Honoring our Mothers

With the motor home settled into a parking place in central Oklahoma, we're taking another car trip to visit family members elsewhere. Our first stop is the panhandle of Oklahoma, where both of our Mothers still live. So we're visiting them for Mother's Day! At 89- and 91-years-old, our two mothers have a life-time of "stuff." So we thought the best gift we could give them is our time. We used some of that time to work on projects at their houses. That included pulling weeds and cleaning up a yard that has been neglected while Denisa's Mother spent the winter in south Texas. We raked up piles of grass and weeds in the front and back yards to haul away.

After trimming trees and pulling weeds, we had an entire pick-up load of debris.

We didn't take many pictures during the four days we spent visiting our Mothers. So Denisa is happy to include shots of some Oklahoma wildflowers.

After weeks of enjoying the Texas hill country bluebonnets, we can say that the dry Oklahoma panhandle puts on a more subtle show.

We're not seeing hills covered with a blanket of flowers. But it is fun to see dainty floral creations among the buffalo grass on a walk in the pasture.

There is a natural beauty when we include our red clay soil with a yellow bloom framed with that blue cloudy sky.

This tiny barrel cactus was also strutting its best spring bloom. It looks like we are wandering God's wonders again today.

The horizons are flat here, and the blue skies filled with puffy white clouds make a pretty picture.

We're not getting as much exercise as we like, so the two of us decided to walk the two miles back to the house. That slow pace allowed us to see the tiny beauties at our feet that we would have usually missed.

We're glad that our schedule now allows us to stop and see the flowers.

While sitting with Mark's Mother, we were doing some bird watching on her new bird feeder.

Since we've loaded this blog with lots of boring flower pictures, we might as well end it with lots of boring bird pictures taken from our perch on the porch.

From that perch we also got front row seats to two birds making strange moves in the grass. We couldn't tell if they were fighting or courting. Isn't it interesting that some times it's hard to tell the difference?

So on this Mother's Day weekend, we enjoyed some lazy spring weather with our Mothers. We gave them the gift that most aged parents appreciate the most--time with their children.

We were glad for a break from the rain and stormy weather, so we have to include another picture of the beautiful sky on this special weekend when we honored our Mothers.

Motor Home Upgrade and Guests

While we are camping in Edmond, Oklahoma to visit family, we have more time on our hands than usual. Denisa did some sewing, and also hemmed up some pants. Perhaps that is why Mark got inspired to do a craft project too. When we first bought our used motor home five years ago, we weren't thrilled with the light colored upholstery on the dining room chairs.

We found that two of the chairs were missing, so our dealer sent us replacements. But they were upholstered in a different fabric, that was also very light.

The third and fourth chairs are usually stored under our bed, but we decided a couple years ago that we wanted matching fabric on the four chairs. We also wanted a darker fabric that would blend with the busy black and tan upholstery found elsewhere in the motor home. So we bought some fabric two years ago, and it has been patiently waiting for a rainy day when we had nothing better to do but re-upholster furniture. Today is the day! We would start by taking out the 50 staples that held the outer layer of each chair cushion.

Removing that layer would uncover more than 100 more staples that had to be removed to get the old upholstery fabric off.

Then it was time to cut the new fabric and start stapling it in place. Mark says he pities the poor fool that has to take out all the staples we put in. Denisa just hopes that "poor fool" isn't us.

The finished project was successful. We now have a matched set of chairs with a darker and less-busy covering. It was a good project for a rainy day!

We're now ready for company!

So we invited Denisa's sister and brother-in-law over for breakfast one day, and our son's family over another morning. They were on their way home to Kansas City after the first birthday party weekend.

While their guests ate, Gram and Granddad were busy feeding Carter her breakfast. She ate three plates full of strawberries, grapes, and bananas.

We loved having sit-on-the-floor company as the whole family joined Denisa for play time.

They also joined us for a walk around our campground loop, where we could share our peaceful home.

That sunshine turned to rain, and we were faced with another string of rainy days and severe weather warnings. Sheesh!

Instead of staying up all night to listen for tornado warnings, we left the motor home sitting here, and we spent the night at Denisa's sister's house. Like most houses in Oklahoma, they have an underground storm shelter. Luckily, we didn't have to use it. When we returned to check on the motor home the next morning, we saw that Lake Arcadia was merging into the camp site across the road from us. We had purposefully picked an elevated site, and we watched as one of our neighbors was evacuated from their lower site.

That same afternoon, we moved the motor home to its new storage spot for the next couple weeks. We're ready for another car road trip, so the motor home is staying high and dry at our relatives' house until we continue our quest to the north. 

