Ask For a Little Storm...(and a big vacation photo post)

Well, I finally got my awesome storm last night....on what's considered the last day of severe weather season. The lightning started a good hour before the rain and continued well after the rain slowed. The rain came down in sheets. We lost power for just a second so that wasn't so bad. We also didn't get any hail, which was good. We did, however, get some really nasty wind. Enough wind that it blew my hanging flower baskets down. And those suckers can take some wind. I thought about pulling them down but didn't want to be touching a bunch of metal in a huge lightning storm. Luckily, they don't seem injured, so that's good. I saw Jacob in his room just watching the lightning from his bed. It was cute. I joined him for a while and we 'oohhed' and 'ahhhhed' at it all. He asked me to wake him up if the storm got cooler. LOL!

While we were on vacation, they came and inspected our fence around the pool. He left us a note asking if we could get the fence just a smidge closer to the house and that otherwise, we're good. Sweet. Now I can get on with my life.

We got back from our Oklahoma trip on Sunday evening. We were barely in the garage when the kids' friends were asking if they could play. They were certainly missed while we were gone.

The trip to Tulsa was surprisingly easy. Especially since there are no interstates between here and there. We had to take 169 Hwy all of the way. Fortunately, not only was it four lane for a good chunk, it was also 65mph. Nice. We also only hit about 5 towns before Tulsa so we didn't have to slow down much. There's not much in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma...lots of hay, wheat and little oil pumps. That was the funniest thing. We also passed signs for Independence, KS and I realized we're not that far. I'm so going before the summer's over.

In addition to the water park, aquarium, Build-A-Bear and other stuff we did, we caught up with Mike's great-aunt and two cousins, who live in Tulsa. That was really neat. Of course I took a few hundred pictures (literally)...

Daniel at the Air and Space Museum. They had a hands-on portion that they loved.
Jacob was the only one tall enough to do this. He was like an astronaut.
Hannah in a plane
Waiting for the movie at the planetarium
Okay...so on our honeymoon, we got to pet stingrays. I asked Mike to take a picture of me petting one. When the film came back, it was just my hand and the stingray. For ten years, I've been on Mike about that. Here, Mike tries to fix that wrong. Here's me petting a stingray. Of course, I wasn't paying attention to the stingrays and one of them put my hand in their mouth. It felt strange and squishy (not painful in the slightest) but it scared me enough to scream and pull my hand out abruptly and splash the heck out of Daniel, who was standing right next to me.
The kids and Mike pet the stingrays.
This was cool. They had a tunnel where the bull sharks would swim above your head.
The kids outside of the aquarium.
The Oklahoma Aquarium
At the zoo, they had a rainforest exhibit and there were tons of these little blue poison dart frogs.
There were also monkeys running around. So close we could have touched them.
The kids goof around at the lion drinking fountain.
These tigers were too cute. They had such a good time with this ball.
At the zoo.
We ate dinner at the most bizarre steakhouse. Before the steaks came hummus, pita and tabbouleh. Oh, and cabbage rolls!
Did I mention that dinner also came with a basket of ribs and smoked bologna?
Daniel in the lazy river at the water park
Jacob loved the wave pool. I have to admit that I did too.
My little Hannah was fearless. This slide emptied into a 9ft deep pool. The girl had no problem swimming to the side.
I couldn't believe Jacob went down this 7 story tall slide. Three times. That's him going down.
And at the bottom.
Here's Mike going down.
These slides were 5 stories tall. The kids loved it. Hannah comes down.
And Jacob
And Daniel. The yellow one was faster than the green one. The pink one was for the tubes...Hannah was mad because we wouldn't rent one and she really wanted to go down the pink slide.
Mike's cousin, Kenny, Mike's great-aunt Lorraine and his cousin, Robert with us in the background just after breakfast Sunday morning.
One of my favorite things from the trip. We confused the Garmin so much that it stopped telling what road we should turn on. Instead we got, "Left on road."
The kids wait for the Build-A-Bear to open. They were so excited.
Jacob stuffs his bear.
Hannah dressing hers
The kids with their finished products. Of all the things we did in Tulsa, this is the one thing they can't stop talking about.
Daniel is a happy boy.
This is the coolest sign. You'll have to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can read it. This is the border coming from Oklahoma back into Kansas. It says, "Leaving Cherokee Nation."

My Week In Photos

We got in earlier tonight from another whirlwind trip to Illinois. First was Christmas in Peoria and then a late Hanukkah in Buffalo Grove.

We decided to do Christmas Eve dinner this year. While the adults were upstairs, the cousins were all in Dad's basement playing roller coaster with Dad's computer chair. I handed Jacob the camera and got some good shots.

I love this one of Emma's foot and Hannah.

