Matt and I made our [seemingly] annual trip to Oklahoma to hang out with some friends and family. We left after we both put in a full day of work and after all of my whining at 1:30AM, I made Matt stop at a hotel in Erick, OK, so I could stretch my legs. You see, Carter's so tall, his little legs dangle off the end of the carseat and therefore, I can't recline in the passenger seat. Add to that the fact that he kept waking up because he couldn't flip over due to the seat buckles, well, unhappy campers were what we were!
Despite the loooong car ride (about 13 hours total), we finally made it to the far eastern side of Oklahoma to Becky's (Matt's sister) house. It was 100+ degrees in the shade, so we were more than content to hang out inside and watch the horses and cows - just like Carter and Becky are here:
I've blogged about these crazy "
attack" cows before, so you bet I was a little nervous that they were LICKING my car...
Yeah, LICKING my car. Apparently they like the taste of dust. Okay... Let's just move on, shall we?
We traveled a couple hours away to visit Matt's mom, Sally. She fought off a horrible bout of pneumonia earlier this year and has lost a lot of weight. However, I'm happy to report that she's regaining her strength and is still as feisty as ever! Here's a family shot:
From there, we visited Matt's good buddy, Wes, and had lunch with him and his girlfriend, Laurie. Here's a shot at the restaurant:
Couldn't resist stopping in to see another buddy of Matt's, Clay, and his wife, Jill, and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte (just LOOK at those eyes!!!). The kiddos played nicely together and enjoyed the indoor pool (ha!)!
All the travel wore Carter out and by nightfall, he crashed in the froggie position on his little aerobed:
The next morning Carter and Becky had some play time and a little breakfast while I packed up our gear:
Looks like the two of them had a very meaningful conversation and hopefully he was telling Becky what a wonderful time we had! I also hope he expressed his gratefulness for letting us crash at her place for the weekend!
[And for some reason, I didn't take any photos when Jamie came over for dinner... I MAY have deleted some photos from the memory card recently, because I'm lacking a significant number of photos from June and July. Whoops... Next time!))]
We decided to stay the night in Oklahoma City for the Fourth (and cut our trip home shorter!). We stayed in Bricktown, which is a quaint little area downtown with a lot of hotels, stadiums, restaurants, and even a riverwalk. Too bad it was like 105 degrees or we would have taken more photos of the riverwalk (and maybe actually spent some time ALONG the riverwalk...).
We did visit the Bass Pro Shops and let Carter "drive" the boats for about an hour. He even got a new snazzy life jacket and splashed and splashed and splashed in the pool! I swear, that kid is fearless! He'll get out and jump back in with no qualms about where he'll land. Lucky for him, we're waiting to catch him and won't just let him splat on the concrete!
Fortunately for us, our best pals (Chris and Renae) live just a few miles away from Bricktown and therefore, met us for lunch by our hotel. After snarfing some tasty pizza, we came back and let the kids (Hannah, Micah, and Carter) run amok inside our room. The closet was a HUGE hit with the gang and Hannah and Carter took turns shutting each other in:
The adults had some catching up to do, so we all just lounged and took it easy:
More closet fun:
Hannah surprises me every time with her adorableness:
And yes, we kept Carter locked in the cabinet under the sink when we stayed at the Marriott (I kid, I kid):
On the night of the Fourth, we walked along the riverwalk and stopped to feed the ducks some of our leftover bread from our BBQ dinner. Carter LOVED it and had a blast when one of the ducks jumped right up beside him (scary!):
Matt tried to snap a photo from the other bank, but it was pretty hard to see:
From there, we headed back toward our hotel and set up our lawnchairs right along the bank. They shot fireworks off right in front of our hotel, so we couldn't have asked for a better view! Carter's STILL talking about the fireworks and how they looked like "stars!"
Hope you, too, had a wonderful Independence Day and I hope you didn't melt in the 100+ degree temps!
~kerrie
Hurray!
Nothing helps dinner go down than a tall glass of soy milk:
...on your head...
