Montana Vacation - Day 5 - Nature Hike and Craft Day

After breakfast we climbed back up that hill behind the cabin that ran near the ski lift to see if we could see the moose family again, but they were nowhere to be found - probably hiding.  We found a plastic tub that had been discarded and used it to gather other trash off the mountain - the kids really got excited about helping the environment in this way.

Nana pulled out some more crafts for the kids.  We used paint and stamps to decorate shirts and visors.  Becky also brought some pet rocks for them to paint and decorate.  It was neat because each creation was different and reflected their personal style.

After lunch we broke out the Wii again and let the kids play each other in Mario Kart - a racing game with the Mario characters.  You steer by holding the Wiimote horizontally and turning it like a steering wheel.  We had rented the game, but a purchased version comes with a steering wheel-shaped controller that accepts the Wiimote plugged horizontally into the center. 

This evening we tried the hot tub again for the kids at a lower temperature and it was more enjoyable.  Nana even decided to soak awhile with them.  While no one in the tub had longer toes than Nana, they could all bend their great toes backward toward their ankles, proving that they were all true Evans grandkids :)

After they dried off and warmed up, we used the fireplace again to make s'mores.  Aaron got this glazed look in his eyes that was a combo of a full day, a relaxing hot tub soak and a sugar coma.


Marli asked Becky to teach her some basic crochet techniques and she spent the evening before bedtime curled up in a blanket by the fireplace practicing her new skills.

Montana Vacation - Day 1 - No Bags, No Rental Car, Beautiful Scenery

Today we landed in Bozeman, Montana for a 10 day vacation.  I've got a medical conference at the end of the week, but we arrived early to see the sights.  We barely made our connecting flight in Chicago, but our bags didn't make it.  We were told that they were being routed to us through Denver and they'd deliver it to us by noon tomorrow.  That also left us without the boys' carseats, which was OK, because we didn't have a rental car.  Turns out, they were out.  They did hook us up with another car rental agency who got us a car at about $200 more than we had our other one reserved for.  A couple of loaner car seats later and we were driving to Big Sky about an hour south.  Before we left, we met up with my brother, Mark, and his new girlfriend, Leslie who came in on a flight just after us (with their bags).  His two oldest kids had driven up with my parents over the last 2 1/2 days and were already waiting for us there.  We caravaned down through some very beautiful country.  The last 40 minutes of the drive were through the Gallatin Mountains with the Gallatin River flowing along beside us. It was a beautiful start.

As we drove up the mountain into Big Sky, we ended up at the Cascade Cabin, a four-bedroom cabin that Mom found for rent online.  It had a full kitchen with a large 8-person table.  There was a fireplace downstairs and a hot-tub out on the porch that went around 2 sides of the house. You could see the nearby Lone Peak mountain from the porch which also looked out onto a largely undeveloped area that included a small brook and a trail.

Mark, Leslie, the kids and I took a walk down the trail.  The kids picked wildflowers and we found a pond in the middle of the brook's flow that sheltered a duck family.  I posed them for a shot on one of the bridges that ran across the brook (or is it a stream by this point?)

The trail was near the bedding grounds of 2 mule deer.  At one point they even walked by the porch at the cabin.  They still had velvet on their antlers and were beautiful to watch.

We grilled burgers for dinner and got the kids down at a reasonable hour.  I had checked with the airline and our bags were due in a little before midnight and I wasn't keen about waiting for delivery tomorrow.  Dad and I drove back up to Bozeman - that scenic drive is not very scenic at night.  Instead it is a long series of hairpin turns that you can't see until you're right upon it.  The plane was delayed (naturally) but when it did arrive, our bags were on it and we brought them home and crawled into bed at 2AM (4AM to my Ohio brain) to rest up for a trip to Yellowstone National Park tomorrow.
Cascade Cabin, "backyard" walk, grilled burgers, driving back up to Bozeman in the dark, back by 2 AM

