Hannah's birthday

It's kind of hard to believe sometimes that Hannah's already 3 years old. Time is passing so fast. And then there are days when it feels like, "What?? She's only 3??? Time is passing so slowly!" But that's probably because of all the tantrums and the whining. I'm really ready for her to grow out of that a little bit. But anyway, her birthday was during the week so we had a quiet night as a family to open presents. She made out like a bandit. She got all kinds of play food, she got a doctor kit, she got a couple of Frozen dresses, she got a huge Frozen coloring book and I don't even remember now what else. Basically, we had to go get more storage for all the toys we have now. Then on Saturday, some of Dan's side of the family came over and we had a party at our community pool. The kids swam for a long time, and then Clara made a huge mess with the cupcakes! It was so much fun!

This face cracks me up.

Oklahoma vacation part 2

The last day we were there, we went to see some of Chickasaw country. We'd originally wanted to spend the morning at the Chickasaw cultural center, but they didn't open until later in the morning. So we went to see some nature instead. We took a walk by a lake and went in some sort of small museum that had some of the native wildlife on display. The kids loved it. Then we went to the cultural center for lunch. Let me tell you, they have put all of that casino money to good use. The cultural center is GORGEOUS. And the food was DELICIOUS! We had fry bread with buffalo meat on it. It was so good. I would go back just for that. We didn't get to look around the buildings because we needed to get on the road to go home, but we were able to catch some Indian dancing and chanting before we left. It was a fun trip, and definitely one I would make again.

Hannah, of course, was terrified of them. Such a scaredy cat!

Turner Falls

The number one thing we all had to say about this vacation was that the scenery far exceeded our expectations. Everywhere we went was absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely a place I would like to go back to in a few years when the kids are older, because there was a ton of stuff to do that you can't really do with little kids. There's lots of hiking and biking trails that take you to the tops of cliffs and into caves and all sorts of stuff. There's canoeing and kayaking and other water sports, too. Turner Falls itself had a little bit of everything. It's a little expensive, especially if you're only spending part of the day like we were. But there were people that brought grills and woks and stereo systems and anything else you can think of. I think it would be more worth the price if you were able to stay all day, but with three little ones it just wasn't doable. Plus, the weekend we went there was a cold front. It was only in the 70s for most of the time we were there, which we were very grateful for. It was gorgeous! But the downside was that we didn't really get to swim because it was way too cold. We let the kids swim for a little while, but it didn't last long. The biggest surprise was that there are ruins of a castle there! It was a little random and I didn't completely understand it, but apparently at some point in the past some rich person built a castle on the side of the hill. They didn't live in it very long and then it fell into disrepair and now you get to go play in the ruins. Random, but Hannah loved it!

hiking to the castle

In front of the actual waterfall

Cheese!

The one night we were all there together, we got the girls pizza for dinner. They had so much fun eating dinner together and being silly. They are so cute!!! I told each of them to say "cheese" and this is what I got. Cheesy smiles with cheese filled mouths. I love it!

Oklahoma vacation part 1

In July, we went about 2 hours north of here into Oklahoma to have a weekend vacation with some of my family. We rented a cabin by a small lake and went to Turner Falls and the Chickasaw cultural center and got to enjoy the beautiful outdoors in Chickasaw country. It was a lot of fun. These pictures are of some of the fun times we had at the cabin.

The cabin came with a canoe and a paddle boat. Hannah loved the canoe!

view from the dock

Clara managed to bust her lip open the first morning we were there. Poor girl.

Clara was not impressed with the paddle boat. She was in it only long enough for me to take this picture.

cuties

Emily let me do her hair! This was the first time she'd ever had pigtails. She looked SOO cute.