Adventures in OKC

 

Sam and I love going to the zoo.  Every time we visited his parents in Salt Lake we always took a trip to the Hogle Zoo.  Oklahoma City has one of the top ten zoos in the country so we decided to spend our first weekend in OKC at the zoo, and we loved it!  And for the first time since we've been here the temperatures were in the high 80's!  It felt amazing.  It was a great day to make the trip.

These little meerkats were just too cute!

 

 

My favorite were the elephants!  They had a baby elephant who was only a year old and she was adorable.

 

 

 

 

 The strangest animals we saw were the Opaki they look like a strange mixture of different animals.  Apparently they're related to the giraffe.

 

The one disappointment of the day was that we didn't get to see the lions.  Their pen was arranged in such a way that they were able to hide behind a large hill!  So hopefully next time we visit we'll see the lions!

 

Whew...I have so much to catch up on so it might take a few posts!

It has been a crazy last couple weeks.  We are now all settled in Oklahoma (well kind of, I still have LOTS of unpacking to do). We had so much going on in August, the move kind of snuck up on us.  We were still packing up to the moment we were ready to leave.  It was a long drive…20 hours.  Sam and I caravanned.  We were worried our Camry wouldn’t make it, but she was a trooper.

The first part of the drive was gorgeous. We drove through Palisades in Idaho.  Then we hit Wyoming and Kansas and the drive instantly became more boring.  

This is what we saw for the majority of the drive.  Apparently there are parts of Wyoming where even the grass doesn't grow.

Since there was no grass in Wyoming we found a nice piece of concrete to eat our lunch on!

We packed lunches for the drive but realized we had packed all our sandwich baggies.  So instead we used paper towels and packaging tape!

The first day we spent the night with Sam’s aunt and uncle in Loveland, CO.  They have a gorgeous house on a lake.  Sam had fun kayaking while we were there.  It was our first trip to Colorado, and we fell in love with it.  We could definitely see ourselves living there one day.  

Sam Kayaking in the Franckum's backyard!

The next day I was so anxious to be in Oklahoma.  The temperature was around 105 for most of the drive, poor Sam didn’t have air conditioning!  We finally made it.  We love our apartment complex. A few things we love:

1. Automatic Gates:  I guess its the farm girl in me who spent way too much time jumping out of the truck to open gates, but I just love the idea of driving up to a gate and having it open automatically. 

2. Courtyards: There are lots of gorgeous courtyards to walk around (but let’s be honest I don't do much walking outside because it is WAY too hot). 

3. Swimming Pools: The pool has been a life saver.  I think it has been over 100 degrees every day since we’ve been here. 

4. Air Conditioning: What we love most about the apartment though is the AC.  It hasn’t been turned off once since we moved in.

5. Giant bathtub: One of my biggest disappointments in the past apartments I have lived in have been the fact that the bathtub was tiny.  We now have a giant oval tub.  Too bad I currently can't enjoy taking long luxurious hot baths. (It's okay baby girl you are worth it).

6.  Washer and Dryer: Yes we finally have a washer and dryer in our apartment! It's heavenly, oh the simple pleasures in life.

As you can see we're pretty happy with our living situation, we should be considering how much we are paying! Oklahoma has certainly been an adventure.  First, I was surprised how pretty it actually is here.  So there's no mountains but they at least have green grass and lots of trees. Maybe there is a purpose to Wyoming, anywhere else you go is gorgeous compared to it!  It is stinkin hot here though (Next week we should be in the 90's! Whoohoo).  Even the wind is hot!  The weirdest part for me has been the fact that it doesn't cool down at night.  At midnight the temperature is still in the 80's!  I've slacked on the blogging lately, but I have lots to catch up on, so I promise to redeem myself!

Wow!  I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by.  We're moving in three weeks and I haven't even started packing.  Sam and I have been enjoying this summer.  Last week we joined his family in Bear Lake.  We had a great time playing in the water, eating great food, and enjoying Raspberry Days.  Before we left we went to a play call "The Hanging of El Bandito."  It was great to have one last getaway before we move.  We will miss being close to family. 

I decided we also need an update on our little Bean.  She is growing like crazy (as is my belly) and moving lots too.  I've been feeling her for a while now but recently I have REALLY began feeling her.  Sam and I went to an Idaho Falls Chuckars game the other day and I was leaned over with my elbows on my knees so my belly was a little squished. I guess baby girl was a little uncomfortable because she started kicking like crazy until I leaned back so she could have more space.  Sam was also finally able to feel her.  The other night we were laying in bed and my belly was against Sam's bum.  Baby Girl gave a great big kick and kicked Sam in the bum!  Here is a picture of my belly at 24 weeks.

