washington adventures with eric, rachel, addelyn and payne: November 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tulsa Zoo + Run

One beautiful Saturday morning, I got up SUPER early and headed to Tulsa with Amanda for the Tulsa Zoo 5k. Our hubbies were going to get the kiddos ready and come a couple of hours later and meet us at the finish line. Tulsa is about an hour and a half from where we live. About 30 minutes outside of Tulsa, it dawned on me that I DIDN'T PACK MY RUNNING SHOES!!! I always put on flip flops before I leave the house and just forgot to pack shoes...but don't worry, the kiddos had all kinds of snacks and drinks and anything else you can think of packed for them! ha! :) We had NO TIME TO SPARE to make it on time-so we quickly pulled into a Wal-mart in Tulsa at 7:15am and I grabbed a pair of shoes to run in. It was a hard decision...1-either buy a pair of Wal-mart brand tennis shoes that I would NEVER wear again and they would hurt my feet during the race or 2-buy a pair of shoes that I may wear again and they will still hurt my feet during the race. Well, option 2 won! and yes, my feet hurt and I had some blisters...and LOTS OF STARES but we finished the race and had a great time! Plus our families got in the zoo for free and we enjoyed a morning at the zoo-with perfect weather! What a fun day!!!!

this cute little boy loved the zoo-well really just being outside...

Adde was excited about the rhinos

zebras!!!!

what a run race with Amanda

Reece and Payne just hanging out - I love how Payne always props his feet up on the stroller

these penguins were so cute!!!

Ashlynn and Addelyn

the Bishop family

the kiddos LOVED the playground too!

my mary janes I ran in - and of course today was the day i decided to wear lime green socks!

after the race and zoo we headed to our favorite place--and Adde was SO EXCITED to meet the cow!!!

Addelyn's first soccer season!

So...here is the story of Addelyn's first soccer season. She started out SUPER excited to play and on the day of the first game, had her soccer gear on PLENTY early...but the moment we got to the field..everything changed! Let's just say that the first soccer game was pretty much a disaster...with begging her to stay on the field and stop crying-and try to have fun and get the ball...I wasn't sure she was going to want to go back...but she did! and every game we worked on a new goal-like not crying on the field (instead she just stood on the field and danced the entire game), running after the ball, kicking the ball, etc. And by the last game, she ran around the field, not really touching the ball, but she was having a great time - and that is all we were looking for! here are the pictures of our soccer princess starting with the first game all the way up to the trophy at the end of the season! It was a fun season-but we aren't too sure Addelyn will be playing in the spring??? who knows?

Payne loves his Aunt Cassie

Ryder and Addelyn getting ready for the big game

it was so special to have Aunt Cassie and 3 Fish cousins there at Adde's first game

oh yes, during practice the kiddos played a game called "what can you do with the soccer ball" - one of the kids had everyone make an ice cream cone with her ball-and her mother was CRINGING!! :) DON'T PICK UP THE BALL! :) but i'm over it now!

with our game faces on!

watching her teamates

"come on Addelyn...it's really fun to play soccer..I promise!"

encouraging her to GET THAT BALL!!!!

Adde has the ball...

and now she is crying because "they took the ball away from me!!!" guess I had better explain the rules of the game a bit better! :)

i'm officially a soccer mom! i thought this day would never come! :)

Ryder, Addelyn and Ashlynn after their first soccer games of the season

drills before the game

Addelyn about to kick off

little brother cheering big sis on

Addelyn has on the green socks-and as you can see, she was always a bit behind on what was going on in the game

cheese

last soccer game-showing off their trophies with Coach Laura

Addelyn and her buddy Ryder

they were definitely a "team" out there!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Pelican Festival

In September, Grove has the Pelican Festival-we aren't really sure what the reasoning behind the festival is but we do know that it's a lot of fun around town...we took advantage of the activities all weekend long!

first stop-Har-ber Village - it's just down the street from our house and it was a lot of fun to walk around and see all of the fun displays they have...plus it was free that day!

Eric has a big ole fear of dolls and clowns-and for some odd reason there were rooms full of both of these things-can you tell he wasn't too happy with me for making him get a picture of him with the dolls? ha! I'm not sure if he has forgiven me for this yet????

exploring

a pretty view of Grand Lake from the village

next we headed to the parade...it was Adde and Payne's first parade..and LOTS of fun!!!!

we met up with the Bishops...as always, a good time!

anxiously waiting for the parade to start

the "crazy cars" as Addelyn called them!

the Bishops - minus Ashlynn

Addelyn and Ryder LOVED the band - there was lots of dancing going on!

the boys with the babies

loving the candy!

It was a super fun weekend that ended with more activities downtown-but I didn't take any pictures-we are learning to take advantage of the fun things this small town has to offer!