The Dr. turns 40!!!

My handsome Dr had a big birthday this past January-2019.  He turned the big 4-0 !! As a surprise, I asked my brother-in-law, Paul, to fly us to Albuquerque, NM to visit some well know fine instrument shops.

Ryan at Robertson's shop

One of the reasons Ryan became an Oral Surgeon was so he would have the means to one day buy himself a fine, old cello.
After killing ourselves for over 4 years paying off all our debt, it was time to start playing with the idea of investing in a fine cello.

We visited 2 shops in the ABQ area.  David Brewers and Robertsons.  Ryan had so much fun!  There were about 10 cellos in his price range to try. The kids were so amazing through this long process of playing and comparing and narrowing the selection to his top 2-3. It was quite boring for them, but they were well behaved and respectful.  It took us about 4 hours to complete this process.  Probably 2 hours at each shop.  We had a late lunch and treated our kids to a visit at the ABQ aquarium.

Ryan at David Brewers

ABQ aquarium

It did not disappoint.  It was super cool. 

Ryan trying his 3 favorite cellos in a banquet room at our hotel in ABQ.

That evening we went back to the hotel with Ryan's 3 favorite cellos.  They each had their own voice.  It comes down to personal preference.  All 3 were spectacular.   We kept them overnight.  We definitely bolted our hotel door.  We had almost a million dollars of instruments in our room that night!

One of the cool things about fine violin shops, is that if you agree to leave them one of your children as ransom, they will let you take an instrument to try for a week or two.

An old Italian cello- from early 1800s--has the red varnish and a William Forrester -England,  circa 1785

Luckily,  Jace volunteered to be the ransom.  He said he just needed an iPad and a few morsels of food.  "Wouldn't  even miss us much"--he said with a smile in his eye. 

We barely had the space to take one cello home--so it was the William Forrester  that won the spot.

And it is a beauty!!  Both inside and out. It has a strong, warm, clear voice.  

It was an amazing experience to hear it played by a master cellist in our home for 2 weeks.  We agonized over it because we loved it so much --but it came with a hefty 6 figure price tag. 

After much deliberation and prayer,  Ryan spoke to the shop owner and they agreed to let him put a deposit down on it.  We took it back to the shop for the rest of the year and made payments until we could finally bring it home!!!

Now that the cello is home and Ryan gets to play it every day--he thinks he'll be an oral surgeon even less this coming year--after all--he has the cello now!!  And he is a cellist first and foremost!