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.

A blog post…….finally

Ok, I know it’s been a while since my last posting.  I’ll try to be better, but here’s at least a few pictures and a quick video that hopefully brings a smile to your face.

So here are a couple pictures from Halloween… I know, it’s obviously been a while if I’m just now posting Halloween pictures – thus the title of this blog post.  So, Tyler was an Astronaut.  As part of his astronaut training I taught him to put his hand to his brow and say “Yes, Sir.”  I’ve tried to parlay that into other areas of his day, but for some reason things haven’t seemed to have worked out that way.  Instead, he’s clung to a quote from Buzz Lightyear… well, kind of.  He loves to jump off the furniture and shout “To infinity and be gone.” 

Reagan went as a little lady bug.  She was as cute as a bug, that’s for sure.  We went to the trunk-or-treat at the church and all the 8 to 12 year old girls wanted to play with Reagan like she was their little doll.  She got swarmed.  It was really fun to see her running around all dressed up.

Outside of Halloween, things have been pretty quiet.  We spent Thanksgiving with some friends from church (the family of the pirate in the picture above).  The biggest news, however, is that Tyler is finally potty-trained.  It took a few rounds of us getting frustrated and giving up, but now he’s finally got it.  Yeah, there are the occasional accidents, but we’ll never have to buy him another diaper. 

Since we won’t be able to go back to Utah for Christmas, I wanted to give everyone a chance to see a glimpse of Reagan’s personality.  She is so different from Tyler.  Obviously kids are kids and they’re going to get into mischief, but Reagan’s reaction is so different from Tyler’s when we get mad at her for doing something wrong.  Tyler was always apologetic and tried to do what we told him.  Reagan is… well… you’ll see. 

In the clip below, Reagan is making a mess at dinner time (as usual).  We've gotten upset with her in the past - telling her not to dump her food.  You can see that she’s already started to throw her food off her plate and I started to say “No, No.” when I figured it was time to capture some video evidence of the attitude we were getting so I could use it when she was older to show her why I had lost my mind.  Instead of responding apologetically to the reprimand and correcting the behavior, she turns it right around on you.  First she makes fun of you by imitating your angry face, then she laughs at your pitiful attempt to get her to do something she doesn't want to do.  Notice how she looks over to Tyler to get him laughing at me as well.  Then she goes about doing whatever it is she wants – in this case dumping out all her food and plopping the plate onto her head.  Then just to top it all off, she makes sure to look back at you to make sure you got the message. 

I realize that the brown hair came from my side of the family, but I didn’t realize that attitude was hereditary.  All I can say is that it’s a good thing she’s as cute as she is.  As frustrating as the attitude can be at times, the reality is that we end up laughing along with her most of the time.  I believe that’s called playing me like a fiddle.  Our daughter – the fiddle playing prodigy.

Tyler Turns Three

It’s amazing how fast time flies.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we brought our little miracle baby home from the hospital.  Of course it also seems like we just barely had Tyler’s 1st birthday party at the park behind our Roy house.  Yet somehow time has flown by and here I am blogging about Tyler’s 3rd birthday. 

Tyler’s birthday actually got a bit of an early start when Thesha’s folks came out to visit over the summer while I was at scout camp.  Rather than ship a present out, they decided to bring their gift with them so they could see his reaction first hand.  I don’t think they were disappointed as he gazed intently as the little motorized car zipped around the racetrack.  This actually set the theme for most of Tyler’s birthday celebration – transportation in all it’s various forms.  As much as Tyler loves cars, he loves trains, airplanes, horses, and apparently frogs as well.  Frogs, you ask?  You’ll see what I mean.

So to start things off, Thesha made Tyler this really cool train birthday cake.  It was made of cookies, cakes, ding dongs, frosting, and a bunch of other candy.  It was so cool and pretty freakin’ good, if I do say so myself.  Then after gorging on a big red caboose, we started opening presents.  Grandpa Choate sent a bunch of Cars items like a sticker book, Lightning McQueen, and a Mack Truck.  Of course, it just wouldn’t be a car-themed gift from Grandpa Choate without a corvette with a flag decal running the length of the car.  Tyler loved it all.  We got Tyler a train table that had a bunch of tracks, buildings, and toy trains.  It was a little anti-climatic because all he could see was the box the first night, but when he came out the next day and saw it all put together he was so excited.

