Dashing through the snow

That wild and crazy onslaught of snow, also known as The Blizzard of '09, made traveling pretty difficult....unless you're traveling by sled! *grins*

Kenny and I had a hysterical time on several different days sledding and frolicking through the snow. His Mom and Dad live sort of out in the country on a nice big area of land with trees and hills and it just makes for the perfect place to sled....except you have to make sure and stop before you go off the ledge that leads to the creek!

Can you see those enormous snow flakes!?! I just couldn't believe my eyes the entire week! We bundled up in multiple layers of clothes, I was actually wearing three pairs of pants! wow! And Kenny discovered these amazing yellow fire fighter pants in his Dad's closet. They were water proof and just fantastic!

I got to borrow Cecilia's amazing snow boots, wear a warm yellow hat and these amazing goretex mittens (that's right, no fingers!) and a red ski mask to keep my face warm. It worked like a charm and I only slightly resembled Hannibal Lecter *laughs*

Oh we had a blast! I could have stayed out there all day long *grins* Look at this picture below, I was up to my knees in several places wow!

On the side of the house where the snow had drifted the most, it was about four feet high. We couldn't even walk through it! We had to lift our bodies up on top of the snow and belly crawl it was so deep!

Here's a couple videos so you'll feel like you were there with us! *laughs*

Hope you had as much fun as we did!!

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas (in Kansas)

Our Christmas in Kansas was heavenly as usual. We got to leave Oklahoma City a day early. We were a little worried about impending bad weather and my boss let me have an extra day off! How great!!

Our drive up was thankfully uneventful except for a light mist just as we crossed state lines. We arrived just in time to have Taco Villa Burritos (Kenny's favorites) for dinner and watch a fun Christmas movie.
The next day is when all the action happened. It started to snow..and snow.... and snow..... and SNOW! It was amazing! I kept glancing up at the window and just saying "wow, look at it coming down!" Little did I know that we would be home bound for the next four days *grins*

We really had a terrific time just hanging out with Kenny's Dad and Mom. We felt sad that we didn't get to see the whole family, Grandma and Nana, Jeff and Jessica and everyone, but we made the most of the time and family that we had!

It was so relaxing to have five whole days to just have fun and play games, watch movies, eat and laugh. Here is just a sample of the fun we had...

Kenny's Mom and Dad have a Wii and the Wii fit game and balance board that go with it. Kenny and I hadn't ever played on one before so we had a great time testing out all the games and being analyzed.

This Wii Fit game is a gigantic ski jump. You have to squat down and lean forward and then, just at the right moment...

straighten your knees out and stay still and balanced. You fly off the end of the ski jump and sail way out for hundreds of feet! Here is my turn *laughs*
just look at that concentration!
I like how I have my arms back like I'm really using ski poles (I've never even been snow skiing!)

We also had a family wide, four person dart tournament,
Kenny's Dad beat us all hands down!We all joined in for a huge game of chickens foot dominoes
and Kenny and I battled back and forth all week with the Chinese Checkers...I think it all ended in a tie (shhhh I gave up while I was ahead *winks*)
We watched some really glorious movies each day...White Christmas, Christmas in Connecticut, Holiday Inn, then on Christmas eve we cozied up on the couches in the glow of Denny and Cecilia's beautiful Christmas tree and watched It's a Wonderful Life, our Christmas tradition before heading off to bed.
Christmas morning came bright and early, Kenny was wide awake and bouncing all around by 7:00! *laughs* I love how he gets so excited about Christmas!
I must have been extra good this year because Santa brought me two stockings full! *grins* Kenny and I got a beautiful copper fire bowl from Denny and Cecilia.

I can't wait to see it glowing with warmth like this on our back patio! We all had a great time taking turns opening gifts and (me) squealing with glee at what was inside *laughs*

Later that day I got to spend some time with Cecilia cooking a marvelous Christmas feast. She and I had a lot of fun together and we were so blessed to have all of those yummy left overs to hold us through the blizzard.
We are so thankful we got to spend all that time together and had a very merry white Christmas!

