Meet Marvin

I am a little behind on posting. One because the weather has been horrible and we haven’t really done too much and two the boys have been sick….constantly. In fact, since it is spring break this week, we were supposed to head to the city to spend the night in Bricktown and then head to Norman the next day to see the science museum; but because Beau was running a high temp and plagued with strep; Josh, Beau and I got to stay home while only Jack got to go with his grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins. Maybe we’ll try a repeat of the trip this summer. Hopefully by that point-in-time my kids will be well…I’ll keep my fingers crossed but I won’t hold my breath.

Anywho, a couple of weeks ago, the hubby and Jack headed to Colorado to help Josh’s aunt and uncle move to Oklahoma. It happened to be the same weekend Jack got to bring the class pet, Marvin the Monkey, home.

Here are Marvin’s diary entries for their weekend together:

Friday, Feb. 6, 2010 - Today, I got to leave school early with Jack Brookshire. We headed to Jack’s house where we quickly loaded up his daddy’s truck so that we could begin our journey to Colorado in order to help his Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Bill move from Trinidad to Hinton. The trip was long but Jack took good care of me. We watched movies on his DVD player, ate lots of junk food and even took a nap. We reached our destination around 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2010 - Today we all woke up early so that we could get a head start on loading up all the trucks and moving van with furniture, clothes, toys and dishes. Our plan was to leave Colorado around noon but we got held up a little when Jack and I had to make a visit to the Trinidad Emergency Room. While Jack was playing with his cousin Devin, Jack accidentally fell on his arm and everyone was scared he might have broken it. After having x-rays done, we discovered Jack had only sprained his arm. It was a huge relief and we finally got on the road to Oklahoma around 6:00. This time instead of riding in Jack’s daddy’s truck, we got to ride in the big U-Haul moving van with Uncle Bill. We finally got into Oklahoma around 4:30 in the morning and boy were we tired. Since it was so late, Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Bill got to have a sleepover at Jack’s house.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 2010 - Luckily, we all got to sleep in this morning because boy were we tired!. But then it was back to work. Everything we loaded onto the trucks and van yesterday, we had to unload into Uncle Bill and Aunt Jeannie’s new house. Then tonight, we got to go to Jack’s cousin Owen’s house for his third birthday party. It was a Dinosaur party and we ate hotdogs and cake and then played pin the tail on the dinosaur and watched Owen open his gifts. It was so much fun!

 

Fun in the sun

This should be my last post on our trip to Florida and then maybe I can get to some more recent happenings.

Again, I said the trip wasn’t too relaxing; but, that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy a little bit of sun and fun.

Even though it was November, Jack couldn’t resist getting into the ocean.

Beau was a little more skeptical.

He would have rather just stayed on dry land, playing in the sand

or with grandma.

But with a little bit of help from his loving big brother, he finally made it out into the ocean.

Bachelorette party

Yes, I am still writing about our trip to Florida for my sister’s wedding. “Why?,” you ask…because that is the way I roll these days. I am late for everything. I don’t have an excuse except that is just the way life seems to be for me right now.

Two nights before the wedding, the 19th of November, I had the pleasure and honor of hosting my sister’s bachelorette party.

Because we like to live on the edge, we partied like rock stars – we went and saw the midnight showing of New Moon!

The movie was terribly cheesy, but then again, so am I. In fact, I sort of went crazy (well, as crazy as I could since I didn’t live there) with the whole Twilight theme. From pretty plates

and Appletinies,

to black candles

and little chandeliers  – it was all a little over the top.

In fact, I even made cake pops that looked like apples!  Again, very cheesy; but they were a huge hit!

**New Moon image borrowed from http://www.whitbylibrary.on.ca/teens

The whole truth

Last week when I told you about our little trip to Florida for my sister’s wedding, although I didn’t lie, I wasn’t completely truthful either. 

I had said we didn’t really get to catch up on some much needed R&R, which is true; but what I didn’t tell you was that we did get to have a little bit of fun while we were there.

One morning we got up bright and early and rented a boat. When I say “we,” I mean my parents. The boys, my hubby, my sister, my now brother-in-law, his brother, my uncle and my aunt just tagged along for the ride…it was cheaper that way : )

The weather was gorgeous…a little chilly (which my dad loathes) …but nevertheless, gorgeous!

We saw… dolphins;

and the boys thought it would be fun to feed the birds…

maybe for them it was; but for the rest of us, well, we took cover.

