Scherer Family: The excitement that is our life...

We have been so busy for the last three months I have to play catch-up now. This is all the way back to March 2010. Philip was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He celebrated with his family and new baby who thankfully slept at Uncle Kurt and Aunt Allison's house while we went to the dinner.

Here are all the inductees from his class. Dr. Abott from Radilogy was given an award for Excellence in Medicine. It was exciting to see her there, she is one of Philip's favorite Attendings to work with.

Congratulations Philip, we already knew you were amazing, but it's nice for other people to recognize it too.

Then we had match day that we all remember where we found out that we were moving to Tennessee for one year and then back to Gainesville for the remaining 4 years. A very exciting day! It was a luncheon and everyone in the class announced where they were going.

Philip announcing his "match" to the class. What a happy face. It's always a relief to 1) match and 2) be excited about where you matched.

Philip being congratulated by Dean Good.

Then Max, Lorelei, Grandma Lake and I flew out to California, while philp and sometimes, Allison, showed our house for potential renters. It was mad chaos, but it worked out great. We feel very blessed to have found renters for one year for our house, especially in this economy where so many houses are for rent.

We are renting a small apartment in Chattanooga while Philip does his Transitional Year at Erlanger Hospital.

So, 7 weeks in California can be very busy, but it was sooo much fun! We did just about everything we possibly could with a new born, a 2 year old who thinks he's five and occaionally my sisters 3 kids who complete the maddness that is having 5 kids five and under, under one roof.

We love every minute of it!

So begins our tale:

This is Lorelei just as she was begining to smile. This little girl is so her Daddy.

Look at that face! It's mini Philip.

Then Lily came to visit, she brought her parents Russell and Erin with her, Max loves lily, they are best buds. He loves to watch 'Milo and Otis' becuase it has a lily dog in it.

This is my brother Russell and his beautiful wife, Erin. They are so helpful with Max and Lorelei. We love them very much and we wish we lived closer so we could see them more often. Russell and Erin are always good for a compassionate and real conversation. They are truly honest people who say what they mean and I appreciate being surrounded by people who are deep and share experiences that make you a better person.

Then it was Easter. Lily helped Max find all the eggs. Max was a pro at egg hunting, as long as he was the only one doing the hunting. When he had to share the field with his cousins, he wasn't so good at it.

"The stash"

It was in California where Max discovered his love for creepy, crawly and disgusting slimy things. Here is one of many 'pets' he found.

The Caterpillar. Apparently in water they don't move anymore. That's what Max told me.

No creepy crawly list would be complete without the snail. Yes, that's right the snail.

Totally disgusting - YES

Max found about 25 snails in Grandma's Ivy bushes.

Max had to look for snails every night. Look at that face, he's totally in his element; no clothes on,

it's about 10:00pm and he's playing with snails. Max lives to play. Sleep is highly overrated.

Then Philip flew into town and we all drove to Boulder City, NV so we could take a family picture. (See post below) It was lots of fun to see the Jeppsen family as well. We love going to Vegas. We saw the sharks at the Monterey Bay Acquarium, we saw the Hoover Dam and the new Bridge they are building that's incredibly gigantic. I can't wait to see the making of the bridge on the Discovery Channel one day because I can't evern believe that expanse that is this bridge.

We got to meet Lucy Bacon for the First time. Here she is 9 months old with her family. Isn't she lovely?

We love our family and miss them. We live so far away it just doesn't seem fair. The Bacon family is so much fun, we love to spend time with them, especially Max who likes to rough house with the boys. Michelle is such a good Mom to these kids and sometimes Max.She is very patient with Max who is a very active Child. Jon, you're a good Dad too. haha didn't mean to leave you out there.

Lovey, Jon, Seth, Michelle and Marcus

When Philip came to visit we took the kids to the Living Desert. It's a Zoo for desert animals. Max just loves going there. They even have Giraffes and a full working locomotive train set-up.