Disney Vacation 2008 - Day 2 - Epcot

We started our first full day at Epcot, getting there when it opened. We walked to the nearby Epcot monorail station and the boys got to ride in the front with the driver. When we got in, we split up to let Grammy and Grandpa take Aaron to rides that he was tall enough to go on (Universe of Energy with animatronic dinosaurs and Spaceship Earth). Becky and Alex and I tried to get onto Test Track, but it was down for repairs (not very reassuring by the way). We went ahead next door and rode Mission: Space, which simulates taking off in a space rocket/plane and landing on Mars. There are 4 people per ship and everyone has a job to do to get through the mission successfully. Your ship is really a motion-controlled pod that flips you around depending on what is happening on the screen. Becky and I loved it, but Alex declared that he'll never go on it again (we'll see). We hustled over to The Land where we met Grammy, Grandpa, and Aaron. While we were waiting for our FastPass time for Soarin' to come due, we rode the Living with the Land (showcasing new ways to grow food) and the Circle of Life movie featuring Timon and Pumba from The Lion King teaching us an environmental message. We thought Aaron might just make the 40" height limit for Soarin', but he was in tears when the attendant slipped a card between his head and the height bar. He and Becky waited in the Land Pavilion while the rest of us took a simulated hang-glider ride over California.

We had lunch at the Coral Reef which let us dine next to an enormous fish tank while fish, sea turtles, and sharks swam by. We expanded that experience after lunch by taking the Living Seas ride around that same tank. After that, we got to talk to a live-animated computer-generated version of Crush the sea turle from Finding Nemo. He talked with the kids all sitting in the front rows, taught them some "turtle slang", and answered their questions. He even pulled out something he found on the beach - a polka-dot bikini top and wore it hanging down from his neck. When he asked Alex what it was, he told him it was a bow tie to make a joke and everybody loved it, including Crush. Nearby we found Bruce the great white shark and had to rescue the boys from his jaws. Kids are friends, not food.

We split up again to try to get onto Test Track, but the line was too long. Instead we rode Spaceship Earth, the big golf ball-looking ride in the front of the park that showcases the past, present and future of communication.

Epcot is divided into 2 sections: Future World, where we spent most of our day and which highlights high-tech innovations and rides, and the World Showcase which is set up like a perpetual World's Fair. We took a ferry across the lagoon that separates them and ended up at the American Pavilion where we at burgers and saw the American Adventure - a multimedia presentation of American history as told by an animatronic duet of Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. Outside there we found a topiary collection making up Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Alex was getting to play a Dwarf in the Spring Musical in May, so he really wanted to get some pictures to help him with his part - so I had to get pictures of him taking pictures. We wanted to make it out of the park before the mass exodus after the fireworks show, so we booked it to the China pavilion and saw Reflections of China shown in a 360 degree theater. You stand in the middle while a movie plays on screens all around you - at one point it looks like you are standing on the Great Wall and can see it extend into the horizon on both sides of you. We ended up at Mexico where a boat ride that used to tell the story of Mexico (el Rio de Tiempo) has been transformed into a ride that mostly features Donald Duck being chased all over Mexico as his mariachi bandmates try to find him for the animatronic number at the end of the Gran Fiesta.

By the end of the day, we finally found a Photopass photographer to take a group photo in front of the big Spaceship Earth. He got us into various configurations and poses and this was the best group shot. (After we got back, we went online with a code number he gave us and added the WDW Epcot 2008 logo in the corner). We kept this code number and gave it to other Photopass photogs during the week so all of our pictures would be in one place. Time to rest up - tomorrow we tackle the Animal Kingdom park.

Disney Vacation 2008 - Day 1 - Volcano Pool & Ohana

We finally made it to Orlando after months of planning. Grammy and Grandpa Hardage brought us and we've really been looking forward to this day. We took the Disney shuttle from the airport and it brought us to the Polynesian Resort. It is one of the original resorts that rings the Seven Seas Lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom. It is themed around Polynesian longhouses which look great with all of the palm trees on the property. The boys posed in front of the rainforest garden they have growing in the lobby while we checked in.
Once we got settled, we threw on our swimsuits from our carry-on bags and walked over to the Volcano Pool, named for the steaming volcano that had sprouted next to the pool, allowing the Disney Imagineers to build a waterslide right through it. We played there for a couple of hours until they brought our bags over from the shuttle, so we could change for dinner. We had adjoining rooms on the first floor near the entrance of one of the centrally located longhouses, which put us near about anything we needed to get to. The other advantage of our location was its proximity to the ferry dock, the monorail station, the bus stop and the Ticket and Transportation Center which got us to anywhere we needed to get on the the entire resort property.
Tonight we just had to walk to 'Ohana (which means "Family") in the main building, the Great Ceremonial House. The meal was served family style in courses, culminating in them bringing by skewers of meat that had been cooked on a grill in the center of the restaurant and dispensing turkey, pork, or beef medallions right onto our plates. The entertainment was provided by a hula singer who involved the crowd, especially the kids in the songs and dances. Once of the dances they encouraged the kids to go a grab a parent to dance with and so Becky got the privilege.

