The Zoo

So, it took me a few days to get to blogging about our trip to the zoo, but it's been crazy here. More about that in a minute...

The Tulsa Zoo was wonderful! The last time we went to a zoo was when Rhett was 18 months old and Braden was 3. We were in Louisiana visiting my family and we went to the Baton Rouge zoo. The boys loved it, but we were there in mid-July and it was H-O-T and most of the animals were out of view because of it. This trip to the zoo also took place mid-July. I'm not sure why, but that usually seems to be good timing for us to go places... Anyway, the kids all had such a great time. They've been looking forward to it for a while now and the trip did not disappoint!


We rented a little wagon/stroller for Gracie and it had 2 seats, so Rhett ended up riding in it most of the time. Gracie was so funny; everytime we got ready to "get on the move" to another exhibit, we'd tell her to get in and "go for a ride". She loved it and would get so excited and run over and climb in. Then if Rhett wasn't getting in with her, she would start yelling at him in her "jibberish/chinese/german/american/something-or-another" language and point feverishly to "his" seat. The only words we could actually make out were, "sit" and "bubba". He thought it was funny, and of course, loved getting all of that attention, so he would usually smile and sit down with her. So sweet!

Our first stop was the Elephants. That was what Rhett wanted to see most. The demonstration yard was being "refurbished" so it was closed, but you could still see them and walk through the educational exhibit. We even got to watch one of the Elephants getting her "bath" outside. Here's a pic of the kids and I in front of the giant mastadon statue, which Gracie wouldn't hardly take her eyes off of for a picture...

Next on the list was the Monkies....or the "unkeys" as Gracie would call them! For the few days preceeding the zoo trip, we were preparing Gracie for it. By the time we got to Tulsa, everytime we would say anything about going to the zoo, she would immediately burst into her best Monkey "oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh" impression. So cute! When we walked into the Monkey house, they weren't there... they were outside. We went outside to see them, but it was hot and sunny and most of them were hiding. We found out that they would be going back inside for their lunch in 25 minutes or so, so we went inside and got a front row seat right in front of the windows to wait for them. It was worth the wait. It was SO neat! The kids really liked them. There were 2 little babies and 1 of them ran right over to Gracie and got face to face with her. It freaked her out a little bit and she wanted to be held after that! Later in the day before we went home, we went back in to see the monkies again and we got to see a mamma monkey nurse her baby. And then my kids got a front row anatomy/biology/zoology lesson when the mamma turned the baby over (right in front of the viewing window, mind you) and "helped" it poop and then licked her fingers. (Sorry for the graphic nature of this blog, but I just had to give you the full story. It's so gross, but actually pretty funny when you think about it in the context of the looks on our faces when she did it and how we had to explain to the boys that we don't talk about this incident in public, etc. etc. etc. And Jas and I were laughing so hard we could hardly talk! :-)We've heard the story repeated several times since then. Only 1 time in public though. At KFC when we were eating lunch with Jason's parents and grandpa. Of all places! I was laughing so hard, I couldn't hardly get the words out to Rhett to "talk in your quiet voice" and "we don't talk about this at the dinner table", etc. Ahhh, memories in the making, right!!

Braden took all of the Monkey pictures!

The kids had a great time riding the Carousel and the Zoo train!

My little monkey boys!!

Next time we hope to go back when the weather is cooler so more of the animals will be out and about.Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get to enjoy the zoo again!!

Leapin' Louie's Lagoon

We're here in Tulsa at the Radisson for the weekend. With only a few open weekends before the boys start school, we're trying to have a fun family weekend. So far, we're succeeding!! As soon as we got checked in to the hotel, we changed into our swimming suits and headed straight for Leapin' Louie's Lagoon. It's an indoor water park here at the hotel that is free to the guests. The kids LOVED it! And we loved it because it was inside where it wasn't hot and sunny. After a few hours in the water, we changed and went across the parking lot to Applebees for dinner. The kids were great and everyone got full bellies. We had such a fun day!! Tomorrow, we're getting up early to go to the zoo!!!!!

Here's some pics of our little water bugs.

Rhett was being silly after he went down the big slide

Gracie loved going down the Leapin' Louie slide. I was at the bottom to catch her!

Gracie and Mamma playin' in the water and having lots of fun!

Braden had the most fun playing on the rope bridge with the floating pedestals below. He stayed here most of the time. There is a baseball tournament in town this weekend and shortly after this picture, a bunch of kids around his age came and they had a blast in this area.

More pics from Van Buren

Good Bye Baseball and Van Buren

Before this game, after they called the players out 1 by 1, they had a prayer and recited the Babe Ruth Code. The picture above is of the team facing the American Flag while the National Anthem was being played. It was a touching moment and felt like big time baseball!!

