Another Anniversary–Another Move

Well, another year has gone by and I’ve still managed to fool Thesha into thinking that I’m still her best option – or at least not worth the hassle of trying to find a better option.  Yes, it was eleven years ago that Thesha and I entered the temple as two young and foolish lovebirds and left as one young and foolish couple.  Since then we have gone through so much together.  In church a couple weeks ago someone quoted an old saying that I had never heard before but it sunk in as I thought about the last eleven years.  The saying was “Every living thing needs rain to grow. So grow when it’s raining and live when it’s sunny.”  Of the last eleven years I can honestly say that the growth we’ve experienced on those rainy days has only been overshadowed by the amazing experiences we’ve had on those bright and shining days, weeks, months, and years. 

So eleven years ago we celebrated a bright, sunny day, then a short year later we began a new adventure together when on our first wedding anniversary we drove to Albuquerque, NM to look for a new place to live.   I wouldn’t exactly say that this was a rainy time, but we certainly had plenty of rainy days – especially since we lived in the desert.  Of course, I didn’t realize at the time that we were setting a trend that would last a decade.  Well, here we are ten years and five residences later and on our eleventh anniversary I get extended a job offer to move yet again.  Yes, for all of you who wanted to visit us in Maryland, your time has apparently come and gone.  If, however, you’ve ever wanted to visit northern Alabama then our next move will be right up your alley.  It’s a good thing Tyler and Reagan have been so excited about the Space Shuttle, rockets, and outer space because we’re on our way to Rocket City – Huntsville, Alabama.  Thesha and the kids will be spending the summer in Utah while I’m traveling between Huntsville and D.C. for a work project, then around the middle of August I’ll come out and we’ll be driving to our new home in Alabama.

I know we had a lot of people hoping our next move would be back home to Utah (ourselves included).  We tried and tried, but apparently the Lord has a slightly different plan for us.  Interestingly enough, however, I have found out that in a way we are “going home.”  Thanks to FamilySearch I found out that our Choate ancestry came from Essex, England to none other than Baltimore, Maryland (Christopher Choate person ID: LHTD-FQV).  They apparently moved to North Carolina then his son Thomas Kyle Choate (person ID: LZN8-7NJ) ended up in Marion County, Tennessee (around Jasper and New Hope, TN) which is about an hour and twenty minutes from Huntsville.   It wasn’t until my Great-Great Grandfather, Squire Riley Choate (Person ID: KWCQ-FF9) (and his sister Viney (Person ID: KWVP-72R)) joined the church in 1894 and moved to Logan, UT that Utah became home for the Choates.   He obviously missed his home since one of Squire’s daughters had a middle name of Tennessee (Clea Tennessee Choate).  I guess now we’ll have a chance to see why he apparently loved and missed that area enough to name his daughter after it.  So really, if you think about it we are kind of coming “home” – or at least home to some Choate history.  I’m sure there’s a sibling, parent, or grandparent of Squire Choate finally resting in peace knowing that their great-great-great grandson/nephew/etc. is finally coming home.  

So, as we start another amazing year together we also get ready to embark on yet another journey.  Along the way we’ll just have to trust that the storms we may experience are all part of a greater plan of happiness – especially since we’ve  had to literally dodge a tornado in Huntsville already.

Choate Historical Society

With Spring now upon us, we have had a couple opportunities to visit some local historical sites again.  Thanks to my nephew Corbin, we had a chance to go on an adventure with Flat Stanley.  For those unfamiliar with Flat Stanley (like I was up until a couple months ago), this is a school project where the kids color a picture of a boy – Flat Stanley – and send him to someone in a different state.  Then they go on an adventure and send back some information about that adventure.  Since it is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 which was the war that produced the Star Spangled Banner and which was written right here in Baltimore, we decided to go back to Ft. McHenry.  We had gone before, but with the kids a little older now it was fun to watch them learn as well as just enjoy a day in the Inner Harbor.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures with Flat Stanley at Ft. McHenry and the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

When you start visiting the same spot more than once, however, you know it’s time to start broadening your horizons a bit.  So for our next adventure we decided to head north to Philadelphia and see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, both of the kids behaved, and everything went smoothly – well, except for the 4 way lane change I had to make at the last minute in order to make it into the parking garage, but if the city of brotherly love can’t overlook a tourist driving like an idiot, then we’re all in trouble.  Anyway…

Here are some pictures of our adventure to the birthplace of the United States – Independence Hall.

