January 16, 2012

oklahoma

we took our first family vacation to Oklahoma to visit my side of the family. little man did so great on the airplane ride and all of the other passengers had a lot of fun pulling faces and making him smile.

if anyone has ever been to Oklahoma, then you know than OU sports is like a religion. danny had never been so we showed him around the campus and took a look at the stadium.


our favorite part of the trip was going to see the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. danny and i were both pretty young when it happened and so we didn't remember much about it. they have since built a memorial site and a museum where the building used to stand. it was a very eye opening thing to see and an amazing opportunity to walk through the grounds.

this tree that we are standing by is called the "tree of life". it stood in the parking lot of the federal building and somehow survived the bombing. we were told that many people have taken parts of the tree and there are now hundreds of them growing all over the United States.


each of these chairs stands in place for someone who lost their life from the bombing. they range from workers, people is passing, children, to innocent bystanders. their names are engraved at the bottom of each chair and at night they illuminate and appear to be floating in air.


even though Oklahoma isn't warm and tropical, it holds a special place in my heart because of the family i have there, including my dad. when they came to see Beckham shortly after he was born, he was still in the NICU and they weren't able to spend a lot of time with us. it was so great to have an entire week for them to get to know him. Becks was spoiled rotten with toys and constant attention.
this beautiful lady is my grandma jo. it was her 70th birthday while we were there and she was very surprised to see us when she walked into her party. i'm so happy that the little man got to meet another one of his great grandmothers.
this trip was so relaxing and so nice to spend an entire week in the beautiful Oklahoma country.