The one where I bore you with my vacation photos

This is Ladybird, a.k.a. “Birdie.”

Don’t let the soft fur and sad Mastiff eyes fool you. This dog is trouble.

She has absolutely no respect for personal space.

She’s been known to nibble fingers and sniff places you’d rather not have sniffed.

She is, however, a pretty good dancer. With the right partner, that is.

She is also one of the reasons why we are missing Oklahoma.

When I would tell people I was leaving for Oklahoma the day after Christmas, they would all ask, “Oh, do you have family there?”  Apparently Oklahoma is the kind state one only visits if they have family there because no one asked if I had any awesome friends in that state.  Which I do, by the way.

The pretty lady in the Longhorns sweatshirt is Meg, my dear friend who willingly put up with me and mine for a few days back in December. Her daughter Cambry is four days older than Autumn, and it was our experiences as new moms that first brought us together nearly four years ago.

The girls got along well. Sometimes.

I guess they got along as well as two four year-olds who have no siblings and are suddenly forced to spend time together were able to get along.

Thankfully we had a Wii to keep them occupied.

I hear playing Wii while wearing fairy wings brings the console to a whole new level. I’ll have to try that sometime.

The grownups had other things to keep themselves occupied. Things like a brined roast turkey that traveled all the way down from Michigan.

His name was Jack and we brined and roasted him after we arrived in Oklahoma. We named him Jack because Meg’s Christmas tree was named Toby. As if that makes any kind of sense.

We like to name things.

We also like to drink and made The Pioneer Woman’s sangria.

Who needs a fancy glass jar with a spigot when you’ve got a home brew fermenter?

Cheap wine + lots of fruit & flavored liquer = happy people.

Shortly after the sangria was mixed Amy joined us and we had a little BlogHer reunion.

Can you believe Amy lived only 20 minutes from me and that evening was the first time I had gotten together with her since BlogHer? She just moved to Vegas and is challenging everyone’s notion of what can and cannot be accomplished with coupons in Sin City.

Her husband Gary is a trip. Seriously. Funniest.Guy. Ever. He came up with the name for the next big blogging conference.

Blog Y’all.

Our night with Amy, Meg and their families was magical. There’s really no other word to describe it. Meg’s sister, brother-in-law and niece joined us and we had the best night of laughs I’ve ever had. It’s kind of funny how things worked out. Meg found me through my blog and I found Amy through a message I posted looking for a roommate for BlogHer last year.  It turns out Amy and Gary both grew up not far from Meg’s family so the Okies had a lot to talk about that night.

And they also erected a Festivus pole.

But the fun didn’t stop there. The next evening we went to Savastano’s Pizzeria in Tulsa for some deep dish and disco poses.

Very nice napkins. Mommy needs to work on her composition.

The final day of our visit was spent at the Oklahoma Aquarium.

“I am not amused. But I am native to Oklahoma lakes.”

We saw turtles doing whatever it is turtles do.

Wait…um…

Oh hey, STINGRAYS!

The sharks were pretty killer.

As was the shark cage. The people who get into these things are completely nuts.

I rest my case.

The other day Autumn asked when we’re going back to Oklahoma.

“Not for awhile,” I said.

But what I should have said was, “Not soon enough.”

Tagged as: Friends, Oklahoma, vacation