Playing tourist in Oklahoma City

Because we are camped very near to our old stomping grounds, we don't do much sight-seeing. Basically, we've "been there, done that." But sometimes we will play tourist in the Oklahoma City area when something new or different catches our attention. That would happen when we found out that a newly refurbished Mormon Temple in Yukon, Oklahoma, was open to visitors for a very limited time.

It is interesting to note that non-church-members are only allowed inside a Mormon temple before it is dedicated. Back in 2000, Denisa had visited this same temple before its original dedication. Because water damage caused a major renovation, the building is once more open before its rededication, and we decided to take their tour.

No pictures are allowed inside, but we can verify that the interior is very beautiful. Only Mormons with special referrals from their local church will be allowed inside after the dedication. That dedication was scheduled for two days after we had our tour.

No expense was spared on the hand-made rugs and furnishings. In order to protect the light-colored carpeting, volunteers placed shoe covers on our feet before we entered, and then removed them on our way out. They have already had 19,000 guests during this short open house period, so that is a lot of foot traffic.

The grounds were already planted with flowers so the outside would be as beautiful as the inside.

Another day, Denisa got to take a quick walk through the Oklahoma City Zoo with her sister. We saw lions, and otters, and bears (oh my!) But the only good picture she took was of a roaming peacock showing off those amazingly colorful feathers.

Another afternoon included a walk around the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.

We walked through the library, one of our son's favorite places to study when he was an undergraduate here.

It is a lovely campus for a walk, with most of the buildings repeating something they call "Cherokee Gothic" style. Luke remembers the ice storm that splintered many of the beautiful old trees on campus. So we were glad to see the new trees are now getting big enough to once again shade the sidewalks.

It was a nice day for a walk on campus with our children and granddaughter. Our family is certainly a "house divided." This son with two degrees from OU married a woman with a degree and solid roots at OSU. Our younger son graduated from OSU, and is married to an OU alumni. So we may see major competition when our grandchildren are deciding where to go to college.

In this picture of both grandfathers and Carter, we're guessing that "Pops" (wearing the OSU orange shirt) does not relish the idea of his granddaughter getting comfortable on the OU campus.

Since we like strolling on college campuses all over the country, this was not an unusual stop for us. Our walks always include a football stadium picture, so we had to snap this picture of the north entrance to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

On another day, we made the drive across Oklahoma City to Lake Hefner. A 10-mile biking/hiking trail that surrounds the lake is a favorite with Oklahoma City residents. The walk out to the lighthouse was also popular on this beautiful weather evening.

But we're not here to walk this time. We're here to celebrate Mother's Day with our youngest son and his wife. They are treating their Mothers to a meal out at the lake. This area is a great place to watch the sunset at the outdoor seating area of several upscale restaurants on the lake. 

A delicious meal at the Redrock Grill was topped off with the best Key Lime pie we have ever tasted. What a great celebration!

Most of our time in the Oklahoma City area included fond memories of eating, playing games, and spending time with family. But it was also fun to spend a little time playing tourist with our family as well.

Carter's First Birthday Party!

The reason we planned to be in central Oklahoma during spring storm season is to attend a very special celebration. That would be the first birthday of our first granddaughter. Here's Granddad and Carter practicing their happy-birthday-surprise faces before the party started.

Even though they live near Kansas City now, our son and daughter-in-law decided to have this momentous birthday party in Oklahoma so more family and friends could attend.

We got there early in the morning to help make treats and set up for the party. A goodie table for all kinds of appetites was set up in the dining room.

That would include decorated cookies,

six kinds of fruit, chips and dips, appetizers, gluten-free cupcakes,

and dipped pretzel sticks with coarse sugar "spines" to follow the cactus theme.

Carter timed her afternoon nap perfectly, waking up rested and refreshed to greet her guests. Those guests would include her parents and her Uncle Blake and Aunt Claire. (See how we tied that in so we could include a picture of all our kids together!)

A total of 69 friends and relatives made a special trip to wish her a happy first birthday. What a special day it was! When it came time for her personal smash cake, Carter politely picked at the butter cream frosting. Even though most of it stayed on her face and hands, some of it went into her mouth. This was her first experience with something so sweet, and she seemed to have an affinity for eating sweet things. She must take after her grandparents.

Then Mom helped by cutting into the cake, and Carter got to really experience her "smash cake."

Carter was completely clue-less that she was the center of attention. She had no idea that all these presents had been specially selected just for her.

After a week of storms and rain, we were blessed with perfect weather for the party. That's a good thing, because even a sizable home would seem crowded with 69 guests. So it was good that we could spill into the back yard. We took lots of pictures, including a family portrait with our two sons and daughter-in-laws, and of course the guest of honor.

Denisa wanted lots of pictures on the blog so she can look back at them and smile. We hope they make you smile as well.

The one thing in common in each picture was our sweet Carter. We can't believe this little bundle of sunshine is already one year old. We love her so much!

Happy birthday sweet Carter!