After 3 long months of lots and lots of baseball. It is finally over. For real this time. It was disappointing for the boys to lose today after all of their hard work, but they did their best and they all did really well. We played the Washington County Blackjacks at 10am and we lost. After the game, all the kids swam in the pool while the parents packed up the hotel rooms. Jason and I decided that since we already had the room paid for, we would go ahead and stay another night. We swam in the pool with the kids for several hours, then we ate lunch in the room and we all took a little nap. When we woke up, we got our cold, damp swim suits back on and headed back

for the pool. We swam for about 2 1/2 hours and then we all came back to the room to change and we drove around downtown Van Buren. We drove down by the Arkansas River and over the bridge. We even got to see a train go through downtown. Gracie loved it. She kept saying "Choo Choo" and "Train".

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Braden's Big Bad Game Face


The Carroll County All-Stars were ready to play this 2nd game of day 1!! They played the Arkansas River Valley team. This was a very fun game to watch and the boys had a blast playing it. We won the game!!! Braden played great. The kids had fun. Our family was all together. What could be better? Nothing. Absolutely nothing in the world.

Braden got on base all 3 times he was up to bat this game. He had a few RBIs as well.

Here's Gracie's "I'm hot and I want to go home" face! Thankfully we didn't see it too much this game. Daddy did a good job capturing this for us.
Rhett is such a good boy. He is very protective of his sister these days. He tries to help corral her when we need him too.

Baseball "get-away"

We got to Van Buren around 3pm on Friday afternoon. After we got everything unloaded and into our room I noticed that we managed to leave Gracie's bag with diapers and hair stuff at home. So, she and I went in search of a Wal-Mart. Luckily there is one less than 1 mile from the hotel. I can even look out our window and see it. Gracie was funny, you can tell we spend alot of time in Wal-Mart because she was so excited when we got there! It was a good excuse to get some new hair "prettys" and she even conned me out of a little umbrella. She's been toting that thing around everywhere! After Wal-Mart, we were in desperate need of a Sonic diet coke, so I drove thru town until I found it. Which is also very close to our hotel in the other direction. So, after getting a coke I felt much better!

When we got back from the trip to Wal-Mart, the boys were already in the pool and the coaches had dinner ready, so we ate some hot dogs and chicken sandwiches and then me and Gracie changed into our swimming clothes to join the boys. Braden and Rhett were loving it, of course. They were shooting water guns and having a blast with the other kids. Gracie was a little slow warming up to it, but after I got in with her she did great! She even did a decent job of leaving her ear plugs in her ears.

Today we played our first baseball game at noon. It was super hot and supper sunny. Gracie didn't sleep good last night, so she was pretty cranky, but Braden played very well! The team lost 16-0. We played one of the Washington County teams, who so far we've lost to 3 of them this season. They are really really good. The boys started playing better at the end of the game, but they just seemed so nervous at the beginning and they were making silly mistakes. We play again at 6pm tonight.

Braden caught a fly ball in the outfield and also threw every ball that came to him in to 2nd base very well. He only got one chance to bat, but did hit the ball. They threw him out at 1st base.

Hopefully the boys will do better the next game.

Gracie with her coke icee. You can imagine what her shirt looked like after the game... I had to do a load of laundry between games! Rhett loved his icee too!

Here's Braden when he got his hit in the first game.

Happy 4th & foot update

Happy 4th of July!

It's 90 degrees outside and feels like July. A little hot for baseball weather, but we're playing anyway! We're leaving for the State Tournament in VanBuren tomorrow around noon. I'm busy trying to get all of the work done, errand ran, house cleaned & laundry done today so we can get up and pack tomorrow morning. I'm afraid it might be a late night trying to get everything done... It will be really nice to get out of town for a little break though. Even though I'll probably bring my laptop and do some work while we're there, it'll still be a break. Any break from housework is great in my book!!And the hotel has a pool, so the kids are MAJORLY excited about that!

I went to physical therapy for the first time yesterday for my hurt foot/ankle. I got great news! Wade (who was awesome) said if I do the exercises he gave me I should be better in a week. 3 at the most. I will do the exercises. I'm so ready to be out of the ankle brace and not hobbling everywhere. And to be able to sleep at night without it hurting. That will be great! It's been 7 weeks today since I hurt it... a long 7 weeks...
In a bunch of fancy big word medical talk, Wade basically said that the torn ligament is healed, but the muscles in my calf, front of my leg, and foot are very tight after not being used for a while, etc. When he tested my range of motion, I was at a 3 and he said I need to be at least a 10 to be able to walk without pain. I just need to get those stretched out and everything moving again and I'll be good. He did some other treatments to it yesterday that helped alot because it is feeling much better today. Yeah!!!!!! If I'm not better in a week or if I'm worse, I have to go back and see him a couple more times but it's nothing serious and I'll be fine. Like I told Jason when I called him for the update, "I'm gonna make it!" :-)