some family quality time...(Life in Oklahoma post #3)

With all of the busy-ness of Linguistics, we have been able to get in some very good quality family time down here in Oklahoma!  We really are kind out in the middle of nowhere, but it happens to be GORGEOUS around here.  A huge lake, hills, trees--and lots of wildlife (*shudder*).  But more on that later ;)

Here, our kids are at a different stage of life that they have never experienced.  Even though there are many sweet kids who live here with us, our kids are the oldest.  And there is especially no other kids even close to Kaine or Halle's age--which has never happened in their life!  At Gateway, there were kids galore their age. When we lived at NTBI in MI, there were tons of other student or staff kids there who they played with.  And in Bluffton, they have amazing friends who have our kids over a LOT.  And the peak of it was at MTC in MO...where we lived on a hill among many other missionary families, on a beautiful campus filled with kids!  They spent hours outside with friends!  

But here, our kids play with each other the most.  Which I truly love!  The other day, Kaine and Halle were out for 2 hours together, catching crawdads in the creek.  I LOVE it when they go and do that kind of stuff together!  So this has been good for family/sibling time :)

they were all pretending to text...haha!  ahem...they might have been imitating me...

Not a lot of places to go around here, but there is a Lowe's! :)

Layla helping me do a little bulk shopping for our group :)

Here's a change from the other blogpost I did (the one about our new family "dorm")--Nathan decided to make our kids a lego loft!  It's pretty awesome!

We have also explored the outdoors...more than ever before, really. There really isn't a lot to do...but like I said, there are some beautiful areas around here!  Some of our favorite places we have found:

A creek near our campus.  Our kids LOVE playing in this creek!!

Here is that gorgeous lake I mentioned.  We found this amazing spot last weekend!

We grilled while we were at the lake...here is Kaine, with a bologna wrapped hot dog.  YUM!  (not)

We were also thrilled to find a splash pad in town!  Sad thing though--it closes on Labor Day.  Oh well.  The guy told Nathan that it costs the city $12,000 per month for the water bill!  Wow.  Okay, so I can see why they close it on Labor Day, I guess :)

Behind the splash pad, there just happens to be another creek with this awesome waterfall!  So cool.  We are really starting to like this area a lot!  Too bad we only have another month or so...oh well :)

I'm off to bed!  This weekend is the Cherokee National Holiday, so we will be off to a Cherokee parade in the morning!