Mansions south and swimming

This is where we spent our two weeks living in Oklahoma. Although it was called Mansions South it was nothing like a mansion! It was basically just an old, furnished-2 bedroom apartment. It smelled old, it was old and it was tiny. After you've been living in a home going back to an apartment really sucks! The boys fought a lot more than they do at home and I think that it's because they felt like we were on top of each other. But at least it was better than staying in a motel somewhere. That would have been pure misery. Notice the towel on the window, that's because there was a gap there and we didn't want everyone seeing in. The floors were just a lovely fake wood linoleum. And by far my absolute favorite is all the vinyl sayings on the walls. There was one more saying that I didn't get a picture of. It was in the boys' room on there closet and it was some saying about shoes by Cinderella. It just made me laugh at how they tried to make it classy but it wasn't. So enjoy all the sayings, they top it all!








The bonus to this all was that it had a swimming pool. I spent many afternoons there with the boys when Danny went to school. Nate is our little fish, he loves jumping in and swimming all over the place. This was the first time Josh wore a life jacket in a pool and the first few times he would flip out we let go of him. But after a few days he figured out what to do and was swimming all over the place too. I don't remember if he jumped off the edge or not but he was at least swimming on his own and loving it. And Colton loved the water as long as we held him. The pool was a lot of fun for us and most of the time we had it to ourselves, yeah!

Cowboy Museum

So, one of the first things we went and did in Oklahoma was visit the Cowboy museum. It has all sorts of cowboy paraphernalia from centuries old to present. They had pictures, guns, knives, old country movie souvenirs, Indian artifacts, rodeo stadium, you name it, they had it. It was pretty cool to see all the stuff they have collected over the years. The boys loved the building that had dress up clothes and all sorts of interactive things to see and do. Nate had fun getting on his chaps and Josh liked picking out cowboy boots. They went though several clothing changes before we got a picture of them by the horse and cowboy. Of course Colton wanted nothing to do with getting dressed up. But here are a bunch of pictures from that visit.


Hitch 'em up and get movin'!


Hanging out by the saloon


Visiting the old down town


Look at those cowboy studs!


Sittin' around the camp fire


Can you see the look of torment in Colton's face?


This is as good as it gets with these 3 guys


Watching the fish in the pond


Look up Nate!


Ridem Cowboy!!!


Just look at this Indian! It was gigantic!


My guys in front of Abraham Lincoln

Get Ready!

So, we've been vacationing here in Oklahoma city and having lots of fun. We were going to come back on Wednesday but I'm so ready to get me and the boys back home that we are coming home on Tuesday. We have went and seen so many different things. There really is so much to do and see here that it actually shocked me. I didn't expect that from Oklahoma. I really wish I had brought my USB cable to my camera so that I could download all the pictures that we took and blogged about the trip while we where here. I've had lots of free time at night since that's when Danny has his class. It's going to take me forever to download and blog all the pictures so I"m going to have to be picky and choosy about so that I don't bore you all with all the pictures. We were looking at how many we have taken on this trip and the grand total is, you read, 140! And there is another museum we are going to tomorrow and I'm sure we are going to get some more pictures then. So, check back soon and I will update the blog when I get home with lots of pictures of our adventures!

4th of July fun!

For the 4th of July we decided to be adventurous and venture a little further away from home. We went to Ft Leavenworth (an army base) to celebrate our country's independence day. We had read in a travel magazine about Ft Leavenworth being a great choice for the 4th and we really wanted to check out another fireworks show from last year. We went to Independence last year and not that it was bad but we didn't have a great view, too many tree's in the way, and the traffic was a mess. Ft Leavenworth is about 30 minutes away from home so not too far. Was it worth it? YES!!! We had so much fun! It was a very patriotic show and was awesome! They shot off a cannon for all 50 states, I didn't get a picture of that but I will next year with all the state flags displayed. Because this is our new family tradition for July 4th. So, here are all the pics from our fun day!






We brought a picnic lunch of homemade pulled pork sandwiches and salads and all the other sides to go with a traditional picnic- it was so yummy. I have to pat myself on the back because it was delicious! And of course I ate way too much and seeing these pictures reinforces my slimfast plan!






They had a couple of inflatable toys that the kids could play on. And bonus: it was all for free. They had workers there to keep it orderly and fair to everyone, it worked so well. It was good we were there early because the boys played before the lines got too long. Josh may be small for his age but he can keep up with the best of them, nothing deters that kid. Size holds nothing over him!




This was a really pretty fountain that they had dies blue. It was really cool. We just had to get pictures by it. Nate took our picture and he didn't do too bad if I say so myself. The boys really wanted to throw rocks in there but we wouldn't let them. But that didn't stop Colton, he had Josh's spiderman water bottle and while we were getting our picture taken he threw it in the water. Josh saw it and started freaking out so we scooped it out and saved the day. While Colton was clueless that he had done anything wrong even with Josh telling him he was a "bad baby" over and over again.






This was awesome, they had parachuters jump from an airplane and it was right over our heads! There were 4 of them total! The boys loved the jumpers. They were so close to us and did I mention right over our heads. The last jumper that had a flag on him came right above us and just floated there for what seemed like forever. He was so close you could see his face but I was frantically trying to get his picture because it would have been an incredible picture but alas to mine and Danny's utter disappointment I didn't get it. I was zoomed in too close and all I got was like a big zoomed in shot of half his legs and I erased it from the camera. You can kind of tell in the second to last picture here that he's right above us and he seriously was so close. Oh, I did forget to mention that I didn't get the shot because I was in a panic mode worrying about my 3 babies because I felt like he was going to drop down right on us that's how close he was.




Just waiting for it to get dark and the fireworks to start.




The fireworks have begun and they are all in awe!

Amongst all the noise, Colton managed to fall asleep!

One moment Josh is mesmerized.......

the next he is out cold!

The fun has come to an end we managed to get them loaded in the stroller without waking them up.

We really had a good time as a family. And traffic was so smooth and easy. We had a good parking spot that wasn't too far away, it took us less than 5 minutes to get to the truck and once we were all loaded up we got off of base in less than 10 minutes and on the road. The military police were directing traffic so efficiently that it was amazing how smoothly it all went. The only thing we'll do differently next year is not show up so early, I think we'll leave at 5pm instead of 4pm. But other than that it was a very fun night!