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!

Beautiful Wedding

My brother got married this month, and we are so happy for him and his new bride, Nicole. The wedding was beautiful from beginning to end...gorgeous bride, handsome groom, and the most adorable ring bearer and flower girl I ever saw. (I happen to be the ring bearer's mom, but I am totally convinced that last statement is true regardless of any partiality I might posses!) We are so thankful for the blessings that God has richly provided for Jonathan and Nicole. My photos don't do their wedding justice, but here are a few anyway!

Isn't that groomsmen on the far right particularly dashing?

These two are amazing dancers. Wow!

Daniel enjoyed his turn dancing with the beautiful bride too!

Love this photo of my parents!

Summer Fun

This July has been a steamy one. According to one radio report, this is the hottest summer since 1980, the year I was born. Despite the extreme heat, we have had some fun times.

The photos below were taken on the final night of t-ball practice for the summer. Daniel really enjoyed it and especially had fun palling around with his friend Grant.

This summer we bought Daniel a Slip 'n Slide. He has had so much fun playing on it, though he is a little hesitant to do an all out run, jump, belly slide. So, he just scoots up and down it and enjoys playing in the water.
Notice how it looks like Brian is bowling in the above photo? Well, to some extent he was...with our son as the ball! Daniel loved getting an extra push down the slide to increase his speed!

The Fourth of July is always a big to-do in our little town. We participated in quite a few of the activities this year, beginning with the kid's fishing tournament on Saturday morning. Daniel caught three fish--a small, medium, and large one! Daniel believed his participation ribbon meant he got first place. In addition to fishing, Daniel did the pony rides, the bow shoot, the treasure hunt, the bounce house, and watched the parade (accruing a whole bag of candy). It was a fun weekend! Daniel was so taken with shooting a bow and arrow, that he has now acquired one of his very own. I keep saying, "Really? He is only 3!"

The treasure hunt consisted of digging for quarters in the sand. Daniel was the very best treasure hunter of the bunch and managed to get about $4 in the short time they were allowed to dig. He took it to Wal-Mart and spent it the next day!

June Celebrations

In June we had many reasons to celebrate with our families. First there was Father's Day, followed by my grandmother's birthday and Sara's birthday (both of which happen to fall on the same day). Here are some photos of our families together!

Brian opening his Father's Day gift.

Three generations of men

I didn't take any photos of my dad on Father's Day, but I wanted to include him too! Here he is letting Daniel drive the combine!

The photos below were taken at my Grandma Ruth's birthday celebration.

Four generations

Great-Grandma Irma and Daniel

Great-grandpa Johnnie and Daniel

The photos below were taken in KC when we celebrated Sara's birthday.

Mother and daughter

Birthday girl getting some help from two of her favorite men.

At T-Rex Cafe

Fun at the pool

Flat Stanley

Some of you might be familiar with the children's book, Flat Stanley. I have never read it but am somewhat familiar with the story. Stanley is a normal little boy until one night, his bulletin board falls on him and squashes him flat. He quickly finds that there are some perks to being flat. For example, he can travel around the world very inexpensively, being shipped in a large envelope.

This summer, our local library did a Flat Stanley activity. The kids colored, cut out, and laminated a little man, who we called Library Larry (instead of Flat Stanley). Library Larry went with us on all our summer travels, and then we took photographs of him in different places and sent them to the library to be displayed.

Here are some photos of Daniel and Library Larry!

At the zoo

Measuring Library Larry's wing span...3 inches!

Riding the train

Combining wheat with Poppy

At Cabela's

At the T-Rex Cafe

At Moon Marble company