More Oklahoma Pictures

Turns out I didn't take as many pictures as I should have...we had way more fun than the pics show!

The kids found a turtle they named Chunk. Here's a picture of Avery and Chunk:

Reese and Macy B are two peas in a pod. They both love dressing up, playing house and just in general being Miss Prisses:

We also celebrated JD's 5th birthday while we were there. His mom and dad got him a trampoline. I think Aaron and Josh hated putting it together, but it was a BIG hit with all the kids.

Josh and Emily's backyard is awesome. My kids aren't used to so much room to roam and play. Here are Rhett and Reese on the "waterslide."

Here are all the cousins at JD's birthday party. It seems like there are more every year...maybe that's because there are!

We loved the trip and were so sad to leave, Avery and I actually cried a little bit on the way home. Now that Avery is in school, we don't get to go up as often, so we're going to try for at least one more trip this summer. I'm so glad my kids have P-town to visit...there's nothing like small town freedom in the summertime!

Pictures from our Mini-Vacay

On the way to Pawhuska to get Avery, we stopped in Oklahoma City so Aaron could do some business there. The kids always like staying in a hotel, so we made it a little mini-vacation. With kids, you can turn anything into a big deal, don't you think?

Here are a few pics.

Buffalo outside our hotel. I thought this was kind of cool. I want one for the backyard.

I don't even know what this is called, but it was in between our hotel and the canal at Bricktown. The kids loved it. I even got in on the action, but me looking like a sweaty, soaked rat isn't something you want to see. I will let you see Rhett kicking water on me.

And then back at the hotel....

That's Reese, testing out her new goggles in the bathtub. She looks awesome in them, doesn't she? (About how I look in goggles, I think.)

At least she was able to get hers on. Rhett wouldn't let me help him, so this is how he "swam." Seriously.

More pics from Oklahoma (including Avery!) tomorrow...or whenever I get around to it!

Avery in Oklahoma

Avery has been in Oklahoma since Saturday and she hasn't called me once. I've called her, but she is too busy to talk. Luckily, my sister keeps me updated via text and she has sent a few pictures. Sunday, Aunt La La (my sister) took them to Woolaroc, a cool little museum-type place we used to always go on field trips when I was in elementary school. It has lots of Cowboys and Indians stuff, which I knew would impress Avery. Turns out, they've added a lot to Woolaroc since I was there...(can't believe it's changed in the last THIRTY years!)

There is a petting zoo there. I honestly have no idea what this animal is.

Avery forgot her cowboy boots, so Aunt La La took her to the local store to buy the ugliest boots in Osage County, but Avery loves them. She is wearing Cash's jeans and shirt, which is about 4 sizes too big, but she is happy. JD is wearing a floppy old hat that my Nana has for dress up and he seems pretty happy too. Cash is the only one who looks unhappy, but I think that might be his "I'm a cowboy, don't mess with me" look. It must be...here's one of all three of them looking that way.

They are so stinkin' cute, aren't they? Avery will have these memories forever...I'm so glad I let her go!

Although, I wasn't told there would be live ammunition:

Apparently, this "mountain man" lives there, in a tee pee. Here are the kids, inside the tee pee:

I still haven't figured out if this is for real or the dude works for Woolaroc...surely he doesn't willingly live in a tee pee with no running water or electricity? Stranger things have happened I guess.

Here they are in the campsite. It appears to be the kitchen. I'm sure cooking in a tee pee can be kind of tedious.

I wouldn't know anything about that because, apparently, I have completely lost touch with my Osage Indian heritage; I thought Avery was holding an axe in the next picture:

For those of you who have either lost touch with (or never actually had) your Native American side, this is a tomahawk. You know, the tool used to scalp the white man. There isn't a child alive in Osage County that doesn't have a rubber tomahawk. Mine had a red spearhead. It's a lovely toy to give a newborn baby.

I will leave you with a shot of the kids searching the landscape for Indians...did I mention that each of this children ARE actually Indians, even if only an itty bitty bit?

Who thinks that Aunt La La is one brave soul for taking all of these yay-hoos out by herself? I'd say she's a pretty fabulous aunt, wouldn't you?

