Fourth of July weekend we spent in Norman, OK as it is the hometown of my now sister-in-law Kelly Rose who married my brother Alexander July 5th. We all left the morning of the 3rd, Brad the girls and I in our car about an hour ahead of my dad, Jennifer, and Chris in their car. Our trip ended up being a bit longer then theirs due to us having to stop for the girls every couple hours and about a three hour planned detour to visit Patricia Davis, the wife of Brad's late Saddle School instructor Biff Davis. It wasn't a bad road trip there, just REALLY long! Abby had never been in the car for more then 3hrs straight, so she got quite grumpy about traveling after the first 5 hrs. We all survived it though. Had a wonderful visit with Patricia, once we finally found the house again....things had changed a bit and Brad didn't remember exactly how to get there. Unfortunately she lives out in the country so dial-up Internet is all she can get and was on the computer so we couldn't reach her to help us find the place. Brad did finally locate it and we got to visit for about an hour and a half before heading on to Norman. We pulled into our hotel in Norman around 2am on the 4th!
The next two days were a blur of catching up with relatives, airport runs to pick up relatives, wedding rehearsal stuff, a little pool time, and finally the wedding itself...which was nice. The wedding day was beautiful, following a night of rain on the 4th. Due to the rain the town of Norman postponed their fireworks, and so in the middle of my brother's wedding reception (which was both indoors and out) we got to see a beautiful fireworks display!
The next morning Brad and Jennifer left for IL as they both had to get back for work. My dad, Chris, myself and the girls stayed to take my brother Nate to the airport and then start a leisurely trip back to IL. We stretched the trip home into three days, taking a state a day. Monday the 6th we drove back across OK. Stayed the night in Joplin, MO in a hotel with a pool of course. Miriam and Abby both love to swim (I don't mind it myself either!) Tuesday we drove across most of MO, stopping just short of St. Louis for the night. Wednesday we went into downtown St.Louis and spent 6 hours running around The City Museum. It's an old shoe lace factory ten stories tall that they have turned into a menagerie of climbing structures (made out of scrap materials)/a museum/an aquarium/etc. We only explored three of the 10 floors inside, but pretty well covered all the outside climbing structures. The day pretty much consisted of climbing, sliding down slides, and then climbing again! It was a fun, yet tiring day! We finished our visit by climbing up to the tenth floor via various caverns and spiral staircases, and slid down the 7 story spiral slide!!!! We left there at 5pm (when the museum closed) and traveled back to our place for the night.
Abby was very glad to get home, and she wasn't the only one. I was happy to be home too. It was a good trip, but I think we are only just now finally recovered!
Here are a few pics from our adventure!
Daddy tossing Miriam into the pool!
Abby splashing with Mommy.
The happy couple.
Water baby Abby motoring around in her floatie.
Water Monkey Miriam "diving" into the pool.
Up in the crow's nest at the City Museum!
Part of the outside climbing structures, the crow's nest is off the upper left hand corner of this pic.
Miriam having a ton of fun on one of the many slides!
What happens to 4yr old girl after 6 hrs at The City Museum! This was only 5 minutes after we left the museum!!!
A VERY happy Abby, SO glad to be home!!!
Looks like a fabulous trip! Love the pool photos.
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