Tulsa Zoo and The Sequoyah Wildlife Refuge

For our last day in Tulsa we decided we couldn't leave without seeing the zoo. We kind of have a thing for zoos and animals *laughs*
It was a little chilly outside (note the bundled up layers) and we got to the zoo right as it was opening. We were amazed that we basically had the entire zoo to ourselves, minus the zoo keepers of course. It was nice to enjoy peace and quiet and get to see all sorts of cute animals.

The first place we stopped was to see the elephants. The Oklahoma City zoo elephants are on loan here in Tulsa while their habitat is being renovated. I also heard that a brand new baby elephant is on the way who will join his mother in Oklahoma City, yay!

The elephants were pretty busy keeping warm, but I had fun operating this remote control elephant trunk!

Next we ventured over to the chimpanzee area. They're always a hoot and a half. These were especially frisky considering there were two little fellas! I think this was a big brother rough housing with one of the babies. They would just frolic all over and wrestle and tickle it was hilarious fun!

Look at this little guy, so busy working with a piece of grass.

At one point a noisy airplane flew overhead and startled the little darling..

He jumped up from playing and ran straight to his mother, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to ask "what in the world was that!?!"

She just cradled him and stroked his hair and told him that everything would be okay.

Next we happened across a red metal frame work that demonstrated a chimp's proportions, so you know I had to try it out...

Hmmmm, I think I have a little too much be-hind back there *laughs*

There were several pretty white cranes walking around beside a lake, preening their feathers and gossiping. I think they were talking about my be-hind!

There was a really fun rain forest area with all sorts of fish and birds and even some little monkeys jumping from tree to tree. Just outside the entrance was an enormous carving of a head. He looked a little blue so I gave him a smooch to cheer him up *grins*

Since we were the only one's around we had a fun time playing with the cut out signs...
It might have been a little harder to convince Kenny to be the adorable little gazelle that he is if there were hoards of people spying us out *laughs* Look at his cute ears!

We saw these two cutsie deers. I can't remember what they were called, but they kind of look like a cross between an anteater and a deer and a chihuahua (very tiny)This Rhino was busy eating until he realised we were taking his picture. He decided he would have none of that. Then, stomping the ground and giving a little growl he charged over right towards us!
I was pretty thankful for that fence, I can't imagine having one of these giants coming at you in the wild! Pretty scary!

After one more stop to watch those little chimpanzees we decided to leave the zoo and head South, about an hour, to the Sequoyah Wildlife Refuge. Kenny has been reading up about local wildlife refuges and it sounded like this one mostly had birds, but we decided to go ahead and check it out while we were so close.

On the way there I was keeping my eyes glued to the tree line watching for any birds and especially for bald eagles. The books that Kenny has been reading said that there were bald eagles in this area. Do you know what!?! I spied two, side by side, just off the highway, way up in the trees! We were so excited! We were driving so fast (highway speed) that we couldn't whip the camera out in time, but you better believe there were some high fives going on! *grins*

We arrived and drove around the loop which surrounds the refuge. It isn't a very big place, but there are a few small lakes and some great places for birds to roost and catch fish. Being so cold there weren't a ton of birds, but we mostly just wanted to scout it out for future spring or fall trips.
We did see a couple of these pretty hawks lazing around, making loops in the sky. We ended our visit by doing the short mile hike and quickly heard a scuffling scratching sound coming from the ground. I was eerily cautious thinking it could be a mountain lion, but crept on and discovered this...
A cute little armadillo, and boy was he ever busy digging and rustling in the leaves and dirt. There must have been some glorious grub worms that he was slurping up! We walked right up withing two feet of him and he never even looked up or noticed that we were there. How funny!

