Oklahoma!
For years Kevin has talked about taking me back to Oklahoma to show me where he served his mission.
So for his 28th birthday this year, we went!
In the weeks leading up to the trip Kevin read from his mission journal to remind himself of all the places he served and people he served with.
We went to the Oklahoma City Federal Building site where the bombing took place in 1995.
They are in the process of building a memorial park.
We walked along the fence, looking at tokens for the victims and photos of some of the people who died. Seeing the babies was especially sad.
We learned that land and homes are SO much cheaper in Oklahoma than they are in Utah.
One home was $12,500.
Another with 30 acres of land was around $75,000.
Kevin served in four areas.
Stillwater
Guthrie
Norman
Choctaw
And we visited all of them.
This is Dude, his landlord in Guthrie.
Kevin had a hard time finding his apartment in Norman, in fact he couldn't remember much at all about his time there. We attributed the memory loss to the near breakdown he had the transfer before--he was probably still numb and recovering.
Missions aren't for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
It was pretty great to actually see all the places he wrote me about.
I learned something new on this trip, about Kevin during his time in Choctaw.
There was a girl there who really liked him.
Her parents, especially her mom, REALLY liked Kevin.
She made it clear (without actually saying it) that Kevin would be very welcome in their family.
The girl even called Kevin a couple of times while we were engaged and she was at BYU.
That was all news to me.
I guess it didn't hurt to have a back-up plan ;)
He served on two campuses.
Oklahoma State University
and Oklahoma University
And finally, I got to try the famous Eskimo Joe's chili cheese fries.
They lived up to their reputation.
We went back again to try the chicken cheese fries, also delicious.
After we ate, we sat outside and smelled the rain and talked. A perfect moment. I tried to take a mental picture of everything around me so I could remember it.
Then we went to Braum's.
It's a shame Salt Lake City doesn't have a Braum's.
Kevin had mentioned how great their ice cream was, and he didn't exaggerate.
I opted for a brownie sundae and Kev had his usual, Praline's and Cream.
I think we went there two more times during the trip.
We were on a pretty tight budget, so we ended up with a hamster--the smallest and cheapest car they had.
We also went the bargain route for lodging.
That didn't go too well.
Our first night we stayed in the OU Hotel. It was formerly a dorm and kind of a dive.
Our next couple of nights I reserved a dorm on the OSU campus for $25 a night. When we got off the elevator the entire floor smelled like urine and we were going to have to share a bathroom.
So we bailed on the dorms and found a Motel 6 for $40 a night.
We stayed there two nights. The a/c was broken, still totally worth it.
Our fourth night was spent in the Executive Inn. It was old, but clean and affordable.
My heart has been freaking out with PVC's and my headaches and the pain in my jaw have been pretty bad throughout the trip, but distractions are always good and we've had plenty of those.
We went to church in Choctaw. Shortly after the meeting began we heard people whispering behind us, "Hey, that's Elder Beck". Kevin ended up recognizing a few people, so it was fun to meet them.
We splurged our last night and got a room at the Wingate Inn. It was fairly new and SO much nicer than the Motel 6. It even had a pool and a hot tub.
This trip was the best!
It was really nice to have uninterrupted time together and I think being back in Oklahoma was really good for Kevin. Missions are so great, and so hard. I think he'd been wanting to make sense of some of the hard stuff. Coming back, and being able to talk about everything was helpful. He was also reminded of all the good experiences he'd had, and there were plenty of those.
So for his 28th birthday this year, we went!
In the weeks leading up to the trip Kevin read from his mission journal to remind himself of all the places he served and people he served with.
We went to the Oklahoma City Federal Building site where the bombing took place in 1995.
They are in the process of building a memorial park.
We walked along the fence, looking at tokens for the victims and photos of some of the people who died. Seeing the babies was especially sad.
We learned that land and homes are SO much cheaper in Oklahoma than they are in Utah.
One home was $12,500.
Another with 30 acres of land was around $75,000.
Kevin served in four areas.
Stillwater
Guthrie
Norman
Choctaw
And we visited all of them.
This is Dude, his landlord in Guthrie.
Kevin had a hard time finding his apartment in Norman, in fact he couldn't remember much at all about his time there. We attributed the memory loss to the near breakdown he had the transfer before--he was probably still numb and recovering.
Missions aren't for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
It was pretty great to actually see all the places he wrote me about.
I learned something new on this trip, about Kevin during his time in Choctaw.
There was a girl there who really liked him.
Her parents, especially her mom, REALLY liked Kevin.
She made it clear (without actually saying it) that Kevin would be very welcome in their family.
The girl even called Kevin a couple of times while we were engaged and she was at BYU.
That was all news to me.
I guess it didn't hurt to have a back-up plan ;)
He served on two campuses.
Oklahoma State University
and Oklahoma University
And finally, I got to try the famous Eskimo Joe's chili cheese fries.
They lived up to their reputation.
We went back again to try the chicken cheese fries, also delicious.
After we ate, we sat outside and smelled the rain and talked. A perfect moment. I tried to take a mental picture of everything around me so I could remember it.
Then we went to Braum's.
It's a shame Salt Lake City doesn't have a Braum's.
Kevin had mentioned how great their ice cream was, and he didn't exaggerate.
I opted for a brownie sundae and Kev had his usual, Praline's and Cream.
I think we went there two more times during the trip.
We were on a pretty tight budget, so we ended up with a hamster--the smallest and cheapest car they had.
We also went the bargain route for lodging.
That didn't go too well.
Our first night we stayed in the OU Hotel. It was formerly a dorm and kind of a dive.
Our next couple of nights I reserved a dorm on the OSU campus for $25 a night. When we got off the elevator the entire floor smelled like urine and we were going to have to share a bathroom.
So we bailed on the dorms and found a Motel 6 for $40 a night.
We stayed there two nights. The a/c was broken, still totally worth it.
Our fourth night was spent in the Executive Inn. It was old, but clean and affordable.
My heart has been freaking out with PVC's and my headaches and the pain in my jaw have been pretty bad throughout the trip, but distractions are always good and we've had plenty of those.
We went to church in Choctaw. Shortly after the meeting began we heard people whispering behind us, "Hey, that's Elder Beck". Kevin ended up recognizing a few people, so it was fun to meet them.
We splurged our last night and got a room at the Wingate Inn. It was fairly new and SO much nicer than the Motel 6. It even had a pool and a hot tub.
This trip was the best!
It was really nice to have uninterrupted time together and I think being back in Oklahoma was really good for Kevin. Missions are so great, and so hard. I think he'd been wanting to make sense of some of the hard stuff. Coming back, and being able to talk about everything was helpful. He was also reminded of all the good experiences he'd had, and there were plenty of those.
