Home Again. Home Again. The Last Installment (Part Four)

The last leg of our busy trip home was the actual reason why we scheduled the trip home in the first place - My best friends from High School and College and I all turned the big 3-0 this year and we decided to celebrate with a weekend away together with our families.  We rented a cabin/ house (it was a house but cabin sounds more woodsy and rustic, right?) that we would all fit in and met up on Friday evening to spend a weekend together.  Something we hadn't done pretty much since I got married 6 years ago!  I never have more fun than I do with these three amazing women and getting to spend time with them and the families that they have created is just so fabulous I really can't even explain it (and I'm a writer!).  We had a really wonderful weekend that pretty much solidified the fact that we need to do this every year! So, here are some highlights of our first annual friend retreat!

This was actually taken on the last day of our trip at breakfast at the restaurant at the resort called Soda Steve's.  They are known for their root beer - we wouldn't know if it I good or not as the soda machine was broken during our visit...that would only happen to us! So, I guess while we were there it was really just Steve's. 

Sara, Pam, Moi and Baby Lilly with Kyle jumping in for the photo bomb! 

 

This Tarantula was the 12th guest at our little getaway - we saw him on the window on the outside of the cabin the first morning we were there.  The picture below is what happened when Lance (the one upside down) snuck up behind my hubby when he was getting really close to the spider to check it out.  Some of us were watching from inside when this all went down and it was amazing!

 

 Pam and her baby girl Lilly

These are just some fun shots of all of us as we hung out and visited.  We played a bunch of card games and board games all weekend (much more than we had probably ever played in the 15 years we've known each other!) as we were stuck inside due to a very rainy day.

 

Sara & Moi!  We are hoping that our reunion for next year will take place on a boat - Sara & her fiancé Lance are getting married on a cruise next year.  We are considering how we will top a reunion after one spent in the Caribbean...

No one loves the photo bomb more than this crowd.  Classic Pam...

 

We seriously played soooo many games during our time and we talked and caught up on each other's lives.  Love these three gals so much!  I'm so grateful that we have stayed in touch throughout the years since we left school.

 

Panoramic photo of us at the enormous card table.  Patrick isn't photo bombing by the way, he was the photographer.

This was really the perfect end to an exciting and action packed trip home.  These friends feel like family to me - so glad we got this great chance to just visit and get to know each others families.

Home Again. Home Again. OUT! (picture me dropping a microphone here or I guess maybe a keyboard...

Home Again. Home Again. (Part Three)

Well, I am over the Jiggety Jig but I still have some fun moments from my trip home to share.  This next section may have been the most entertaining - information which may prove shocking after my entire family inside a giant stuffed animal claw machine, Disney on Ice, reenacting the hit 90's TV sitcom FRIENDS on a giant orange couch...but, there is more to tell.  Even more after all of that.

One word. Kayaking.

The day began like any other... With a FUNOVER from an extreme Dave & Buster's adventure with family that vetted 6 enormous stuffed animals for our niece Piper, a fake mustache and a bubble machine.  After we drug ourselves out of bed, shared a hot breakfast at the Whitten Free Continental Buffet we headed out on our Kayaking Adventure.  We grabbed some bottles of water, threw on our flip flops and jumped into some narrow little boats on Keystone Lake.

 We were determined and anxious to get out on the open water.  At least most of us were...

 

 

Once we got warmed up there was no stopping us! Except of course to take pictures...

 

 

 

We crossed the lake and found a sandy beach area for some rest and relaxation before climbing back into the Kayaks.  It was a zen and very calming time...especially after I stopped posing on this root.

 

 

After we crossed back over the lake we headed out to have an amazing dinner at a little restaurant called "Scratch", where some of us had some amazing food (and some of us had cheese quesadillas...) like the perfect Chicken Fried Steak, the cheesiest and most amazing grits ever and pecan pie heated up on a cast iron griddle with coconut gelato melting on top.  There are no pictures to prove it happened, but we are still talking about how awesome it was!

Our next and final family event of the week (that we have photos of) was a Pirate themed early birthday party for our niece Piper that turned into a shared party when they surprised me by getting to celebrate my birthday from the month before with my entire family!  Here are a few highlights of the party - and yes, we were all in costume! Naturally...

 Chrissy set up a photo booth area with pirate props so we could take fun pictures throughout the night.  This is just a little snippet of the hundreds of photos the photographer had by the end of the night....true feelings and relationships came out...just kidding...we just think paper knives are funny!

 I mustache you a question.

 

 Thanks for the lovely presents Aunt Tammy! Now walk the plank!

 Well, this was really just us before we got into character.

 Some really fun memories!! I was truly surprised and a little teary when they brought out the surprise cake.  I never have birthdays with family anymore so that was a fun and special treat for me!

While we were home we also played mini-golf with Mom and went bowling, Kyle and Dad golfed, and then Michael, Dad, Kyle and I all went golfing one day as well.  To end this little post here is a a couple fun shots from our golf day!  Stay tuned for the last segment of our trip which was a weekend friend reunion with my three best friends from growing up and their families!

 

 

 

 

Home Again. Home Again. Jiggety Jig (Part Two)

Home Again. Again. Traveling home just once a year always builds a certain pressure for the trip to make sure and see everyone and do everything that you can while you are there.  This trip was no different but, thanks to some fun planning we managed to make a lot of great memories with everyone even if we had limited time.  This trip home really felt like a vacation and we have tons of pictures and memories to prove it! 

 

On our first night of our trip home we went to a great restaurant called "Hey Mambo" in a trendy new area of Tulsa and then went to a coffeehouse on Cherry Street called CHOCS for dessert.  We tried some fun new drinks (Honey Badger) and some treats (Sweeties) and relaxed and enjoyed time with family.  We also took about 50 pictures....that is so US! We couldn't resist posing on this giant orange couch ala' F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

 

Mom enjoyed her delicious and adventurous hot chocolate (LOL, love ya MOM!)

 

The next day we had a magical girls day out to take Piper to the Disney Princess on Ice.  Myself, Mom, Chrissy, Piper and her other amazing aunt, Kaylee all headed to the fairgrounds to reminisce some childhood memories and to make some!

 

Piper was pretty much in awe the whole time.  I think I spent more time watching her expressions throughout the show than watching it myself - kind of fun to see the world through the eyes of a child and watch her reactions - she loved it!

 

We convinced a cotton candy man to take a picture of our group!

 

Definitely made some cherished memories with this little cutie pie!

Someone bought this sparkly spinning thing for Piper and we all of course took our turns using it as a pretend microphone - it was unavoidable.  Love this sequence of photos.... 

 

 Whenever we go home we try to make time to go to Stillwater for a little nostalgia.  We ate at Joe's with my best friend and roommate Sheralyn (who we didn't take any pictures with apparently) and then headed to see the renovated Student Union (the largest one in the world now!) and shop for some OSU apparel - since where we live OSU apparel is for Oregon State. 

 

There was also time to take in an Oklahoma State football game with some of our favorite OSU family!  My cousin/ other college roomie Chris happened to be home from his Navy post during a few days of our visit so we got a rare chance to spend some time with him. Go Pokes!

 This shot is from a quick lunch we had at Fuddrucker's with family before we went to the airport to head home.  I don't think we have ever come home and got to see everyone so much! It was really special.

 

Would you believe there is even more to share? Stay tuned for the next installment of the All Hall Fall Festival!