Minne-Okie

Man alive did we make some memories this memorial day weekend! Zak, Crystal, Beau (almost 4), and Renaud (almost 8 months) came all the way down from Duluth to spend the weekend with us.


They arrived Saturday evening. We made some sweet bread pizzas and they got settled in to their room.


On Sunday we went to church - Beau even did primary all by himself! After lunch we cooled off in the pool. Renaud loves the water, he splashed and giggled a lot. Beau and Uncle Evan figured out how to hold the noodle up to the pools jets and spray everyone!


After swimming we were hungry again, so Julia Child (played by yours truly) and Beau baked brownies and cooked meatballs and baked pasta. Beau learned how to speak like Julia saying - "and the wat-ah (water)" over and over :)


Then we headed to campus to show everyone what Uncle Evan does with rocks. We all had fun seeing the incredible minerals on display.





Instead of just walking around campus aimlessly, we decided to explore it while hunting for geocaches. We ended up finding two! We had a blast :)


The next morning we met up with some friends and ran the first annual Minne-Okie 5K. Zak is running a half marathon later this month, so I thought it would be cool to do some training with him. I ended up cutting 8 minutes off my last time! Running together is a new thing for my family, but I hope we stick with it.


After cleaning ourselves up, we headed to iconic Eskimo Joe's for some lunch - aren't they just such a good looking bunch!


Zak picked up a really sweet shirt to capture the memory, now where have I seen that before? :)


Then off to the City for some more adventures! We did a quick stop to show them our amazing temple. After that, we split up:








The boys played at the Oklahoma Science Museum.


And the girls went to $1 Jewelry Galore :) We both came away the victor.


We ate our fill at Texas Road House before heading back home. Sure do love these faces!


Wait! No trip is complete until we've stopped at Pops. They had a fun time picking out pops ranging from Mint to Bulldog Root Beer to Toxic Slime to Vanilla Cream!


Okay, now we can end the day - peace out OKC!


The next morning was spent doing dishes & laundry, watching Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, making cookies, sending Z & C on a date, and prepping for a POOL PARTY!!








We invited a bunch of friends over for a pool party/ BBQ. It was amazing - thank you everyone for making it truly a day to remember!

We ended the day with a relaxing movie night- Lars and the Real Girl.

The next morning we packed up and hit the open road, they said goodbye to Oklahoma and hello to one of our favorite spots - Branson, Missouri.


Along the way we stopped at the world's largest McDonald's - it was so big it bridged over the highway!





We started our day in Branson just walking around the outdoor mall by the river. Beau got spoiled with a balloon puppy, a mini train ride, a ride on a bull, and a strawberry snow cone - it was glorious :)


Intermission - we had a fun time playing around the mall too :)


Then we went on a Duck ride! They are WWII amphibious assault vehicles turned into tour busses. The best part is that part of the tour is IN the lake and the kids get to drive:





Beau was just tickled!


We also got these ridiculous noise makers that we could play as obnoxiously as we wanted :)


A teething Renaud liked the vibrating chew toy. Uncle Evan is such a trooper!


Then off to dinner at Lambert's Cafe - yes, they really do toss you rolls! (Shout out to Charith!)


Our food was huge and delicious. Crystal ate out of a pan, I ate a mountain of salad, they brought around fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, and black-eyed peas. It was a feast!


Then we hugged and kissed their glorious faces and we both went our separate ways.

I am SO happy they came to visit! Hope you all had fun weekends too - peace out,

LB.