Merry Christmas!

Grandpa Gutierrez

Written by Roberto Gutierrez:

For those who never met Dr. Gilbert Gutierrez...

He was the greatest man i ever met. He was an MD when it was rare for Hispanic individuals to be MDs. He never turned people away and would ask for whatever payment you could give. I am sure there are many happy people who traded chickens for check-ups. He had hands of steel, but gave great hugs. He stopped practicing medicine when, in his words, “the system wouldn't let me help people anymore." Apparently insurance companies can't convert chickens to dollars. His medical office is still open.

The thing is...this is nothing. He is the father of 12. Grandfather to more than 40 (sorry i have lost count). His children are businessmen and women, doctors, PhDs nurses, teachers and caretakers of every practice. His grandchildren are PhDs, nurses, teachers, lawyers, vets, students, military, federal agents, computer scientists and more.

Still nothing. In my opinion his greatest accomplishment is his family, which i am honored to be a member of. His family is full of mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, in-laws, guests, coworkers, neighbors and more. Regardless of who you are, what your name is, where you come from or where you are going, grandpa always met you with open arms and you immediately knew you were family. is an institution and being a Gutierrez is more than having that as a surname. There are many Gutierrez's that don't have that as a last name. Christmas dinner last year had more than 100 people waiting for grandpa to call out names.

I hope to be half the man he was. I hope to love my family with as much conviction and passion as he did.

Gilbert could have been anything, could have held any title, but i believe that his favorite title was Grandpa Gutierrez.

I am proud, honored and blessed to say i am his grandson.

Thank you grandpa and goodbye.

Pioneer Square

One of our 4th year rotations is at the Oregon Humane Society, where we spay and neuter about 40 animals in 2 weeks time. There happened to be a OSU event in Pioneer Square in downtown Portland the week I was at OHS, which involved manning a veterinary booth and of course taking awesome pictures with Benny the Beaver! It was kind of hard to leave the humane society without 5 puppies in hand but I managed to practice some self control :)

San Diego

Heading back to Oregon we stopped in San Diego to visit with brother Berto for a few days. The first night there Berto took us to this great restaurant and bar with a beautiful view of the sunset. Then Wyatt and I headed out to the ocean to get our feet wet. We saw all kinds of sea lions and people (kind of overwhelming when you've been living in the middle of nowhere for awhile). We would've stayed longer in the ocean that night if we had known that the next morning Wyatt was going to get stung by a sting ray within the first 10 minutes of boogy boarding! So after talking with the life guard we headed back to Berto's house to soak his wound and he felt a lot better, because the sharp pain was getting pretty painful.
Later on that day, we went out to Ocean Beach where we jumped off some cliffs and then headed to the local market and happy hour. Wyatt's foot felt a lot better after the beers too :) That night we made homemade pizza and talked the night away.
4:00 am came mighty early as Wyatt and I headed towards Oregon, hoping that L.A. traffic would be kind to us ;)

Zion National Park

4th year has begun! And my first order of business is to take 3 weeks off :) Wyatt flew out in June and we took the long way home, so we could visit Zion National Park. It was a beautiful day, and we got a few hikes in before we headed down to Arizona.

Sister's Rodeo

Kim, Jen, the Ward Family and I at the campgrounds before the Rodeo

DU Ceremony

Uptown Girl... At least for now

Moving to the 18th floor of a sky scraper... ummm pretty amazing. If you look close enough you can see the Rocky Mountains in the distance

After Graduation, literally the next day, the fam got together and moved Ana into her fabulous new place located high in the sky overlooking downtown Denver. After about 7 truck loads (Uncle Dave, Uncle Bob, Uncle Joe, other Uncle Joe and Dad's trucks) we delivered Ana's goods unscathed :)

I love this picture berto took of this dog on the streets of Denver.

This is taken from the lower level of the apartment building, overlooking 6th street Mall

My life as I know it

This is my newest buddy, Paden... you know, like in Silverado.
So I'm almost done with winter quarter of my 3rd year of vet school. What I can say for sure is that I know what I want in life and more importantly I know what I don't want in my life. I am realizing what kind of doctor I want to be and the type of medicine I want to practice. I find the most endearing people to be the ones that speak less and do more. And although at times, I feel like a foreigner here, I will never change my beliefs in hard work, honesty, integrity and responsibility in getting a job done. Lastly, I will forever appreciate a sunny day and a free moment to enjoy it!

Hollywood

We had the annual vet school Winter Formal and this years theme was Hollywood... I was attempting to channel Audrey Hepburn :) I'm still getting the hair spray and bobby pins out!