While we were there, we just so happened to eat lunch in the right place to experience a visit from the Philly Fanatic.  The Park Ranger jokingly said that it’s like the 4th of July every day for them since they get to talk about the Declaration of Independence every day.  We didn’t realize how serious he was until we got an impromptu parade through the dining area.  I’m not sure that Tyler completely understood what he was looking at here, but (frankly) I wasn’t quite sure how to explain the Fanatic either. 

Open the Gates and Seize the Day

So the other day I decided to get the kids up off the couch and moving.  I remembered as a kid watching the show Newsies and dancing like goof-ball trying to keep up with the dancers in the movie.  So, I did a YouTube search for Newsies songs and viola – plenty of nerd-based exercise for the whole family.  We played through all the songs and re-played several of the one’s that the kids especially liked.  Ever since then the kids have loved jumping around as we sing “Open the Gates and Seize the Day” or “I’m the King of New York”.    My favorite is when Tyler jumps around then drops to a knee and puts his fist to his chin like he’s posing for a photo shoot or something. 

The other night I heard Tyler singing himself to sleep with this song so I had him sing it on video.  I don’t know that he’s got it quite polished enough for American Idol, but it should at least bring a smile to your face.  Enjoy.

Rocket City Adventures

Ok, before I get going on our Rocket City Adventure, I realize that I never uploaded a Christmas 2011 picture or blog post.  Since it’s now closer to Easter than Christmas, I figured I’d just upload this collage and you can all just imagine how much fun we had this Christmas.

Ok, now that you’ve had a chance to oohh and aahh over how cute (and big) Tyler and Reagan are, we can move on to the more recent story.  So, I had to travel to Huntsville, Alabama for work a couple weeks ago.  Since my meetings didn’t start until Wednesday, however, we decided to drive down as a family and spend a day or two site seeing.  For those of you reading this who have never been to Huntsville, Alabama you may not know that Huntsville is the home of the Space and Rocket Center and is often referred to as Rocket City.  When you think about NASA and the manned space programs, most people think about Houston and Cape Canaveral.  Huntsville, however, has played as much of a role in the actual development of the rockets and other supporting programs.  Let’s face it, you don’t get to have two full-size replicas of the Saturn V rocket, the Mercury rocket, and the Space Shuttle just because your town thought it would be a nice tourist attraction. 

So we introduced the kids to the world of space, rockets, exploration, and science associated with the manned space programs.  It was a blast – literally.  We watched a movie about the Hubble telescope in the IMAX theater and the part where the space shuttle lifted off seemed to shake the whole building.  Tyler was kind of scared at first, but afterwards that was all he could talk about (Reagan just slept through it – yeah, she takes after me and can sleep through anything).  Then, by some strange coincidence there were episodes about space on all of Tyler’s shows - Sid the Science Kid, Phineas & Ferb, and the Discovery Channel (ok, I guess that’s my show, but still).  So now our Equinox is “The Space Shuttle Truck” and we “blast off” to go to Earth whenever we go somewhere. 

Here are a few pictures of our exciting adventures in Huntsville.

    

As you can see in some of the pictures, they hold “Space Camp” here as well.  When the kids are a little bit older, we’re totally going to try and send them.  Cousins, start saving up and maybe the kids can go together. 

Of course, we did have a couple unexpected events.  The first surprise came a couple days into our trip.  While we didn’t really feel too much difference in the humidity level, Reagan’s hair reminded us that we had definitely crossed into a whole new realm of crazy, humidity hair.  Her usual curls morphed into a full-on afro.  It was hilarious.

    

The other excitement came on our last day.  As we were packing things up and getting ready for the drive home, we started to hear tornado sirens and the PBS show the kids were watching was suddenly interrupted with the whole “Beep…. Beep…. Beep…. This is a test.  This is a test of the emergency broadcast system.”  The only problem was that they decided to add one little word that really got our attention.  The word?  “Not”  It’s amazing how quickly your attention shifts when you hear “This is NOT a test” come across the TV.  Now, as many of you know, we had already survived the Great HurriQuake of 2011 (see the previous blog post HERE) but trying to out fox mother nature twice in one year seemed like pushing our luck.  Thankfully the storm passed by about 30-45 minutes North of Huntsville.  Then there was a pocket of calm that was about 2 to 3 hours across.  We managed to stay right in that pocket as it moved north east right along our traveling route.  It wasn’t until around 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning that it apparently finally blew past the hotel we stopped at for the night in the middle of Virginia.  I say apparently because I managed to sleep right through it and Thesha had to tell me about it the next morning.  Like I said, I take after Reagan and can sleep through anything.