Fall Break State Park Adventures

The kids were out of school for three days for Fall Break and since Enid is still a new place for us, we found lots of new adventures to take.  Josh picked up a State Park Passport at one of his newcomer’s briefings.  It has listed all the State parks in OK by region. We live in the Red Carpet region so we focused on our area first.  Each state park has a list of activities to complete while there and a sticker to collect for the passport.  As we accumulate visits to the parks, we can redeem up to nine tokens representing our adventures.  In three days, we traveled to four state parks.  Josh was even able to take two days of work off to join us.

            

We traveled to Roman Nose, named for a Cherokee Chief, and one of the seven original state parks.  We did a little hike to the dam of the lake.  Unfortunately, we did not time this visit well as the paddle boats and miniature golf were only open on weekends.  

The weather is beautiful now.  The humidity has decreased the days have been mild and sunny 

We went to Boiling Springs, took two lovely hikes, and enjoyed the gift shop.  We also saw the bubbling spring in the well which used to be a larger geyser at one time. 

We have not seen a lot of fall colors yet so this tree was a lovely sight

We went to Gloss Mountain and walked up the steep stairs to the top of the plateau for the view.  It was lovely, and vast, and flat.  The kids enjoyed looking for the scattered selenite that sparkles in the sun.  Sometimes when we would step onto the rock, it would sound hollow. 

Lastly, we traveled to Alabaster Caverns where we took a tour into the cave made of gypsum.  Gypsum caves do not have growing structures so we could run our hands over every surface.  We enjoyed seeing the domes in the ceiling of the cave made by the whirlpooling water.  The kids enjoyed seeing the bats in the cave starting their hibernation. 

No cameras allowed in the cave so you will just have to travel here to see for yourself!

Driving through OK sometimes feels like driving in rural Japan in that the two-lane roads meander through fields and farms and don’t feel like they are getting anywhere.  There are small towns along the way and scattered houses in the middle of what feels like nowhere.  We also noted the road signs pointing to CEMETERY.  We probably passed at least 10 of these signs.  We could never see the cemeteries from the highway, and we wondered how big they were, why there were so many in such remote areas, and what was of note about the cemeteries.  One day we will need to follow the signs to find out for ourselves. Another adventure to take!

Cultural Night: Estonia

Cultural Night- ESTONIA

Date: 10/21/19

Food: Rowan Berries (we used cranberries) and Apple Pork https://estoniancuisine.com/2019/09/23/rowan-berries-and-apple-pork-pihlaka-ounaliha/, Creamy Mushroom Puree Soup https://estoniancuisine.com/2019/10/10/creamy-mushroom-puree-soup-with-juniper-berries-seene-ja-kadakamarjapureesupp/, Kringel bread https://www.homecookingadventure.com/recipes/estonian-kringle-cinnamon-braid-bread, Estonian Potato Salad https://estonianfood.eu/en/content/estonian-potato-salad

Everybody loved the bread.  What could be wrong with carbs loaded with butter and cinnamon sugar?

No one was a big fan of the mushroom soup...

Flag and Geography: Coloring page https://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/estonia-coloring-page/, World map, https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/ee.htm.  Estonia has more than 2,000 islands and 1.3 million people.  The capital is Tallinn which has been around for 800 years. It has many woods and bogs and more than half of the country is covered in forest.

Animals that live in Estonia: Bear, wolf, moose, deer, linx, badger, elk

Music: Patriotic music of Estonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSy44AXfxw

Language: The official language of Estonia is Estonian. https://www.loecsen.com/en/learn-estonian

Fairy Tale: The Young Man who would have his eyes opened https://fairytalez.com/the-young-man-who-would-have-his-eyes-opened/

Architecture:

Tallinn- Capital City

Famous People: Kerli, singer that we already like and did not know she was from Estonia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMeZwO2qZ0 Music video for Walking on Air

Art: Art of Konrad Magi

Traditional Clothing of Estonia: 

Seven Discoveries about Enid, OK

For the first time since Josh joined the military, we are living off base.  I only visit base to teach yoga at the fitness center there so my observations about my new space have been in the community.  Here are seven fun things I have discovered so far:

1. Everyone is very friendly in Enid.  People have no problem striking up a conversation with a stranger and this helps me to feel less like a newcomer. 
2.  There is a church on every corner.  I am used to this being from Utah but there, it is just one type of church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Here, there are all sorts of congregations, Christian, Lutheran, Protestant, Baptist, etc.  The buildings are often very large and I marvel that a relatively small town like Enid can host such a population of worshipers.  I enjoy seeing all the churches as I drive through town. 
3. Most people are huge football fans.  The town seems to be divided between OSU Cowboys and OU Sooners. Most homes have signs or flags advertising their favorite team.

OSU flag proudly displayed in our neighborhood

4. It seems that every house in my neighborhood comes with a little stone friend in the yard.  We have seen a mariner, a frog doing yoga, a baseball umpire, woodland animals, and garden gnomes.  We inherited a birdbath with a squirrel on it when we purchased the house.

