For spring break this year we decided we needed to get out of town, out of the house, away from the sickness that seemed to plague us after Christmas this year. We had wanted to visit cousins in Oklahoma and Missouri for a long time. So we made it happen. Tom couldn’t come because he took his vacation days to help his parents move. I planned it at not a very convenient time for my sister Rebecca. She had company all that week so we were only able to spend a couple of days with her. And I forgot to take pictures. But Taivan still talks about all of his cousins from Oklahoma and Missouri. So I guess that is all the proof I need.
The drive was a bit extreme. We woke up super early, 4:00 in the morning, to be able to arrive before it was too late because it was a 12-hour drive. We made good time, and went through six states starting in Georgia. Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The passengers were amazing. I think we only stopped three times. I remember we were able to see a place where a tornado had touched down in Mississippi. It was a beautiful view. We arrived and were so ready to be done driving for a while.
The first night we arrived, reading scriptures with the Piepers.
The next day we went to the Philbrook Art Museum for free. Awesome. They have a really cool kids discovery area where we stayed the longest and took all the pictures. I have to remember that as we were getting ready to leave, we went to the basement to see some more cool art. At this point the little ones were tired and had removed their flip flops. It was down a long corridor, so of course they started running down this long hallway and yelling. A security guard came out and told us that we needed to quiet down and that our children needed to have shoes on. Yeah. That was when we decided it was time to go home. Jamie and I couldn’t stop laughing about it though.
Playing in the canoe in the kids discovery area
Building hats and contraptions out of pipe cleaners
Leaf rubbings and other art creations
Taivan’s favorite part was the puppets and puppet area. Lucy and Jenny put on a puppet show called the Tortoise and the Hare.
The next day we helped Jamie do preschool. It was a little crazy with all the kiddos. We decided we needed to order pizza for dinner and to go chill at the park for a while.
Tommy was king of the stump. Climbing is always a fun pastime.
Taivan found a caterpillar on one of the rocks we were climbing on. He wanted me to take a picture.
The older kids started up an excellent game of four square. They played this the whole time we were at the park.
For some sight-seeing unique to the area, Jamie decided to take us to some of the Route 66 roadside sights. Tommy thought this was the best! He got a pamphlet at the first stop and was telling us all about some of the cool stops. He wanted to go to get free peanuts, but it ended up being a couple hours away. This first stop was a blue whale that a husband built for his wife on one of their wedding anniversaries. What a sweet anniversary gift, right? Random and bizarre. That is one reason Tommy loved the Route 66 sights.
Taivan was afraid to walk out on the dock part of the whale. You could see through into the water and I think he felt like he was going to fall through or something.
Next stop was the Golden Driller. It just so happened that it was the 50th Anniversary of the Golden Driller and some kind man took our picture in this cool frame.
This picture gives a much better perspective as to how tall the Golden Driller is. I don’t have that statistic for you. I should ask Matthew. He would probably remember. Or Tommy.
This picture is for Tommy. He asked me to take a picture of this sign. He truly was fascinated by Route 66. I think it was because of the song on Cars. He started asking us about it when he was trying to figure out what the lyrics meant. So to actually see it was pretty cool for him. Connections made in the brain. Lots of connections.
The original Route 66 bridge that crosses, I believe it was, the Arkansas River. I could be wrong.
I think Lucy was pointing at the real diaper someone had stuffed into the statue horse’s mouth. I think she is saying, “Ewww!”
Jamie also threw a baby shower while we were visiting. We happened to overlap a few of her already-made plans, but we all just rolled with it. I did have fun making the diaper cake with her the night before the shower.
This is a picture of Reese hanging out with us at her first baby shower.
We had many adventures and tried to fit as many things into our time as possible. One of those things was a hike that ended up being super short because it took a while to get everything together. It was a fun way to have a picnic.
Mmm. Peanut butter and jam.
These four were inseparable.
One of the last days we were there, Uncle Benny was able to take the last half of the day off and go with us to tour the tunnels in downtown Tulsa. We were able to see a lot of Art Deco from the late 1920’s and learned about how that fit into what we had learned about the crash of the stock market and the Great Depression.
A demonstration of how they built the skyscraper we were in. Tommy and Lucy are sitting on the metal beams they use for the strength and frame.
Some of the Art Deco and some boys who want to be as strong as Atlas.
Beautiful.
At the end of our adventure. Trying to get some rest on a bench. Talk about squishy.
So Beck came over to drop off her visitors at the airport and stayed Friday night with us at Jamie and Ben’s. That night Jamie, Beck and I went out to Applebees and had a couple of appetizers while we talked for hours. So great.
Jamie and I woke up early the next morning and ran the first of our annual half marathons. We tracked our distance on my phone and chatted up a storm. Granted, it was a little slow because I was pregnant at the time. But it was the first half marathon I had fully run. And it was so awesome we want to do it every year. We may need to be a little flexible as to the dates, but that is the plan.
After our half with the river in the background.
We followed Beck back to Joplin that afternoon and we had a cookout over their firepit in the backyard that night. It was super fun. It started blowing and raining and Uncle Michael stayed out in the rain to make us all s’mores. Matthew and Jenny and I stayed up late playing board games with Beck and Michael and we all wished we had more time to hang out together. We went to church with Beck and Michael the next day. Beck made us a yummy ham dinner. Monday morning we took off for home. You can tell it was a great vacation by how tired you are when you get back home and how sad you are that it is over. We were super tired and very sad. It was so amazing to visit family and makes me so excited for our adventures later this summer!