All of the trains and cars got Tyler prepped and ready for his big day out.  We loaded up the car and even though our destination was just over an hour away, we decided to stay in a hotel overnight to make it seem like we had gone on a long trip.  It worked on me when I was a kid, so hopefully it seemed that way to Tyler as well.  After spending the night in the hotel, we went to a really cool amusement park called Dutch Wonderland.  It’s not the biggest amusement park, but it’s full of rides and activities that are perfect for younger kids.  A lot of the other amusement parks are full of big roller coasters and rides that are too scary for little ones, but this one was perfect.  We started out on the little train that takes you on a ride around the park.  After just shelling out a lot more money than you’d want to for a bunch of kiddie rides, it all seemed worth it to hear Tyler scream in excitement and jump up and down when he saw that we were going to actually ride on the train.  In the pictures below you can see one of Tyler sitting on the train yelling CHOO-CHOO! 

While we were there we got to see a water show based on the Princess and the Frog, go for a pony ride, and ride on a handful of rides that both Tyler and Reagan were able to enjoy.  Tyler’s favorite, however, was the leaping frog ride.  As it went around-and-around the frogs would randomly JUMP up and lift the kids up off their seat.  Tyler was having the time of his life.  Our trip got cut a little short as the rain started to move in shortly after lunch.  At first it was upsetting because we had a lot of other things we wanted to try and get in.  We weren’t 10 minutes into the drive, however, when both kids fell fast asleep.  As exciting as sleeping in a hotel is, it is not the best place to get a good night’s rest.  Then running around all morning had worn them out.  As I’ve thought about it more, I realize that the rain was actually a good thing because now we can go back again some day and see all the other rides as well.

Here is a slideshow of Tyler’s birthday pictures.

As the sugar rush from the cake wore off and the novelty of all the new toys started to lose its appeal, Tyler was welcomed into a new era in his short but eventful life.  An era which includes visits to the dentist.  Party’s over kid-o.  All that sugar from the days gone past was now about to have its revenge.  To prepare him, we read him stories about the dentist and what would be going on there, but it wasn’t until they sat him in the chair and he realized that this wasn’t some crappy story about Dento-saurus but was his real life that the whole dentist idea really sank in.  As you can see from the picture below, he was about as excited to be in that chair as I was to be handing over my debit card to the receptionist.

After slowly warming up to the events unfolding in the dentist chair, Tyler was given a clean checkup with no cavities.  Plus the hygienist promised him a balloon, so he eventually came to the conclusion that the dentist wasn’t so bad.  Thankfully for him he has a mom who not only makes awesome cakes but also makes sure he brushes every morning and evening.  So at the end of the day we were all smiles.

So, Happy Birthday Tyler.  I hope it was memorable.  I know for me and Thesha the past few years have certainly been an experience of a lifetime.  We look forward to seeing all the fun adventures that life holds for you as you continue to grow up.

Heroic Tales of Survival

As I’m sure you all know, the east coast has gone through quite a bit over the last week or so.  First an earthquake measuring 5.8 then Hurricane Irene.  The east coast is all abuzz about the great Hurriquake of 2011.   It’s been a series of natural disasters we never thought we’d actually have to face, let alone have to face both in a single week.  So how did we do it?  How did we ever survive?  Here’s our nail-biting, jaw dropping, bowel releasing recount of how we managed to come out alive.

First there was The Great Earthquake.  It began like any other day.  I went off to work while Thesha stayed home with the kids.  As the afternoon approached, I sat at my desk conjuring up ways to look busy while Thesha sat at the computer at home gathering ideas from her food blogs on how to make me even fatter.  Then out of the blue I swear someone started pounding on the wall next to me.  “Who’s the idiot shaking the air conditioning ducts?”  I thought to myself.  Then I heard it again.  “What in the world is that moron doing?”  But then a bunch of people started leaving our building.  As I looked out the window there were people leaving buildings all around.  “Hmmm, I wonder if that was an earthquake?” I thought.  “I guess I’ll casually follow the masses all wandering towards the exits.”  Moments later, as Thesha found another recipe with the words “fabulous” in the title, she started to feel a rumble as well.  Then the TV started to move as if someone had bumped the TV stand.  It was all she could do to stay calm through the movement that while quite common when the kids were awake was unusual for nap time.  She held the TV for a moment and then, as quickly as it started it was over.  The only casualty was that Tyler was just about to fall asleep and now he was crying because “someone shook his bed” right as he was falling asleep.

Ok, that’s about as exciting as I can make it sound.  Yes, it was an earthquake, but really aside from a little shaking there wasn’t that much to talk about.  I can honestly say that I think I’ve felt Dad’s house shake more when a really big train has gone by.   So, yes, we survived The Great Wobble… The Great Shimmy… The Great “uhhh, what was that?”  of 2011.  Please... hold your applause.  The story is just beginning.

