Many of you can recall a change in your life that forever imprints your personality. Events that change the very essence of who you are; life changing events that morphs you into a new person. I can think of a few of you that have recently gone through some of these experiences and I can see changes in who you are now versus who you once were. Wether these experience are "good" or "bad", many of us welsome these experience with open arms because they define us! So, with our change in scenery, we welcome every new challenge with open arms and an open mind...
Our move back to Oklahoma went smoothly, if ever anything of the sort can be called smooth. We left Louisville, Colorado, the place we called home for almost 2 years, at 3:30 PM (local time) on May 26th. Needless to say, we were hoping to get on the road earlier, much earlier, in the day. Our plans were to travel until we got to Oklahoma City. But somewhere on I-70 we decided that a good night's rest would beat feeling exhausted for the next week. We eventually stopped in Salina...settling for a room in the Salina Inn. Don't ask me why we chose this place over the Days Inn, Super 8, and the likes. Our floor was stained and the door had a big crack that prevented the door from being shut; we had to jam the door. So bad was the environment, my brother commented that he felt like he was going to die there if we stayed. We decided to stay! Orion and Cassie acted possessed most of the evening and my brother had a hard time sleeping. He thought the cats were going to attack him....
We arrived in Oklahoma City the next day and our welcoming party helped un unpack. It took us a couple of days to get things situated and we finally have everything squared away in our apartment. I think Samara misses the stairs from our house...she'll survive!
Work has been great; I've been extremely busy analyzing data collected on the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer Project. Shana started work at the USGS on a temporary part-time schedule splitting her time between Denver Basin (work that she brought back to Oklahoma) and the Norman Landfill Research Site. It'll be nice to have incomes...we may soon buy a house, if Shana can get on a full-time schedule. We'll see!
Shana and I are having a hard time fathoming the events from the past year; As I read through our past postings, everything seems like a lifetime of events that's been crammed into 365 days. It is hard to imagine that a year ago Samara was not born, that she did not breathe the air you and I inhale. Amazing!
Samara is continuing her pursuit to reach adulthood before we realize it. She now has 4 little teeth (2 incisors on top and bottom) and she's learned to use them efficiently. Instead of gumming her food, she can now bite and chew diligently. I was able to get a photo of her top tooth...
Our girl is finally beginning her graceful steps toward walking; She has now realized that her leg strength allows her to stand upright! Almost on cue, when we ask Samara to stand, after a few seconds, she kindly "obeys" :)
We attended the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City during the first weekend in June; we ended up dragging a couple of friends , thanks Jerrod and Julie, with us to enjoy the artwork and dancing. Samara seemed to be entertained, which is a good thing, as she would "dance" with the music. She love to dance to music and flail her arms wildly (much like most of generation Y). Shana saw her half-sister and aunt while at the festival and spent a little time visiting with them before we left the show. Later that day, we met up with Brad and Amy at the ballpark and watched the Oklahoma Redhawks play Colorado Springs...busy weekend!
The weekend around June 13th, we decided to go camping with some family before the weather became too hot to handle. Shana. Samara, and I joined my older sister Shannon, brother Mike, niece Tori, and cousin Ben for a relaxing evening at Sequoyah State Park in northeastern Oklahoma. It was nice; we swam out at the lake, grilled dinner, relaxed by the campfire, and on Sunday, Tori took a pony ride!
Samara started "school" on June 18th and seems to be enjoying herself; the picture to the left is from her first day...Shana is thrilled as always at this time in the morning. After we took Samara out of daycare in Denver, her sleeping schedule became a little skewed. Instead of taking short naps during the day and going to bed at 8:30 PM, she started taking 1-2 hour naps during the day and going to bed at 10-11 PM! So, it was nice after her first day at school that she went to sleep at 7:30 PM and slept almost 12 hours without waking in the middle of the night! Little Samara slept like a rock!
And, just as she started daycare in Denver, Samara became sick during the second week of "school". Wednesday evening we awoke to Samara trying her hardest to imitate Chunk from the movie "Goonies" when he talks about vomiting in the theatre. After a doctors visit, everything is ok (just a "cold").
