Understanding Oklahoma

Driving down the highway with Uncle Aaron, Tristan said, "Mom, I saw a small crane with a chain on one side and a bucket on the other that was going up and down and up and down!" I started explaining what it was, but Aaron said, "If you're going to explain it to him, you should explain it right." So I asked Aaron to explain it to him. He explained that it was a Pump Jack. After they drill down to the oil, the pump jack pumps the oil up out of the ground into a storage barrel. When the barrel is full, they take it by truck to an oil refinery. Tristan asked, "If they pump the oil out of the ground, wouldn't it get dirt in it?" Aaron said, "That's why they take it to the refinery, to clean it." Tristan said, "They must be really smart people."

A few minutes later, he saw a red and white structure with a light at the top. He said, "They're almost done building that light house!" We explained that it was a radio tower and that there are no oceans or bays around here.

We saw a beaver house in the dried up creek out at Uncle Aaron's.

Tristan climbed a REAL huge tree for the first time at Uncle Alex's.

We went to the best Science Museum ever in OKC with Grandma and Uncle Tye.

It's been fun, so far. We'll post some pictures next time.

Daredevil Dorian

Dorian likes to climb up and jump off of the furniture now. The other day I saw him doing it, and although he thought it was very funny, I felt compelled to put pillows down in front of the chair. After seeing him flop on his belly, land on his face, hit and roll, laugh every time and keep climbing back up to do it again and again, I finally got the camera out. (The heavy breathing you hear in the video is a very excited and happy Dorian).

We had a bin in the kitchen to block Dorian from the cat's water dish because he would not stop playing in it. That worked for several weeks. Then one day, he figured out that he could climb over it... or better yet, climb up on it and see if there's anything to eat in the microwave. Yes, he's strong enough to open it!

Our First Snow of the Season

Last week, we had our first snow of the season. It was Dorian's first snow ever. He was quite unsure about it at first, but then set off like a great explorer. Tristan on the other hand has been asking regularly for months when it would snow again, and we could hardly get him to come inside. He did a good job shoveling snow and although our attempts at a snowman failed, he built a nice snow castle. You'll see from the pictures that it got rather dark, and yet he stayed outside, even eating snow when he got thirsty instead of taking a break indoors!