Play time!

I'm so grateful for my little playgroup! I'm not completely friendless in Oklahoma! I get together with other OU dental students' wives every Tuesday: Keri Larson, JQ Hanson (whose my friend my Cedar City, too), Katrina Hansen, Lindsay Jones and LeAnn Sebourn.

Everyone came over to my place last week. I put up Drew's little kiddie pool on a grassy area in the back and he and Addelyn (??? sorry, I'm not sure how to spell it, but cute name, huh!) played in the water while we chatted in the shade.

Drew was loving hanging out with Katrina (she's the one in this picture) because she played catch with him. :) It eventually got too hot and we had to go inside. It's been in the 100+ for days and it's just getting hotter!

So tired...

... can't stay awake!

Drew's trying to get into a new schedule. He's going from two naps a day down to one.

I was putting him down at 2 p.m., but there's days when he's just too cranky and he goes down sooner. But then that leads to this problem -- he gets tired around 8 p.m. (We usually put him in the tub around 9:30 and he goes to bed around 10).

This was the only time he's actually fallen asleep. It was too cute! Brent was playing a video game on the computer, and I thought Drew was leaning forward because he was really interested. Maybe he was at one point, but he just conked out. Of course, he woke up like 2 minutes later and didn't go to bed until 11!

Super Drew

Super Drew has hit again. He came out of his room with a bib in his hand, so I decided he should wear it for a while. :)

And Super Drew is so strong (or just progressively destructive) that his favorite book, "Go Dogs! Go" has finally bit the dust. He brought it to me in two pieces this morning. I had to throw it away. Luckily, we have a brand new copy, but I think it will stay with the nice books for a while. He's pretty content with his other books for now.

Sorry this isn't too interesting. There's not much going on for us right now, although Brent is in the middle of his first anatomy test. I hope he does well! He's been very dedicated to his studies.

Zoo maniacs

So I had to put a few more zoo pictures on my blog. We went back to the zoo on Saturday with Brent, and we had a great day! Drew was able to tell me on this trip what a snake says. :)

Here's me and Drew in the orangutan building.

Brent is helping Drew look over a fence at a pigmy hippo.

First trip to the zoo

Today I took Drew to the zoo for the first time, and we bought a year-pass so we can go any time we like from now on. The zoo is HUGE! We went around 10 and didn't leave until about 1:30 and we barely got to half the animals -- and that was rushing through things just so we could see what they had.

One of the first places we went was the reptile exhibit. We kind of sped through it, but Drew loved the huge snakes, especially the big python that just stuck his nose close to Drew's through the glass. Then we went to the aquarium and saw sea lions and otters. Then you can go inside and see them swimming from under water. Drew really enjoyed that. Plus he enjoyed the colorful fish (one of the few animals he already knows the sign for).

It was fun that the zoo has sprayers everywhere you go so you don't die in Oklahoma's humidity and heat. And it was hot! They also have statues of animals all over. This little rhinoceros was just Drew's size. He thought it was weird at first, but then he even started patting it.

Drew's comfort objects are his three kitties -- a lion, a leopard and a tiger -- that my mom bought him before he was born. So he absolutely loved all the big cat exhibits. At this spot we found three lion cubs. Then we got to see a carab (??? - a smaller, pointy eared cat) and a big tiger.

Since Drew loved the lions the best, I thought we should get him a memento of his favorite animal for his first trip to the zoo. I tried to let him choose which stuffed lion he wanted (there were about 10 in the gift shop), and he wanted ALL of them. So I picked this one because I liked it the best. It was so hot we didn't have much of an appetite when we got home, and Drew had seen so many new things, he completely crashed when we got home. It was so fun! I can't wait to take him back -- they have a little train that goes around the whole zoo and a couple of playgrounds. Plus we can stay and look at the animals a little more. I'm so glad it's only like a mile up the road from our apartment. :)

Our new car

So we broke down and bought a new car. The plan was to share our Malibu and Brent would take the bus when he could. However, we don't have a stop as close to our place as we had hoped, plus Brent is concerned about the time he needs to spend studying. We didn't want transportation to be a worry, so we started shopping the dealerships. We ended up finding this Dodge Caliber for a pretty good deal. It's the very base model (which means, unfortunately, no power anything -- and no air conditioning), but we still got it for thousands less than it's worth. It's fun to drive because it's a manual, and it's got lots of storage in the back.

We also got new couches -- light brown microfiber. We're still waiting on an ottoman, but it's soooo nice to have comfy couches again. We were using our rocker and camping chairs. We're mostly moved in except for hanging up a few last pictures. We're enjoying our apartment fitness center and pool. We've had a couple of thunderstorms, which have been really cool to watch. I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the humidity. I feel like I'm sweating constantly the second I step out the door. We're excited to start exploring the city -- we have a zoo, science museum and huge theater complex about a mile down the road. As soon as Brent gets done with anatomy on Aug. 15, we'll try to catch a Triple-A Redhawks game. We hear the stadium is awesome.

Little monkey man

Drew has turned into a little monkey (just like his Aunt Sarah). He now has to climb on everything! He's figured out how to climb on our dining chairs. He still needs a little help for other furniture, but it seems he's on something he can't get down from every time I turn around.

Noooooo!

