Settling In

Here are a few pics from our new life in Oklahoma.We found a house, and hopefully it will be ours next week. Crazy. I don't feel old enough to be buying a house and making all the grown-up decisions related to home buying. It will be fun to have our own place, a back yard and trees, and a big project to work on. It was built in 1979, and no one seems to have done any updates, except for granite counter tops in the kitchen, which Alvin the rock man thinks are ugly.

Aside from the counters, Alvin is very pleased with the house. I think he liked it from the get-go because 1) the dining/living room reminds him of his family cabin, and 2) it backs up to some of the only wooded open space in residential Oklahoma City. He has big plans to build a trail from our back yard to the park just beyond the woods.

Here's Miles riding a rhino at the zoo. The zoo is lovely, but of course it is outdoors and Oklahoma had a record-breaking heat streak this summer (temperatures over 110 degrees every day from June to September). We wanted to go to the zoo, so we went a Saturday morning as soon as it opened. It was still pretty hot. The shade and occasional air-conditioned buildings helped.

Miles took this picture of his trains. I think the composition and lighting show promise! Yes, he still loves trains. Visitors to our apartment always remark on the plethora of train illustrations taped to the wall. Miles loves to direct Alvin and me in drawing trains, especially green steam engines. He won't let us stop until we've drawn the cowcatcher, tracks and smoke.

I don't have a great picture of me yet, but for an update, I cut my hair, which apparently was a good move, because lots of Oklahoma women have short hair. (Poor Alvin really prefers long hair, but I feel so liberated that I don't have plans to grow it out in the near future.) I'm buying maternity clothes again to accommodate my six-month belly. I really love our new ward - the moms have done a stellar job at inviting me to events and including me and Miles in play groups. I think a lot of people here don't have many relatives close by, so the ward really becomes your family. We've had dinners and watched football games with new friends here.

Hopefully Alvin will give y'all an update on his new job (which included a Blackberry and many opportunities to use it during the night and on weekends).

For your viewing pleasure

Life is good here in Oklahoma. Laura and Miles are doing well. Work is keeping me plenty busy...lots to learn. I'll have a post with pics soon...but here are some fun videos in the meantime.

Crazy Base Jump/Wing Suit Video (Jeb Corliss Grinding The Crack)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k&feature=player_embedded#!

Funny Romney/Mormon Colbert Video

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394360/august-10-2011/yaweh-or-no-way----mormons---god-s-poll-numbers

Last hurrah in Utah. Destination: Fairview

After packing up our apartment and sending our belongings to Oklahoma in three little U-Haul storage containers, we took a trip to Fairview to hang out at the Anderson cabin and see the demolition derby.

Alvin, according to Laura: The Fairview Demolition Derby is probably the best in the state. Have you ever seen a bunch of old, windowless cars drive around in a dirt arena, crashing into each other, trying to be the last vehicle that can move? If you haven't, then you haven't lived. The hot sun nearly blinds your view, and the deafening revving engines muffle all conversation, but this is the time of your life. Only 5 heats before a winner is declared? Too bad, but the fireworks after the show will be amazing, too.

Laura: The kettle corn is good, but how much longer until I can unplug my ears and go home to bed? I can't believe this thing is sold out. Did you see that booth selling fried pickles, fried cookie dough, and fried Oreos?

Miles: Cars crash de-mo-li-shun der-bee! In dirt! Ta-tees (tractors) come take cars away!

Being at the cabin was lovely - not too hot, fields of summer flowers, and even a little snow left over from winter. Miles' cousins had so much fun entertaining him that I got to finish my book, Born to Run. Great read - I'd never even wanted to run a marathon before, but now I'm convinced I could put "run an ultra" on my list of life goals.

Yeah, we moved to Oklahoma

This is the snippet I wrote for the Anderson family annual newsletter:

Alvin and Laura Anderson Family News

August 2011

This year has brought big changes for our family.

The beginning of the year found us living in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Alvin, the geologist, worked at TerraTek, an oil service company in Salt Lake City. Laura, the mom, hung out with Miles, the train-loving two-year-old, and worked part-time from home as an actuary. Alvin spent several months applying to schools across the county in hopes of returning to academia, obtaining his Ph.D. in geology and becoming a university professor. Alvin visited graduate schools in Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Indiana, while the real application-filler-outer stayed home with Miles.

Late one night while Alvin was desperately trying to decide which, if any, school to attend, he found and filled out an application for a geologist job in industry. Well, he got the job and decided to take it, and we just arrived in Oklahoma City, where we will be living for the next few years. Alvin’s working at Chesapeake Energy, an oil and natural gas company. Miles and Laura are trying to survive the record heat (it’s been in the 100’s since June) and wishing we had some mountains to escape to.

We’re all looking forward to an exciting Christmas present this year – a baby boy! Any ideas for his name??

Unstable air

So Miles thinks he has a baby in his tummy, too.

This week I was riding the airplane with him to Oklahoma City when we hit some turbulence. After a big drop, Miles grabbed the chair with a surprised look on his face. I said, "That was the airplane going up and down. Did you feel it in your tummy?"

With eyes wide, he nodded and, pointing to his tummy, said, "Baby sad!"

It's a . . .

Looks like we're getting a baby boy for Christmas this year!

Redwood Forests

You know that lovely picture of a misty forest that’s been tucked away at the bottom of our blog for ages? Alvin took that on his trip to Redwood National Park about 5 years ago. Last week I finally got to see the trees in person. Amazing and beautiful.

Alvin and I spent 4 days in California near the border of Oregon touring the state and national parks that boast 300-plus-foot redwood giants. The temperature was ideal – between 55 and 65 night and day. We hiked through the trees, did scenic drives, relaxed at bed and breakfasts, read, and played at the beach.

My sister Amber was gracious enough to stay home with Miles for the 4 days. This was my first trip without him since he was born! Okay, so I was worried about being gone for so long, and by day 3 I wished we were on our way home to see him. But he really was fine. (But for a few days when we go back, he seemed to have forgotten who is the boss.) About a month ago, I started telling Miles bedtime stories about how me and dad were going to fly in the airplane to California and Amber was going to stay at our house and take Miles to nursery. I think it helped! When Amber asked him where we were, he said, “California.” And she wore him out with fun activities – riding the train at the zoo, playing at the park, and meet boyfriends’ nieces and nephews. (Yes, I meant to put the apostrophe after the ‘s.’)

Here's a picture of Alvin climbing the massive roots of a fallen tree:

The trip wasn’t completely without child because . . . I am with child. (Hee, hee.) You can see a 4-month bump in the picture below. Pregnancy really takes a toll on my energy level - we did an easy 6-mile ramble through the woods on the first day, and the rest of the trip I could barely get one foot in front of the other!

This is Miles camping in Fairview Canyon. Alvin took him overnight up to the cabin for the 4th of July, and they loved it! Alvin came home and said, "And when it was time for bed, Miles said, 'Okay, Dad,' and went right to sleep." I asked what time that would have been. "Oh, ten or ten-thirty," Alvin admitted. No wonder he slept well!