ripped up my little cardboard 9mo before I even had a chance to take a picture of it!

Goodbye Dartmouth!

In June, Ger graduated from Med School and I graduated from Tuck. Last week, we closed on our new house in Philadelphia! We are busy getting settled into our new lives...

You would think graduating from school was enough, but our new house is 100 years old and promises to be a series of very interesting projects!

Holts Ledge

Last week, Ger and I took a hike up to Holt's Ledge. It is a hike that ends rather abruptly to a sheer cliff. Over the edge, falcons nest.

Well, Vax likes to hike a little a head of us. Once he saw the birds he took off and nearly ran out of ground - and almost jumped right over the edge! Luckily his doggie survival instincts outranked his bird hunting instincts!

Matthew at 8mo

I had to put the little paper 8 months on top of the crib, cause Matthew kept trying to crush it! He can grab hold on the side of the crib and pull himself up to stand. You can see him ready for lift up, he's crouched up on his little feet...

Giles Mountain and the Fire Tower

This afternoon Ger and I took Matthew and Vax up Giles Mountain in Norwich, VT. It's a pretty quick hike, 1.4 miles. There is a Fire Tower at the top of the mountain that has some sweeping views up the Upper River Valley....



it was a bit cloudy, but it was refreshing to be outside. The path is pretty well maintained as you can see.



I love when you hike down a mountain and you come across a sunny clearing like below. Ger has Matthew in his little travel backpack.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim...

I just wanted to post about Dr. Jim Yong Kim coming to Tuck to talk about his work in Public Health. He is the new president of Dartmouth starting next year, and it was really inspirational to hear him talk about his work. He basically stressed the importance of execution, and that all the wonderful ideas in the world won't mean a thing if there is no follow-through. How true! He gave us a wonderful reading list, which will keep me busy this summer for sure!

Matthew is getting so big!!!

Anna Came to Visit! Yay!

Anna came to visit this past memorial weekend. It was awesome to catch up! Thanks for making the drive!

I’m currently reading the early memoirs of George Kennan. What struck me most is how he describes learning Russian. Of course it helps that he lived near native speakers, but the amount of consistent effort into his field of study is inspiring.

He describes taking a very intense master’s level examination for translation from Russian into German and vice-versa. He passes this brutal test. But then in the very next paragraph he says his first act after passing this test is to go out and get a Russian tutor and study some more!

It’s never enough to just be “good enough”! (Inspiring... and not a bit tiring). :-)

Matthew at 7mo

I'm uploading pictures and came across this one at Matthew for 7 months. He's grabbing everything these days - including my little paper cut out "7".

Boston Lot Lake

With the weather being so nice we've been making more of an effort to take Vaxy and Matthew up to Boston Lot Lake behind Sachem. We will miss having our own personal hide-a-way lake! The hike is good for Vax and gets him exercise. Ger took this picture but unfortunately his head got cut off a bit. We have a lot to learn about photography!

Ms. Brooks

My time at Tuck is coming to an end - and one of my last memories will be dinner last night with Debbie Brooks, co-founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Debbie had almost 10 years as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs under her belt before being tapped to start- from scratch- one of the most influential and powerful scientific research organizations.

Over dinner she shared some war stories about how she landed the job - and what she did on Monday, Day one. One of the most important things I took away was how powerful a business mindset could be in the non-profit world, and importance of "high impact philanthropy". Very inspiring!

Philadelphia

Gerry matched at Temple University in Philadelphia! We will be leaving our little house in the woods and headed to the land of Rocky!

I can hear "eye of the tiger"....

Happy New Year's

Fondue for New Year's at Broc and Christa's!

Walking in the Snow with Vax

Late Winter is snow-shoe time with Vax.

We try and get him a run at least once a day.

Warren and Me

Last week, I went with about 25 other tuckies and 150 other b-school students to consult the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet. After a two hour question and answer period, Warren bought all 150 or so of us lunch! I lucked out and was able to sit at the same table as him for most of lunch (I gave my seat up after a while, so other tuckies could eat with him).

He is truly brilliant and a great public speaker. It was refreshing to hear upbeat things about the economy, and about the power of sticking to your investment philosophy!

Lunch was NY strip, cherry coke and a root beer float for dessert!

The Carroll Pack in New England!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
My New Year's Resolution is to keep up to date and chronicle our last few months in New England!

Isn't Matthew so cute in his Santa Hat?