In a significantly shorter recap of day two, thanks in part to not taking my camera anywhere and getting all of these photos off of my mother's phone, I bring you day two of the adventure.
In all fairness there was no way you can make a trip like this with small kids without a zoo visit. Being our second big zoo to visit this year (Nashville in February) and living close to the Audubon, I have to say that the Tulsa Zoo is my favorite so far.
Prices were better than Audubon, but the same as Nashville. There were more animals than in Nashville. As far as how nice it is, this one and Nashville rank the same.
The highlights were definitely all 400 turtle exhibits, Harrison is turtle obsessed right now and I nearly had to peel him off the tank in the photo above.
The kids weren't as interested, but Tulsa also has 3 elephants, which I loved. The major plus being that you were indoors and it happened to rain while we were there.
The train in Tulsa was also great, actually a lot like the one in Lafayette. Harry has finally gotten to an age where the train is fun and he insists he sit alone (and continually swats my hands away while I try to keep him from falling to his death). This particular time he yelled "1, 2, 3, Ready, Go!" and "Choo Choo!" the entire ride.
Look at his little self sitting on the train like he's grown. Who is this kid?
Didn't I birth his last week?
The other kid lure we worked in was a hotel with a pool.
Josh had fun and then suddenly hated it, being like his mother at that age. He nearly died of a scraped toe. I almost text Laura to tell her he wouldn't be returning, his funeral would be that evening.
Funny how much these two are like my sister and I.
Harrison on the other hand can't swim to save his life and his first time in a Puddle Jumper this year... he couldn't even keep himself upright.
Constantly on the verge of drowning he swatted those hands enough to say "I'll do it myself." To which I assume he would also do his own CPR after he went under.
My gravestone will read "Died form insanely independent child exactly like her."
The pics above are actually from his second time in the pool, so he had gotten the staying upright thing straight. By Saturday when we were at our Sunday School party he was a Puddle Jumping Pro and all but asked us to exit the pool.
Before I leave our pool time thought process let me add this in... that skunk asked me to get him out of the pool. Then he asked me to get out of the pool. Next think I knew he was trying to jump back in (which he can't do without drowning yet) to keep my out so he could swim alone!
Who on earth can't swim but insists on swimming alone! My child.
We didn't initially plan to go back to The Merc Wednesday for dinner, but with nothing near us we were dying to have I suggested it and Mom was down.
Joshua questioned why we were in the car again and not headed home.
Harrison asked to get out for the entire hour.
Both of us made the mistake of not planning ahead, so therefore we had eaten so much at lunch that we couldn't bare to order much for dinner.
I had the Spicy Caesar. Mom got the Fancy Mac & Cheese and French Onion Soup. We shared the PW Queso... and low and behold the 7 year old tried it. Everyone nearly died that Laura's mini me tried a new food. Score for the Aunt and her manipulation skills!
I'd like to believe we weren't being judged for not feeding the kids... but the woman full of side eye next to be looked otherwise.
Here's the deal, there's a McDonald's in town and we had a 45 minute wait at 6pm. Little bit eats at 6 or dies immediately. They would only be ordering chicken strips anyway. Picky big kid wouldn't have eaten the strip and would only consume fries.
So we skipped that whole debacle and I held out place in line while Mom went to McDonald's and bought the kids dinner. In the super wait... which is technically speedy compared to the lunch wait... they ate outside at the tables instead of getting inside and expressing their hate for the lack of food in their bellies.
Which is why you don't see them eating.
Those Paw Patrol figurines... best money ever spent. I slowly handed them out during the trip and they entertained for literally days and are still entertaining a week later.
So that about wraps it up.
