Hornhead

Alex also took advantage of the hands-on items in the room to see what it would like if he grew horns :)

Paleontologists in the Making

The museum had a Discovery Room that "is a place to explore artifacts and scientific specimens in a hands-on, interactive environment." One of these stations involved the older kids climbing into an excavation pit and using paintbrushes to remove the dirt from some fossils embedded in the floor.

Posing By Dinosaur Bones

I love the juxtaposition of these 2 pictures. The pose by the big Apatasaurus femur was near the beginning of the exhibit and they hadn't been posing that much yet and it was obviously still fun. The line up in front of the Allosaurus skeleton was the last of the morning and they had had enough.

Pentaceratops

The Museum has the best preserved skeleton of a Pentaceratops in the world. Pentaceratops had the biggest head of any dinosaur that includes the bony plates of an enormous frill.

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

Today we brought the kids to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. While they have a lot of interesting wildlife exhibits, we mainly came to see the dinosaurs. Before we checked them out though, we had to pose them by the enormous bronze mammoth sculpture in the main lobby. Very impressive. Then I couldn’t help myself and convinced Marli and Alex to lay under the uplifted mammoth’s foot as if it were about to step on them. It became one of their favorite pictures of the day.

Bedtime Stories

Note who's reading to whom.

Impromptu Family Reunion

Since we were in town and Manning was just born, Dad got his sisters Margaret & Joyce, sister-in-law Oma Lee, and their daughters Julie, Lisa, Diane, Debra and several of their kids over to Mark and Melinda's house for a get-together. It was great to see some family members we hadn't seen in over a decade. One of them was a newborn when we saw her over 13 years ago and now Rebecca Blair is a teenager. I hope it doesn't take this long to see everyone again.

Marcus's Scarf

This one Becky finsihed while we were here. Marcus was thrilled to have his own Aunt Becky Original, even though it was 70 degrees outside.

Making Girly Sandals

Aunt Becky and Marli spent this afternoon decorating a pair of sandals with strips of a pretty fabric that had been cut into strips. They were just tied on the top until they were good and frilly.

My Favorite Manning Photo (So Far)

I just like how he's looking right at the camera. He still has that look in his eye like he doesn't quite know what's going on.

Aaron’s a Real Swinger

Aaron loves to swing like his brother did at this age. If he talks you into letting him on the swing, be prepared to be there a while (and get a picture if you can – the smiles that the swing produces are precious). He surprised me by wanted to sit on the big kids’ swing and he held on pretty well, though it was clearly harder for him.

The Playful Sea Lion

We were pleasantly surprised to find a sea Lion at the OKC Zoo that loved to play with us. We could see him through an underwater viewing window, and he could see us. If you put your hand up to the window, he would swim upside-down and touch it with his nose. So if you moved your hand, he would follow it perfectly, pausing every so often to blow an air bubble out his nose at us that looked like an underwater sneeze. We stayed here for a while and the older kids (OK, me to) loved playing with the friendly sea lion.

Manning’s First Zoo Trip

Today was Manning’s first official trip to the zoo. The OKC Zoo is a fairly large property that will wear you out on a full tour. He got to ride in style in his stroller and got to eat lunch in the gorilla exhibit.

Climbing on the Animals

One of the Kids favorite parts about the Oklahoma City Zoo was getting to climb on various animal sculptures and pose for pictures.

Spot the Real Monkeys

Hint: Look beyond the glass

Nana and the Little Man

This outfit makes Manning look much older than he is. With his hands in that position, it looks to me like he’s tying a miniature invisible bow tie.

Peep Eggs

Becky brought white Peep (sugar coated marshmallow) eggs and tube icing that the kids got to decorate and eat for dessert. Everyone got into it and made some interesting creations.

Precious Chunky Doll Baby

Becky loves getting to see and entertain her niece and nephews. We’ve been able to see Marli and Marcus soon after birth and so we knew we wanted to come down after Manning was born because they are only little once. They lose that wide-eyed innocence and infantile cuteness eventually, so Becky and I were thrilled to get to hold, feed, burp (he’s a tough burper) and change (Ewwww!) our new nephew. Next time we see him, he’ll have all new tricks.

Papa!! Hockey!!

That call could not be resisted. Whenever Aaron summoned his Papa in for an air hockey match, he always responded. The games were complicated by 2 factors. First, Aaron realized her could score into his own goal much easier than his opponent’s – so he would repeatedly slide it backwards into the goal and yell “Yea! Goal!”. Secondly, Nana and Papa’s Schnauzer, Abby, rested in a playpen in the air hockey room. Aaron loves that dog and so every 1-2 minutes of air hockey, he’d take a break to run over, look in and point at “Habby Gog”.

Blustery Day In The Backyard

When we took the kids out today, it was a little too chilly to go without jackets, though it did warm up enough later to shed them. Mark and Melinda have an assembled playground piece in their backyard that the kids were all over today. Marli has even practiced climbing to the top. Marli is 5 years old now and almost as big as Alex. She is a beautiful girl with a sweet personality. She loves to change clothes several times a day to fit her mood, including occasionally her princess costume. This smiling picture from atop the structure is one of my favorite pictures of her so far. You can begin to get a sense of what she is going to look like as an adult. I see features of my mother in her and a lot of Mark.