All Posts Tagged With: "Sarah"

6:50pm, Edmond Santa Fe High School auditorium
Karla and Ashley wait for the start of Sarah’s induction ceremony for DECA.

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7:15pm, Edmond Santa Fe High School auditorium
Sarah (fourth from the right) takes the officer’s oath during the induction ceremony for DECA. In her first year in DECA, the membership voted her to be Reporter for the club. The club’s adviser speaks very highly of Sarah and believes she has a promising future in the organization.

(Yes, yes, I know… the photo is horrible. Someone… cough, cough… was too lazy to bring his real camera to the event and take decent photos. What kind of a father would do that?)

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* Taken with my iPhone

Princess lays around depressed, longing for the return of Sarah and Ashley from their week-long trip.

Sam, one of our two pugs, hangs his head in melancholy, missing Sarah and Ashley, who are spending this week with their grandma.

As I mentioned in the last post, our family went out on a date night to celebrate Karla and I’s anniversary. We went to the very nice, upper-scale restaurant, Redrock Canyon Grill, that sits on the shore of Lake Hefner.

First of all, the weather was picture perfect. There were blue skies, but with enough high-level clouds to diffuse the harshness of the setting sun. The temperature was warm enough to wear short sleeves and even shorts, but wasn’t hot at all. As a very large man with lots of extra insulation, I can get hot pretty easily, but I was quite comfortable. It is still early enough in the summer season that the bugs were minimal, apart from a few annoying gnat clouds hovering along the shore of the lake.

As we waited to be seated, we stood out on the outside patio and deck overlooking the lake. Even though there were a lot of people waiting, it didn’t seem overcrowded. The air was perfect, the views were great and the company was even better! Continued

You’ve heard of the 25 days of Christmas, right? Well, I’ve started a new tradition with our family of the five days of Cinco de Mayo! It started on Thursday, May 1st, when I demanded my print vendor take me to lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant downtown, La Luna. (It helps that Karla is now works at that print vendor and works directly in support of my sales rep!)

Saturday, as part of our family day downtown (of which I’ll be posting more about in a series of posts in the next couple of days), we went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Bricktown, Chelino’s…

Mmmmmmm. Doesn’t all that look good? It’s making me hungry just looking at it. See my fajitas in the lower right portion of the picture? I could just reach right into that photo and grab me a bite. I can smell them as if they were sitting in front of me. It’s rare that I am disappointed in a meal at Chelino’s and this day was no exception.

As has become a tradition anytime we go anywhere to eat and I have a camera handy, I made sure to catch Sarah putting something into her mouth. Below, Sarah pops another of her poppers into her mouth as Ashley enjoys her whatever it was she was eating.

Tonight, our family wraps up our five-day culinary celebration with another Mexican meal. Five straight days of eating Mexican cuisine — or at least the very Americanized Tex-Mex variant — and I haven’t tired of it yet.

So I’m embracing my love for Mexican culture, the Mexican people (to which I am related by marriage), Mexican destinations (like my beloved Cozumel) and Mexican cuisine (including the Tex-Mex variants) with enthusiasm (and gluttony) during our family’s own five-day celebration of Cinco de Mayo!

Maybe next year, we can go to Mexico to celebrate the holiday!

Last Saturday, our family spent some time visiting Oklahoma History Center. It’s the first time we’ve been since they opened the 215,000 square-foot facility across from the Capital building a few years ago. The center’s materials boast the museum’s “Smithsonian-quality exhibits” with “2,000 artifacts reflecting Oklahoma’s inspiring and adventurous past.” I’m not sure that I would compare it to the Smithsonian, but it was interesting and educational.

There are four main galleries inside the museum — one dedicated to Native American history and the other three exploring Oklahoma’s rich and diverse history and culture. There is also an exhibit about Oklahoma’s contribution to space exploration, including the Gemini 6 Capsule display. The impressive great hall has replica of the famous “Winnie Mae” airplane flown by aviation pioneer and Oklahoma native Wiley Post. There is a new exhibit that will open this week — “Field, Forest & Stream: The History of Oklahomans and the Outdoors.”

There are several exhibits outside the museum, but it was a little chilly on Saturday so we didn’t explore those, except for the sculpture at the entrance of the museum. Continued

“To Grandmother’s house we go…” (© Brad Neese. All rights reserved.)

The fam in the van on their way to grandma’s for a visit and play day for the dogs. Continued