Melinda's Memory Bands

Becky found a website that would custom-make silicone memory bands. She first thought that making a few would be nice for the family but then realized that there would be a big demand, both here and in Oklahoma City. The slogan reminded her of conversations she had with Melinda during her treatment last year. She reminded Becky to LIVE life to the fullest, LOVE everyone you can, and don't forget to SMILE!
She is selling them for $3 as a fundraiser for Komen for the Cure. So far, sales here and in OKC are expected to be brisk.

Melinda's Memorial Video

Mark, along with help from Melinda's family, helped pick the pictures and I helped scan in the prints. Friends from his church, Pam and Adrian, came over the day before the funeral and put the slides to music. It was a perfect song. Melinda's legacy lives on in the hearts of the family and friends that she touched, in the man that she loved, and especially in the children that she brought into this world and loved so fiercely. It played on big screens at the front of the church during her funeral. It was a beautiful moment, have her big smile shine down on us there. Making it simultaneously made me very happy to see her smile, and hurt my heart that all I had were these pictures and my memories of her.

In Memoriam

This is the end of what has been a long week. Our sister-in-law, Melinda, lost her battle with breast cancer last Friday. She'd been sick in the hospital following a routine reconstructive surgery, showing many of the signs of liver failure. After her death, we found out that it was recurrent cancer that had attacked her liver. The rest of her body could not keep up. We started making flight arrangements when we heard that she had gone from sick but stable, to critically ill. We did not make it there before she passed, but we all got on a plane to be with our family at this time.
Melinda was a wonderful mother to her 3 young kids, an amazing wife to my brother, a loving aunt to our kids, and a caring sister to us. We came to Oklahoma City to honor her and to be with our family - especially my brother and his children. Her beautiful service on Wednesday was led by their church's preacher and we laid her poor body to rest on a lovely hill by a lake. Wind chimes rang in a nearby tree and there were lots of flowers perfuming the air on this warm, yet breezy day. She would've thought it was beautiful. She would not want us to hurt for long. We took the kids to a family fun center/pizza place last night and blew off a lot of steam from all of the preparations that led up to her service.
The rest of our lives begins now. The news we got last night - that it was recurrent cancer that destroyed her liver - felt like this horrible monster that came around the corner to snatch her, just when we thought she had licked it. While this is very upsetting news, it also provides a bit of closure, and with it hopefully, a bit of peace.
Melinda didn't cause this in choosing the surgeries that she did, decisions she and the family made when she was hospitalized didn't cause this, and the doctors treating her these past few weeks didn't make a mistake that caused this - rather they kept her with us for 3 more weeks with their heroic efforts. Time to see her kids, hug her family and friends - for us, one last phone call. We just didn't know at the time that we were saying goodbye.
I told my mom after we heard the news that she is the last one this monster gets to take. To honor my children's Aunt Melinda, my Aunt Carolyn, and my grandmother Reba - we have to find a cure. Please join me in your hearts today in this mission. I know there will be prayers - we need those too. But let the positive thoughts from those prayers inspire you to make this also your mission. Tell your friends and family to get checked regularly for this disease. Raise money for research to find a cure. Tell those that ask about your efforts about this wonderful woman that you knew that got too short of a life here with us, and that you don't want that to happen to anyone else if it is in your hands to eliminate this monster from this planet.
Her obituary is beautiful and is online here. The blog that updated us about her health, and now will update us on things we can do for the family and to fight this disease is here.
We want to thank Becky's parents for driving up from Austin to help us with the kids, the staff at my office for taking care of my patients when I suddenly had to leave, the friends who've offered us support back home, and the kids' school for understanding why they couldn't be there for their first week. We're coming back to our lives soon, but our lives have been forever changed.

