Oklahoma, Here We Come!

Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!

(I think that's a quote from some very silly movie whose name eludes me at the moment)

We were in desperate need of Spring and Great Friends so we headed south for a long weekend excursion. Yes, Friends- Oklahoma has just that for us- Spring and Great Friends. Oh and it was only a short 13-hour drive. Shoot- that's nothing compared to the several days drives we've done to get to the West Coast!

Meet Cleo the Dog. She's so amazingly sweet and gentle. Even Annika became comfortable with her (okay....that might be a stretch).

Here's a classic photo: two girls (Annika and Claire) huddled together on a big person chair watching cartoons. The Girlies LOVED watching cartoons! What a treat!

The Real Reason we drove 13 hours to Oklahoma .................................................. Face Painting! Okay. That's not quite true. We DID go to the Medieval Fair in Norman. What an event that has turned in to! Holy Schmoly! They had camel rides and pirate ships and girls getting sliced in a box (magician people!) and lots of people in period-ish costumes. They had a stilt walker. Oh yeah- they had face painting. But what do you think the three girls wanted to do most? Play on the rather large play ground of course! (smack forehead now)

That's Claire on the left (she's close in age to Annika). She had pretty roses painted on her cheeks. Annika asked for hearts. Ava said she wanted to look like a princess (when asked what she wanted painted on her face).

Face painter's interpretation on what "I want to look like a Princess". ----------------------------->

I'm sure you're all familiar with Fair Food. We enjoyed an Indian Taco, Indian Fry Bread with Honey, Cherry Limeades (my favorite!) and Funnel Cake coated with sugar. Oof. My tummy is stuffed just looking at this photo!

Check out that sunshine! After many hours of fair-going we headed out to Lake Thunderbird for well- old time's sake. Oh my was that water COLD! It was a gorgeous day but as you can tell it was also VERY WINDY. Have you seen Oklahoma rocks? They're very red.

Easter eggs (I think Ava did this set):A few more photos from our weekend...at the Science Museum of Oklahoma-Mark trying out a Segway, Annika and Claire in the Mercury Capsule (Annika's the one holding her ears- what a surprise! Not.), watching a cool marble run.

Dads building cool things in the Tinkering Garage.

We had a blast! We indulged in ice cream at Braum's. (Never heard of it? You're in for a treat!) Here's a funny side note about Braum's....when I met Mark in Anchorage ever so many years ago he kept talking about an ice cream store called Brahm's. I thought- "Wow! What a classy name! It must be like the super duper fancy schmancy ice cream restaurants in Germany." (that I'd been to). Ummmmm. No! It's actually BrAUm's...nothing to do with a composer. BUT they do have excellent ice cream and milkshakes and their burgers & fries are awesome too.

eta- I am definitely NOT a fundraising sort of person! I'm no good at doing fundraisers....sigh.