From Stillwater to St. George

We had planned on leaving Stillwater on Tuesday night, but a huge storm almost kept us there overnight. Chad and Marty had to move the trampoline close to the house to keep it out of the path of the huge winds; Marty grabbed the escaped chicken, returned it to its home, and battened down the roof of the chicken house; the rain and wind were amazing. We finally decided, though, to get on the road, so we could travel while the kids slept that night.

We had great weather, but it seemed like there was road construction every 60 miles, so it was a bit of a longer trip than we had planned. But, we kept our spirits up and made the trip fun. We even decided on a detour, so we could visit Four Corners. We wanted to be able to say we'd been there. We drove for about an hour out of our way, through the Indian Reservation, which was interesting. It was sad to see how poor the residents there are.

It was so hot in this part of the country, that Marty and Rachel were the only ones who would get out of the car for this picture. To get into Four Corners was $3 a person, which was actually a bit ridiculous, since you are only there for about 10 minutes -just long enough to stand on Four Corners and take a picture. But, hey, we've now done it! One more thing off of the Bucket List, right?

After leaving Four Corners, we had a beautiful scenic drive through Arizona, past Lake Powell and over the dam into Utah. Then we knew we were almost to St. George and the end of our driving.

The kids liked that we drove past Elm Street - noone had a nightmare.

Going into new Mexico

Now, Arizona
Lake Powell


Finally, Utah!

City pool in Stillwater, Oklahoma

We had to get the kids out of the house while we are in Oklahoma visiting Paula and her family. They seemed to have a great time. Marshel and Kellee built up their courage to go off the diving board. Kellee tried to do a flip like Morgan and instead did a face plant. She told everyone, "I hit the bottom of the pool".

Our summer trip began with a 10 hour drive to Stillwater, Oklahoma to spend some time with Paula and Chad. We drove all night and arrived there around 10am. The kids all had a great time catching up with their cousins.

Jordan and Nate hung out so well together and had a lot of fun with each other. They played the Wii, they took care of the goats, they played the piano, etc.

Morgan and Kellee had a great time playing dress up, with slips, belts, hats, etc. They were both so sad when it was time to leave.

The Wii was the big hit of the week, with everyone taking turns playing against each other. The day it was broken you'd think it was the end of the world. But, Marty fixed it and all was well.

We loved loving and cuddling Kordale. He was a little stressed over all of the craziness with so many loud, obnoxious kids, but Aunt Shi-Shi loved just holding him and getting her baby fix. Marshel thought it was AWESOME!

Morgan and Kellee know how to make a mess, that's for sure. Whether it was sitting on the counter eating the chocolate frosting straight from the can, playing in the lake sliding down the mud hill filling their swimsuits, creating a mud pile in the front yard while also "cleaning" Aunt Shi-Shis car with mud, etc. They had a great time together.

We also enjoyed our fieldtrip to Uncle Chad's school. We saw a horse getting his teeth fixed; a really happy Stallion; a dog getting a check-up; an alpaca waiting for the doctor and several other animals. We tried locking the kids in a stall, but Kellee's had the most worried look on his face, so we got them out.

I caught this video of the boys playing on the trampoline. It's a bit fuzzy b/c I was taking the video through the window screen. Aren't they all so cute? It's nice to see them having fun.

Michael: Crossing the Line Ceremony

I will attempt to share this information the best I can, but without being there, I probably won't be completely accurate. So, here we go:

There is a tradition with sailors that when you cross the line (Equator) for the first time, you have to go through this ceremony called Crossing the Line Ceremony. You go from being a Wog to a Shellback. So, Mike was able to partake in this while sailing to Australia, where he is now. This tradition goes back several years, even decades. This is a paraphrase of Mike's explanation:

He says: It's just a ceremony that means you crossed the equator on a navy vessel. We had to do a lot of stuff that made us look stupid, but it was fun. We had to wear our utilities (working) uniform backwards and inside out, with boots, or tennis shoes, and a white t-shirt on that said WOG on it, and whatever else you wanted to write on it. Mine said "QUEEN!!!" and "Shelbacks Suck" and "Special Case".

They started us out in our berthing and made us crawl around and look at the ground giving some people pointless jobs like bulkhead watcher, and swabber but they keep spraying the floor with water and than make you clean it. We had to sit really close together. Then we crawled all the way to the hangar bay and had to sit there and row and sing Row, Row, Row your boat. Then we had to eat the food in the pictures. It was regular food, just with food coloring.

Then we went up to the flight deck on the elevator sitting down and got sprayed with green salt water all the way up. Then we did random stuff on the flight deck like padeye dewatering (blowing in the padeyes with water going into them). The padeye is the thing that the planes are harnessed to. We had to exercise, and roll around in the green salt water. Then they had a tub that we had to go jump in full of green salt water after asking permission from King Neptune and his wife and his royal haircutter who would cut hair if it was too long to "get the wog stink out of your hair to become a Shellback", then in the tub they would ask, "What are you?" and you had to scream "SHELLBACK". Then you were done and waited in line to sign your name as proof that you did the ceremony.

Mike is in this picture if you look closely. He is right in the middle of the picture under the little caption box. He doesn't look any worse for wear.