Oklahoma

Two days after we came home from Vegas, we drove down to OK.

Stinky classy hotel with inebriated wait staff?

Check.

Great friends that eat Thai food with you and then later share embarrassing stories about your spouse using pseudonyms?

Check.

Fantastic music?


Check.

A better smelling hotel room with the perfect and most comfortable napping bed ever?

Check.

Friends that we don’t get to see often enough?

Check.

New friends? (too many to post photos of) Check.

Total dorks?

Double Check.

Vegas

The girlies went to stay with my folks while Randy and I went to Vegas. Quick list of things that we saw/did there:

In-N-Out

Hoover Dam

Best Jerky stand in the middle of the desert ever

Windy portraits with a palm tree

Hanging out in Flagstaff

Back to Vegas – the Venetian

The best episode of the Price is Right ever

Just before the severe allergic reaction to a chicken strip

Fancy dinner

Casino around the corner, next to the Dennys

Races on the moving sidewalks (I won)

(I may or may not have been the only one racing.)

Touristy stuff

(aaaaand jell-o shots)

Flew home

Catching Up

My computer has been broken for some time now, hence the lack of updates. So, I’m going to just confiscate the Mr.’s computer and try to catch up on the past couple of months.

The end of school was full of field trips and programs and such. Dad took Baby and went to the Zoo with Mimi’s class. It was drizzly and cool, but still fun. Here’s Baby taking a photo:

The new tiger exhibit was open and they put on a program for the kids.

We also had the final soccer practices and matches of the spring.

And then I found these photos of Bubba and Baby thoroughly enjoying their food during Mimi’s final soccer game…

Mimi’s Program

M4H00298, originally uploaded by All Girls School.

We went from school to soccer (via Grandma’s house) and then on to Mimi’s Singing Program. She has been working on these songs for a long time. We’ve heard bits and pieces of many of them. They performed for the school this afternoon and she told me she was really nervous. She didn’t seem nervous at all tonight. After getting her place on the risers she waved and smiled at us until it was time to start singing. When we clapped at the end of each song she just beamed from ear to ear. Here’s one of the songs that they sang. If you look for the little boy in the bottom middle in the red striped polo shirt that is swaying to the music, Mimi is directly behind him in the brown dress (from Indonesia – hi Viliya!). We had to sit quite a ways back, so that’s as close as my zoom would get.

Guitar Recital

M4H00202, originally uploaded by All Girls School.

Garden and Girlies

Today was gardening day. I planted all of our starts and the remaining seeds in the beds today. I’m thrilled to get our dining room back and to be able to shut the blinds on the back door again now that they’re outside. I forgot to get the potatoes in the buckets, though, so I’ll do those tomorrow.

We had a fun and full weekend with friends and activities. Stay tuned for the video from Aspen’s guitar recital. I’ll get it posted here as soon as it gets uploaded from the camera.

Speaking of Mimi, girlfriend has another loose tooth. It’s really loose by my standards, but knowing the way she refuses to pull them, I bet we have another two weeks before it actually comes out.

Cool Photo and Lake Monsters

The Baby took this photo while driving in the car with Dad. I love the way the window frames the street scene.

Here’s a huge frog that lives in the lake behind us. I haven’t seen him yet, but the rest of the family has. Apparently he has a friend in the lake that is ever bit as big as he is. There’s also something that we’ve taken to calling “Nessie”. Dad has seen it a couple of times, but doesn’t know what “it” is. He notices a break in the water, but by the time he looks, all he can see is something large swimming away. Hopefully we get a photo of it before the summer is over.

Preschool Field Trip

Dad was fortunate enough to be able to accompany Baby on her field trip to the creek last week. It looks like it was so much fun. The day started off with a trip to the coffee shop with one of her best friends.

Mimi

Look at what she learned to do last week!

She’s almost a pro now. There was a lot of frustration at first, including throwing the bike down in a huff. But, all of a sudden, she got back on and started riding. She’s been cruising ever since. What a great lesson in persistance.

Girlfriend also lost her 8th tooth! It’s a wonder how she eats anything right now. Here’s a photo of her messing with the tooth before it finally fell out.

Spirograph and Stomach Flu

This weekend we scored an old Spirograph with almost all of the pieces as well as an instruction book. I had been looking for one around Christmas time, but all the reviews said the new version is not very good. The older two quickly took to it and have spent lots of time making different designs. And so have I. 🙂

Meanwhile, the Baby came down with a nasty stomach flu. She spent most of the weekend (and Monday) sleeping.

She has since made a(n almost) full recovery.