Time for July!

Hello, everyone!

After a ton of blog updates before in the last month, July is seemingly quiet in comparison. But, we are managing to keep busy and have some adventures to boot!

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In Jen's Family, the 4th of July is second only to Christmas in the hierarchy of family holidays. A small part of that is because Jen's oldest sister, Myra, was born on the 5th and the family usually gets together on the 4th instead. The real, main reason, however, is because Newark, where we live, is one of a few cities in California that still hasn't outlawed fireworks. The sales benefit different booster clubs, and there is just too much money to be made by blowing up your hometown, so every year the family meets at Jen's parents house to light off fireworks.. This year, the dogs made things interesting. Myra's dog, Mason, is not a fan of the loud popping (long story with his personal history) and our dog, Fox, was actually scared this year, so we put the three dogs inside of our RAV 4 so that they we're close enough to see us and know it's okay, without hearing too many loud noises. And, before anyone else asks, Christopher did fine. For some reason, he has always loved fireworks!!!

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The weekend after the 4th, Jen went to a conference put on by the National Urea Cycle Disorder Foundation. UCD is a disorder in which the body has a difficulty time eliminating ammonia from the body. It's a relatively rare disorder, but right now it is actually one of Jen's big research projects. Because of how rare it is, there is only one conference every year for it, and this year it was in Denver, CO. Jeff again went along, and so did our niece, Rachel, who wanted to look at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, an hour north of Denver and where Jen got her first degree. So we went back home to Ft. Collins while we were there and toured the campus and drove around the city. Jen put it this way: it was like going home and finding someone changed the locks. It was familiar, but a lot had changed in the city and the school, which is expected after having been away over five years, but there were a few homey things, like visiting our old apartment.

The hotel we stayed at in Denver was pretty nice as well. It has a rooftop pool that we hung out at, and while Jen was in her conference, Jeff and Rachel got to do some shopping. It was the shortest of the three trips, but still plenty of fun!

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That brings us to this weekend, another busy one for us. We already saw the last Harry Potter in a double-feature with the previous one, and today we went to the AIDS Walk in San Francisco. Jeff had volunteered a few times but didn't get to actually walk some of them, so we went out to Golden Gate Park and enjoyed the day. Although we got a late start, we still had fun listening to the music and enjoying the park and the people. In fact, Jen even got a t-shirt and a keychain from the Pixar Walk Team. The keychain is of the rubber ball that is part of their logo, and her shirt is in honor of Cars 2, with Lightning McQueen driving a red track made out to look like an AIDS ribbon. Between our trips, conferences and walks, we have amassed quite a collection of shirts!!

Well, that is it for now. We haven't uploaded any pictures yet, but they should be posted in one of our albums next to this blog. Hope all is well with our family and friends and we will see you all soon!!