Matt's 37th Birthday

We took our favorite 37 year old to Ponca City! Doesn't everyone want to go there? I think it's a GREAT town! Here we are at the "starter" home of E.W. Marland. Just a smidge over 16,000 sf! I can see why he needed to move. Must have been busting at the seams in this place.
The indoor swimming pool was impressive! The wife of the home kept swim suits on hand in case her visitors wanted to swim.

This picture will be the cover of my Oklahoma Travel Book.

Here are the kiddos and the birthday boy in front of the Grand Home.

Great house, great museum, great fun!

After a lunch at Head Country delicious BBQ (we finally found it!), we headed to the Lew Wentz pool. Did you know it is one of the top 5 prettiest pools in the nation? Nation! Here are the 80 year old diving towers - thankfully they are now closed, otherwise our Kate would have taken a flying leap off the top.

It is a fabulous pool! I mean we do have a pool 2 blocks from our house and one at the college and we drove an hour and a half to swim here!

A lovely look out tower - I opted not to climb up with Jackson. Katie said, "It's JUST like the Eiffel Tower!" Sweet girl!

The Lew Wentz Campground will rent out these cute little castles for the weekend IF you have at least 30 people in your group. Anyone? I've got to stay inside one of those castles someday!

See how Jackson has progressed? He used to scream and cry when he was put in the water. Now he's just frowning!

That's Collin under the water umbrella thingy.

The view from the top of the look out tower.

This is Standing Bear. We also visited his Memorial Park as part of the Matt's Birthday Fun Day.

Then on the way home, after a lovely day of birthday fun, we see this on the back of a car. I just don't know what to say about it except at least their license plate was from Missouri.

Happy birthday my love! Your wife loves you, your kiddos love you. We are so glad we have you as the leader of our family!

Note to self

Things to blog about:
new nephew Caleb Trent McCook
Camp Sing-A-Lot
Jillian and Jon's wedding AKA the best ring bearer and flower girl ever
Jackson turning 9 months (it's happening tomorrow the 26th), sniff, sniff

Thank you to one of my faithful blog readers for telling me that my background had disappeared. I'll have to search around for a cuter one later.

Since returning from our trip to Texas I have been very lazy. We have swam 6 out of 7 days in a week, changed out of our pj's at about 9ish each day, and have read more books than I do during the school year. I have yet to scrapbook or paint which were 2 of my summer projects. Hmmmm, maybe I'll be productive tomorrow.

More Fun in Houston

Collin jumping off the diving board!
Katie diving for sticks in the hot tub that wasn't hot at this moment.

Kate-Kate jumping off the diving board!

Our fishy.

Our cousin fishies Carter and Taylor.

Our Houston cousins: Hunter 17, Jackson 8 months, Collin 7, Taylor 12, Carter 9, Katie 4, Ashlyn 15.

Now add in the adults...Michael, Leigh (Matt's sister), Matt and me!

Thank you Leigh and Michael for letting us come stay a bit. It was great fun and I LOVED the Fruity Black Bean Salsa and Sliders (Matt has nicknamed them "meat pills").

Stroll Down Memory Lane

Katie playing in the sandbox at Willie's.
Collin at Willie's.

Matt and me at our favorite restaurant in Houston - Willie's. We are sitting outside near the sandbox. That should explain the sweat. Almost every Friday night of our 3 years in Houston we went to Willie's. We met friends there, took family members here...we loved Willie's! Now we wanted to bring our kids here to play in the sandbox. Now back in 1996-1999 after dinner we would go across the parking lot to the $ movie, see what was playing and then head over to 1/2 Price Books to look around until our movie started. Yep, that was almost every Friday night for us before kids.

Bammel Church of Christ and Northland Christian Elementary School, Houston, TX - where we went to church for 3 years and I taught 2nd grade science for 3 years AND (gasp) was a cheerleading coach for 1 year!

Vineyard Trace Apartments - rented a 1 bedroom, 530 square feet for $385/month! In this apartment Matt killed his first mouse in our pantry, we thought someone was breaking in the night 2 cats got into a fight on our balcony and I began the search for a little roomier apartment.

Second apartment - this one in Spring, TX, a suburb of Houston. We rented a 1 bedroom with office alcove, 789 square feet for $510/month! Loved this aparment! It had vaulted ceilings and the laundry room was in the bathroom. We had a LARGE closet and a cute little balcony with storage outside. In this apartment we were first connected to the internet. We signed up for hotmail and I thought I was so cool when the computer told me, "You've Got Mail!" just like the movie! On a side note, I only checked my email 1 time a week, something I continued doing up until Collin was 1 year old!

Northland Secondary campus - where Matt taught 8th and 9th grade history and psychology. His second year here he decided to work on the Master's degree at SHSU. He also won us a bedroom TV and tickets to the Houston Rockets at Northland's basketball games by making some terrific 1/2 court shots during halftime. During volleyball season he kept the scoreboard and I ran the concession stand. He also led singing a lot in chapel and wrote one of his first solo silly songs called, "Let's All Quit and Work on our PhD" (AKA Love in the first degree) and sang it for the faculty at the end of year dinner. Actually there might have been a few before that one, "To All the Girls in Building 4" (AKA To all the girls I've loved before) and "Mrs. Eatherly" (AKA Mr. Jones and Me).

Now you probably know WAY too much about the first few years of us. We both cannot believe that it's been 11 years since we lived there and had all these fun times!

I'm starting to annoy myself...

my pride and accent are getting bigger the longer I stay.

Sacred place only after the Alamo

the best ice cream in the country.

Houston Zoo

Katie and Collin "swimming" with pirahnas!
We wonder where Collin gets his dramatic ways...hmmmmm.

Chandler and Katie - oh so cute!

Never seen a baby elephant - they are so cute!

Oh. My. the Houston heat! I had forgotten that melty feeling when you step outside. When we lived here people would say, "Houston is the most air-conditioned city in the US." I believed them then and now - inside a building we would be shivering and have chill bumps - outside we were melting!

Precious Kate and her bubble gum snow cone!

Collin with his cherry snow cone. This is what I fed my children for lunch at the zoo. I feel brave admitting that.

Can you see what the humidity has done to Jackson's hair?

Collin riding the snake on the carousel.

Katie riding the wolf.

C and K playing at the sprayground in the Children's Zoo.

I really forgot what in the world they were doing here...an anthill maybe? Regardless...they are cute.

The whole family (almost) and T-Rex. Poppa, Grammy, Chandler, Katie, Jackson, Matt and Collin.

This is difficult to admit and I must be having a weak moment but here goes...the OKC Zoo is better. There I said it. Maybe not all things are bigger and better in Texas. Wait - I must need my head examined...