We took Max to see the butterfly exhibit, but he only wanted to play in the gift shop with the lizards and look for spider webs. Funny kid.

They had an entire section for kids to play in the dirt and climb on animal statues and ride the carousel. It was a really fun day.

Max rode the Rabbit. Philip wasn't quite sure why he chose that particular animal, it was pretty funny. Of all the colorful animals he rode the plain white one.

This is the animal hospital. Animals who have been rescued and hurt in the wild are brought here. Max was telling all the quests about the hurt animals and they were really nice to talk to him and listen to his story about the blind birds.

Baby Lorelei slept the whole time, except for when her Dad tried to take her picture. Then she wasn't very happy.

On one of our many trips to the Living Desert my parents and I took Max to the Petting Zoo area. You could pet the sheep and billy goats. Max had so much fun combing their hair and chasing them around.

We spent a good deal of time touching the animals.

One of the great things about California is getting to see all the family that we know and love and love us. I told Philip it should be illegal to live so far away from my family. He promises me that this will not always be the case. I'm going to remind him of this promise.

Lorelei meeting Great Grandpa Lake. We love Grandpa. He's such a kind hearted man who loves so freely. He loves to hold the babies and Lorelei enjoyed being held by him.

Grandpa Lake has 28 Grandchildern and 16 Great Grandchildren with 2 on the way.

Visiting Grandma Gigi's house. Max has so much fun at Grandma's house. She has a toy closet with Lego's and now whenever he sees a lego he asks if he can go to Grandma Gigi's house.

Lorelei talking to Grandma.

We went to white water with the family. Lots of other people were there, but I only took a few pictures as my mom and I were mainly trying to prevent Max from jumping in the ponds of fish. There was a pool the kids could walk in and Max had so much fun, it was freezing because it's melted snow running down from the mountains. It's beautiful, I wish I had a picture.

Lorelei and Great Grandpa Lake

As you can tell Grandpa really likes to hold the babies. We had a BBQ at Grandma's house and let the boys swim in the pool.

Aunt Ruth, and her Mom and Dad were there from Canada.

Erin and Russell were back in town again.

Jon and cousin Emily were holding down the fort in the pool. Max is being a pirate. Max figured out how to swim. At least he thinks he did. He swims with his legs and arms and floaty. He gets everywhere he needs to and heaven forbid you help him in the pool. He wants to do it all by himself.

Beautiful Palm Springs. We love the mountains and the Palm trees.

Mr. Independent. Max is so smart. I know most parents say this about their kids, but serisouly Max is just too smart. He figures things out on his own so often. We have to be careful what we say in front of him.

Jon, Grandma Gigi and Clara. She's our adopted relative. There's always room for more in the Lake family.

Great Grandpa with Lovey, he's the resident baby holder.

Cousin Mary came over after the BBQ she had just played in some softball championships in LA. She came to see the "mouse". Actually it was a hamster that Max calls mouse. Marcus named them Mallory and Princess Leah. He actually named one Thimble Tack, but his mother told him that was a boy name and the hamster was a girl so it needed to be a girl name. Marcus' response was - well let's just change it to a boy then. Marcus you're so funny! Grandma Lake has a soft spot for animals and so she indulged the boys in a trip to Petsmart and bought them two hamsters to have while at her house. Max loves animals. We frequently take him to the pet store just to see animals. Unfortunately, Max's parents don't love animals so much. I imagine one day Philip and I will give in and get max an animal. The hamsters now live at Michelle's house. Which I hear she is just loving. We've since learned that Guinea Pigs are a better investment.

Russell and Erin came down again and we went to Newport Beach for the day. It was a perfect day. We even had a Togo's sandwich. Really it was an amazing day. I even got to go see Aunt Laura, whom I haven't seen in about 2 years. It was so good to see her again and to talk with her. She was such a big part of my life growing up and I miss talking with her.