Picture overload here.
I wish I had done more justice to our time in Tulsa. We absolutely loved our (one month shy of) five years there. The people are absolutely wonderful. We loved our house, our neighbors, everything was wonderful. It definitely was not perfect. I don't think we have idealized it that much! In talking about it, what Spencer and I have both come back to is that it was the right place for us at that time of our lives. I will always look so fondly to our time there because that is where I grew up. I really feel like that is where I became an adult (if being married for three years and having two kids hadn't done it already! Which, I am sad to say, it did not). I figured out how to do things. I never thought I was all that dependent on anyone before we moved from Provo. What I realized, however, is that I had never learned to truly do my own thing. Everything I had done or was doing at that point had been done before -- by someone I knew well. I did what I did because that is just how it was.
Moving to Oklahoma was so new. My parents spent three years in Norman when my dad did graduate school, but I knew nothing of Tulsa and I had zero idea of what medical school was like. Now I know. I figured out how to live and how to have a good time and how to do what needs to be done. Nothing but being thrown into the thick of medical school in a completely new place with two kids knowing nobody could have done that for me. God sure knew what he was doing!
There are several other things that we saw along the way that helped us see why we needed to be in Tulsa. We are so grateful for those things. Spencer is so grateful to have attended OSU-COM. I am so grateful we had the pediatrician we did -- regular OMT treatments from birth for our girls is what helped them sleep so well at night, which made it possible for us to have the number of kids we have. Many other things we recognize and I am sure there are countless others that we have not.
What a wonderful blessing it was to spend some of the best years of our lives in such a wonderful place with such wonderful people.
Our last trip to the zoo with our new friends the Bostons. We were sad to meet them a month before we moved! They were just starting their residency and moved into our ward - our neighborhood, even! It was very short-lived, but it was fun.
We love the Tulsa Zoo!
I love all the pictures we have of our monkeys posing in the monkey frame!
Benny and Andy in the chimp October 2010.
The not-so-great part of this zoo experience was when Anne was lost for more than just a couple of minutes. We were stopping to look at the jaguar and she got out of the stroller. The rest of us kept walking and it wasn't until between five and ten minutes of walking toward the exit that I noticed she was not with us. I felt so horrible. I ran immediately back to that exhibit (good think I was in my running shoes!) and saw a crowd of people standing around and a woman holding a crying Anne. I felt so sick and so grateful and so relieved all at one. I could not believe it. One passer-by contributed "Makes you sick, doesn't it?" Yes, thank you, it does.
I am so grateful that we didn't have a problem and for that kind woman who held Anne. It could have been so much worse.
I thought we had a lot more pictures by the penguins... The kids love these!
October 2011
Haircuts for the boys!
Our wonderful pediatrician in Tulsa. We saw Dr. Mills starting early 2008. She is absolutely wonderful. Dr. Mills' area of expertise is infant cranial osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). I truly believe that it is due to those treatments that all of our girls have slept so well from very early ages -- I am talking 12 to 13 hours a night (Lilia by six weeks old, Anne between two and three weeks, Jane between three and four weeks). Just another blessing of being in Tulsa.
I love this girl's fashion statements.
And this girl's sleeping anywhere!
This is Elder and Sister Francom, the wonderful senior missionary couple who came over and watched the four oldest when we had Jane. Elder Francom worked for LDS Family Services before retirement and knew my parents a little!
Some of our dearest friends happened to be our next door neighbors: Bob and Wilma. From very early I would go over and visit with the kids while Spencer was at school. Often to have a little break at the end of the day I would take the boys in their jammas to see Bob and Wilma and say good night after dinner. These are some of the sweetest people! Bob is the one who carried our trash can (that was housing an opossum) down to the end of the street for me.
Shortly after Jane was born (within two weeks) Bob and Wilma moved into an assisted living center. It was (and still is) and hard move for them but we know that it was definitely needed. We are so grateful that we were able to go twice to visit them before we moved. The second time was the day before we drove away.
On the other side of us we had Midge and Betty. More sweet neighbors. The kids loved playing in their trees and throwing tennis balls for their dog Cricket.
One of the first pictures I saw of the house was the kitchen. All I noticed was TEAL. I hated it. The stove, sink, and refrigerator were all the same color teal - not to mention the drapes. Wow.
Over the years I grew to love that kitchen and it became one of my favorite things about that house.
This was after my final scrubbing our last night at the house.
The kids' last night in the house:
Jane
Andy
Benny
Anne
Lilia
Anne only 23 seconds later (I checked the time stamp).
And here we all are bright and early ready to go on our next big adventure.
Since I missed Jane in the other one.
The original plan was for Spencer to leave a few hours before the kids and me and we (traveling faster than the moving truck) would catch up to him. Sunday evening, however, as we were on our way home from the Burns' house (where we were for dinner), we heard and felt something strange in the van while driving. Our thoughts turned to the possibility of not leaving until Tuesday morning and taking the van in first thing Monday. We had just had a major fix in the week or two prior to that, though, and we had been told we would be all set for the long drive. After lots of thought and prayer, we decided that rather than wait a whole day, we would instead leave together and just go slower overall on the drive.
We are so grateful we went ahead with it. Everything went so smoothly on the drive and we did not have any trouble with the van until two weeks later when the starter died! What a welcome that was.
All set!
Spencer in the van pulling his car behind.
One last (horrible) picture.
We will miss you, Tulsa.