Bittersweet

It's hard to let go of your babies. Especially for me. I'm a control freak and a worrier and I want all my little chicks under my wing at all times. But, if you want normal, well-rounded kids, you have to let them have some freedom, let them grow up, have experiences, see life. At least that's what they tell me.
So, I'm trying. My sweet sister, Aunt La La, has asked me several times if Avery could come spend a week with her family. My first thought was "Not no but hell no." I didn't think I could ever let my little baby girl leave me for a whole week. La La kept asking. She reminded me that, if we want our kids to be close, they are going to have to spend more than weekends and holidays together. I know she's right. And Avery LOVES going to P-town. Grammy lives there, as well as Uncle Josh, Auntie Em and their kids. In P-town, she has more freedom. There is lots of room to run, play and get dirty. I knew she would love it, even though I wasn't totally sure she would be able to spend several nights away from home. I finally gave in. I trust La La completely and if I'm going to start letting my kids be independent and well rounded, there's no better place to start than with family, right?
Ok, so Saturday, I met La La halfway (sorta) between here and P-town. I fully expected to be sobbing when I saw her drive away with my Doodlebug, but I didn't. I just said a little prayer that they'd be safe and that was that. I will admit that my heart was a bit heavy the rest of that day, but when they called and said that they had gone to the local store for some black cowboy boots so Ave could wear them to Woolaroc the next day, that heaviness lifted and I knew this was going to be the best week Avery's ever had, to date. (By the way, the boots are horrid. Lauren said she had the choice between some "normal" brown ones and these black ones, which have red stitching and silver toes. My brother, Josh said she can either be a cowboy or do a Mexican hat dance in them. I can't wait to see them in person. I should have pictures any day now.)
Anyway, needless to say, she is having a ball. They got to shoot "real guns" at Woolaroc, get inside a real Indian tee pee and throw tomahawks. It's literally Cowboys and Indians around those parts and she's getting the full treatment this week.
I'm so glad she's having fun. And I do miss her, terribly, but it's been so good for Reese. She gets to be the big sister and I don't think she's had one meltdown since Avery left. It's like she's growing up a little bit too.
It's a good thing. Hard for me to let go and admit she's growing up, but good for her. That's what they call "bittersweet," right?

Swim Lessons

The kids are in swim lessons this week and they are having a ball. They are learning a lot too, thanks to Miss Sally. And even though I love watching each of them learn new skills, I must admit that my favorite thing about this week has been watching Rhett.

He has been hilarious all week. He listens so intently, you almost forget that he's only 2 years old. He's not afraid of putting his face in the water and his favorite thing to do is jump off the side of the pool. Any time Miss Sally tells him to do something, he yells "OKAY," and when she asks him if he's ready he yells, "YEAH!" He has jumped in twice without anyone there to catch him, which nearly gave me a heart attack, (He has scratches on his back from where I reached in to grab his pants.) but other than that, he's done a great job. And he LOVES it.

Reese, on the other hand? Not so much. She really didn't like the first day too much. In fact, at one point, she very politely asked Miss Sally, "Could you please stop touching me?" She doesn't love putting her face in the water at all. She'd much rather be posing at the side of the pool.

Avery, as usual, has made it into a competition (just in her mind and in the car on the way home) and wants to be the best one in her class. So, yesterday, when Miss Sally gave them the option to either jump off the board and swim to the side or try to learn to dive, Avery was the only one who chose to dive. I'm sure she was nervous (I know I wouldn't have done my first dive from the board...I was always diving from the side for 3 weeks before I would do it off of the board.) but she wants to be the star of the class, so she did it.

Here she is, preparing for her across-pool swim. She and Rhett obviously have the same taste in goggles.

Is it just me or is she eyeballing the little boy next to her? She's probably trying to psych him out. It's not a race and no one else cares, but that's how her little mind works.

Summertime is Here!!!

Hope you're enjoying it as much as we are!

Guess what they are doing????

Did you guess "pulling teeth?" If so, you are right! Avery lost her first tooth last night. Needless to say, she was beyond excited. She bit down on a ball (is it strange that my kids were playing 'fetch' and carrying balls in their teeth?) and it loosened it a LOT. She was shaking and doing the half laugh/half cry. Do you even remember being that excited about something? I think childbirth was the last time I felt that way. Amazing how a 6 year old can feel that many emotions over a tooth.

We all took turns trying to pull it. She was a trooper. I tried with a Kleenex, Aaron tried with dental floss (see above) and when nothing worked, Avery just reached in there and yanked it herself. As soon as it came out, there was more shaking, accompanied by the nervous laughter.

She couldn't wait to call Grammy (and anyone else who would answer their phone at 9:20 p.m.). Here she is, spreading the joyful news.

This morning, the excitement started all over again when she found, not only the tooth (she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if she could keep it), but a $5 bill and "fairy dust," which, to me, looked like pink glitter, but Avery thinks it fell off the tooth fairy's wings. Reese thinks it came off of her wand. Wherever it came from, it was worth all the hassle it takes to clean up glitter in carpet and bedding.

I can't believe how quickly she is growing up. As of Thursday last week, she is officially a first grader. I remember when I was younger, thinking that time drug by as slowly as a crippled snail. Not anymore. I wish I could push pause. Not right this second, because Reese and Avery are arguing, but maybe later. Like when they are sleeping.