So Drew is finally learning to talk. His first unofficial word has been "uh-oh." But now we have an actual word, which is "no," of course. And he always says it with such passion! He's learned a few more new signs, like "please" and "thank you." He's starting to understand what "no" means, although he uses the sign when he's actually communicating. He says the word only when we ask him to. He also says "dada" and "caca" (for dirty or yucky).

Happy Fourth of July!

We spent our first holiday in Oklahoma at the Edmond (just north of where we live) celebration. We ended up going for dinner at this crazy little place called FlaTire Burgers. It was pretty good though! Then we went to the campus of University of Central Oklahoma. They had inflatable toys, but the lines were huge! So we just played on the grass, waiting for the fireworks.

Drew got really bored and wanted to run off on his own, so we bought him one of those glow stick things, which kept him mostly entertained until the fireworks started. We certainly miss our family, especially around holidays, but it wasn't too bad. :)

Our new home

We're getting settled into our new place. As I unpacked Drew's toys, I wish you could all see how his eyes lit up, especially as he started to recognize the toys as his own. We're getting into the full swing of things -- I've been running errands while Brent is getting into his anatomy class. Luckily we get a break already with July 4.

Today Drew just kept running back into his room to play with his toys.



When Brent got home, we tried out our pool at the Lincoln apartments. It's really nice, although we didn't stay too long. The sun had already gone behind a building and Drew was getting cold. But he LOVES the water!



Drew is such a daddy's boy! He loves it when Brent gets home. He really enjoyed swimming to each of us. He even learned to jump (or fall) off the side into our arms.

Dr. Talbot

Brent spent all day Monday in orientation, then OU had a white coat ceremony that night at the Methodist Church across from the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial in downtown. It was a cool ceremony where all the students took the doctor's oath and received their white coats. Of course, the cute little dentist who gave Brent his coat was really little! She couldn't even reach his shoulders!

OU presenters explained the white coat ceremony became a part of the beginning of school instead of the end in 1993. Brent looked so handsome and noble in his doctor's coat. I can't believe we're here and finally starting dental school! It doesn't seem quite real.

OOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes....

... rushing down the plains! Yup, it's definitely flat here. However, I don't really notice it in the city. There's tons of green trees and rolling hills. We noticed it most in Texas. Although I must admit I was really disoriented for a couple of days and couldn't figure out which way was north, etc. We certainly miss Cedar City, but I can see us learning to like it here. We definitely miss our old place (we've cut down a bedroom and lots of storage), but we're living at the Lincoln at Central Park apartments, which are really nice. We love the location. We're straight up the road from the state capital and only four miles from the dental school.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon and lived in an empty apartment until our trailer got here on Friday. We had some wonderful volunteers from our new ward help us; we couldn't have done it without them! We're pretty much settled. I still need to dig into some boxes in our room, and there's two or three more piles of boxes. We just need to go find us a couch and we're good to go!

And for those of you who heard, my Utah driver's license had expired. I guess I should have renewed it before I left because it's been the biggest pain to get it here -- I had to retake all the tests! But -- YEEHAH! -- I did pass and I am once again able to drive. :) Brent started anatomy on Tuesday. His brain has been a little fried, but he's already working hard and I'm sure he'll get into the swing of things.

Albuquerque

We stopped in Albuquerque for a day to take a break on our way to Oklahoma. Brent's sister, Angie, treated us to an Isotopes game Monday night. We sat on the grass and chased Drew around. Then we went to sit by Angie's friends in these awesome seats along the third base line for the 9th inning. Sorry -- no pics! I forgot my camera!

On Tuesday, we went to Tingley Beach, which isn't a beach but some ponds where you can fish and feed ducks. We fed the ducks Drew's cereal snacks; he did pretty well throwing the cereal out the to ducks. Go figure: he has a great arm!

At Tingley Beach, they have a little train that goes from there to an aquarium then to the zoo and back. We rode it around and Drew seemed to really enjoy it.

The engineer let Drew go into the engine!

We went swimming at Angie's apartment complex, but, of course, as soon as we did the clouds came out. After Angie got off work, we walked up to downtown and ate at this little pizza/pasta bar. Thanks Angie! We had a blast!

Roadtrip to Oklahoma

We had two long days in the car on the way Oklahoma last week, with a day off in between to stay with Brent's sister, Angie, in Albuquerque. We enjoyed the scenery in Arizona and even crossed over part of the Grand Canyon. We had to stop and take a picture. This is at the Navajo Bridge.

Drew did well and enjoyed watching DVDs on our little player and spent a lot of time sleeping and eating (or stuffing his food into the corners of his chair).

Sarah and Brennon

Sarah and Brennon were married on June 19 in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was a wonderful, long day! :)





Brent and Drew were out by the time we got to the luncheon!!





It takes so much energy being this cute! Drew enjoyed the reception just because there were so many people to talk to and so much space for running around!





Drewby loves his Aunt Sarah!

Uncle Ken's and Aunt Shari's

We got to spend a night at Ken and Shari's in Lehi on June 18, the night before my sister's wedding. Drew LOVED it! They have a swingset and a pool; I think Drew was in heaven. Plus, my niece Shay was practicing her golf, so there were balls all over the backyard. Thanks again for letting us stay!