It was all for this:

Hello, hello! Sorry about the hiatus from blogging - but we're back! Instead of doing a recap of everything that's happened, we decided to do a "where are they now".

We moved! We now live in Edmond Oklahoma.



We are in a ground level (finally!) apartment for a year as we do some house-hunting!



Evan successfully defended his thesis and earned his Master's degree in Geology. Go Evan!!



Evan started worked at Chesapeake Energy as an Associate Geologist. He already has some great friends working there and is excited to apply the the knowledge gained from 24 years of schooling (from day one to now)!



I had my last full-time day of work on December 1st, but will be working part-time through January. So, I will be using my time to focus on a strict diet and workout schedule. Evan and I have a long way to go until we're healthy, but with your love and support we know we can do it. And if any of you even so much as mutter mint chocolate chip ice cream to me, I will round-house kick you to the face!



We have new callings at church. We are the Valiant 9 co-teachers and I'm going to, additionally, be working with achievement day girls (any fun activity ideas?).

As always, we love and miss you guys like crazy! We are looking forward to having schedules that give us plenty of time for vacations - hopefully we'll be seeing you sometime in the spring :)



For now, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Best news - EVER!

Seeking - one top notch geologist. Status - found!


Evan was offered an Associate Geologist position with Chesapeake Energy, of which he quickly accepted.

Breaking news! I've got a first hand account of the whole thing:

"We stopped at a rest stop in Kansas on our way to Minnesota. I checked my e-mail while waiting for Lacey when I noticed a reply to my 'Thank You' e-mail I had sent to one of the interviewers. I opened the letter and it was much larger than I expected. After reading three or four sentences that expressed their appreciation for my visit, I read:

'I am pleased to make the following contingent offer of full time employment as an Associate Geologist in our Oklahoma City office.'

Lacey then arrived and I handed her the phone immediately. She read and read with a shocked look on her face. We did it! I got the job we wanted with the company we wanted in the area we wanted.

I will start work on or before December 5th. All I have to do is finish my thesis and I get to start. This is a good motivator to finish earlier so I can start earlier."

Within the next 9 months we'll buy a house in northern Oklahoma City in or near the city of Edmond. We will move and begin the next phase in our lives.

Holy crap and hooray!!

100 Miles South of the Border

And we're off! This time we headed to Minnesota. On July 1st Sierra had a baby girl, Sophe Ann!


Both mommy and baby are doing great! She had an easy pregnancy and an even easier delivery.

But I should start at the beginning...


Our first stop was in Duluth to see Zak, Crystal, and boys. Not even just to see them, but we arrived just in time for me to register in a race! Zak ran the 5 mile (in just under 48 mins) while Crystal and I walked the 2 mile (in just over 40 mins). We cooled off with some popsicles, chatted about life, gave them all big hugs, then went on our merry way to Bemidji to see Sophe.


Who looks just like her mom, no her dad, no her auntie... no, just like Sophe :)


One thing is for sure, it was love at first site! She is just so precious and sweet. There is nothing quite like holding a two week old baby...


Or saying congrats to mom and dad in person. Great work you two :)

We couldn't visit the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" without getting out on one! My dad rented a pontoon and we bopped around Cass Lake. I had every intention of staying on it - but I somehow (fully clothed) couldn't resist it's appeal. A clean, beautiful, cool and refreshing dip :) I'm a sucker for lakes.


A little wind blown - but loving it! That fella in front is my parents "adopted son". He's working at a scout camp for the summer and gets to spend his one day off with them - lucky boy. We made it worth it -




On Sunday we dined like kings:


Hearty whole wheat french toast, fresh Minnesota strawberries, and cool whip :)

The boys shot some guns:


Hopefully killing some mosquitos, I forgot how bad they were up there.

We visited with family:


This is my granny, holding Sophe :)

And we all spent a lot of time holding the sweet new baby:








Love her, love her, love her!

Then we waved farewell - goodbye Smiths, we love you!

All we are is dust in the wind.

A great way to capture an amazing moment is to take a picture. So what does putting multiple pictures together do? Let me know after you read through this blog.

So many of these pictures have been shared on our other family members blogs, but I wanted to share my own spin on things.


It was almost 3 years ago that Evan and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Columbia River Washington temple! We had a quick moment to reflect on that time by taking pictures outside it on our second evening in WA. It was great to continually point it out as we adventured all around the Tri-Cities area. It was especially pretty from the top of Badger Mountain!


We climbed to the top with Rachel, early Friday morning. It's amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it! Not only was my body invigorated with the climb up but so was my mind as we had a great discussion on the way down.

We spent so much time in the great outdoors! The 80 degree weather was a great vacation from our nasty 100 degrees in OK.


Each day we tried to take a walk. My favorite walks were with the nieces and nephews. There was a llama and some goats by Grandpa's house that we befriended/ harassed on a regular basis.


