Monday, July 14, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
The Oklahoma Season
Well, well, well, lookie here....I've got quite the catch up game to play considering it's almost July & I haven't even written about our Easter holiday.......................................ummm.....what to do.......
I'm not sure if this will be a post of a bajillion and one photos, OR I'll give a brief summary of our lives at this point..................
.............who am I kidding, you will be getting both especially since I've got photos all over the place of our time there- from phone, camera, tablet...etc...
Right now I am sitting on a bar stool at my in-laws house in Idaho, where we have been living the past month. So, let's rewind back to our days in Oklahoma. I have a little documentation to do there first.
As you know, from my last post, we were living in a Best Western Hotel! Yep, the whole 10 weeks! I will not feel the need for another belgian waffle for a VERY long time!
One event that we looked forward to (and brought some sanity back into our lives) was General Conference. We cozied up on our king-size bed & enjoyed listening to the words of our prophets & seeking guidance from them. It was extra fun to be sitting there listening to Elder Rasband's talk when he spoke on the topic of the massive tornado that hit Moore, OK last year. The little girl he quoted in his talk was one young woman in our ward! This talk really touched us because we could see first hand how the disaster effected the community and how it still is a burden to some. Our tradition at the April conferences is to munch on "chocolate easter bunnnies" in preparation for Easter Sunday.
Oh yeah........and that good looking guy in Sailor's drawing is the one and only Pres. Monson! :) I really don't know why she added all that length to his ears. :)
One thing I noticed about OK was that they do everything BIG! This Community Easter Egg Hunt was no exception! They had 5 taped off areas for different age groups. And each section was COVERED in candy....I mean it was no hunt.
The size of the food portions in OK are gigantic! Curly Fry=6 years!
Seryn was in love with the parrots! Every time they would fly off of her she was off searching for the next one that would sit on her arm. She held at least a dozen of them!
Is it lame that this is the best and only picture I got?? Yes it is! I love Monica and we had a great time visiting and the girls had fun playing with Matt and all of his toys....because gosh, according to Sailor, "Matt's toys are a lot more fun then ours." I had to tell her it was probably because they are all different, since we revolve around girl 'stuff.' She still insisted that we needed some new toys.
Easter came quick this year. And like every year the girls put together a new Easter puzzle & scavenged...that a word?? for the Easter loot. I had to be real clever trying to set that hunt up in our tiny little room.
Ok, I wasn't kidding when I said we colored and drew ALOT. We even did so at the local library! That was the first thing the girls wanted to do when we would get there. Sailor wanted to learn how to draw a unicorn so we found a book with one on it and I drew it up and had her follow along with me. She wanted to add her own twist and make it a "Rainbow Unicorn"--she was really excited rainbows while we lived there...
I'm not sure if this will be a post of a bajillion and one photos, OR I'll give a brief summary of our lives at this point...............................who am I kidding, you will be getting both especially since I've got photos all over the place of our time there- from phone, camera, tablet...etc...
Right now I am sitting on a bar stool at my in-laws house in Idaho, where we have been living the past month. So, let's rewind back to our days in Oklahoma. I have a little documentation to do there first.
OUR OKLAHOMA SEASON
As you know, from my last post, we were living in a Best Western Hotel! Yep, the whole 10 weeks! I will not feel the need for another belgian waffle for a VERY long time!One event that we looked forward to (and brought some sanity back into our lives) was General Conference. We cozied up on our king-size bed & enjoyed listening to the words of our prophets & seeking guidance from them. It was extra fun to be sitting there listening to Elder Rasband's talk when he spoke on the topic of the massive tornado that hit Moore, OK last year. The little girl he quoted in his talk was one young woman in our ward! This talk really touched us because we could see first hand how the disaster effected the community and how it still is a burden to some. Our tradition at the April conferences is to munch on "chocolate easter bunnnies" in preparation for Easter Sunday.
Oh yeah........and that good looking guy in Sailor's drawing is the one and only Pres. Monson! :) I really don't know why she added all that length to his ears. :)
One thing I noticed about OK was that they do everything BIG! This Community Easter Egg Hunt was no exception! They had 5 taped off areas for different age groups. And each section was COVERED in candy....I mean it was no hunt.
Chase & I celebrated our 6th Anniversary while we were there. Woohoo! Time has flown!
So as a family we spent the day downtown OKC on a water taxi, checked out the sights, & ate some yummy BBQ lunch.
The size of the food portions in OK are gigantic! Curly Fry=6 years!
That evening, we spent the time with our good friends Dr. Massengale & his wife. They had us over for dinner which ended up being more BBQ (which we didn't complain about). The girls had a blast on their 10-acre lot filled with playground toys, a horse, 4 dogs, and a tractor which they were able to go for a ride on. We were spoiled for sure!
