Thanksgiving in Oklahoma

For Thanksgiving this year we spent a couple of days in Oklahoma with Clayton's family. We drove up on Wednesday night and it took some finagling, but we managed to keep Oliver awake the entire time. Oliver watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on the way and now all he wants to talk about is the abominable snow monster. Francie was amazing, despite having worked the day before, she managed to have almost everything ready by the time we arrived, which left hardly anything for Thursday morning. I did enjoy making a Waldorf salad beside her while she made the cornbread dressing. Everything turned out delicious and the company was even better! Thanks for inviting us!


Clayton's sister's family arrived on Thursday morning. Oliver was really excited to see Ace and the two of them had a fun time coloring on this huge box left over from Grandma & Grandpa's brand new TV. Thanks for sharing your art supplies Ace!

Ace working on his Batman masterpiece

Oliver with his masterpiece

Grandma, Oliver & Ace pretending to take a nap post meal.

hanging with Grandma

gingerbread house decorating....turned out to be a disaster since we didn't let the house set up for long enough and the roof kept falling off.

Friday, we made our way to Turner Falls in the Arbuckle Mountains with the intention of seeing some of Clayton's Dad's family. Unfortunately, we didn't make the connection, but we were able to see some pretty "views" as Oliver calls them.

We hiked up through this old castle and up the mountain to see this:

Turner Falls from above

I liked the sun rays in this picture

the sun made this one not turn out so well

Ace & Steven hiking back down

Daddy & Oliver on the way back down

I think Ace was loving this!

Afterwards, we walked over to the bottom of the falls. It was a really pretty afternoon!

We took our time getting over there, and when we got there Steven had already hiked up to a cave above the falls. I was so jealous! I really wanted to go, but I figured better not endanger myself and the baby, so I refrained.

From the bottom. People swim in the pool at the bottom during the summer. It really is quite majestic looking.

Then Clayton decided to hike up with Steven so I could live vicariously through him. Here they are at what I thought was the top.



Oliver and Ace were hilarious! They kept yelling Daddy-O (what Oliver calls his Daddy) while their Daddys were up on the mountain.

Then they went even higher. I guess the super zoom on my new camera is the ONE good thing about it.

Oliver & Ace

And some nice girl agreed to take a picture of the family. She took two with my camera, unfortunately, Oliver wouldn't cooperate for either. This is the better of the two.

After leaving, we stopped for Mexican food and then we drove through this amazing light display. They had tons of these huge light displays and most of them were in motion. Oliver loved it!

With a full belly, and three days without naps, there would have been no way I could have kept Oliver awake this time. He was sleeping within 10 minutes of leaving the lights. He slept the duration of the way home, continued to sleep as I carried him in, woke briefly while I was putting his diaper on and said "hmmm..it looks like we are in Texas", went back to sleep after I put him in his PJ's and slept until the next morning. I was AMAZED! You may recall from earlier posts, that this kid is NOT an easy sleeper. The environment generally must be perfect for him to sleep and car sleeping is totally out of the question. What a great memory to end our Thanksgiving trip!