Race you back to the house!


We also took the opportunity to dig around in Grandpa's garage for things to do. Look what we found:


I now know the proper way to play croquet - anyone up for a game?!

Our adventures outside continued as we supported Charith and Thomas in their Triathlon.


The human banner of family members gave them just the boost they needed to speed through to the finish line. (High five Rachel!) Make that a double high five for the suggestion of going shooting!





6 out of 7 kids showed off their skills and guns were blazing! Watch out for that one with the knife - he's got the maddest skills of them all!

Of course you can't play outside in the summer sun without getting hot. So let's take a dip: 1, 2, 3 - JUMP!


We spent a lovely afternoon in Ryan and Donna's beautiful pool with almost all the family. (Photo courtesy of Rachel.) Craziness ensued and you couldn't wipe the smile off my face if you tried :)

I feel that way about the whole weekend we spent in Washington! We made so many great memories and this post barely scrapes the surface. It was so good to see everyone! We miss you all terribly and are so grateful for your support as we try to figure out our own way though life.

A Couple of Familiar Faces

We had an amazing visit from Isaac, Breta, Davey, and Izzie! We played disc golf, ate delicious foods, and played Carcassonne way too late into the nights :)








Thanks for taking time to come see us Okies!

Minne-Okie

Man alive did we make some memories this memorial day weekend! Zak, Crystal, Beau (almost 4), and Renaud (almost 8 months) came all the way down from Duluth to spend the weekend with us.


They arrived Saturday evening. We made some sweet bread pizzas and they got settled in to their room.


On Sunday we went to church - Beau even did primary all by himself! After lunch we cooled off in the pool. Renaud loves the water, he splashed and giggled a lot. Beau and Uncle Evan figured out how to hold the noodle up to the pools jets and spray everyone!


After swimming we were hungry again, so Julia Child (played by yours truly) and Beau baked brownies and cooked meatballs and baked pasta. Beau learned how to speak like Julia saying - "and the wat-ah (water)" over and over :)


Then we headed to campus to show everyone what Uncle Evan does with rocks. We all had fun seeing the incredible minerals on display.





Instead of just walking around campus aimlessly, we decided to explore it while hunting for geocaches. We ended up finding two! We had a blast :)


The next morning we met up with some friends and ran the first annual Minne-Okie 5K. Zak is running a half marathon later this month, so I thought it would be cool to do some training with him. I ended up cutting 8 minutes off my last time! Running together is a new thing for my family, but I hope we stick with it.


After cleaning ourselves up, we headed to iconic Eskimo Joe's for some lunch - aren't they just such a good looking bunch!


Zak picked up a really sweet shirt to capture the memory, now where have I seen that before? :)


Then off to the City for some more adventures! We did a quick stop to show them our amazing temple. After that, we split up:








The boys played at the Oklahoma Science Museum.


And the girls went to $1 Jewelry Galore :) We both came away the victor.


We ate our fill at Texas Road House before heading back home. Sure do love these faces!


Wait! No trip is complete until we've stopped at Pops. They had a fun time picking out pops ranging from Mint to Bulldog Root Beer to Toxic Slime to Vanilla Cream!


Okay, now we can end the day - peace out OKC!


The next morning was spent doing dishes & laundry, watching Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, making cookies, sending Z & C on a date, and prepping for a POOL PARTY!!








We invited a bunch of friends over for a pool party/ BBQ. It was amazing - thank you everyone for making it truly a day to remember!

We ended the day with a relaxing movie night- Lars and the Real Girl.

The next morning we packed up and hit the open road, they said goodbye to Oklahoma and hello to one of our favorite spots - Branson, Missouri.


Along the way we stopped at the world's largest McDonald's - it was so big it bridged over the highway!





We started our day in Branson just walking around the outdoor mall by the river. Beau got spoiled with a balloon puppy, a mini train ride, a ride on a bull, and a strawberry snow cone - it was glorious :)


Intermission - we had a fun time playing around the mall too :)


Then we went on a Duck ride! They are WWII amphibious assault vehicles turned into tour busses. The best part is that part of the tour is IN the lake and the kids get to drive:





Beau was just tickled!


We also got these ridiculous noise makers that we could play as obnoxiously as we wanted :)


A teething Renaud liked the vibrating chew toy. Uncle Evan is such a trooper!


Then off to dinner at Lambert's Cafe - yes, they really do toss you rolls! (Shout out to Charith!)


Our food was huge and delicious. Crystal ate out of a pan, I ate a mountain of salad, they brought around fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, and black-eyed peas. It was a feast!


Then we hugged and kissed their glorious faces and we both went our separate ways.

I am SO happy they came to visit! Hope you all had fun weekends too - peace out,

LB.