Oklahoma City Weekend

I always have a hard time when it comes to shopping for my husband for Christmas or his birthday. I like to surprise him, but it's not easy to do. If he needs something like a tool or a computer part, he has to tell me exactly what to get or I'll inevitably get the wrong them. (One year, shortly after we were married, I bought him a hammer and of course got the wrong kind of hammer so we had to go exchange it. Who knew there were so many different kinds of hammers?)

This past Christmas when I was trying to decide what on earth I could give him, I had the idea to surprise him with a little overnight getaway -- he has been working so hard and has so many things going on I figured he could use a little stress-free break. I started thinking about that and then thought I'd check and see if there was a show or something coming somewhere close that I could get tickets for since we rarely do that kind of thing.

I checked around and finally settled on getting tickets for Riverdance, which was coming to Oklahoma City (about 4 hours from here) the weekend before Brian's birthday in January. (Christmas and Birthday!) Then I decided that if were going to make an effort to drive to OKC we might as well make a whole weekend out of it! So I found a Bed & Breakfast Inn at a restored historic home in the city and booked a night there. It was a bit expensive to do two nights there, so the second night I booked a regular hotel close to where the Riverdance performance was. I had to enlist the help of my niece to buy the tickets so Brian wouldn't see the credit card charges before Christmas and we managed to pull it off! I think he was pretty surprised!

We had to make a last-minute change of plans in making arrangements for the kids due to a conflicting missionary farewell in Dallas for our nephew that happened to be scheduled the same weekend, but it all worked out. Our great friends the Roberts family came to our rescue and agreed to take all 4 kids for the weekend (thankfully they didn't move too far away from us!). The kids were so excited to stay with their friends -- it ended up being as much of a treat for them as it was for us.

Brian and I pulled the kids out of school early on Friday and dropped them off then headed for OKC. We checked in to the B&B -- the Grandison Inn. It is a restored historic home in the city -- they told us the home was built in 1904.

Here is our cute room. There was even a little step stool to get up on the bed.

We looked up some nearby restaurants and saw that there was a steak restaurant not too far away called Cattleman's Steakhouse that was voted a favorite in the city so we decided to try it. It was a Friday night so it was quite a long wait, but once we were seated we were served pretty quickly. The food was fine -- although we weren't overly impressed (Saltgrass is still our favorite).

Saturday morning we were served a lovely breakfast. It turned out we were the only ones staying there that night so they just brought breakfast up to our room.

After breakfast we decided the weather was nice enough to walk over to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. It was about a mile away and we knew there was some road construction in the area so we weren't sure what parking would be like. It turned out to be a very nice walk.

The memorial and museum were very interesting and well-done. Brian and I both remember the day of the bombing of the Federal Building in April 1995 -- we happened to be up at the University of Utah hospital that morning undergoing one of our many infertility procedures and we watched the coverage unfold on the TVs in the waiting room.

First we walked around the outdoor memorial. It was interesting to learn where things used to be. The reflecting pool is where the street was that ran along the back of the building and where the van with the explosives was parked.

The field of empty chairs is in the location of the original building. There is one chair for each victim (small chairs for the children) and they are arranged in rows according to what floor of the building they were on.

This is the only picture we managed to get the whole trip of the two of us together!

This is the "Survivor Tree" which survived through the bombing:

This is one of the archways at the end of the reflecting pool. It is marked with the time 9:01 -- the minute before the bombing. The arch at the other end of the pool is marked with 9:03 (the minute after).

Then we went inside the museum. It was interesting to see all the displays and learn more about the bombing. You could really spend a long time in there if you stopped to read everything (and I was glad the kids weren't there -- they would have gotten bored with it all fairly quickly). As it was we ended up hurrying through the end to get back and check out in time. We could have easily spent more time there. Here is a section of original rubble from the bombing that was preserved in the museum (this is from one of the neighboring buildings that was damaged):

I can't even imagine what a tragedy that was -- it was heartwrenching to learn more about the stories of victims and survivors. But at the same time it was touching to read about how the community and the country pulled together in the face of all the devastation.

After the memorial, we changed our clothes and headed out to the other side of town to find the Oklahoma City Temple. We had to make a couple of stops to try to find somewhere to pump up a low tire, but we managed to make it in time for the last session of the afternoon. And it was packed! They had to bring in several folding chairs to accommodate everybody -- it was great to see the temple so busy. And it's always neat to visit a temple we haven't been to before.

We stopped for dinner after the temple session, checked into our second hotel room and got ready for the Riverdance show that evening. It was a fun show -- I had thought it would all be the Irish dancing so I was a little surprised at how much singing there was (as well as some other styles of dancing and just instrumental music) but it was all a lot of fun.

On Sunday we found the closest church building (which wasn't very far) and went to Sacrament Meeting. The people were very friendly and several people greeted us before the meeting started (checking to see if we were moving in!). It was kind of strange to be in church with just the two of us and no kids or Primary or Sunday School lessons to worry about. We only stayed for Sacrament Meeting so we could get on the road headed home and pick up the kids.

All in all, it was a fabulous relaxing weekend! Brian said at one point we should do it every weekend. I guess that means he enjoyed his present!

Double Digits and a Binary Birthday to Boot!

