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!

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!