Marathon May

I would like to begin this post by apologizing. I have let this blog slide by and I know it has disappointed some of my favorite readers, but I blame it on the nice weather and traveling. Basically, the word "travel" sums up the entire month of May for the Holbrook's. We may not be keeping up with the Baird's (Sam's sister and brother-in-law) who travel the entire European continent, but I would say we have put a nice dent in the Midwest United States.

The first weekend of May contained a trip from Altus, OK to Springfield, MO. The reason for this trip was to be a part of the proposal of Miss. Stephanie Dawn Spickard and Nathan (insert middle name) Thiry. Nathan sent me a text message at the beginning of April informing me that he planned to ask my bestie (slang for best friend) Stephanie to marry him, but first he had to ask her parents’ permission. I was so excited that I let the fact that he didn't mention asking me for her hand in marriage slide. I woke Sam up and couldn't sleep that night because I was so thrilled for the upcoming engagement. However, this meant that we had to keep our plans to Springfield on the DL (slang for down low) and that I had to limit my weekly one to two hour phone calls with Steph so that I didn't let any of the surprise slip, oh man that was a long month. I also found out in April that my other best friend Miss. Anna Claire Peck (the three of us were roommates throughout college) would also be getting engaged in May. I had to find a way to channel all my excitement because the two people I would dish this all with (through a three way text message we keep going at all times) were the two people that had to be left out of the loop, thus I took up crafting. I decided to make tote bags for both Stephanie and Anna, because Rachel (Sam's previously mentioned sister) made me a tote bag that said Bride and I loved it! The bag really came in handy for all the important planning meetings a bride must attend. I was so impressed by my new found crafting skills that I decided to make a tote for my sister and my two mom's for mother's day. I spent the last week in April and first week in May creating masterpiece totes! They aren't anything you would see on ETSY, which is a handmade craft website you can purchase items from, but for someone who can mess up drawing stick figures I was proud.

My first bag- Made for Stephanie

My first bag- Made for Stephanie

The second bag I made for Anna

I made this bag for my mom for mother’s day

I made this bag for my mom for mother’s day

I made this for Sam's mom for mother's day since she almost has two children in the UK

May finally came, like I said April was a long month of secrets, and we headed to Springfield for the first time ever from Awesome Altus. We left around 2:30pm and we made it Springfield around 9:30pm on Friday night. We were surprised that the drive only takes 6.5 hours with stops, when we thought it would be closer to 7 hours without stops. Steph's proposal wasn't until Saturday night so we spend Saturday with our parents, I went shopping with my mom and Sam went to see the Avengers with his dad. We met with some friends for dinner at Qdoba, I know you are all shocked, and we carpooled down to Branson, which is about 45 minutes from Springfield. Nathan, Stephanie's fiancé, worked for Kanakuk Kamps, a Christian summer camp, which is where the proposal took place. Nathan walked Stephanie through a nice forest at sunset. He brought her up to a clearing, with lights in the trees, where all of their closest family and friends were waiting. He got down on one knee and proposed. I was in charge of video tapping the proposal and Stephanie said when she walked up with Nathan she said "Amanda Lea Henson" out loud! I had kept my Springfield arrival as a surprise and I was so excited to see her, we hadn't seen each other since February, so it was a great reunion for us, and I am so glad that Nathan included Sam and I in that special moment of their lives. After the proposal we headed back to Springfield to celebrate Joseph Peck's 21st birthday (that is Anna's brother) and Stephanie/Nate got to join us later! It was so great to be with some of my favorite people in the world, the posse, which is what we referred to our group of friends when we all lived in Springfield and hung out every weekend. I had missed them so much! We stayed out until 2am catching up, most of which took place sitting in the parking lot of Quincy Magoos. Again, I was so excited to be with them and discussing hanging out Memorial Day weekend for Katie's (a member of the posse) bachelorette party, I couldn't sleep that night either! Sunday we headed back to Oklahoma, but the fact that I only slept for four hours didn't keep Sam from making me drive while he slept!