Hannah will always have a "binary birthday," seeing as how she was born on 01-10-01 at 11:11am, no less. But this year was an extra special binary birthday because she turned 10 on 01-10-11!

She was very excited about her binary birthday and requested a "binary cat cake" this year. Hmmm. Not much luck finding ideas for that one online! So I drew a couple of sketches for her and she told me she liked this one:

It's definitely not my cutest cake creation, but we were going for the simplistic, binary theme. I tried to make the 01-10-11 in a different color from the rest of the cat, but a lot of it ended up blending all together anyway. Oh well -- she seemed to like it!

She couldn't wait to open her presents after school that day.

She is still our cat girl and still loves the Warriors series of books. I think she has read the entire series (which is probably close to 25 books now) at least 3 times through. Here she is with the newest book (that she hasn't read yet) and a Webkinz cat from Grandma and Grandpa.

Her big present this year was a Nintendo DS system. She has been asking for one for a couple of years now and I have resisted. She was able to play with her cousin's DS while they were visiting and I could tell she really enjoyed it. She didn't get a "big" present for Christmas, so I gave in and decided to see what was on eBay. I ended up finding a used DS system (pink!) that came with 3 games for a pretty good price. I happened across it just before the auction was ending, so I was able to put in a bid and ended up getting it. And you can see what she thought of it:

Can you just hear the squeals? Alas, the big problem now is the tears and arguing over whose turn it is to use it. (And the other main thing she asked for? A Kindle. Yep. But she didn't get that one.)

Here she is with all of her birthday loot:

Time for some binary cat cake!

Double digits - finally! This girl cannot wait to grow up.

Make a wish!

I hope all of your wishes come true, sweet Hannah. We love you!

The Bee!

Last year, McKay's middle school started a Geography Club, sponsored by his Social Studies teacher (one of his favorite teachers). He decided to join the club -- at the time it wasn't yet an "official" school club -- and really enjoyed it. He seems to enjoy Social Studies, especially maps and charts (one of the UIL competitions he has done quite well in the last two years).

One of the things the Geography Club did last year was participate in the National Geographic Bee, sponsored by the National Geographic Society. McKay decided to participate and while he did okay, he didn't make it to the final round. This year, the Geography Club is official (they get a picture in the yearbook and everything!) and McKay even convinced Hannah to join, since it is open to 4th - 8th graders. They held the National Geographic Bee again a couple of weeks ago and McKay ended up being the school winner!

The competition consists of a variety of oral questions on all aspects of geography -- states, countries, physical features, cultures, maps, etc. The first rounds are easier because they give you a choice of two answers. But in the later rounds, there is no multiple choice. The competition came down to two students and we all kind of laughed later (McKay included) because they went through so many questions where neither McKay nor the other finalist knew the answer. They were pretty hard questions! So they just kept going until they finally came to a question where McKay got it right and the other student missed it, so he was declared the winner.

The next step is a written text that McKay will take this week -- we're told it's 70 questions in 60 minutes. I dont' know if it's all multiple choice or what exactly the format is. The tests are then sent in somewhere to be scored and the top 100 kids in Texas will compete in the state finals held in Austin (and from there the winner goes to a national competition). McKay's been studying, but whether or not he goes to the state finals, we are proud of him!

Family Pictures

Of course while everyone was here for the family reunion, we had to get some family pictures! We set up the camera on a tripod and spent what seemed like an awfully long time getting everyone situated! It's not easy taking a big group picture when so many are under age 12!

Setting up:

But here we go! Overall, they turned out pretty good.

The entire gang!

Just the grandkids (some of whom decided they were quite done with pictures by that point!):

My parents and their 6 children:

My siblings and spouses:

Now the kids in order. My oldest sister Sandra and her family:

Our crew:

My sister Malinda and her family:

My brother Tim and his family:

My sister Amy and her family:

And my parents with my youngest brother Tyler:

Whew! Taking pictures can be a bit exhausting, I think! Does anyone feel like they're at a wedding reception? :-)

Reunion Time!

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, we had a Gold family reunion here in Amarillo. All of my siblings and their families were able to come -- 28 of us total! It doesn't happen very often that we are all together. (My sister just did a blog post about our reunion and I promise I didn't steal her idea -- we obviously think alike and I'm just slow!)

My parents are building a house here close to us and invited everyone to come over the holiday. The house wasn't quite finished to the point they thought it would be, but it was livable and everybody managed to find somewhere to sleep (even if it was on an air mattress down on the basement concrete floor).

It was great to see everyone and despite the chaos that often results when so many people get together, it was a lot of fun. The weather was fairly chilly and windy so we mostly just stayed inside and did various activities, such as:

Lots and lots of playing games:

Lots of playing the Wii:

Watching movies:

Reading:

Eating!

We had a huge feast on New Year's Eve.

Playing with cousins:

These cousins discovered they had matching new pajamas!

Taking pictures and video:

And just overall hanging out and visiting.

On New Year's Eve, we had the aforementioned feast, plus a special family home evening where we exchanged late Christmas presents, listened to my parents, and played a huge game of Pictionary (that we even got Grandma to participate in!). I think almost everybody managed to stay up until midnight.

I'm so glad everyone was able to come and spend some time together. Families are wonderful!