A great thing about living closer to my family is that we get to see them A LOT more than when we lived in Delaware.
In fact, my Mom and Dad have requested that Clark have a "Weekend at the Grandparents" once a month.
And I'm glad to fulfill that request!
Not that I don't love my munchkin, but its nice to have a dinner out where I'm not sitting down, ordering our drinks, ordering our meals, and asking for the check all in one breath! Toddler tolerance for sitting still at a restaurant has a very small time limit!
For our February "Baby-Free Weekend," Chris and I headed to Oklahoma City, OK for a Dave Ramsey Conference (read: I signed us up and I forced Chris to go with me).
It was awesome! Lots of prudent, no frills financial advice.
In the middle of the conference, I texted Peyton (my middle sister) and informed her that she was receiving tickets to a Dave Ramsey conference for her graduation from Law School.
She was SUPER thrilled (not). But really, its completely worth your time (Chris even admitted to being glad that I drug him along).
The conference lasted till 6 pm on Saturday, leaving us with plenty of time to check into our hotel (we stayed FREE thanks to all the points I had built up from my military travels), change into our "date" clothes, and make it to "The Mantle" for dinner at 7:30pm.
WRONG.
My poor GPS was in denial about being in Oklahoma and refused to work. Instead of our hotel, it lead us to an empty parking lot on the complete opposite side of OKC.
We barely made it back to the Brickyard area of downtown OKC (where "The Mantle" is located) in time for our reservations. Still in my comfy conference clothes!! So much for looking cute during the date. BUT......ohhhh my goodness....It was delicious (special thanks to the Drew Family who recommended it)!
On the other hand, the Brickyard area made me feel old! It was a HAPPENING area....soooo many people (as in, young, hip, college-type people). It was 9pm and Chris and I were both ready to call it a night!
What is wrong with this picture?! I'm fairly sure I used to stay out with friends till wayyyyy later than 9pm. AND I would have class AND work the next day! What happened?!?!
Ohhh yeah! ;)
Anyways, that left Sunday for us to do some touring and make our way back home.
Since we were in OKC, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the OKC Bombing Memorial. Which, I learned, is actually called the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
It is such a sad place. And on a Sunday morning, it seemed especially eerie and quiet.
There is a whole fence of tokens/gifts that people have left at the memorial. Someone left this there, and it just summed up the whole experience for me. Its a page out of a children's book. In fact, its a page out of book titled, "Guess How Much I Love You" and its one of my favorites to read to Clark. I can't imagine the pain of ever loosing her, much less because a crazy man decided to blow up her daycare.
The full-size chairs represent an adult and the smaller chairs represent a child who was killed in the bombing.
This is called the survivor's tree and it was located in a parking lot across the street from the bombing. Its a very old tree, and you can see the burn marks on the bark from the blast.
It was a somber experience, but Chris and I were glad to have gone. Sometimes its easy for me to forget those things you see on tv. Pretend like it never will happen where you are. But, it does. And this is why I'm so proud of my husband. I know each mission he flies is just a small part of the picture, but he's still my hero.
Ok, on to a more happy subject....FOOD!
Chris has been talking about this restaurant for forever. Seriously, ever since I've known him, he has wanted to take me to the Meer's Restaurant.
The problem is.....its FAR away from civilization. Ok, its really not tooooo bad, but definitely would be tricky to entertain Clark for that long in the car THEN expect her to sit through dinner.
The restaurant is actually located in the middle of a nature preserve. With wild buffalo roaming around.....I kid you not! The landscape looked a lot like this as we headed to Meers.
We made it!!! Yes, doesn't it look FANCY?!
BUT....the food was AMAZING! Meers is known for raising and processing its own longhorn beef. And boy...they knew how to make a burger!
Did I mention that they had cherry cobbler?! Real, home-made cobbler. Not that canned or bought stuff. With home-made ice cream!?! I even admitted to Chris that all my doubts were unfounded and the food was well worth the drive.
But, Wichita Falls and my munchkin were calling! I sure missed Clark, but I'm also looking forward to our March "Baby-Free Weekend!" Its fun to go out and enjoy some hubby/wife time!
Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!
what a fun weekend! and i'm sure that clark had a blast too. i bet that it's so nice to have family close enough to do that. :) annnnd ... i LOVE dave ramsey! he is awesome!
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