Our Busy Summer...

Whew...I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by! It seems like just yesterday we learned that we were expecting, and now we only have three and a half more months to go before we meet our baby girl!  Before the summer is over I decided that I should post some pictures of what we have been up to.

First, we had a fun fourth of July here in Rexburg.  We watched the very exciting Rexburg parade...

 Then we went to our ward party, in which Sam participated in a pie eating contest.

 As you can see he didn't get very into it. He did come away without any pie on his face though!

In July I also celebrated my birthday.  Because we go to school during the summer it always happens that my birthday falls in the middle of finals week, which kind of stinks.  This year Sam was crazy busy with his last semester of school!  He still surprised me though.  I cam home from work and Sam had picked out a new outfit for me!  He also took me out to lunch at my favorite place.  And best of all my cute husband, who does not bake made me a cake.  I'd been talking about ice cream cakes, but told Sam he couldn't buy me one because they are way to expensive, so he made me one.  It was delicious!  My favorite part was the cake design.  I told him that when our baby has her first birthday he's in charge of cake decorating.  That was until I realized the bear was smoking a cigar...maybe I'll stick to decorating our baby's cake.

Sam also graduated this July. Woohoo! First he had a graduation ceremony with his paramedic program, and then graduated with the University. 

I got to pin his paramedic pin on him. 

Here he is with everyone in his paramedic program.  Sam's family came down to celebrate his graduation with us, it was so fun to see them.  I'm so proud of Sam and all his accomplishments.

I still cannot believe that we are having baby girl!  I thought that I really didn't care whether I was having a boy or girl.  But when I saw that adorable little pink outfit I didn't realize just how much I wanted a baby girl!  It's so fun to just know, it makes my pregnancy even more real. I can't believe that we are halfway there!  Only twenty more weeks and we can finally meet our sweet little girl.

This ultrasound was so fun, and we got so many pictures of our cute girl!  I just can't wait to show all my pictures off!  It's funny because ultrasound pictures are one of those things you really don't care about until it's your own! Our little one it was so active it was difficult to get some good shots of her.

So here it goes, this is one of our favorites: Baby Girl giving us the thumbs up!

 

 Baby girl says hi...

 And here is one of her cute face.  She just couldn't keep her hand arms down. 

I've finally started to recognize her movements.  It is so fun to feel her moving, such an amazing feeling. 

So today was the day....We found out if we're having a boy or a girl!  I've always loved the idea of gender reveal parties, and I really wanted Sam to do it with me.  Sam had to know though, so we reached a compromise.  We went to the ultra sound and Sam found out but I was still in the dark!  It was so hard not to find out there!  Then he went and bought an outfit for boy or girl, and wrapped it up for me.  I made pink and blue cupcakes and invited some friends over to be there for our big reveal. 


So I have to say that I was 99% convinced I was having a boy!  Sam wasn't sure but recently he started leaning towards the idea that we were having a little girl.

We have one very active baby.  Our baby would not stop moving around and pulling different moves it was too funny.  However, our baby is also very modest, and didn't want to show us their privates.  Finally we got one glimpse and we know for sure that we are definitely having a baby...

Yep...it's a girl and we couldn't be more excited!!!  We're so excited to meet this little girl.

Wow, we had a fun weekend.  I decided I would update the blog on both my pregnancy and our all our family events.

So first up.  I said I was never going to post a single pregnant picture, because lets face when you're pregnant you just feel frumpy, and not remotely attractive...but Sam thought it would be cute  if we documented pictures of my growing belly.  And since I don't live close to most of my family I thought it might be fun for them to see.  So here it goes...

This is me at 14 weeks. I was just starting to get a bump.  Nobody else noticed the bump, but I defnitately noticed the changes!

This is me at 18 weeks, and I have definitely popped.  I'm in that awkward stage where everybody wonders if you're actually pregnant or just getting chunky.

This past weekend my step-brother Colby got married.  On Thursday my sister-in-law Susie came to visit with her two cute kiddos! We took them to the splash park and had so much fun.  Bailey loved it, Colter was a little more cautious and wan't quite sure how he felt about it!

On Saturday, June 16th, Colby and Melanie were married at the Logan, Utah temple.

It was a beautiful wedding, and I'm excited to have Melanie be a part of the family.  It was such a great weekend.  On Friday we drove down to SLC and spent the afternoon with Sam's family.  We went to a Shinkle family reunion.  It was so fun to see family we haven't seen in a while.