This is the Montgomery clan’s fourth year to attend the Santa Fe Suzuki Institute Summer Camp. We all take up residence at the apartments on the campus of Santa Fe College, where the camp is held. Santa Fe is about 7000 feet above sea level and us flat landers get a little tired and short of breath, especially the grandparents. The sun is intense at that altitude but the temperatures are cool in the evenings and it is the rainy season so you can count on clouds and thunderstorms in late afternoon. Some of these can be fairly severe with wind and hail. The weather is a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of Central Texas.
The families occupy three apartments with two bed rooms per apartment. The grandparents apartment is shared with the Wright family and it is grand central station where everyone comes between classes for breaks, practicing and fun.
Shakespeare would have a great time in the grandparent’s apartment. He said that the world is like a stage with everyone making their entrances and exits. That is sure the case with us. Each day is a different act and there are many scenes each day with most of the play in our apartment. The play is filled with every human emotion ranging from; sorry, when we were informed about the death of a friend to anger when we were informed about the resignation of a valued nurse practitioner in the Radiology Departrment. We experience the full spectrum of emotions; fear, depression, anxiety, happiness, but mostly joy of being together.
Santa Fe is such a great place; fabulous food, magnificent art, history, and almost ideal weather. In the past we have gone to the opera, chamber music concerts, museums and explored places like the Indian ruins at Bandelier and the making of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. The kids love white sands but mostly the adventure and learning which goes on at the Suzuki camp. Just hope we have more to come.
Dad

Here I am sitting with my good friend John.

Sincerely, Mark Twain

Chocolate Maven

Excellent lunch today in Santa Fe at Chocolate Maven's. One of the best meals I have had in Santa Fe. We feasted ourselves on Strawberry crepes, Creme Brulee, Huevos Rancheros, California Chicken Crepes, Belgian Waffles, Chiliquiles. Out of this world good. This place looks like a whole in the wall from the outside. Looks like they have a great bakery too. I am sure I am going to put a few pounds on in Santa Fe this summer.

Two examples of not making it though at least Suzuki Bk.1

Santa Fe

We finally made it to Santa Fe. This is at are first great meal at Tortilla Flats.

Escaped inmates captured near Las Vegas...what a relief!

Two men guards say escaped from the DeBaca County jail in Ft. Sumner were captured Saturday near Las Vegas, N.M.
Authorities were searching for Cody Jessup, 19, of Woodward, Okla., and Barry Wright, 23, of Higgins, Texas, since Friday night around 9 p.m., when guards say they escaped by overpowering a corrections officer.
Wright and Jessup were recaptured early Saturday afternoon in Romeroville, a small town near Las Vegas.
Detention records show both men were arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a vehicle, weapons and other property.
Wright also has been charged with aggravated assault on an officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thank goodness kids!!!! Now we can all have a safe and relaxing time at Suzuki Camp!

Writing from South Padre island. Waiting for the plane- trying to get back home. It is hotter than Hades down here. Gave the talks and ready to get out of Dodge. It is a lot of work to come down herebut I guess it is worth it. Stirred things up a little bit with comments about overutilization of medical imaging.

Mark

Yellowstone

What an incredible vacation! It was so amazing to see the real beauty of Yellowstone. It was also good for the soul to be completely cutoff from the world of internet, tv, telephone,
blackberry, and all other technology. We heard absolutely no news for 7 days. Yellowstone is the most peaceful place I have ever been. It was also very much of a learning trip. We know exactly where we will stay next time. We will also plan out exactly how many hikes and ranger programs we will do. We almost did to much this time. I would still like to fullfill my dream of being a park ranger someday, even if it for a short while during the summer. There were a lot of school teachers there doing just that. Our favorite ranger was a guy named Harlan who has been teaching high school biology for 44 years, and a Yellowstone ranger in the summer for 34 years. He was a very happy person and loved what he was doing. We do hope to return soon.

This is a section from my CT scan of the abdomen and liver for followup of my colon cancer and metastatic lesion to the liver. It has been 3 1/2 years since the liver met was removed and 8 1/2 years since the original cancer. So far, so good. Another stay of execution. The CT looked okay . The little white dot at the edge of my liver is a surgical clip at the site of the lesion which was resected. This scan was obtained on July 12. 2006. My CEA was 1.1 this week.
Dad

Montgomery's in space

Matt and Becky went to Houston this weekend to the Johnson Space Center. They spent the night in the space center along with the rest of the Webloes in Matt's den. Everybody had a great time. It was especially neat since there is currently a shuttle mission going and the guides were able to relate many facts about the mission to the scouts.
Mark stayed home and did angio cases and Mary Kate and Molly spent most of the weekend with the grandparents.

Today was a real Bang

The whole clan had a real good time celebrating America's 230 birthday.

We finally got a nice rain today. Hopefully, this will make fires less of a problem with the fireworks. It's 8:30 and Ma is about to start the fireworks.
we have played 42 and in general had a great time.
Everyone in the family is sitting around hacking on their computer. Frank Perez claims we have all gone mute.
Dad

Was there enough?

Thanks to everyone for being concerned. We did have enough for our french fries, catfish, hamburgers etc. at our July 4th feasts.

4th Celebration

Having a great 4th. Kid parade was fantastic and much food so far. Smoked turkey, ham, fried chicken, shrimp, fruit, vegetables, cake etc. The fish fry is tonight. Cloudy all day but only a sprinkle. Watched the space shuttle blast off and then watched Italy beat Germany in semifinals of World Soccer Cup playoff. All celebration at Ma house at 3 Forks.
Dad

4th of July

Another big success at the annual 4th of July neighborhood parade. Everybody was decked out in red white and blue including the dogs. The kids made T-shirts with patriotic themes. Everyone was waving American flags. Lots of fun.

Pisa

Here we are at the leaning Tower of Pisa. Unfortunately Mary Kate did not get to climb up the tower because she was too young. Mary Kate and Mom had a great time shopping instead.