Waiting for the proposal. Sam had my camera, this is our friend Chad

Waiting for the proposal. Sam had my camera, this is our friend Chad

The proposal. (She said yes-in a manly voice)

The proposal. (She said yes-in a manly voice)

Steph's ring!

The happy couple. Nathan looks relieved it’s all over and Steph is saying, with her eyes, enough with the pictures and I can't believe he actually surprised me.

The happy couple. Nathan looks relieved it’s all over and Steph is saying, with her eyes, enough with the pictures and I can't believe he actually surprised me.

Sam sleeping in the car

Though we enjoyed our weekend in Springfield and being reunited with family and friends we did miss our tribe (Kedem and Lauren) in Awesome Altus. Our second weekend in May wasn't too crazy; I wanted a less busy, lower key weekend. There was a random cool front in Altus, instead of 100 degrees it was 75, but too cold for the pool. They were having an open house on base so we of course went as a tribe. We decided to walk, since it was a nice day, to the flight line where the open house was reportedly taking place. We ended up walking the entire perimeter of the base. The open house was pretty cool and they opened base up to the public. They had an Air Force band, face painting, and some big tankers from Fort Sill, the Army base in Lawton, OK. They also had static displays of the KC-135, C-17, and C-130. It was a lot of fun and big event for a small town. After lots of walking we headed to the grocery store to get supplies for another epic make your own homemade pizza night at the Alon's. We ate pizza with Kedem, Lauren, Ralph, and Millie (who went to the academy with Sam). Ralph and Millie introduced us to a new game called "Recycle" which was a really fun! The game is simple, each person writes down four random words, and the game has four rounds. The first round is charades, where you draw a word, act it out and your team has to guess the word. The second round is taboo, where you draw from the same set of words and you use words to describe the word without actually saying the word. The third round you draw a word and can only use one word to describe it. The final round you use only one sound to describe the word. It is a lot of fun, take the idea to your next party and it is sure to be hit. The boys beat us, probably because I used "shiny" as a sound in one round, but regardless the game is fun and sure to be an icebreaker, leaving most of the players in stitches (a term used to describe extreme laughter). 

Sitting in a jump seat in the back of the KC-135

Back of the KC-135

Lauren ready to pilot the KC-135

Lauren ready to pilot the KC-135

Don't worry Sam, I got this babe, it doesn't seem too difficult to fly

Don't worry Sam, I got this babe, it doesn't seem too difficult to fly

Well...those are a lot of buttons, my guess is Sam only uses like one of them

Well...those are a lot of buttons, my guess is Sam only uses like one of them

Sam and I in front of the KC-135

Back of the KC-135, the boom. We got to step down into the boom operators quarters, it was cool, they get to lay down

Lauren is really excited to see the C-130J

Hmm yes this cockpit looks much nicer and newer than the KC-135. Mostly computer generated. This C-130 plane had only 36 hours of flight time....it’s a baby.

C-130J

Lauren with a gun

Lauren with a gun

Tankers from Fort Sill the Army base in Lawton, OK

Tankers from Fort Sill the Army base in Lawton, OK

Sam filling up our free Army water bottles! Finally no dirt water

Sam filling up our free Army water bottles! Finally no dirt water

KC-135

Last week was filled with more traveling. Sam and I experienced our first night spent apart since we were married, in January, it was strange. I headed to Springfield on Tuesday around 1pm and I got into town around 8pm. On Wednesday I helped my mom score finals, which was fun and made me miss being in the classroom teaching, then I headed to Shady Dale Preschool to see the bestie, and then we went to Norman’s bridal for Steph's first dress shopping extravaganza! She also made the cutest cookies to ask us ladies, who went dress shopping with her, to be a part of her wedding party, it was adorable! The first dress she tried on brought a slight tear to my eye, because she looked gorgeous, so I will probably cry at her wedding. After Normans we headed to Bambinos for dinner, then the mall, and then orange leaf. It was a great day and I am so glad I was able to be a part of Steph's first real wedding experience. I had some oatmeal with my mom on Thursday morning and then made my way back to Awesome Altus. Sam had class on Friday morning, so I loaded the car while he was in class. Once he finished class at 11am we hit the road to head back to Springfield. 

