Brief update this week, oddly enough since last week was so eventful and I’m still catching up. Lots of pictures, though. Last Wednesday we loaded up the car and drove down to Sulphur, Oklahoma (yee-haw!) for a family reunion. This involved more hours of driving with two young children than I really want to think about now that it’s behind me, and I think it belies Mandy’s normally sanguine disposition to note that she writhed in her little car seat and yelled at me nonstop for a 40 mile segment of that trip.
Otherwise, though, the trip was great. We got to spend time with my mom, who hadn’t seen the kids since Christmas, and I also got to stand with my various cousins in front of a laughing and squirming pile of children and ask “which ones are yours again?” There was also a LOT of ham, potato salad, and what I can only describe as a vat of delicious banana pudding.
On our last day we also visited the world famous Turner Falls in Davis, Oklahoma. We were disappointed to learn, however, that at some point between our visit and the time when my mom and her childhood friends used to visit this watering hole, the owners had decided it was worth charging a $9.99 per person entry fee. And also Samantha was the only one we had brought a swimsuit for. It was worth it, though, to let the kids play and splash in the shallows before we strapped them into a car for several more hours.
We also conducted a little experiment with sleeping arrangements. The house we had rented in Sulphur had 3 bedrooms, and given that there were five of us there (including my mom) this normally would have meant that Mandy and her portable crib would share a room with Geralyn and me. Instead we decided to see if Sam and Mandy could share a room. At first this did not work well. We would sit in the living room listening to Sam jabbering away to her sister and even occasionally scooting the crib around. After a few minutes Sam would come out of the room and complain to us that “Mandy won’t go to sleep.” Her stance proved impervious to our pointing out that this was on account of Sam’s leaning over the edge of Mandy’s crib and loudly demanding that she go to sleep, but she eventually seemed to catch on and things worked out fine.
I love the shot looking up at Samantha, the perspective is great.
That’s funny. Emma always complains that Henry talks too much when they sleep together in his full size bed!
Jeremy: Thanks!
Marla: at least we had them separated a bit with the crib. I wonder if they would ever go to sleep if they could actually move around the room together and play.
So where are the pictures of the World Famous Turner Falls? I gotta see it!
Falls must be a popular location for family reunions as we had all of ours near Toccoa Falls or the less spectacular Henderson Falls.
The last 2 pictures above are from the falls, though they feature very little water that’s actually falling. Most of the area where we were was just streams and little wading pools that wouldn’t subject our children to drowning. The actual falls were off in some other direction.