trip to OK

Happy Independence Day, America! We hung out with our friends all evening and watched fireworks with them tonight....but I don't have the photos uploaded yet, so this post will be about another topic....

Well, we've been back from Oklahoma for a few days and things are finally starting to feel normal again! We arrived back home at midnight on Monday night and had to get up early on Tuesday because daycare kids were here that day....so we didn't get a break to unwind at ALL! Tuesday-Thursday were just rather chaotic and crazy around here....but it was nice to have today off to sleep in a little bit and unwind all day!

Our trip was AWESOME! The kids did really well on all the flights. We had one layover each way, and everything went very smoothly on the plane rides and at the airport. At the airport Jack watched the man with the "luggage train" (that's what he called it) loading all the luggage onto the plane and he kept yelling "Why is he throwing all the luggage on to the plane? He should NOT be throwing luggage. Someone needs to tell him that he should NOT be doing that." One day he'll realize that airport workers do not care about whose luggage they are throwing, they are just trying to get thier job done.

Jack LOVED riding on the planes. He really liked the turbulence and when the plane would shake as it was going through the clouds. MOST people aren't so crazy about turbulence.....but hey.....when you're 4 and you've never heard of a plane crash, then it must seem pretty neat.

The last time I had been out to OK was when I was in high school. I saw most of my relatives at my grandma's funeral a few years after high school and then I saw most of them at our wedding six years ago. So, it had been a while since I have seen them all! It was GREAT for my relatives to meet my kids. I'm really glad we traveled out there for that experience. Jackson, of course, had lots of fun meeting all the new people and getting to know them. Macy did too, but it took her a little longer to warm up to each person. We stayed at my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Bubba's house and they were wonderful hosts! They had lots of fun little toys for Jack. Lots of fun stuff to do outside, like chase butterflies, blow bubbles, "fish" in thier little pond, play catch, etc. I don't think Jack was ever bored. He especially had fun with Uncle Bubba, who never seemed to stop playing with Jack! They even watched cartoons together. This is a photo of Jack trying to catch the butterflies. Turns out, butterfly nets also make great fish nets.

Here is my mom (on the right) with her brother, Jeff, and sister, Sharon.

This is my cousin, Lisa (on the right) and my 2nd cousin (I think? not exactly sure how that cousin, 2nd cousin, cousin-once-removed thing works), Hayley, with Macy.

My cousin's wife, Denise, with Macy.

My cousin, Lisa, with my 2nd cousin, Michael.

My Uncle Bubba with Macy.

I am grateful we were able to spend a few days out there visiting my family. The weather was even quite pleasant! Hot, but we didn't melt, and we were even able to spend tons of time outside. We went to the Oklahoma Aquarium one day and it was super cool. LOTS and LOTS of little tanks of aquatic creatures and a few BIG tanks with cool fish. There was even a shark tunnel where the sharks swim over you as you are walking under it. Pretty cool! Jack and Hayley even fed turtles and sting rays, which was really neat too. This is Jack feeding the turtles.

I really miss all my OK family and I sincerely hope they can come here to visit us one day!