I hope everyone is doing well! Samara's birthday party is fast approaching and I'll send out another update documenting the chaos! Take Care!
--Chris
Our move back to Oklahoma went smoothly, if ever anything of the sort can be called smooth. We left Louisville, Colorado, the place we called home for almost 2 years, at 3:30 PM (local time) on May 26th. Needless to say, we were hoping to get on the road earlier, much earlier, in the day. Our plans were to travel until we got to Oklahoma City. But somewhere on I-70 we decided that a good night's rest would beat feeling exhausted for the next week. We eventually stopped in Salina...settling for a room in the Salina Inn. Don't ask me why we chose this place over the Days Inn, Super 8, and the likes. Our floor was stained and the door had a big crack that prevented the door from being shut; we had to jam the door. So bad was the environment, my brother commented that he felt like he was going to die there if we stayed. We decided to stay! Orion and Cassie acted possessed most of the evening and my brother had a hard time sleeping. He thought the cats were going to attack him....
We arrived in Oklahoma City the next day and our welcoming party helped un unpack. It took us a couple of days to get things situated and we finally have everything squared away in our apartment. I think Samara misses the stairs from our house...she'll survive!
Work has been great; I've been extremely busy analyzing data collected on the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer Project. Shana started work at the USGS on a temporary part-time schedule splitting her time between Denver Basin (work that she brought back to Oklahoma) and the Norman Landfill Research Site. It'll be nice to have incomes...we may soon buy a house, if Shana can get on a full-time schedule. We'll see!
Shana and I are having a hard time fathoming the events from the past year; As I read through our past postings, everything seems like a lifetime of events that's been crammed into 365 days. It is hard to imagine that a year ago Samara was not born, that she did not breathe the air you and I inhale. Amazing!
Samara is continuing her pursuit to reach adulthood before we realize it. She now has 4 little teeth (2 incisors on top and bottom) and she's learned to use them efficiently. Instead of gumming her food, she can now bite and chew diligently. I was able to get a photo of her top tooth...Our girl is finally beginning her graceful steps toward walking; She has now realized that her leg strength allows her to stand upright! Almost on cue, when we ask Samara to stand, after a few seconds, she kindly "obeys" :)
We attended the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City during the first weekend in June; we ended up dragging a couple of friends , thanks Jerrod and Julie, with us to enjoy the artwork and dancing. Samara seemed to be entertained, which is a good thing, as she would "dance" with the music. She love to dance to music and flail her arms wildly (much like most of generation Y). Shana saw her half-sister and aunt while at the festival and spent a little time visiting with them before we left the show. Later that day, we met up with Brad and Amy at the ballpark and watched the Oklahoma Redhawks play Colorado Springs...busy weekend!The weekend around June 13th, we decided to go camping with some family before the weather became too hot to handle. Shana. Samara, and I joined my older sister Shannon, brother Mike, niece Tori, and cousin Ben for a relaxing evening at Sequoyah State Park in northeastern Oklahoma. It was nice; we swam out at the lake, grilled dinner, relaxed by the campfire, and on Sunday, Tori took a pony ride!
Samara started "school" on June 18th and seems to be enjoying herself; the picture to the left is from her first day...Shana is thrilled as always at this time in the morning. After we took Samara out of daycare in Denver, her sleeping schedule became a little skewed. Instead of taking short naps during the day and going to bed at 8:30 PM, she started taking 1-2 hour naps during the day and going to bed at 10-11 PM! So, it was nice after her first day at school that she went to sleep at 7:30 PM and slept almost 12 hours without waking in the middle of the night! Little Samara slept like a rock!And, just as she started daycare in Denver, Samara became sick during the second week of "school". Wednesday evening we awoke to Samara trying her hardest to imitate Chunk from the movie "Goonies" when he talks about vomiting in the theatre. After a doctors visit, everything is ok (just a "cold").
I hope everyone is doing well! Samara's birthday party is fast approaching and I'll send out another update documenting the chaos! Take Care!
--Chris
