Last October, we journeyed to Oklahoma to visit my dad and stepmom and some friends in OKC. Along the way, we stopped at a few cemetaries with ancestors of the Pride and Acuff clans.  It was interesting to see how much of our histories are close (at least geographically) and a lot of fun finding "hidden" cemetaries in western Illinois!  Zeb got some good info and the kids got a chance to play in leaf piles and see the graves of family they'll never know by more than just stories...

 Once in the Tulsa area, we spent 3 fantastic days with my dad (aka Papa) and stepmom (aka Grandma Ginny). We went to the Jenks Aquarium, got great barbecue, played with trains and went exploring through the Tahlequah/Cherokee region of Oklahoma. Wow! It's been a long time since I've been in that neck of the woods, but what fun memories came flooding back of canoeing down the Illinois River with friends and camping with my mom!

Zeb loved that the signs were all in English and Cherokee! Had to get a picture, of course!

Your eyes don't deceive you...Indeed Zeb, Oklahoma exists!

Papa gave Isaac the "red and silver" train and they had to build it, of course.  Isaac, Papa, Zeb, and even Grandma Ginny had fun playing with this one!  It will be even more fun when he gets old enough to not need the wheels "fixed" every few minutes!

She had just mastered getting to a sitting position from laying down!

 Papa has 2 dogs, this one is Sophie. She is awesome with the kids! 

Who can resist that face!!

The Jenks Aquarium has an awesome "turtle pond". They give you chunks of fish and a flexible pole with a clothespin on the end. You clip a piece of fish onto the clothespin and dangle it over the turtles. They go crazy trying to get to the food. I'd never seen turtle feeding like this, but it was awesome!

This ray was literally leaping out of the water to be petted! Isaac laughed hilariously with these guys for a long time!

The sharks are swimming overhead!

Grandma Ginny!

 We took the roundabout way to the City and stopped in Stillwater to visit Tanya and Tracy...I finally got to meet two of Tanya's beautiful kiddos...Can you guess which two have the same name in this pic??

We went to the zoo with some old friends..This is Joseph and Isaac in front of a HUGE jaguar head...I love the new boardwalk at the zoo!

...and of course, we spent a few days with the McGees...A trip to Oklahoma is never complete without spending precious time with the family! We had so much fun that this picture and the next one are the only ones we took while we were there! And these were on our way out the door to come back North!

Just the girls!

Our budding botanist...We stopped every 15 feet or less to check out interesting dead and dieing plants!

He actually did really well and had a lot of fun...We're still eating the fruits of this labor!

Auden playing goalie!

Auden's adoring fans!

Nice Save!

Isaac has prime seats!

Eme and her beautiful Mommy!! We love Miss Heather!

See?? I told you we love Miss Heather!

Looking at the cider press!

Hmm...donuts!

These are friends from his class last year. They are in the afternoon class now, since they are moving to Kindy next fall! Isaac really misses them..We're so glad they got to come!

This was at the Clinton Fall Festival. We rode the "motor cars". They had an open car between them. It was fun..random but fun!

This would be Esther Rose's favorite way to go anywhere. The girl loves her pocket!

Isaac of course can't wait to get on the train. 

Walking the tracks, waiting for it to be time to turn around and head back to the station. They were using the motor cars as a shuttle from a parking area to the festival. Ingenius!

He was exhausted!

On her first train ride!!!

Along came the wind, with an angry frown, and "whoosh"...

One little apple came falling down....

9 Little Apples hanging in the tree....

Isaac sings this little ditty at school and it's so cute!  I love the facial expressions that accompany it!

We went apple picking several weeks ago...Here are some of our favorite pics!

"Way up high in the apple tree, 2 little apples smiled at me. I shook that tree as hard as I can, and down came the apples..Hmm. They were good!"

1 little, 2 little, 3 little apples. 4 little, 5 little, 6 little apples. 7 little, 8 little, 9 little apples. 

10 little apples for you and me!

I should probably  make sure everyone knows that I throw most of his artwork in the trash after I've scanned it into the computer. That is unless it has some major milestone for him included in it. 

I say this so that if there is a particular piece of school work that you want me to save for you, speak up within a few days of seeing it here or it will likely be long gone! 

 **Please do not copy any pictures that have other children in them. I will also not be using their names, as I have in the past. They'll all have nicknames! 

This is obviously not from this week, or even this month. I did take this in September. He has started walking to Mrs. H all by himself, namely so that Esther Rose doesn't have to get out of the car.  He is such a big boy and growing more independent everyday!

Your eyes do not deceive you. Little Tykes actually makes shuffleboard for pre-schoolers!  And his school has shuffleboard game boards on their cafeteria/gym/theater floor!  Hilarious!

This little guy is in Isaac's class. Zeb and I are working hard with him on empathy and serving others. He walked all the way into school with his friend this day, because the friend didn't want to go.  

Friends. Isaac really likes playing with E.  He is such a sweet little guy with a contagious smile!

Tante Sarah was a wonderful car companion for me and an amazing helper for Isaac. They're studying the flowers while Isaac is busy "watering" them here...Pretty sure we're still in Michigan, but we had at least made it to the UP!

We always stop in Proctor, MN, where there is a HUGE locomotive. Isaac loves to climb on the train and investigate all the wheels and pistons and bell and caboose and...and...and...

Esther Rose was being a dutiful baby sister, while Isaac is trying to decide to what to climb on next! Yay for trains!!