We finished off the hike by crossing over this pretty little suspension bridge. It shook every time you took a step, but that's what made it fun *winks* The floor of it was a grate like pattern so you could see right through to the lake below!Wow! Don't I have a handsome hubby! I'm a lucky lady to get to go on all sorts of adventures with him *grins* Thanks for my birthday treat baby!

The Philbrook Museum

One more glorious place we explored in Tulsa was the Philbrook Museum. It is a magnificent 72 room Italian Renaissance Villa that was once the home of oilman Waite and Genevieve Phillips (no relation to me unfortunately *winks*). They later made their home and breath taking art collection a gift as the art center for the city of Tulsa.
I can't believe this was someones house!?! It was so enormous!

The dusting alone that would be required for this home had me flabbergasted *laughs*! I'm guessing they probably had some maids huh?

We really enjoyed touring through every room and lingering at each painting to wonder at the age, details and talent involved.

I know I'm a total nerd, but I wish they would label the paint colors (on the walls). I always notice that art museums have such amazing wall paint colors and you get to see an entire room rather than a tiny one inch square on a paint sample card.Above was Kenny's favorite painting at the museum. Of course it's some place in nature *laughs*, The Grand Canyon. This was my favorite. It's called 'The Shepherdess' I'm really impressed when a painting can be so real looking that you are convinced it's a photograph, especially when it was painted hundreds of years ago!

This fun little pod was in the modern art section of the museum.It was three dimensional, like a giant kernel of corn and a projector displayed the face image on it and played speaking sound effects. It was pretty interesting, something I'd never think of anyway!

Last of all we went outside to explore the gardens, wow! Despite the low temperatures it was a breathtaking scene.

Those small white containers above glow with light after the sun sets.Can't you just see some glorious weddings taking place on site. What a perfect setting!I'm so glad we discovered yet another treasure on our trip!

The Oklahoma Aquarium

Day two in Tulsa was a whirlwind of activity! We wanted to see everything we could possibly see while we were there *laughs* We got up nice and early and went downstairs to enjoy breakfast. I was laughing later on in the day that every meal I ate involved bacon, yum!

To start our day off we headed straight to the Oklahoma Aquarium. My family has been a couple times, but somehow I was never along on the trip, so I was oh so very excited to see this place!
We were super impressed. So many different fish tanks and unique species, and all the tanks look extra clean and the fish looked healthy and happy. That really makes a difference in our enjoyment of a place, that the animals are happy and well taken care of.

I couldn't believe all that they had here, around the first turn we were completely mesmerized by these elegant jellyfish.

Japanese shamisen music was playing and it just looked like they were performing some intricate water dance....so beautiful *grins* We also got to see these cute guys...
They look like blue mushrooms swirling around in a washing machine *laughs* but I assure you they are jelly fish too! There were clown fish (like Nemo)

Lion fish (can you see both of them?)

and even an Eel

The gigantic "Caribbean" tank really intrigued us, we sat in front of it for quite a while reminiscing about our honeymoon and pointing out a lot of the fish we saw while snorkeling in St. Thomas.

The touch tanks were really amazing too! We got to reach our hands right in and pet sharks and stink rays, horse shoe crabs, starfish and shrimp!
The sharks feel rough, just like fine grit sandpaper. They weren't shy like I expected them to be. The light ones especially would swim right towards your hand and run their body through your fingers. Kenny mentioned that they probably like it, they have so many sensors on their body.
The stingrays would rustle up against the edge of the tank and splash water all over any waiting victims *laughs* They were soft and slimy smooth.
These little shrimp were so funny, they'd cautiously crawl up into your hand and explore all over and between your fingers with their little feelers, oooo it tickled! Here is Kenny feeling out those horse shoe crabs...

speaking of horses, look at these cute little sea horses. They are so funny and unique, unlike any other creature *grins* Isn't God so creative! How did he come up with all these different things!?!

Oh man we had such a fun time! It's a definite must see if you're ever in the Tulsa area!