Birthday Bash!!!

Holy crap! Shana and I have a new respect for all of those mothers and fathers out their who go through the first birthday party! Everything went smoothly; however, my brain felt like it had been through a "labyrinth" with David Bowie's package making several appearances and scaring me into childhood!

We originally scheduled Samara's party for 10:30 in the morning so we could beat the Oklahoma heat. Who wants to sweat it out at 90 degrees and 70 percent humidity?

So, we wake up at 7 AM and rain has been falling for 4 hours already; we postpone until noon. By noon, it is still raining and we postpone again until 4 PM (total rainfall amounts were about 4-5 inches). Luckily, the clouds broke and the sun shone through enough to dry things out a bit. And, everyone was still able to make it out! Below are some photos from the grand adventure!

Samara had plenty of help opening gifts!

The clean up!

Cousin Taz and Aunt Shannon!































Cousin Samantha!

My father!

Uncle Mike and Samara.

Kelli and Collin.

Cousin John!

















Eden and Aidan.

Collin and Griffin.

Glenda and Shana's mother, Shirley.

Life in Oklahoma!

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

The Next Chapter

Here's a photo from the archive; it was taken at our friends (Sean and Sarah) wedding in August 2006:

Shana, Samara, and I flew home on the weekend of April 28th so I could watch the NFL draft with my brother (a male bonding thing). This was Samara's first plane trip and I was sure to take several photos of the journey to and fro. The planes were small and we got to walk out on the tarmac; so, I asked if I could take a picture and they obliged! Here are some of the photos:

Samara was a perfect angel during both plane trips. I'm affraid that if we had attempted this when she was in her terrible 2's, it would be a different story!










While at home, Shana took Samara, Taz, and John for a ride in the wagon!







Samara and I have been hanging out at home for the last several weeks. We seem to take walks on a daily basis; this calms Samara. She enjoys being able to go out and explore, even though I direct where we go. On several occassions, she'll see someone walking on the other side of the street and yell out to them...her version of "hi"! One day, I decided to let her loose in the front yard and let her explore for herself. Needless to say, she put things in her mouth as well as those tasty pansy's. Here are some images of her adventures!








































































Samara has been developing nicely and has NOT been sick, thank goodness! Samara is now able to crawl up the stairs and slide back down on her tummy with amazing speed! She's also speaks words on a regular basis now and her vocabulary is growing on a weekly basis. Some words she uses regularly are: mum, daddy, bye bye, hi, hi kitty (when she wakes up in the morning and sees the cats), puppy, cat, stop, no no no, ...

I have added several new videos of Samara on our MySpace account; click here and then click on the "videos" link below Samara's picture. One of the videos I dug up out of the archives and is of her sneezing just after she was born. The other video is of her sliding down the stairs on her tummy!

She has also learned how to signal touchdown, throwing her arms up in the air for a few seconds, then bringing them down to clap in celebration (We are especially pleased at this coordination)!

Oh! Samara finally got her first tooth!!! Finally! No more gumming her food.









Lately, some people (and you know who you are) have been telling us that Samara looks more and more like me (Chris) than Shana. My response is typically, you are full of it! However, I must recant a little here. One day I was cleaning our computer room and found several photos of myself when I was a wee one...older than Samara though...and I noticed some striking similarities. So, I have decided to post several of those photos and photos Shana and I dug up of her youth. You be the judge...and let us know what you think!



Chris at 2 years of age...

Chris at 3 years...

Chris at 3 and a half years...

Shana at around 6 months...

Shana at around 2-ish with her older sister Stacey...








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Life seems like an endless battle to surround oneself with stability. And when there is an inkling of instability, we become a little frightened at what that might entail. When Shana and I moved to Colorado so that I could go to school, we had some of those thoughts that accompany a change in stability. Moving away from home, from friends and familiy, from the familiar; all of this was to be the challenge. At first, much of the transition was easy

Being away from the familiar was a little tough to deal with; especially now that we had started our own family. But, it was a sacrifice we were willing to wrestle for the next few years. Driving, or flying, back home as much as possible to make up for lost time. Life seemed like the bare minimum of family interaction; I am certain most everyone understands the complexity of what I'm attempting to explain.

Like most situations, there is not a clear black and white boundary; mostly grey's. And if you throw a little color into the spectrum, things can get very complicated. While we were coping with life away from the familiar, life at school was not rosey. Over the last several years, everything associated with what we had came to Colorado for, predominantly school, was becoming awash in muck. I was brought to Colorado to work on Mars related research and a time passed, I realized that my advisor had less and less interest in working on that type of research. If your boss isn't interested in what you're doing, then you'll be less motivated. I did not feel challenged and as a result, became really bored with school because research was going nowhere (however, classes were wonderful). There were a few other issues for instance, funding, connections with colleagues that had dissolved, etc etc. Essentially, I was unhappy and it was time to look for another "job". So, back in December, I gave my old chums at the OWRB a feeler and by April they had decided to hire me. So, we move back to Oklahoma City in less than a week and thus, start the "Next Chapter" in our journey.

We will miss everyone we have become accustomed to in Colorado and hopefully we'll be able to trek back for a visit. As we turn the next page in our book, we say "So long and good luck." Until next time.