The last nine months have given us many firsts. Our first big move. Our first earthquake. Our first baby. Our first house. April 13th-15th gave us another first: our first engineering conference.
Aaron was asked to give a presentation at the 2011 APWA/OWEA Conference in Oklahoma City. It was quite the honor considering that at the time he had been employed with Tetra Tech for only 6 months! His presentation was titled "Flow Equalization Basin Lift Station Evaluation." Yeah, that's a mouthful, and now that I think about it, they would be great lyrics to a rap song. Anyway, if you want to know about his presentation, you'll have to ask him. I bet he would even whip out the power point if you asked nicely.
Yep, that's my husband!
The view from our hotel room. I would love to have that room on game day!
The conference started around 9:00 each day. While Aaron listened to the different presentations, Blaise and I explored downtown OK City which is called Bricktown. It is similar to the Haymarket in Lincoln with the exception of a small river running through it.
A couple of views of Bricktown and the river
This picture is for Uncle John. We didn't actually go into the Banjo Museum, but it looked cool from the outside.
Blaise thoroughly enjoying our exploration
One of the afternoons, Aaron was able to go to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial with us. The old cathedral of the Diocese is right across the street from the Memorial. We wanted to see both the church and the Memorial, so we parked in the church parking lot. As you can see, the sign threatened unauthorized vehicles with towing. None of the other cars in the parking lot had a parking pass to "authorize" them, so I decided that a rosary was authorization enough. It worked.
During the blast, the roof of the church was lifted off and set back down. Incredible. But there's more. Almost all of the stained glass windows on the east side of the church were blown out; however, not a scratch was found on the crucifix in the church. And then, my favorite part: the tabernacle light was found still glowing after the blast. After the Eucharistic was removed from the tabernacle, the priest went back to find the light suddenly extinguished. Goosebumps.
Outside the church is a statue titled "And Jesus Wept." Directly across the street from the statue is the gate to the Memorial:
We only had enough time to walk around the outside Memorial. It was simple and beautiful...and sobering. I was in first grade when the bombing happened, but I still vividly remember the picture of a firefighter holding a dying infant in his arms. Here I was, walking on the same ground, holding my own baby. Life is so precious.
*sigh*
Hail Mary...
To continue with the theme of firsts, Blaise took his first swim at the hotel swimming pool. The water was freezing, but much to our surprise, he LOVED it! He splashed and kicked and had a ball.
Dad helping Blaise with his back stroke
Aaron presented on Thursday morning at 9:00. We both stayed up kinda late putting the finishing touches on his presentation, so Blaise was the first one up...at 8:20. If you know my husband, you are well aware that his showers can be rather leisurely at times. I was worried that 40 minutes was not enough time to shave, shower, dress, walk clear across the hotel to the conference center, and get set-up. Mr. Presenter-man was ready well before his 40 minutes were up with enough time to snap a picture before he walked out the door:
So proud of you, Aaron Daniel!
Family picture at the Tetra Tech booth
Another highlight of the trip was the drive home. We followed a storm with "tornadic activity" all the way. Talk about stressful for this mama. You can see that Blaise wasn't the least bit worried.
So there you have it: our first engineering conference, filled with many firsts in and of itself!
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