Oklahoma recap

I had a ridiculously good time in Oklahoma over the weekend, and I'm going to recap it here in excruciating detail so feel free to skim.

Thursday afternoon Brian rushed home from school so that he could take me to the airport. My flight, of course, was delayed so there was really no need to rush. It was a very, very bumpy flight to St. Louis, but with my iPad and The Scorpio Races (highly recommend, by the way) to distract me, I didn't mind too much. I spent an extra couple of hours in St. Louis, ate a couple of bites of some really bad ice cream and then flew to Tulsa. Because my flight was delayed, we didn't arrive at Becky's house until almost 11:00 p.m. and we stayed up talking, of course.

Friday morning we dropped the boys off at school, took a walk, then spent the morning crying over our coffee. We like to get all the heavy conversations out of the way first. Friday afternoon was spent browsing T.J. Maxx, Kohls, and enjoying some Cherry Berry frozen yogurt.

Saturday morning Micah fixed chocolate chip pancakes for everyone while I skyped with Brian and the kids (Rory was none too happy that I had left her) then Becky and I headed out to spend the day shopping. We drove around Tulsa browsing little shops that you never make time for when there are children on board. You know, the kind with lots of breakables and clothes that are too expensive for anyone normal to own. We ate lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe and decided to split sandwiches so we could try more than one item: grilled cheese and a smoked BBQ turkey sandwich. It was a good call.

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing Anthropologie and Pottery Barn then decided we needed a snack at Queenies. Once again, we decided to split desserts so we could taste more: banana cake with caramel icing, snicker doodle cookie, and a triple chocolate cookie that was amazing. We went home just in time to visit her friend Lauren at her salon, The Vintage Comb, as well as take the boys on a walk. Actually, the boys rode their scooters while we desperately tried to keep up.

Lots of pretty Anthropologie items. I had just about decided that my kitchen table *needed* this owl when we realized it was nearly $100.

These coffee cups were just about our only purchase of the weekend, and while they're super pretty (and came in very pretty Anthropologie wrapping) mostly we just wanted to take a picture of a "bm."

Sunday was church, then a delicious Sausage, Kale, and Bean soup followed by some photography talk while everyone else took naps. We had no time for naps - too much to talk about and do. After naptime, everyone loaded up in the van and we went for some family pictures. Let me just say that Micah was less than thrilled at this idea, but he was a trooper.

Embracing the haze. Oklahoma sun stays much higher in the sky at 4:00 than in Tennessee.

William

Xavier

Sunday night we made a quick run to Gymboree since Becky's store had announced that they were opening up their back stock room to customers after hours. Let's just say that the store was a bit more crowded than we liked and we decided that a few sales weren't worth the dozens of boxes we were going to have to look through not to mention the line to pay for those sale items. So it was back home for some American Idol viewing and White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake ice cream.

Monday we ran out for coffee (White Chocolate Macadamia Nut for me and Neopolitan mocha for Becky) then talked photography with Traci (one of Becky's friends) while attempting a few snapshots of Traci's very cute, but very fast 2 year old.

After Traci and Olivia left, Becky and I decided we had not eaten enough food over the weekend and headed back to Tulsa to try out Elote, a local organic Mexican restaurant. The puffy tacos were amazing, but the cream cheese based queso dip was disgusting. Warm cream cheese is just not my thing.

We then had the bright idea of exploring a local paper scrapbooking company, and we might have been sucked into all the beautiful papers and fun gadgets, but then decided it was all too much work and safely retreated back into our digital scrapbooking. It was fun to see this big paper pack by Lili. We both design for her digital designs, but she has pretty real-life paper designs as well.

Monday was William and Xavier's 100th day of school so there was a celebration, of course. Their teacher must hate parents because she asked the kids to wear 100 of something. Becky came up with this idea.

And a quick picture after another walk/run trying to keep up with the boys and their scooters. The boys are sporting their 100 Day gear.

Isn't it nice that someone in their neighborhood made me a great welcome in the street. ;)

It all came to an end much too quickly, and I flew back home Tuesday morning. There was alot of food, lots of laughter, long walks every day, good coffee, even a whole lot of TV viewing. Both of our husbands don't watch alot of TV, and somehow American Idol and Downton Abbey are just more fun when you're watching with someone to chat with. I was able to meet several of Becky's friends, and they're all huggers which is fun. I enjoy a good hug but am introverted enough to not usually initiate them. I was also able to meet some of her church family who have been praying for me this past year.

It was so fun to have a weekend free from responsibility and to spend it with Becky. While I've been able to spend lots of time with family this year (one very good thing that's happened as a result of cancer), it's always because they're here to help me during chemo so it was nice to take a trip and not worry about anything medical related.

 My mom is coming over tonight and we're spending Super Bowl Sunday evening with Michael, Liz, Addison and my mom. Hope your weekend is a ton of fun!