A stint in Oklahoma City for a stent

Our Mothers always seem glad to see us when we show up in the panhandle of Oklahoma, and we're glad to see them as well! They are 89- and 91-years old, and they still like to be visited by their babies. Since we are hitting the pause button on our travels for a couple months, we hang out with our mothers as much as possible. We try to do some "honey-do" list items for them, and chaffeur them places. Mark took his Mother to visit her 93-year-old sister. We chaffeured Denisa's Mother to three doctor's appointments in three days. Two of those were in Oklahoma City, so we had a little stint in the city. That's a good place to visit more Oklahoma relatives. That would include one of our sons and his wife, and their puppy (that no longer looks like a puppy).

Our daughter-in-law's parents bought the other male in the litter, so we took the two brothers for a walk in the new Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City.

It was the grand opening weekend for this grand park. It gets its name from the scissortail flycatcher, Oklahoma's state bird. The scissortail is also the inspiration for this 200-foot metal sculpture over the Skydance bridge. This pedestrian bridge is over Highway I-40 that runs through Oklahoma City. It's quite a sight when it is lit up in multi-color splendor at night.

Scissortail Park is adjacent to the Skydance bridge, and phase two of the park construction will include the grassy area on the other side of the highway. For now, the completed section of the new park is filled with state-of-the-art playgrounds, including this over-sized splash pad.

Water squirting suddenly out of different holes was a very confusing concept for two golden retriever puppies.

We're only a couple miles from the site of the Murrah Building Bombing that rocked this city to the core back in 1995. Now a national memorial, it includes a very well-done museum and an impressive tribute to the 168 people that died in the explosion. At the highest point of the memorial is "The Survivor Tree." This 100-year-old elm "burned but did not break," and is a living tribute to the bombing victims. Scissortail Park includes a young clone of that survivor tree.

The puppies' favorite part of Scissortail Park was the all-new dog area. After being on a leash all day, they were ready for some off-leash brotherly romping.

After a cool and cloudy start to the day, the sun came out while we were in the dog park. When Mark found the little shade tree, he became very popular with all the dogs.

It got so warm that our golden retriever puppies turned the drinking water container into a doggy pool. They took turns soaking, much to the chagrin of other thirsty playmates.

We also enjoyed time with both of Denisa's sisters and several of our nieces and nephews that live in the Oklahoma City area. We played a friendly game of bean bag toss, and Denisa still is not sure why Mark was taking pictures of her throwing form. She might not get the most bean bags in the hole, but she certainly should get some points for highest backward leg lift.

Our family get-together included the oldest and youngest members of Denisa's side of the family. That would be our youngest niece's youngest daughter and Denisa's 89-year-old Mother (who will still get down on the floor to play with her great-grandchildren.)

We love seeing everyone, but the real reason for the stint in Oklahoma City was to take Denisa's Mother to a couple doctors' appointments. She had a heart attack this summer, and she was scheduled for a heart catheter procedure this week. They found a 90% blockage, so they inserted a stent to open up that artery. It is truly amazing what they can do from a quarter-inch incision in the wrist!

But that wrist can't lift anything for three days, so Denisa did some home-nursing and more chaffeuring when we got back to Beaver. Our days have changed from hiking in the mountains to walking puppies and chaffeuring our Mothers. It's a nice balance to our lives to come off the road for a while to spend time with family. Sometimes that includes a stint in the city to get a stent for a heart.