Emma pushed Daniel while Mary Rose runs along.
Mike and Jeff ran out to get some movies (and beer) and came back with The Incredibles. They couldn't help but watch it on Dad's huge TV.
One of Dad, Hannah and Daniel on Christmas morning.
Dad's new kitty is too cute...he looks just like Guillermo!
Unfortunately, we had to attend a funeral while we were in Chicago. Mike's Great-Uncle-Sammy passed at the age of 93. The blessing out of that was that we got to see a lot of family that we would not have otherwise. We were able to go to lunch with Ev, David and Rachel after services were over.
Jacob, Rachel, Daniel, Hannah and David
We were able to see Ken, Donna and Dave while we were in BG. Here, Ken and Donna's son, David, yells at Daniel for making an illegal chess move. Jacob and Eric play in the background.
Adam, Hannah, Eric, Katherine, Jacob and Daniel enjoy brownies and ice cream after Lou Malnatti's for lunch.
Lighting the candles.
Daniel plays a game of Pokemon with Ed and his very own set of cards.
There was so much snow and ice everywhere in Northern Illinois (on the way home). Mike took this one just outside of Dixon, IL.
We stopped in Sterling to visit Mom. It was the first time I'd seen the marker in place. Mike and I had to brush the snow off of the stones (not as easy a job as it might seem since most have raised lettering). I took this picture and thought that Sue might like to see it.
Our family plot. The Rock River is in the background.
Back on the road, I took this one outside of Des Moines. I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the landscape for some reason.
This cracks me up everytime I see it (they are everywhere in Iowa).

Nebraska...Experience It! (and Happy Birthday Mike and Ev!!!!)

(I saw this on a wall at the Air and Space Museum and had to take a photo of it)

We left for Omaha earlier than I had expected to on Friday since Mike skipped lunch. We arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm and the kids desperately wanted to go to the pool, so that's what we did. The pool was perfect for them because it's deepest point was 3 feet. They had a big slide that the kids loved. (Don't forget that you can click on photos to make them larger)



Saturday, we went to the zoo. Aside from having the world's largest indoor desert and awesome aquarium, it wasn't any more special than any other zoo. That's okay, though. Hannah had a little toy camera with her and apparently, she was trying to take pictures right along with me. At one point, Daniel tells Hannah to take a picture of a shark and she yells, "I already did!" It was too cute. We all had a great time.

Jacob, Daniel and Hannah feel the sand
Meerkats!!! ( Because they are the coolest animals ever!)
The aquarium was cool. They had a tunnel you could walk through and the sharks and rays swam right above your head!

An outside view of the indoor desert. Hannah goes for a ride on Mike's shoulders.


We asked at the front desk about where good places to eat were and they directed us to Austin's Steakhouse. Jacob thought it was funny that they essentially gave him a fried chicken breast as his tenderloin. After dinner, we headed back to the pool.

Sunday, we were going to do the gardens and the drive-through wildlife safari but we didn't realize they were on opposite ends of the city, so we went to the safari, not knowing what we would do after. The safari was really cool. We saw bison and elk and got really close to a black bear. They had a gorgeous wildflower garden and Daniel dropped his hat behind a viewing fence. Mike wanted to jump in to get it but I told him no. He went to get help and while we were waiting, a group told him to just get it, so he did. LOL! They even helped him back over the fence.

Elk lounge in the water.
Cranes cross in front of us.
The bison try to cool off.
Hannah and I wait for help to arrive.
Mike jumps back over the fence with Daniel's hat.


We then headed to the Air and Space Museum which was just across the interstate from the safari. What a find that was! All three just loved it. They had a flight simulator that Hannah wanted no part of, so Mike and I took the boys. Funny story...Mike takes Daniel and they are struggling to keep it from rolling. Mike finally can't take it anymore and hits the stop button. Jacob and I get on and had requested auto pilot - Mike was mad because he didn't know that was an option. Needless to say, Mike and Daniel had a bad experience and Jacob and I had a great one!

Hannah enjoys a much tamer ride.
Mike and Daniel practice for their flight.
Jacob and I get ready to take our turn!
Jacob and Daniel rest on a plane tire.
This was the cutest plane I've ever seen! It was actually a running airplane, about the size of a small car.


Monday, we had planned on going to the gardens and then to the Western Heritage Museum. Little did we know that the Museum was closed on Mondays. So was the Children's Museum. Anyway, the gardens were really nice. They had a replica of Omaha with a mini train running through it, which was cool. They also had a koi pond that the kids loved.

A photo of Hannah and me on the tram (there are a lot of me on this trip!)
The mini Omaha.

Some wildflowers.


So, after we struck out with the two museums, we traveled to the Crook Museum. Apparently, this guy was an officer in the Civil War. It was very interesting.



As our last activity, we went to the Mormon Winter Quarters. We thought it was going to be something other than what it was. We ended up getting a history of Mormonism and their flight from persecution in Navoo. Hannah and Daniel got to dress up and Daniel decided to volunteer for everything that was asked (it was a guided tour). We then got to see a thing on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Hannah and Daniel have 15 seconds to load their wagons for travel!
Daniel has to count how many times the wheel turns ("1, 2, 3, 5") to judge how far they've traveled.
Hannah and Daniel try the hand cart.

It was a great vacation and it's sad that it was over so quickly. Hopefully, we'll take more trips like this!

Also, it's Mike and Ev's birthday!!! Happy birthday to both of you!!!!