OK Vacation - Casa Viva

After the Air & Space Museum, we made our way for dinner nearby at Casa Viva. This used to be Casa Bonita when Becky and I were kids. It shut down for a year, remodeled and changed owner. Now, it looks exactly like we remembered it. We ate in a cave and lifted our little flag up when it was time for sopapillas and honey.


After dinner we watched a magic show and the kids got to participate in the act. They had a blast and we made some new memories at the old/new Casa Viva.

OK Vacation - Tulsa Air and Space Museum

I got online last night and started looking for things to do in the Bartlesville area that we had not done before. The Tulsa Air and Space Museum is located on the campus of the Tulsa Airport. We spent the afternoon here with Nana & Papa. The main building houses all of the aircraft - including an F-14 Tomcat like they used in the movie Top Gun. In order to get permission to have it on display here, the museum agreed that it could be pulled and ready for combat within 24 hours if needed. The kids loved clambering into all of the cockpits and fiddling with the dials and switches.
We couldn't resist this picture. I'll have to find mine from the Kennedy Space Center in Houston. Alex also got to try some hands-on space simulations. One was just flipping a series of switches to help "launch" a large model of the Space Shuttle. Both boys went into a space ride simulator, Aaron went twice.
Alex got to manipulate a robotic arm to pick up objects in the simulator's payload bay using the controls in front of him and the camera views shown on those little screens to the right. He did very well. Once upon a time he wanted to be an astronaut. Maybe activities like this will spur him toward it again, or at least a career in the sciences. I know, I'm partial, but its got to better than his current favorite - video game tester. Thanks to whoever told him that he could get paid for that.

This cockpit didn't have a plane around it, but they could sit side-by-side and flip the switches and move the sticks. To add a touch of realism, this cockpit was playing a live feed from the control tower nearby.

The next building held a planetarium that we watched a neat film about how a trip to space affects the human body and what would happen to it on different planets. At least thats what I think it was about. Lets just say the chairs were comfy, it was dark, and it had been a long week - right, Papa? The kids said it was a good show.

OK Vacation - Woolaroc

We drove back to Bartlesville last night and brought everyone (except Mark, who was working) to Woolaroc just outside of town. I had been here lots as a kid as it was the closest museum to us growing up. We'd never brought the kids and Alex had finished a Native American unit at school earlier this year. Woolaroc used to be the country lodge, ranch, and retreat for oil tycoon Frank Philips (of Conoco-Philips fame). It was named for the WOods, LAkes, and ROCks that surround this region. We ate a picnic lunch that we brought and then headed to the museum. The main museum has a mosaic with several Native Americans depicted in traditional ceremonial costumes, which we thought was a great place to pose. (I had gotten a short haircut the week before, and I thought that today would be a good day to spike it up.)

The problem with a museum is that the interior lights are not very bright and they don't allow flash photography. This means I got a lot of blurry, poorly lit pictures. Alex was smiling in the 1st 3 shots of him near the headdress, but by the time I held the camera still enough for the 4th to come into focus, he had had enough. The museum was still in great shape, and they had expanded it since I had toured it last. The kids loved the animals, the artifacts, and the huge paintings. Nana used to be a docent, so she had given tours of this museum and pointed out many of the highlights to the grandkids.

There were numerous stuffed animals, some of them gifts to Frank Philips, and some of them were from his big game hunting expeditions. The ranch portion of Woolaroc had numerous live buffalo, but Aaron posed by this stuffed one.


The Woolaroc Airplane, that is on display at the Woolaroc Museum, won the "Dole Derby," a glorious race from Oakland to Hawaii in 1927. More than a dozen airplanes entered the contest, but only two made it to Hawaii. Ten lives were lost during the race. Phillips Petroleum sponsored the Woolaroc in the race, and hired stuntman Arthur Goebel to pilot the plane.
A summary of the race is found at the San Francisco Museum website. As you can tell from the picture, it was well-lit:)

We took the kids to "Arrows Skyward" which used to be a multiple screen movie/slideshow that taught viewers an old Indian lesson about taking the hard but correct path. The message is intact, but the presentation wasn't. They were down to one screen, but still used the same slides, which meant that the narrator would refer to something that should have been visible on one of the other screens but wasn't. Moderately disappointing. We drove out, like we did when we came in, past all of the zebras, buffaloes, deer, mountain sheep, and ostriches that dot the ranch. I think the next time we're in town, we'll have to check it out again.

