Our little Star Wars fan

I think it began when we attended the Star Wars day at our local library. Or perhaps it was that lightsaber we found for a quarter at a garage sale. But, what certainly cinched Daniel's fascination with Star Wars was when he found his daddy's set of vintage Star Wars figures. Brian had collected these figures when they originally came out in the early eighties. They had been well-loved by little Brian, but now they are absolutely adored by the next generation. Daniel talks about Star Wars when he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night. We have allowed him to see a few short clips from the older movies, and this has only furthered his great love for all things Star Wars. He asks us questions about the story line, memorizes the details, and then reenacts them with the figures.

I am amazed and somewhat worried! Star Wars is not exactly what I would pick for my three year old son to love. How about something more tame, like, oh say, teddy bears? Despite my concern, I have to laugh at times. Earlier this week, he wanted to dress up as Luke Skywalker. I found a large brown towel, and we wrapped it around his shoulders for a cloak. Then, he picked up his lightsaber and looked at me very solemnly. In an unnaturally deep voice, he said "I must go to Darth Vader. He is my father." He turned and walked away as I dissolved into laughter. Then I heard sounds of a lightsaber fight taking place in our living room.

O glory. What will be next?

Sweet Conversations with Daniel

Daniel: Mommy, will you marry me when I get bigger?

Me: Well...I am already married to Daddy.

Daniel: (Very exaggerated) Ooooooohhhhhhh. I forgot! (Long pause) When you are done being married to him, then will you marry me?

Me: (Trying not to giggle) When you grow up, I think you will want to find a little girl your own age to marry.

Daniel: Yeah. But, when I get married, will you come live with me?

Me: Of course I will!

Daniel is learning more and more about how this world works, but at the same time, he is just a little boy. These are precious, precious days. I desperately try to not take one for granted.

Final Vacation Day

On the final day of our vacation, we stopped at the Tulsa Zoo. This was not originally in our plans, but since we were so close and the weather was so nice, we decided to do it. The Tulsa Zoo was having an "Ele-bration" to celebrate the elephants at their zoo. The first elephant that they purchased for the zoo in the 1950's is still living at the zoo today and doing well! Besides the elephants, our favorite part of this zoo was probably the penguin exhibit. These penguins were social--they would stand close to the glass and follow your finger as you moved it back and forth. We also watched a penguin collecting rocks to build a nest. Pretty neat!


After leaving the zoo, we began driving toward home. Close to Independence, we spotted a sign for the Little House on the Prairie exhibit. Since I have always loved the Little House books, we decided to stop. I am so glad we did! There was a school house, a post office, and a replica of the log cabin where the Ingalls family lived. I was amazed by how small the cabin was. Things sure have changed!


We headed on into Independence and visited the Riverside park. Several families had told us about this place, but it exceeded our expectations by far! First, their was a huge playground with tons of different equipment. I think playing here was Daniel's favorite part of the vacation!
Then, there was a miniature golf course that only cost a dollar per person. Daniel golfed for the first time!
The carousel was only 5 cents to ride. How can you beat that? There was also a small train that cost a quarter to ride. And there was a free zoo, that was much larger than we expected. We were at the park for over three hours, spent less than $5, and had tons of fun!
It was a great way to end our vacation. We are praising the Lord for such a fun-filled trip!

Vacation Day Four

Day four of our vacation was spent at the Oklahoma Aquarium, just outside of Tulsa. Very cool place! Daniel's favorite part was being able to touch different animals. He touched a small shark, a sting ray, a sea cucumber, a shark egg, and several other creatures. We also got to feed shrimp to the manta rays. This aquarium boasts the largest display of bull sharks in the nation. They are also building a new sea turtle addition to the aquarium. It is a place worth visiting!

Touching a bamboo shark.

Inside a shark cage.

Daniel loved finding "Nemo" fish.