Yes, as if the frightening lack of events from Tuesday weren’t enough, next we had to face the terrible thought of Hurricane Irene ripping through our little town.  Uncertain of just how devastating the storm would be, Thesha wisely went out on Friday morning to gather a few extra supplies – some water, batteries, a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts… just some essentials.  To her dismay, Wal-Mart was already out of batteries and water was scarce.  Somehow the Krispy Kreme’s had been spared so she quickly grabbed a box.  Obviously the locals who’ve been through hurricanes like this know better than we do what the appropriate level of panic is and we had clearly underestimated things.  So with cell service finally restored after The Great Head Bob of 2011, Thesha called me at work to advise me to leave early, search everywhere for some batteries and some propane for our camp stove.  As I walked up and down the camping isle at Target I realized two things.  One, we really were in trouble since all the camping supplies had been cleaned out, and two, I’ve sunk to a new low when I think that Target would be a suitable place to look for camping gear.  In my defense, there’s not a Sportsman’s Warehouse or Cabela’s in the entire state of Maryland and there’s only one Bass Pro Shop and it’s apparently all the way downtown in Baltimore.  If Wal-Mart’s sold out, Target’s about the only other choice you’ve got around here.  But I digress… back to the saga. 

So there we were, panic stricken but apparently not panicked enough.  We finally found a grocery store where we could grab a few cases of bottled water.  We made it to Home Depot just in time to grab the last propane stove converter so we could buy a propane tank for our stove.  We still couldn’t find any D batteries so we drowned our sorrows in the box of doughnuts (which were delicious, by the way).  Then, late Saturday night as the clouds and wind started to move in we got word via email that church had been cancelled.  Surely this was a sign that we were in for oppression of unfathomable proportions.  The rain began late Saturday night and between 2:00 and 4:00 AM the noise was enough to actually wake me up.  Considering I slept through the burglars breaking into our house in Albuquerque, I guess you could say that it was a substantial noise (but I’d rather not relive that experience in Albuquerque).  About that same time the inevitable finally struck as the lights flickered and then the house went dark.  At least we were all snug in bed and it wasn’t too cold or too hot.  Although it was kind of difficult to sleep with all the noise, it was actually kind of nice to be able to sleep in a little. 

We woke up around 7:00 and got the kids up.  With no power and overcast skies, it was a little bit darker than usual in the apartment, but with the blinds open it wasn’t that bad.  It was funny to see Tyler’s reaction as he flipped one switch and nothing happened so then he flipped the next switch, then the next, all to get the same reaction – nothing.  We explained to him that the power was out and we were going to have to struggle through it for a while.  Thankfully a bowl of cereal didn’t require any cooking, so breakfast was pretty easy.  As the morning went on, we tried to find ways to entertain ourselves without the internet, cable TV, or the DVD player.   “What kind of world are we living in,” I thought to myself “when we have to live like it’s freakin’ 1982 or something.”  Just as I was about to start looking through my old things to find a bandana and some parachute pants, I heard it.  There it was… the faint buzz of electrons zipping through wires… of fans blowing to cool electronic circuits… of water automatically refilling an ice tray in the freezer.  Yes! Yes! Yes! It was about 10:00 AM and we had survived long enough to see our precious conveniences returned to lull us back into a cathartic state of laziness.   I gave Tyler a hug and reassured him that he could flip any switch he wanted and he would now get the expected result – light, precious light.

Ok, theatrics aside, we basically had a few hours awake without any power and for all our panic we had to endure a dimly lit breakfast table.   That’s pretty much it.

I know.  You’re sitting there wondering why I even bothered to blog about this – and to make such a long blog of it – when basically nothing happened.  Well I’m sitting here wondering why you’re still reading.  BOOOM, I just blew your mind.

Actually, the events of this last week were a bit of a blessing in disguise for us.  There are lots of people around us who were not nearly as lucky.  Some are still without power and others are still wondering when the water will subside so they can return to what’s left of their homes.  We have been truly blessed.  Plus it gave us an opportunity to discuss our emergency preparedness and to help us restore some of our food and supply levels that had been depleted with our move a couple years ago.  So tonight for Family Night we took time to talk about giving thanks to Heavenly Father for all our blessings, and we thank all our friends and family for your prayers on our behalf.  We’re doing just fine and have some more life experiences that help us appreciate what we have.  I mean really, 1982 is so three decades ago.