OK Vacation - The Evans Clan

The serious picture with the kids in matching "Evans Cousins" T-shirts that Nana worked very hard to get for everyone.

And the silly one. Note the outrageous use of rabbit ears by Nana & Papa. :)

OK Vacation - Cupcake Fun

Becky brought (with Nana's help) ingredients for a tasty craft. She baked chocolate cupcakes, then all the kids sat down to decorate them. She had different colored and flavored frostings, jellybeans, candies, sprinkles, chocolate chips, gummi Lifesavers and little marshmallows.
Of course, eating them was just as much fun as making them.

OK Vacation - Gazillions of Bubbles

Leave it to Nana to find an electronic bubble blower that could shoot out 4000 bubbles a minute. Needless to say, it was a big hit.

OK Vacation - Jump!Zone

Jump!Zone is an indoor playground full of those party inflatables you see at festivals. We spent several hours there with the kids today. Even Aaron didn't let any of the biggest ones slow him down. It was too fun to just sit on the sidelines, so we crawled up there with them and bounced and slid with them. We took a break for pizza and then played some more. It was a great way to burn off some energy without braving the triple digit heat index.

OK Vacation - Whitewater Bay

Today we set out on another cloudy day to try to have some fun in the water. I hadn't been to Whitewater (now Whitewater Bay) since I was a kid. They've added a few new features, but it is mostly how I remembered it. These fun things from my childhood are so much more fun now experiencing them with the kids. We all took a trip around on the lazy river to get wet and get our bearings for the place. The kids wanted some time in the kids' play area that had slides and fountains and structures to climb on.
Then we made our way to the innertube slides. I love this picture for the symmetry of their legs and the look on Alex's face upon splashdown.
Similarly, I love the look on Dad's face and I can hear the noise he's making in this picture when the cold water went up his back.


This is 4 of the 6 Evans boys as we came down the Big Kahuna - the kids loved it, as did Mark and I. After lunch, Melinda challenged Mark and I to go down the, I kid you not, Mega-Wedgie. This is a 64 foot slide nearly straight down. Ever since Melinda's battle with cancer, I resolved to make sure that I would try to be at least as tough as Melinda, so we did it. From the top of the tower, we noticed a storm coming in fast, so we raced down - easy to do on the Mega-Wedgie - and gathered our family into the minivans just as the lightning storm started rolling in. We had 5 good hours there, and that was about enough.

OK Vacation - Splash Pad

Besides my alma mater, Norman, OK has a neat park with a host of water sprays, jets, cannons, and dumping buckets. Perfect for a hot day, though today was a little cloudy (of course). I love this picture because all 5 cousins are in it. Marcus and Marli are getting dumped on in the foreground. Alex is striding forward in the blue shirt and sunglasses in the center. Beyond him and a little to the left, Aaron (in a red shirt) is shielding his face from the spray. Marcus is harder to see, but his dad highlights his position. Look for the tall guy in a camo shirt and a, ahem, short haircut in the upper right of the picture - that's Mark - and to his right is Marcus in blue swim trunks.
Here he is in a close up with Melinda near a gentle spray.

And here's Aaron near a spray that came out so thin that it made a water "bubble" that he liked to hide in and call out to passerbys that he needed rescuing from.

OK Vacation - Midnight Soccer

Mark and Melinda participate in an adult soccer league with friends from church and tonight they had a makeup game scheduled for midnight - not a common occurrence. I went with them and had a great time. It is indoor co-ed soccer which brought a couple of interesting rules to the game. First you can kick balls off of the walls, executing a kid of bounce pass. The walls only go so high, so there is an out of bounds if they do.

Second, goals scored by women count for 2 points. Tonight their team dominated through the efforts of Melinda who scored 4 goals and another teammate who scored 3 for a total of 14 points to the other team's 4.