Saturday, June 07, 2008

Oklahoma Top 10

We just returned from our Oklahoma trip. It was a blast. On the way down there, we narrowly missed a tornado (it hit about 30 minutes behind us). Then on the way back, we narrowly missed another one. And then today, we spend the late afternoon in the basement because of tornado warnings around here. All is well, though. Here's a "Top 10" from our trip...

10. Nails. My sweet mother took me to get a pedicure and manicure. I got French tips on my toes, and darn it if I didn’t chip one already because I was swimming at the hotel pool with Jack and Anna. The bottom of the pool will do it every time. I’m planning to hit the store tomorrow to get some white polish to tidy it up.

9. Sleeping. Thanks to my mom wearing out the kids every night, Steve and I got to sleep in every single day. Sure, it wasn’t like we slept until 10 (though Steve did make it until 9 one day). But I don’t think I got up before 7 a single time. Even when the kids got up early, my lovely mother was there with them, making breakfast or doing something else to entertain them.



8. Day in OKC. We went up to OKC because my mom got 2nd place in a “Made in Oklahoma” recipe contest. (Wooohooo Mom!) She was accepting her award, so the kids and I tagged along, went to the zoo (that's Jack and Anna below with cousin, Lockin) and Build-a-Bear. The highlight of this trip is that when we stopped to get lunch, I was handing a $20 to the drive through worker. He didn’t grab it in time and it went blowing away in the wind. I was cursing slightly, but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of the car and running after my money. The wind was blowing like crazy, and it blew the money into the road of a busy intersection. I kept my eye on it and kept running, though. Finally, it blew out of the road into some grass, and I grabbed it. It was quite a hike, though.



7. Dinner at Grandmas. It wouldn’t be a complete visit without Sunday dinner at my Grandma’s house. The kids had fun. I got to see my grandparents. My cousin, Josh, showed me pictures of his recent muddin’ adventure. And the food was SPECTACULAR. No wonder I gain weight when I go home. It’s so worth it!



6. Riding 4-Wheelers. My dad took us out to “the farm” he has where the kids rode with my mom to the little creek nearby. Anna was scared at first to get on them, but she definitely warmed up. (If you want to see the picture of Anna, e-mail me. Here's Jack fishing at the creek.)



5. Pictures with Tina. Tina always takes great pictures, and this time was no exception. I’ll post some more of this another time, but here’s my favorite one of Jack and Anna. I love that you can see Anna’s bellybutton.



4. Arbuckle Wilderness. “Come feed the animals at Arbuckle Wilderness.” That’s the theme song of this drive-through animal park. It was a blast. I was in the front seat, so I was the one feeding most of the animals. A donkey nipped Anna in the hand, but it didn’t hurt her. It gave her a good story to tell. The best animals to feed were the giraffes. They were so amazing and gentle. There was this horrible slobbery one. You should have seen my car after we left that place. It was splattered with giraffe slobber.




3. Day at OU. Steve and I have nostalgic ties to OU. We went to the bookstore at the Union, just across the street from where Steve’s office used to be. Oh yeah, and we stopped at 4 different Sooner stores and loaded up on a TON of t-shirts, sweats, etc., etc. Such good buys!

2. Feeding Rocky. If you read my earlier post, you know that my mom was helping my brother take care of a baby raccoon. The kids ADORED him, and they especially looked forward to feeding him with his bottle. It was really one of the highlights of the trip.





1. Playing in the Pond. Finally, this is the top event of our trip. We spent all kinds of money riding trains, going to the zoo, going to Build-a-Bear, and everything else. But when it came down to it, the thing the kids liked the most was running around and swimming in the pond behind my parents’ house. It was the perfect pond, too because there was this shallow section that was pure mud along the bottom. So they were running around like crazy without having to worry about stepping on rocks or anything like that. You can’t compete with good ole times of playing in the mud.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you guys had a good time. I wish I could of been there to see that raccoon. Plus I am so glad that you were safe with the weather being what it was all week! I have to see that picture of Anna four-wheeling!

Amber said...

Ah, you have country kids! Glad you made it there and back, what with all the bad weather.

ashes ashes said...

Your kids are VERY cute. Maybe next year we could just take our girls trip to Linda's house.