In Minnesota at last! We were all put to work carrying things down to the Tea House and unpacking the cars. While I had a lot of stuff, it was well organized.  Isaac had fun "helping" Grandmother and Granddaddy Pride carry small things to the Tea House and playing on the beach.  Definitely time to find the bug spray.  Grandmother and Isaac are pausing to look at a toadstool that they found. It was red and Isaac stopped to look at it everytime we went up or down the steps!

Grandmother Pride enjoying her first great granddaughter!  Esther Rose, meet your Grandmother Pride!  It didn't take Esther Rose 10 minutes to have Granddaddy and Grandmother Pride wrapped around all 10 of her little fingers and few of her toes, too.

So, I don't think there are leash laws on the beach, which is fine as long as owners are close by. However, this day I had Isaac and Esther Rose and Belle Puppy down on the beach by myself when 2 large dogs decided to visit without an owner in sight. We quickly locked ourselves into the screenhouse at the end of the dock until they decided to move on. Belle was our protector and repeatedly barked at them to let them know they welcome when they came back with their owners! She blocked the door until they left the dock...What a good puppy. In the meantime, I decided to snap a few pics of Isaac in the screenhouse. This is my favorite!

 Isaac decided he wanted to sleep in "The Loft" with Tante Sarah, which was a wonderful treat for him.  However, it made the rest of us a nervous wreck because he would get too close to the edge of the loft and nearly fall into the kitchen.  Tante and Grandpa determined a fence would be a great idea and we had a wonderful rainy day to get it done...This is the final masterpiece!

I took Isaac and Esther Rose over the Norway Beach visitor's center, where the Greatgrandparents volunteer during the week, for the "Water Critters" adventure.  This would be the "must have" picture of the kids with Smokey Bear before we traipsed 1/4 mile down to the boat launch to catch random water creatures.  We learned how to catch vegetable leaches (the sort that will NOT drink your blood and apparently make great Pike bait), crawdads, midges (cool bugs...look like a cross between a mosquito and a mayfly, but they don't bite), and lots of other things. It was a really windy day, but a lot of fun.  

Grandpa and Tante Sarah wanted to take Isaac fishing, so here they are practicing. Of course, Belle is close by..always the nursemaid!

 Of course, we all know that Isaac played with his trains from dawn to dusk, when he wasn't outside. But the picture of Esther Rose trying to drive Donald on the track was irresistable!

What's a visit with the "Greats" without blueberry pancakes on Saturday morning. Isaac LOVED the "checkers pancakes" and ate at least 3 with syrup (Great Grandma gave him that..his mom certainly wouldn't have!).  He even ate the blueberries, which was amazing! I'll have to remember that..

Grandpa and Tanta took Isaac on his first fishing expedition, which was really just a grand excuse to ride in the boat, but still a lot of fun playing in the reeds and talking about baby Moses and how his mommy put him in a basket made from reeds to keep him safe!

So outside the cabin, directly under the hummingbird feeder, there was this enormous mushroom. Isaac loved to go "smell" it. He never touched it, but certainly gave it enough sniffing attention.

Tante Sarah and Isaac caught minnows and kept them in the bucket for Isaac to try and catch with his hands. What a great therapy activity!  He had a blast and really liked it when it was time to dump them back in the water.

Grandpa wears a Cpap like Isaac does and we thought it would help Isaac to see grandpa wear his to sleep, too. While it didn't work quite like we planned, the two of them did get a sweet nap together...at least that's how Isaac remembers it.

Isn't she beautiful!  She loved Minnesota and it seemed to agree with her. She had very few crying spells and no purple spells and only got dehydrated once, which we managed to recover from at the cabin...She learned to roll over from her back to her tummy the day before we left and was a great car traveller until we hit the magic 8 hour mark...

"Tante Sarah, where are you?"....asks Isaac, who is VERY eager to go play at the beach at sunset with her..

Love this picture!

Trying to catch minnows on the last night in Minnesota!

Kayak at sunset...

Sitting in the screenhouse with Grandma!  

Great Granddaddy took Isaac on a canoe ride, all by himself!  He loved it, along with every other boat he got to go on adventures in...

 Beautiful Baby Girl!

 Yeah...she has her grandpa smitten, too!

Taken as we were leaving Chippewa National Forest!  Maya wraps are good for so many things!  We "watered" some flowers here, too, before officially getting on the road to home!

Our last stop in Minnesota...Proctor, where we looked at and climbed on the train and then had lunch at a great little bar and grill (that doesn't fry anything...the french fries were awesome!)

We did eventually make it home. I even drove over the Mackinaw Bridge, which most of you know is nothing short of miraculous.  If we had paid better attention, we'd have taken a picture of the porta potty suspended over the side of the bridge for the workers to use...No word as to whether or not it had an open bottom or not!

Isaac and Esther Rose are pretty good car travellers until we've been in the car for about 8 hours and then they are both done and ready to get out for good.  Too bad both days were over 10 hours of driving..

All in all, it was a wonderful trip for us and a good time for me to unwind. We missed Daddy an awful lot, and were very glad to get back home to him. 

Isn't he cute!

The bananas

The Ice Cream...

The whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and cherries, of course!!

...and the aftermath!

Our PreK and K class...It was awesome to see so many littles loving on Jesus this week!

Robert and I had a battle of the cameras going...I won!

 This guy came and was actually throwing boomerangs in the sanctuary..he then spent over an hour outside with the kids showing them different boomerangs and then teaching them how to throw them themselves! What a fantastic way to end the week!

Cole and Bert singing praises!!

Auden throwing a boomerang!

Esther Rose and her Daddy