Happy 7th birthday, Sydney

Traditional pancake breakfast.

New outfit from GG

Cupcakes at school

THE cake she wanted from her princess cookbook

2 new friends that live in our neighborhood

Boating With Sheppards

Sam and Nick..(me driving!:-)

Carter and Sydney

Sydney skiing

Blake pulling out of the wake

Tiffany and I

Renee' and Blake, the wild tubers

Sydney and Renee'

Carter and Trey...notice the crazy fish jumping!

Sheppards came up to see us and we had a great time out on the boat. Come again soon!

Blake

Sydney

 

Trey

Nick's 34th birthday

First Day of Sangre Ridge

Blake's first day of thrid grade

Sydney's first day of 1st grade

Trey's first day of kindergarten

Nauvoo, IL

We left our kids at Lake Owen so that Nick and I could head home to Texas to pack up our house.  The kids stayed with Nana and DaDaw for two weeks.  They had such a fun time!  Some of the highlights for them were going out on the boat, swimming lessons, and a night time hike with head lamps for all.  After Nick and I moved all of our things to Oklahoma, we met up with Nick's parents in Nauvoo, IL for the Nelson family reuninon.  The kids had so much fun playing with all their second cousins that they never get to see.  It was great to learn about all our ancestors that lived in Nauvoo.  It was a great trip.

Big Changes

2011 has defiantly brought us more changes than we anticipated.  During this spring, a good friend of ours let us know about an opening for a teaching position in the landscape architecture department at Oklahoma State University.  Nick has always talked about teaching, but we always thought it would be at the end of his career.  Nick sent in his portfolio and resume and we didn't really think much about it after that.  We got a call in May to let us know that the college wanted Nick to come up to interview for the position.  I was able to come up with him so that I could scout out the town.  The interview process took three days.  A week later, we had an offer.  Things moved pretty quickly from there.  We had another house hunting trip where we headed up to Stillwater to make an offer on a house.  We put our house on the market for a leasing contract and two days later got a SALES offer.  Everything went really smoothly and we really feel like the Lord has led and directed our path.  We were so sad to leave Texas.  It has been our home and an awesome place to call home for seven wonderful years.  We are looking forward to new adventures in Oklahoma.  Go Cowboys!

Lake Owen 2011 Highlights

Candy Run

It wouldn't get a real trip to Lake Owen if we didn't load up on candy from the candy store in Hayward.  Syd declared that she wasn't getting any of the "junk" candy.  She only wanted the chocolates behind the glass!  Smart girl.  Nick's two nieces, Ruby and baby, Frankie, are also in the pictures.

Steamy Lake

We had a cold front come in and since the lake had been so warm, their was fog rising up from the lake.  It was really cool.

Copper Falls

We decided to explore around Lake Owen this year and headed up for a hike around Copper Falls.  It was a beautiful place with a ton of waterfalls.  It started raining when we got there, but the rain helped to cool us off.