Leaving the city life for the country life....

After living among the thousands of homes in
over populated suburba, we dared to move out of our comfort zone, 1.5
hrs from the big city, to a little teeny town called Royal in Alabama.

In "town" most trees, most spot of land is being covered up and
ripped up and replaced with either 100 identical houses or a strip mall
(both ok things, but I don't want to live in the center of either). So,
we ventured out to the country, where the land is large, the birds
sing, the sun shines and we found
our.......us........my....."me".....and finally, after 10 years in the
concrete jungle, I can exhale.

These pictures are one of the many shots I was fortunate to capture
during our winding drive through the old dirt roads near our home, while the children played, or while just sitting and enjoying the new country culture.

This tree shows me that life is still life and that it just might
not be all about the job, the buck, the title after my name. But it
might be about simpler things, quieter things, lovely things.....the
free, yet more and more hard to find things....

It's been almost 6 months since we moved and everyday it gets better and better. Our children are happier, they get off the video games, Directv, the movies and go outside for hours. They learn about nature, the world, animals; it's wonderful to see the wind in their hair, hear them laughing, smell the Honeysuckle on their clothes.  Wow.  I can't believe we questioned whether or not it would be a good idea to move far from the conveniences of being "in town"...it's fabulous here...

-Kalai Oakman