Weekend in Oklahoma

I have a cousin who lives in Kansas and one who lives in Oklahoma. When I was talking with Erin who lives in Kansas, we figured out that we were only 8 hours away from each other. After deciding that we needed to make a trip out to see them, we realized that Tom and Becky live in Oklahoma which is right in the middle, 4 hours from us and them. We set the weekend and made our plans and took the trip out to visit with some of the coolest people in the world.
When we arrived, Tom and Becky weren't there yet. Becky had told us that they had a last minute scheduled meeting with a pregnant mom who was considering them to be the adoptive parents. Erin and Tom had arrived and so we visited with them for a while until Tom and Becky came home. When they walked in we asked how the meeting went, and Becky burst into tears! "We got the baby!!!" I was so happy for them that I started to cry too. They have been trying to adopt for years and finally are able to have another little one in their family. The baby will be born in October and they get to take him home from the hospital. The weekend really started off great with that kind of news. After we had dinner Tom took us to the Kimberly-Clark building where he works. We got a specialized tour by him and learned how toilet paper and paper towels were made. It was actually really cool! The whole process is interesting and the big machines were mesmerizing. Everyone then stayed up late talking after a quick ice cream run.

The next day we had a great breakfast of banana waffles and homemade Blackberry syrup with Sausage. Then we made a trip to the Oklahoma Aquarium. I know what you are thinking "How great can that be?" But, it was actually a lot of fun with a lot of great things. Lydia LOVED it! She wouldn't stop staring at the fish and wanted to go in the Shark tube many times. We spent a couple hours there I think. It was hanging out and talking mostly after that. We packed up all our stuff and then prepared for a great fondue dinner! It exceeded all of our expectations and we left with full tummies and great memories! We had to leave on Saturday night because we had to teach Primary on Sunday. They are desperate for teachers and have no one to substitute. It was a good thing we came back too because our class was combined with another and the teacher of that class went to teach another primary class that their teacher didn't show up. We got back about 11:45pm and were dead tired the next day but we would do it all again.

Wrestling with Crocodiles!


At the aquarium. Tom, my cousin, is in the red shirt to the right of Kelvin. His wife Becky didn't come to the aquarium with us. Erin, my other cousin, is to the left of Kelvin. Her husband Tom stayed home to do some work. And then Paul is Tom and Becky's child.


She loved the sting rays.


In the shark tunnel. Can you see the shark in the picture behind us?


One of the sharks in the tunnel. I believe that this is a bull shark.


In the shark cage. Lydia liked it but I think Kelvin felt a little differently.


One very tired baby! She refused to take any naps on Sat because there was so much going on and so many new people. You would think that she would have fallen asleep regardless but that little girl is a fighter! I'm gonna have one strong willed toddler on my hands.


This sign was kind of interesting because it states that you are 15x more likely to be killed with a coconut than get bit by a shark. It also talks about the paranoia that first started with sharks and how we as a society have fed that hysteria. (i.e. Jaws)


LOVED LOVED LOVED watching all the fish and their bright colors.


So much so that she wanted to swim with them.


Giant sea turtle. They say that for every pound a turtle weighs is how many years it has been alive. The ones they had on display weighed about 150 pounds!


And our grand finale of the fondue dinner.


Thanks for all the fun guys! We really enjoyed ourselves.