Easter & Oklahoma City - Pt 1

Ahh...we've finally made it to the first day of spring (even though the weather doesn't always feel like it)!! It's nice to see the robins in the yard and the tulips starting to come up in the flower beds and the grass start to get green! And, yes, another indicator of spring is the Easter holiday, which was VERY early this year - less than one week after St. Patrick's Day! Since Zoie & I weren't able to get south to visit over the Christmas/New Year's holiday like we planned and because I had holiday time at work for Good Friday, we decided that this might be a good time to pay a visit to our great friends, Susan & Ray, in Oklahoma City. Zoie and I got up and left on Good Friday at 4:30 a.m.!! I just left Zoie in her pajamas and put her in the car with her blanket, pillows (the one Aunt Chris made her AND the one with the Beauty & the Beast pillowcase that I got as a gift from Mitchell many years ago), lovey and, of course, monkey! She luckily slept until about 8:00 or so and woke up seeming to enjoy her "backseat lounge"...


She even pulled off her socks and would rest her feet on the window! We were blessed with awesome weather and driving conditions; leaving that early in the morning and driving through very rural areas of Nebraska and Kansas helped! It was dark when we left and, as we were driving south, at one point, I could see the moon on my right in the sky and the sun starting to burst over the horizon on the left...it was awe-inspiring! We made a surprise stop to see our sweet friend, Linda, in Wichita at her work - and I think she was surprised! She hadn't seen Zoie since she was about 3 months old other than pictures so it was great for her to get to see her now and even better for us to see her! What a sweetie she is! I don't have a lot of good things to say about the drive once we hit the Oklahoma border (they definitely aren't focused on road conditions) other than I got some MUCH needed coffee for me, some milk for Zoie and some warm, gooey cinnamon rolls at a Braums for us both - oh, and it meant we were getting closer to our final destination! I was getting tired of driving! We finally rolled into Susan & Ray's house about noon...not bad time for having a little one on board! After getting our stuff in and many hugs, we did some catching up with Susan (who went and got us some lunch) and then had a much needed nap - for both of us! After 3 hours, Susan actually had to come into the room and ask how long we wanted to sleep! LOL Well, we got up and by this time, Ray was home so we all got ready and went and had some delicious Mexican food at Alfredo's (give me another Tecate with lime!). After dinner, we dropped Ray off at home and went to visit Kelly & Isaiah so that we could all finally see Zoie & Isaiah together!! They were pretty darn adorable - separately & together!
[SIDEBAR: Kelly is Susan & Ray's friend and she lives with Ray's nephew, Tony, and they have Isaiah, who was born 3 months before Zoie...from the minute Susan found out that both Kelly and I were pregnant and then that one was having a boy and one was having a girl, she has "betrothed" Isaiah and Zoie.]






Then we came back to the house and just chilled for a bit before settling in for a FULL night's sleep.
Zoie really loved their house and really took to "Uncle Ray" and Killer, the weiner dog (who I didn't get ONE pic of!)...she enjoyed being out in their backyard in the swing with Susan & Ray, too. Made me really sad that I don't have all that for her - yet!



On Saturday, the weather was beautiful and our big plan was to go to the zoo with Kelly & Isaiah so we went over and got them and got the kids loaded in the truck...and they were stylin' with their shades & Susan's cellphone!


The zoo was a great time...the kids seemed to enjoy it and Zoie really liked walking around like a big girl and looking at the animals - elephants, rhinos, apes, tigers & leopards. One of her favorite things was the ape house...there was a ledge she could stand on and watch the apes...she looked at me at one point and said "In dehr?" (In there?)...I said no, honey we can't go in there with the apes...she was a little upset until one of them started walking right towards the glass where we were and she jumped onto me like a flash! I think she realized it might not be so good after all! She also tried to chase down a wandering white peacock which I couldn't believe.




The kids also got to go on the merry-go-round and a little zoo train. Zoie's been on carousels before but I didn't know how she'd react to the train ride...she LOVED it!! And, as you can see by the following pic, she did NOT want to get off and got a tad miffed when she had to...LOL This will be one of those pics she'll look at some day and be like, "Mom!"



We then got something to eat (much needed for us all) and hit the gift shop and headed back to Susan's for some rest!