That afternoon we also shopped around in Jenks America, a little district near the aquarium that has streets lined with antique stores. And, we managed to hit another Peachwave. Could we be addicted to Peachwave? Perhaps! Too bad the closest one to our house is over an hour away. Sigh.
Photos of the final day of our vacation are yet to come!

Vacation Day Three

On this day of our vacation, we went to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Brian and I have always loved visiting zoos, and Daniel is enjoying them more and more as he gets older. We have found that each zoo has a different personality. The animals, the layout, the vegetation, etc. makes each zoo a unique experience. We have hopes for visiting zoos in each of the 50 states!

The first spot we visited at the Oklahoma City Zoo was the sea lions. They put on a very entertaining show for us! Otters, sea lions, and seals are almost always my favorite exhibits.

Then we headed to the herpetarium. This is almost always my least favorite exhibit, since I have a great dislike for snakes. GREAT dislike. In fact, this particular herpetarium scared me so much when I saw it several years ago, that I actually skipped most of it this time around. I did catch some cute pictures of Brian and Daniel conversing with this baby komodo dragon though!

Here are some of our other photos at the Oklahoma City Zoo. We agreed that our favorite features of this zoo were the sea lions and the enormous new elephant habitat!

Daniel loved playing in this stream and water fall area. Since it was over 100 degrees this day, the cool water felt very good!

Above Brian and Daniel are giving each other a high "foot"
instead of a high five.

After leaving the zoo, we drove on to Tulsa to spend the night. Our hotel was so-so but it did have a small indoor water park that Daniel greatly enjoyed. Stay tuned for vacation day four!

Vacation Day One and Two

It is vacation time again, and we are so excited to get away for a few days! This year we are headed to the Oklahoma City/Tulsa area. We plan to go to the Science Museum Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and the Oklahoma Aquarium. Here is Daniel opening his first surprise bag as we begin our journey. Surprise bags are something Brian's grandma made for Brian and his sister when they took long car trips, and I thought it was such a neat idea that we have continued the tradition.

We stopped to visit Brian's family along the way and then arrived in Oklahoma City late that afternoon. After getting settled in our hotel, we headed out to supper at Pop's, a restaurant and soda shop on historic Route 66. They have over 500 different kinds of glass bottled pop. I had a creamy root beer, Brian had one of the many orange flavors, and Daniel had a blue cream soda. The photo below is of the 66 foot tall soda bottle in LED lights that stands in front of the restaurant.

The next morning we headed to Science Museum Oklahoma. It has a little bit of everything and is very kid-friendly. Daniel particularly enjoyed the gadget tree, the gymnastics exhibit, and the hands-on activities.

Brian trying out a segway for the first time.

Daniel was very proud of himself for climbing this rope ladder!

And the above photo is the last one I will ever take with our trusty Nikon Coolpix camera. I dropped it shortly afterward, which caused the lens to malfunction. Since we couldn't spend the rest of our vacation camera-less, there ensued a two hour detour of our vacation plans. First we went to a camera repair shop only to find it would have to be sent off for repairs. We had done that once before and knew how expensive it would be. So, we decided just to buy a new camera. Unfortunately, Brian and I are not good at spur of the moment purchases, so we spent much time between Wal-Mart and Best Buy picking out a new one. We got it done though, and are very happy with our purchase!

During this evening we also went to the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City. We took a ride through Bricktown on a water taxi, which was very informative and interesting. After eating supper at Spaghetti Warehouse, we went to my new favorite place...Peachwave! If you aren't familiar with Peachwave, it is a self-serve frozen yogurt shop. The walls are lined with spigots of different yogurt flavors. You pick your favorite, fill your cup, and then top it off with goodies from their wide selection of toppings. My favorite yogurt flavor is cheesecake. Delicious! And the best part...they have a dairy-free flavor so Daniel gets to enjoy the whole Peachwave experience like everyone else. I love it! Unfortunately, there are no photos from this leg of our vacation due to the broken camera issue I mentioned above. However, stay tuned for day three which will have lots of photos taken with our brand new camera! And, in case I drop this one, we got a three-year protection plan. Ha!