June

June 8, 2014 -- Eight year anniversary of our engagement so we went back to the place where it all went down. It was raining this year, so we walked around, enjoyed the scenery, and then went out to eat somewhere more dry and warm.

On June 14th, Naomi and I got on a plane....

...and headed to Pennsylvania!

We stayed with our awesome friends Jenny and Tobie and their daughter Leah. It took the girls about five minutes to realize they were two peas in a pod.

Sunday afternoon Leah's friend Riley came over and the three girls had a blast playing together.

And this is where I spent my week. Not all of you know that I was involved in a lawsuit. I don't want to go into details on this blog. The short version is that it involved a patient I saw in the ER in 2006, found out that I was being sued in 2008, and now we finally went to trial in 2014.

Nothing like looking up and seeing your name on the big screen so that anyone walking by can see you are being sued as well.

This is the courtroom. It was much smaller and more dank than I had pictured, which also made it less intimidating.

I came home to find these two snuggled into bed together.

Twinsies.

We got to watch Leah dominate at her swim meet.

Tobie and Jenny had immeasurable energy. Here Jenny is helping Naomi and Leah make their own lip gloss.

We had lots of trips to Ritas

And one night we met up with my cousin Susan and her husband Erik who used to live in Longmont but have since moved to Lancaster.

After dinner Naomi and Elias enjoyed some whoopie pies, because nothing says Amish treats like whoopie pies.

And Naomi caught her first lightening bug. Which she insisted on taking home with us.

See the look on my face? That is what relief and joy look like when you have spent an entire week being attacked and then get to have your two and a half hours on the witness stand.

We went out to celebrate that night with some friends.

Saturday morning, with some weight off my shoulders since my part in the trial was over, Naomi and I walked around downtown Lancaster. The second floor of this building was my old apartment. I have so many amazing memories of this place. The years I spent living here I was surrounded by some of the best people in the whole world. I was completing my residency, which I will always look back on as some of the best years of my life. And one very handsome man came to pick me up at this door for our first date.

From my apartment I walked with that amazing guy to this place, Square One Coffee, where we spent hours talking. Naomi thought their hot chocolate was pretty good.

Then we walked down to Central Market, which was recently named 8th on a list of the WORLD'S best fresh markets

...where you can buy ridiculous donuts like this for 80 cents.

Downtown Lancaster is even cooler now than it was when I lived there. One fun thing: there are pianos all over downtown just waiting to be played. And about 50% of them were being used when we walked by them.

This is the girls putting on their toughest faces.

Naomi got her first mani-pedi with Leah. She was psyched.

A highlight of the week was a day spent at Dutch Wonderland, a small amusement park. How could a place which boasts Amish photo-ops not be awesome? Welcome to Lancaster, PA.

There was the frog hopper which Naomi had done and loved in Amarillo last summer.

And here we were waiting in the incredibly short line for her first real roller coaster.

Ready to go! She loved the "tickling feeling" in her stomach with all the big drops. I'm so glad that I have someone to do these rides with because they aren't Clifton's idea of a good time. And Annika doesn't seem to be on board with them yet either.

There was a fun water park portion too.

With lots of slides and play areas.

A quick break for some ice cream....

Leah was so gracious to agree to be the Prince.

The girls kindof couldn't get enough of these photo cut-outs.

Here they are with the "cast" of Dutch Wonderland.

One last ride photo. This place was great. For the most part they were able to walk up and get right on the rides.

This? This is what people look like when they find out they just won a six year legal battle. The jury was out for less than an hour and we came back to hear the verdict. On the far left is Bill. He might be the happiest guy because he's from my malpractice company and he writes the checks. Amazing guy. Next to him is Bret, another doc in the ER who was named in the suit. He's a great doctor and was a good friend to be stuck with in this situation. And to my left is Steve, my awesome lawyer who did an unbelievable job. It's hard to have so much of your life in someone's hands. But I trusted him totally.

And this is my glass of celebratory champagne!

I wanted to get a picture of Tobie and the girls since he took care of them all week long and is the only reason I was able to bring Naomi with me on this trip. This man is amazing.

Jenny and I took the girls out for a celebration/goodbye breakfast... Hard to turn down crepes with nutella and caramel...

Where do I begin? I will always remember Tobie and Jenny as the friends who lived this terrible, emotional, stressful seven days with me under the same roof. They didn't even seem to mind that I was emotionally checked out for the first five days. Through this experience I have learned the importance of leaning on friends/family when you feel too weak to go on. So many of you loved and carried me through this, near and far. Thank you.

And as an extra bonus: our girls decided they are crazy similar and became great friends

We took a couple days to head to upstate New York to visit with our dear friends the Browns and the Ramoses.

The kids had fun with this little set up in the backyard.

Weston, Harper and Naomi

We visited with Shereen who three weeks ago gave birth to these two sweet things: Ben and Layla. Shereen = amazing friend, then and now. And she is singlehandedly responsible for me meeting Clifton since she bought me my membership to eHarmony.

Naomi was in love and held Layla for nearly three straight hours. She decided that Ben was too squirmy for her.

And we had a toast to being done---done with legal battles and twin pregnancies!

One night Matt and Amber took me out for a kid-free dinner with amazingly good food and drinks. Again, at the risk of sounding effusive, I have the best friends in the world.

Much to Naomi's delight, we spent one afternoon painting ceramics. Because we need another pink panda bear in our house. Might just make that a birthday present for a certain Oma out there... Not that Naomi would ever part with it.

And some hose time. These two are adorable. We're pretty sure they should get married someday. Here was a conversation that went down while we were there:

Harper: (reaching into the fruit bowl) "I'll take a cute little peach."
Naomi: "A cute little peach?"
Weston: (batting his eyelashes) "Yes. Like you."

Naomi was nervous to play in the neighborhood kickball game but ended up *loving* it. As in, she told me she never wanted to leave and has already tried to start planning a Longmont version, which includes inviting our 70 year old neighbors. I think she's trying to stack the field.

I love this for all the gusto with which she totally missed this kick.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

This sisterly love lasted about 12 minutes.