Adventures in OKC

We just returned home from a 4 day adventure in Oklahoma City. Well, we made a short stop in the Tulsa area, too. I guess you could call it our "Great Big Oklahomian Adventure." Or something like that.

Thursday morning, we packed the car and headed out for Tulsa, in hopes of seeing some sharks, sea turtles, and fish at the Oklahoma Aquarium. My Aunt Kelly loaned us her DVD player for the long car ride, and let me tell you--it saved us! Jackson spent the majority of the trip watching Cat in the Hat. I can do annoying-movie-in-the-background, but I'm not so good with screaming-child-in-the-background for too long. While cool, dark, and fun to observe, the aquarium was packed full of children on Thursday afternoon. It was this afternoon that Toby and I got an ample dose of "we really are parents, and we're on a family vacation" as we pushed our way through hundreds of excited, screaming children so that we could get Jackson close enough to see the tanks.

They have a shark tunnel, where you walk through a tube in their tank. SO COOL!

Jackson wasn't too sure about the big fish at first, but he warmed up rather quickly.

We even got to meet Dory and Nemo...or Nemo(s), I guess you could say.

We made time after the aquarium for a quick Mexican meal and a cold drink, and trekked on to OKC for a relaxing evening at the hotel and some swimming for Jackson! Friday morning we got up and headed out for the zoo...in hopes of beating the heat. Okay, I'm lying. We had no hopes of beating the heat entirely, but we did want to get there before the hottest part of the day.

I will now tell you that Jackson woke up every night we were "on vacation" at 1:30. They really should make kids with snooze buttons. No alarm should be going off at 1:30 in the morning. Every night at 1:30, he ended up in bed with us. This is something we DO NOT do when we are home, but there really wasn't anywhere to go with the child in a hotel room, and I wasn't in the mood to lose more sleep. All three of us suffered through three nights of sleep, if you can call it that. Friday morning when Toby and I were up and getting ready for our zoo day, this is where we found Mr. J.

Glad we finally got out of his space so he could get some REM sleep.

The zoo has a new elephant exhibit, complete with a baby elephant. The baby was running everywhere and trumpeting. I do have to admit that I've never heard an actual elephant trumpet!

And this is how we all felt by the time we got done with the zoo.

A boat ride through the Bricktown Canal Friday night.

Not sure if it was the atmosphere, or the fact that it was 120 degrees during this boat ride, but the frozen margarita I enjoyed post-boat was fantastic.

Saturday night, we stayed here. This gorgeous home is owned by my family's forever-friends, Roger and Kate. They have been like grandparents to me my entire life, and it was so good to see them in their neck of the woods! They built this house about 6 1/2 years ago, and I had never been to see it!

These photos are for my friend Sara @ http://sohappytogetherforever.blogspot.com/ and I. I foresee some stained concrete floors in my future...hopefully sooner than later!

Beautiful home and great people! We backroaded it on our trip home and saw some parts of Oklahoma that we'd never seen before, and stopped off at my brother and sister-in-law's house for a quick diaper change and crawl around stop. Finally, we made it home, and man, we were glad to be there! Vacation is wonderful, but I have a new theory. Sometimes that feeling you are searching for by getting away for vacation, you often find in that blissful moment you arrive home.