Hope you're doing well and enjoying the beginning of fall. I can't believe it's already October! Until the next post...(which will most likely be an exciting one about POTTY TRAINING!)
As you can see in this next photo, he was just beside himself with glee about the whole plumbing experience. Anytime something is broken, Carter will tell me that "Daddy can fix it. Need tools!" and he'll head right out to the garage...
I'm, er, happy to report that as of two weeks later, we have only replaced the faucet and will NOT be replacing the hideous counters/cabinets at this time :)
...to Kelly and Richard! They were married atop Pike's Peak on Independence Day!
While I wasn't able to make the trek, I WAS able to steal a few photos from one of our co-worker's (thanks Paul!)! Kelly (also one of my co-workers) is a super-cool gal and is a huge inspiration to me and my career!
The after-kiss celebration walk (??):
And then they had a reception at a much more reasonable elevation (7200 feet) - how cute are they in this next shot?!?:
We wish you both a wonderful marriage and here's to a long, happy life together!
And another photo of Cousin Daniel with my brother (his dad), Jason - fishing, something they do really well (or they SHOULD do well, as I think Jason fishes every weekend with my dad...)!
And that's it, folks. Two photos that make me smile every time I see them. I will be putting both of these in frames on our "family" wall, that's how great I think they are!
(And just look how big my tomato plants are getting in the back corner!)
After seeing this next shot, you'd think he was a little timid. Nah, he'd run up and grab the worm and douse himself silly:
See... (And Matt kept turning the water up and down, up and down to drive him nuts.)
Carter had to get Daddy over to make sure it wasn't "broken"...
Nope, there's the water!
And soon thereafter, the clouds rolled over threatening a monsoon (nope, not this time...shucks! We SOOO need the rain!), so we had to pack it up. Carter got one last round with Mr. Wiggle Worm, this time making sure Daddy was soaked too:
He was doing a little "cooking" too (from the bed of his semi-truck?):
Even some sharing with Daddy:
Yumm, tastes great!
And one of my favorite shots, putting his fork back into his apron pocket for safe-keeping:
Here's hoping that someday Chef Carter will prepare us a fine, home-cooked meal! We'll supply the local goods and he can do the cooking! 
I've blogged about these crazy "attack" cows before, so you bet I was a little nervous that they were LICKING my car...
Yeah, LICKING my car. Apparently they like the taste of dust. Okay... Let's just move on, shall we?
From there, we visited Matt's good buddy, Wes, and had lunch with him and his girlfriend, Laurie. Here's a shot at the restaurant:
Couldn't resist stopping in to see another buddy of Matt's, Clay, and his wife, Jill, and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte (just LOOK at those eyes!!!). The kiddos played nicely together and enjoyed the indoor pool (ha!)!
All the travel wore Carter out and by nightfall, he crashed in the froggie position on his little aerobed:
The next morning Carter and Becky had some play time and a little breakfast while I packed up our gear:
Looks like the two of them had a very meaningful conversation and hopefully he was telling Becky what a wonderful time we had! I also hope he expressed his gratefulness for letting us crash at her place for the weekend!
[And for some reason, I didn't take any photos when Jamie came over for dinner... I MAY have deleted some photos from the memory card recently, because I'm lacking a significant number of photos from June and July. Whoops... Next time!))]
The adults had some catching up to do, so we all just lounged and took it easy:
More closet fun:
Hannah surprises me every time with her adorableness:
And yes, we kept Carter locked in the cabinet under the sink when we stayed at the Marriott (I kid, I kid):
On the night of the Fourth, we walked along the riverwalk and stopped to feed the ducks some of our leftover bread from our BBQ dinner. Carter LOVED it and had a blast when one of the ducks jumped right up beside him (scary!):
Matt tried to snap a photo from the other bank, but it was pretty hard to see:
From there, we headed back toward our hotel and set up our lawnchairs right along the bank. They shot fireworks off right in front of our hotel, so we couldn't have asked for a better view! Carter's STILL talking about the fireworks and how they looked like "stars!"