A bear like creature is sitting on the porch table and don't forget the bird bath

My grandmother had little figures in our yard growing up.  This way of decorating is alive and well in Enid!

5. Everything I need on a day to day basis is just 15 min from my house in any direction. The town of Enid is really easy to navigate and I am appreciating the convenience as I travel between yoga classes and three kids activities and lessons.
6. I have traded one type of farmer for another.  We went from rice fields in Misawa to corn fields in Enid.

Corn field right behind my neighborhood

7. Anything can be entered into the Garfield County Fair.  There were table settings designs, quilts, photography, rock arranging, baked goods, vegetables, kids art work, and collections.  Here are some of my favorite entries:

Collection entry: Rolling pins.  I am not sure why anyone would need more than one...

Collections entry: Barbies.  I think I could find a similar entry on the floor of Pants' room

My favorite entry: Rocks from the Geological society.  This plate is made entirely of rocks found in the county

Moving is hard.  We miss Misawa, our friends there, and our family in Utah and Idaho every day.  But new discoveries about new places helps to ease the ache a bit.

PCS or How Many Times Can We Move the Suitcases Around?

How many times do we keep moving the same old suitcases around?  I decided to keep track, just for kicks and giggles.

Move 1- We started moving in May by sorting our Misawa house into the household good shipment, the unaccompanied baggage shipment, and the luggage that we would live out of for months. The household goods left first.

Move 2- In June, our unaccompanied baggage left and we moved into the TLF (temporary living facility) in Misawa.

Move 3- We flew to SLC with 11 pieces of luggage and a dog kennel.

Somehow I coaxed smiles out of these tired kids

Move 4- We had a wonderful time staying with Josh's parents.  We celebrated Josh's birthday and made up for three years of missed family and friend time.

Lots of Turner Cousin time!

Best Skyline High Friends 

Josh joins me by turning 40!

Birthday fun at Red Butte Gardens.  Josh has loved gardens since we lived in Japan

Bonneville Shoreline trail above Josh's parents house

Move 5- Josh takes Mochi and a full car to Enid Oklahoma to start the house hunting process.  He moves into a pet friendly TFL room. The kids and I go to my mom's house in SLC for more adventures.

We enjoy the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City

We enjoy lots of awesome hiking in Southern Utah

Bear made a goal to do baptisms for the dead in as many Utah temples as we could.  This is Cedar City

Mount Timpanogos Temple with a good friend from Springville Utah

Payson Temple

Bountiful Temple

Provo City Center Temple

Salt Lake Temple 

Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  What a blessing to have so many temples close by after being eight hours from a temple in Japan!

Move 6- Josh is forced to move out of the pet TLF due to other PSCing families and into a dorm style room.  Poor Mochi has to go to a puppy boarder. Poor Josh only has a microwave for weeks!

Move 7- Josh's length of stay on base expires so he moved into an extended stay hotel where he has a real kitchen finally.  We continue our adventures in Utah.  We visited Lava Hot Springs in Idaho and then had some fun at Snowbird.  Unfortunately though....

I ran up the sloped side of this wall in an obstacle course, and now...

I am going to OK in his boot.  I have a 90% tear in my Achilles tendon

Move 8- Due to the injury on my right foot, Josh will need to drive us all to OK.  Josh moves into a bigger room in the hotel, one that will sleep all five of us, and catches a one way flight to SLC.

Move 9- After seven lovely, family filled weeks in Utah (we won't mention my very unfortunate accident that is going to make moving and teaching yoga nearly impossible), we leave SLC and take a road trip to Oklahoma.  We used the app Road Trippers https://maps.roadtrippers.com/about/app to help us find fun things to see along the way.  Our first night was spent in Laramie, WY.

Wyoming Territorial Prison State Park in Laramie, WY

Bear River State Park in Evanston, WY

Fort Bridger State Historic Site in Fort Bridger, WY

Move 10- Our second day on the road takes us to Colby, KS.

The Swetsville Zoo in Fort Colling, CO was one of the coolest stops on our journey.  The artist was being interviewed by a local new station and we got to meet him as well as explore his interesting collection.

We were so excited to see best friends from Nellis AFB!  The Bloom Family in Westminster, CO

Giant Van Gogh painting in Goodland, KS

Move 11- Our last day on the road takes us to Enid, OK, to reunite with Josh in the extended stay hotel.

Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, KS

Great Bend, KS

B-29's All Veteran Memorial in Pratt, KS

Move 12- Do we finally have a home after three months of living in suitcases???  We closed on our home in Enid with a week to live in it before our shipment from Japan arrived.  One last week of suitcase!  It gave us time to clean, touch up paint, and redo some flooring in the mostly empty house.  Now to make the house a new home for us in Enid, OK!

Signing the floor that we will cover over.  Then a touch of the Turner's will always be here!