Travelin’ cross country

If you are my friend on Facebook, then you probably followed along with my mobile uploads and such as my family and I made our way across the states to Florida….that’s a 15+ hour drive, for those of you who were wondering.

Not an easy trip when you have two kiddos in the back seat either. Thank the good Lord for portable DVD players!! We own 3 – one for each child and then one just in case one of the other ones breaks : )

The hubby and I were curious about New Orleans, so we took a little detour and quickly realized upon arrival, that the Big Easy is not a good place for children; and so we kept driving.

Finally we made it to Destin – our final destination. Ultimately we went there for my little sister’s wedding; but we were really hoping to catch up on some much needed R&R as well…no such luck.

The week was packed: from tying ribbons on programs

and putting together favor boxes (yes, this is my sister’s now husband; but at the time, I’m sure he was thinking “what have I gotten myself into?”… just kidding, he was a great sport!)

to parties (more on this later)

and pampering. (actually, that part wasn’t so bad *wink*)

It was almost a relief when the big day finally arrived.

My sister was a beautiful bride and the wedding was gorgeous… and very personal – my dad married the couple, and the rest of us were in the wedding: I was matron of honor, the boys were the ring bearers, and my sister-in-law and brothers were also a part of the wedding party.

Anyway, that is just a quick re-cap of our trip. I kind of promised on Monday I would try and post something about it this week so there it is. I have lots more photos (most of these were from my cell phone) and stories, so stay tuned…but don’t hold your breath because I don’t know when I’ll get to them : )

The end of a great summer

We may not have gone on vacation this summer but we had a great time discovering things close to home.

A while back, one of my friends from high school drove up from Texas with her husband and two boys and while the hubbies were away, the girls and kiddos went to play.

We spent the day catching up on each others lives over the past ten years all the while chasing four rambunctious boys around the Science Museum Oklahoma. If you live in Oklahoma and have not yet been to the Science Museum, pack up your things and go now! It was a blast and perfect for all ages.

Also this summer, we ventured out to Jenks, Oklahoma (which is on the other side of the state) to visit the Oklahoma Aquarium. Despite our lovely state being land locked, the aquarium was quite impressive. Beau loved getting to stick his hands in the water to pet Sting Rays and Starfish …Jack, not so much. He was just thrilled about his new shark necklace.

Ahhhhh, accessories…a boy after my own heart.

Anyway, since Jenks is a pretty good haul across the state, we decided to make the most out of our trip back home by stopping at a relatively new and unique filling station called Pops.

It is located on old Route 66 and houses any and every type of soda you could ever imagine or want.

Being the cultured person that I am, I decided to try a local root beer. Unfortunately, it tasted like….well, let’s just say it wasn’t very good. So Josh bought me a different kind.

Gotta love that man’s sense of humor…or not.

Even  Beau, who you’d think would be too young to partake in such a thing,  enjoyed stopping at the new Oklahoma landmark.

Rocky Mountain High

Thursday afternoon, we left for Colorado for a mini-vacation. Josh's aunt and uncle live in Trinidad so we thought we'd venture up there to say hello.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. We spent one day hanging out at their beautiful home that overlooked the snow-capped mountains. Jack loved exploring the new territory



and all three of the boys loved playing with all of the "new" toys (well, at least they were new to them).

We went to Cripple Creek, where they were having an Ice Festival. The streets were blocked off and lined with elaborate ice sculptures

and their artists.

The boys were enthralled with them,



especially the interactive sculptures.



On the way home from Cripple Creek, we stopped at a Dinosaur Resource Center where Josh (who has a thing for dinos) got a hold of the camera and took thousands of pictures of every dinosaur imaginable.



It was a really cool place though, that had hands-on learning stations for the little ones; but my kiddos were most taken aback by the gift shop, where Beau fell in love with a large stuffed dino



and Jack sat down in the middle of the store and began reading all of the books.



We also drove up to the outlet mall in Castle Rock and did a little bit of shopping and visiting with cousins that drove down from Denver.



Monday, despite the boys' begging and pleading to stay longer, we began our journey home. We took our time in getting back and stopped at a few places along the way. One such place was the extinct Capulin Volcano in New Mexico.

Josh read to the boys all about its erupting into existence sometime between 56,000 and 62,000 years ago.







In Amarillo we ate at the Big Texan - a novelty restaurant geared towards tourists where animals hung staring at me while I ate.



Not really my thing, but the boys had a great time.