Some people are not sure were exactly Awesome Altus is; well it is that small little red dot on the Texas/Oklahoma line, in the middle of nowhere. As you can see Enid is farther north, which probably explains why it is a 10* temperature difference between Altus and Enid.

Some people are not sure were exactly Awesome Altus is; well it is that small little red dot on the Texas/Oklahoma line, in the middle of nowhere. As you can see Enid is farther north, which probably explains why it is a 10* temperature difference between Altus and Enid.

 We made it to town around 5pm which was awesome, we were able to drop off our luggage and head to UMI for a sushi dinner with both my mom and his parents! Then we got to go over to Sam's parents’ house to have some back porch Holbrook time, which I always love and enjoy. Sam and I hit up Andy's frozen custard and Barns and Noble later on Friday night. Saturday morning Sam got up to go have breakfast with his dad and washed my car. We had lunch with my mom and grandma and then headed to Chad's graduation party a.k.a Anna's proposal. Here is how this proposal went down: Chad brought Anna to the front of the room and started thanking everyone for coming to his party, supporting him through college, and then he thanked Anna, who he had been dating for 5.5 years, and he said "Anna, I want to spend the rest of my life with you".....get on one knee...."will you marry me?” Anna was so surprised she stumbled and stepped backwards because she was taken “aback”, but then she quickly returned to Chad and said yes. Hugs were exchanged and tears were shed from the Grandma’s and bride-to-be, it was beautiful. Chad also had roses for Anna, a dozen pink roses because he had known her for twelve years, five red roses because they had dated 5 and a half years, and one white rose in the middle with some bling to represent the one engagement. After we left Chad’s graduation party we went to Church and then headed out to Sam’s sister, Sarah, and his brother-in-law Tom’s house for another graduation party. Tom had graduated from Missouri State as well, which we are so proud of him for, especially because we know it was hard on the whole family, and he had a huge hurtle to cross, passing college algebra when a crazy instructor (my mom) kept failing him.Okay, so it didn’t really go down like that, but he did briefly have my mom as an instructor his first year at MSU many years ago. After we left Sarah and Tom’s house we headed over to Chad’s house to watch the OKC Thunder beat the L.A. Lakers. On Sunday, after Church, I had a bridal shower to go to and Sam had lunch with his parents, then we headed to our vacation home in Enid, OK.

Chad on one knee...Anna taken aback in shock she isn't even in the picture!

Chad on one knee...Anna taken aback in shock she isn't even in the picture!

Surprise Anna

She said yes-(in a normal girl voice)

She said yes-(in a normal girl voice)

Congrats Anna and Chad

The graduate, Tom, with Sam's sister (his wife) Sarah

The graduate, Tom, with Sam's sister (his wife) Sarah

 

Sam and I like to stop in Enid, which is four hours from Springfield and three hours from Altus, to spend the night in our own bed. The first time we stopped in Enid, over the first weekend in May, we realized we didn't have a house key and had to wait an hour for emergency maintenance to let us into our house. This past weekend we remembered the key, got into the house, unloaded our stuff, headed to Walgreen's to get breakfast food for the next day, and locked the keys inside our house. We tried to pick the lock with a paper clip, but turns out we aren't very good burglars, so we waited about half an hour for emergency maintenance to let us into our house. We are heading back to Springfield for Memorial Day weekend, we enjoy our travel time together and we are taking advantage of every chance we can to go home before we are overseas and can't get home as easily.

Marathon May Facts:

1. By the end of May we will have traveled a total of 3,582 miles. 

2. We will have spent a total of 53.5 hours traveling.

3. We will have spent approx. $70 in toll charges to drive on crappy roads

4. We will have spent three of the four weekends with family, friends and best of all HERCULES in Springfield, MO

5. We named all fifty states, capitals, and played a new made up animal game together in the car. 

Until next time, (hopefully not another month from now)

Amanda