A little bit on this Dr....
A few years ago at the beginning of Chase's schooling he started looking into optometry regulations/laws around the country. Each state has different laws, but in OK optometrists can do everything they are trained to do and some surgeries as well. One thing led to another and Chase's determination was fired up when he learned about this doctor. This guy knows how to practice!!! He ended up being really nice and for a few years Chase and him exchanged emails and what not and eventually planned this rotation at his practice. It was always really random, especially because it was in a weird unknown place to us in Moore, OK.........? (that is until the tornado hit and all of sudden I didn't want to go to the Moore place...yikes)
Well, eventually we get there and Chase and this doctor became really fast friends--VERY fast and in a very cool, unexpected way. Without a doubt we KNOW he was put into our lives & especially Chases'. Chase has learned more in those few months with him then all years combined in his schooling and they are buds and still chat to this day. I couldn't even start describing all the little details that reassured us that we were MEANT to be there to meet and become friends with this special man---I'll explain that all in my memoir if I ever write it...;) Chase even ended up living with him & his wife for the last couple weeks while the girls and I left and stayed with my parents--again so many blessings we've been blessed with.
Moving on.....one thing we were so fortunate to do was visit with the Larsen's--some old friends from AZ! It was such a blast to visit with Tiffany and let our kids run around at the zoo. Other than spending time with this awesome family, the zoo highlights were holding parrots & running alongside the otter tank.
Seryn was in love with the parrots! Every time they would fly off of her she was off searching for the next one that would sit on her arm. She held at least a dozen of them!
We were also fortunate to spend some time with some more old AZ friends, the Spark's.
Easter came quick this year. And like every year the girls put together a new Easter puzzle & scavenged...that a word?? for the Easter loot. I had to be real clever trying to set that hunt up in our tiny little room.
We colored eggs as well....we boiled eggs and while they were hot, we colored on them with crayons. This was a very nice and clean alternative to dyes!
One of the many creative moments the girls' had....use toliet paper for pirate masks!
Ok, I wasn't kidding when I said we colored and drew ALOT. We even did so at the local library! That was the first thing the girls wanted to do when we would get there. Sailor wanted to learn how to draw a unicorn so we found a book with one on it and I drew it up and had her follow along with me. She wanted to add her own twist and make it a "Rainbow Unicorn"--she was really excited rainbows while we lived there...
One of the last things we did in OK was go to a fun place called "Unpluggits." A children's play place that had EVERYTHING a child would love to do. A big playground, dress ups, painting, coloring, playdough, stamping, etc...
We spent this time with our friends that we miss so much--Julie, Quinci, & Mabry.
And of course, the pool! I couldn't talk about OK without mentioning the pool. "OUR POOL"--because we were ALWAYS there alone...
Nothing else to say but the girls loved it and didn't forget for a second how to swim--they picked it up right from our AZ days.
Sailor is funny and does this eyebrow lift frequently.
We swam and played til we had to sleep. :)
The morning that we flew out of OK to WA I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Because I was up, I figured I should try to do something worthwhile. My mind went to photography...what could I take some pictures of?? I quickly thought of the city of Moore & how I didn't get to get any photos of the place, so I drove over to the May 2013 tornado path and thought I'd grab a few shots there-- I 'm so glad I did.
Obviously, it's been a year since the disaster so much of the destruction has been fixed throughout the town, but in many of the neighborhoods it looks half fixed. From talking to several people who were affected, many couldn't and still can't afford to fix up their houses so it forced them to throw up a "for sale" sign on the lot and sell as is.
There were construction companies all over the place and constantly working- I'm sure it hasn't changed since we've been gone.
I was driving primarily in the neighbors that went to Plaza Towers Elementary (one of the two elementary schools that got hit). After the incident happened, the kids made these signs...and it's so sweet that a year later they are still up!
In the background of this photo is the Plaza Elementary.
As I drove out and ready to head back to the hotel to pack up and leave, I drove right by a yard sale. This house was right next to the school so I stopped to wander. I over heard the homeowner talk tell someone that most of this stuff being sold was her's and her siblings' families things. They had a sister whose house was hit in the tornado & they were trying to make a little money for her to continue to be able to fix it up. I immediately thought I'll buy something! Unfortunately I only had a few bucks on me, so I picked up a cute clock & metal book mark (a souvenir for my sister Madison who collects them). Then I drove back to one last wreckage sight and grabbed a piece of broken wood from a house that was obviously destroyed last year. I was glad to leave with a few pieces of Moore since I figured I probably wouldn't be going back there anytime soon.
Like I said, I wish I had the time to write out every detail of our whole experience there.
Our family was meant to make the trip there even under all the crazy circumstances & issues that kept coming up; regardless, we enjoyed our time-- it was such an adventure and we were fortunate to have gone.
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