J-Bird Fun!!!

Spring Break started Friday.  We had very big plans!  We got up and headed to the great state of Missouri to pick up someone very special - Jessi!!!  It's just not Spring Break unless we see her.  We only got to get to keep her for the weekend, so we crammed an entire Spring Break worth of fun into two days.  Like most road trips, we started off with a selfie.  It's a must, don't you know?

Setting our for our adventure

We picked up Jessi and then headed to the Wal-Mart Vision center for Evan's eye appointment. For reasons I don't fully understand, Wal-Mart Vision centers are not allowed in Oklahoma.  With our insurance, it's worth driving to Missouri.  Evan's eyesight has changed a lot in the last year.  He was starting to squint with his glasses on.  Evan was quite upset when they upgraded his red/green color blind status to strong.  After talking to the little guy, he started to feel better.  Here are the girls coloring while in the waiting room. 

Coloring Cousins

Side Note - having four kiddos, we are used to getting a lot of looks and comments. I get it, we are outside the normal kid per family zone. It's been a while since we've had Jessi with us.  People don't just look at you when you have five kids, they straight out stare at you. LOL!  The moment we walked in the door of Wal-Mart, I was told that I had my hands full.  (We hear that A LOT from strangers.) We saw a little girl point at us and then ask her mom if she could come look at "that big family".  It was pretty cute.  After Evan's appointment, we met up with Aunt Ashley for lunch.  Before we met her, we had a stop to make.  We had to have a photo op with this cow.  Jason's so funny!

Silly Daddy

We ate lunch and before we knew it, we were in Oklahoma!  Our GPS warned us of upcoming congestion and rerouted us to Route 66.  As I'm sure you know, Route 66 has many iconic landmarks.  The Blue Whale is one of them.  We had to make a quick stop.

The Blue Whale

At one point, The Blue Whale was a fun swimming hole.  Now, it's just a park.  There have been talks about revamping it.  The kiddos enjoyed seeing the whale.  Here they are in it's mouth.

Having a whale of a good time!

Our next stop was the zoo.  We only had about an hour and a half to spend there, so we had to make the most of our time.  All the kids agreed that we had to see the monkeys. 

Monkeying around

The elephants were very high on the list too.  The elephant building has recently been remodeled.  The kids loved climbing in the elephant play area.

Elephant time!

We stopped for a snack and then saw the big cats, giraffes, penguins, rhinos and more.  We ended our trip by playing with the world. =)

Pushing the World

Every time Jessi comes back to Oklahoma, she really wants to eat at Taco Bueno.  After her family, I think it's what she misses the most about being an Okie.  It's a Mexican fast food chain - do you have them where you live???  We picked it up for dinner.  We had just enough time after we ate for Jessi, Payton and I to pick up Emily before painting class.  Uncle Billy surprised us by meeting us at the class.  They painted tropical sunsets.  I've decided that I'm going to paint next time!

Getting started

Hard at work

They painted their pictures for nearly two hours!  Uncle Billy and Emily had so much fun, that they've decided to make painting class their new Daddy/Daughter date.  Here's the artists with their work.



Payton and her latest Masterpiece.



Jessi and her work.

Emily did an amazing job!

The group

It was a very fun, busy day!  And there's more coming up soon!