Week 289: Tulsa, Bartlesville, and Carthage

Wow, big week. And there’s a lot of pictures. After a pool party on Sunday, we all piled in the car and drove down to Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend a week visiting my mom and sister. There are a lot of things to do in Tulsa if you try really, really hard. We saw a gigantic pair of praying hands, blew up an inflatable pool, went to La Fortune Park, played at this sprinkler park on Riverside, and visited our alma mater. And that’s just what we did with the kids. Geralyn and I found time to go shopping, go out to dinner/drinks with several friends, and go to a movie.

And actually, the thing I left off that list is probably the most interesting thing: we made an hour-long drive to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to visit the “Kiddie Park”, where “the last train ride is always free” and driven by psychotic killer clowns judging by their website. Imagine a graveyard where traveling carnivals send all their rides that have become too broken down for even THEM to operate. That’s pretty much it. The first ride that Sam attempted to enjoy refused to start, so the slack-jawed attendant put his 15 minutes of new employee orientation to use by kicking it. When that didn’t work, he was evidently out of ideas so he hollared over to his supervisor, who waddled over and squinted at the machine (which housed an increasingly worried Samantha). Then HE kicked the machine. When that produced the same nil effect as before, he shrugged, put an “Out of Order” sign on the ride, and told me it would be a while. I was allowed to retrieve my daughter.

That initial introduction aside, the kids actually had a BLAST at this thing and I’d call the trip a success. Plus the rides were like 25 cents each, so it kind of helped offset the twelve bucks worth of gas it cost to get out there and back.

Also of note on this trip was an experiment with letting the girls share a room given that they were in short supply with so many people staying at my mom’s house. This did not go well because Mandy was put in what is less of a “pack and play” and more of a “pack and climb in and out at will, thereby annoying your big sister.” They actually stayed in their room most of the time, but would shriek, laugh, and bang stuff around. This until Sam decided that she had had enough, but was unable to contain the genie once out of its bottle. Or crib, as it were.

Anyway, on the way back home we stopped off at the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri. Because Geralyn insisted and we needed a place to eat our lunch. Actually, the grounds were beautiful, and if you can get past the fact that the chapel looks like someone sprayed an entire can of cute all over the place, it was kind of neat. Well, once you got past the fact that it’s essentially all about dead children. The girls liked it, except when Mandy started grabbing and waving around the little $60 statues in the gift shop.

Whew. So, good trip. Thanks again to my mom and sister Shawn for helping take care of the girls while Ger and I tried to make a vacation out of it. Much appreciated. The girls are already talking about how much they miss you.