Summer 2012 Road Trip, Part 5

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

With all our food souvenirs in tow, we bid farewell to our friends in St. Louis and drove eight hours back to Oklahoma to spend a few more days with my mother-in-law before heading home.

One day, we took the kids to the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in our former hometown of Norman. The museum features complete dinosaur skeleton models, which are quite impressive. Jackson, our dino lover, was enthralled. Imagine how enormous they appear to a three-year-old!

This smaller dinosaur was more to Olivia's liking.

A special exhibit about Chinese dinosaurs included an informational film. I laughed when Jackson and Olivia sat right down on the floor and started watching. Future paleontologists!

The kids tried to walk in the giant footsteps of some prehistoric creature.

As we left, the kids wanted to pose with the Oklahoma buffalo in front of the museum.

Afterwards, we took Tony's mom to lunch at Ted's Cafe Escondido. I had the spinach enchiladas with corn and papas, as usual.

Can't pass up free sopapillas for dessert!

The next evening, Grandma was nice enough to babysit the kiddos so Tony and I could go out to dinner on our own. We chose Victoria's, also known as the site of our first date some twelve years ago. It's crazy how their food has not changed at all over the years. That's a good thing.

We started with some stuffed mushrooms. Can you see them under all that grated parmesan?

I ordered the sampler, which lets you pick and choose three different types of pasta. I went with the marinara, pesto, and primavera. Again, I promise you they are somewhere under all that parmesan cheese. The marinara is my favorite. That is some exceptional tomato sauce there.

We left the next morning and arrived back in Austin ready to sleep in our own bed...and perhaps embark on a diet to make up for the past week and a half's indulgences.

My first dinner at home? Veggie burger patties. I didn't have buns and grocery shopping would have to wait until the next day.

Thanks for checking out my vacation pics, you guys. Are you looking forward to a fun vacation this summer? Where are you going?

4th of July Recap

Hey all, how was your 4th of July this year? Tony had a four-day weekend, so we headed up to Oklahoma to stay with his mom for a few days.

On Saturday, I met up with an old friend in my college town. We went to the splash pad so we could visit while our kids played. Having endured a 6 1/2 hour car ride, Jackson and Olivia had tons of pent up energy and could have played under those sprinklers all day! But we left at lunchtime to go meet up with some other friends and their new baby girl. She is a super cutie! As a bonus, we ate at my favorite restaurant in Norman, Pepe Delgado's. This was the kids' first time eating there.  

They liked the food, but they were not in the mood to sit and let Mama and Daddy visit for very long. I wonder if Pepe's would consider installing a splash pad out back?

At Grandma's house, Jackson spent most of his time playing with her dog, Boone, who is 17 years old. Jackson loves him so much. Whenever we ask him if he is excited to visit Grandma, he says, "I go see Boone! I play with Boone! I throw the ball with Boone!" As you would expect with a 17-year-old canine, Boone isn't doing so well. Sadly, we know this is probably his last summer. So I made sure to take lots of pictures of Jackson and his buddy together.

On the last night of our visit, Tony's mom and cousin surprised us by offering to babysit so we could go run around without the kids. There's not much to do in the small town where my mother-in-law lives, so we found ourselves back down in Norman at a bar where I spent many, many evenings in college.

I celebrated my 21st birthday in that very booth! Ha. I'm a sucker for nostalgic experiences like this one, but it was also surreal. Nothing has changed. I mean, literally every fake potted plant in the bar was still in its exact same location. 

Afterwards, we walked around the OU campus and passed by my favorite house in town. I always called it the Italian villa. It looks like it belongs to a ministry group now. Maybe someday they'll sell it to me and I can have it transported brick by brick to Austin. Ha, maybe not. But it's sure pretty. 

On the hour-long drive home from Norman to Grandma's house, we saw fireworks the whole way. A lot of small towns were having their displays on July 3rd for some reason, and we unintentionally timed our drive so we got to see them. That was nice. 

On the actual holiday, we were making the long journey back to Texas. When we got home, we thought about taking the kids in search of fireworks, but Austin and many surrounding towns cancelled their displays due to the drought and wildfire hazard. I think a couple of small towns still had displays, but we were pretty tired and we thought the fireworks might scare Olivia since she's still so small. So we decided to go grocery shopping and then come home and relax.

Look what was buy one, get one free!

Such a lovely sight to behold. Had to stock up on fruit, too. Nectarines and pineapples were cheap this week. And of course I always need a supply of bananas on hand for my little monkeys.

Olivia is quite a fan of the pineapple. She's had a little cold for a couple days, so I'm glad to see her getting her vitamin C.

Today was the last day of Tony's mini-vacation. We thought about cooking out, but it was hot and we were lazy. Also, Tony has caught Olivia's cold, and he thought some spicy food would be good for his sinuses. Off we went to Polvo's. The Michoacan avocado salad was one of my first meals when we moved back to Austin because I missed it so much. It's what I always order.

So there you go -- no parades or barbecues, but a fun and relaxing July 4th, all the same. Hope yours was, as well.