The Water Slide

The Water slide: Banzai Sidewinder Falls

Do you all see the amazing water slide above.  It looks like fun.  It looks inviting.  It looks tempting--especially if you are 4.  Welcome to my world...

Last Friday, I was at Target with my three kiddos and making my way around the store picking up stuff we needed.  We happened to be back by the toys and my sweet Dallin sees the box for the above water slide.  It is put on a low shelf-right at his eye level.  He stares.  I am oblivious to all of this and insist that he joins me as we move on.  He reluctantly comes.  He lasts about two minutes and then starts,

Dallin: "Mommy, you have to come see this thing!!"      

Me: "What thing?" (still looking at stuff)  

Dallin: "This really cool thing, you have to, you have to!!!"    

Me:  "Uh huh?!"

This goes on, the same conversation repeated over and over for about 5 minutes until, I finally stop and give the boy some attention.  After awhile of the crazy insistent begging I finally agree to head back to the other end of the store to figure out what he is talking about.  We get over there and behold, I swear, he knelt down to it like it was royalty, "LOOK MOMMY!"  I look. "Can we get it, can we Mommy, Please Please Please!!!"

I look at the price tag:

$474

WHAT?!?!?

NO.NO.NO.

So, I say, Dallin sweetie this is a very expensive toy, I try to put it into perspective and compare it to how many shake and go cars it would take to be equal to that much money.  No.  It doesn't work.  He throws himself around the box and begins to cry and scream.  I try to be rational for just a couple more minutes.  Then out of desperation I tell him that if Daddy says yes we  can get it.  Sorry David.  We call--David laughs. Dallin cries some more.  David figures out the price with tax $513. We hang up.  I finally have lost all nice mom and swoop him up.  There is no place to put him, Kylie is in the seat part of the cart and the  cart itself is overflowing.  I half carry, half drag him to the check out line.  He is still screaming and crying and clutching my neck.  We get out of the store and I just about blow. I knelt down and told him he was being a snot and a brat and we do not have snotty brats in our family, so shape up!!  That stopped the screaming, but the sobs continued.  He cried all the way home--quietly, pathetically, sobbing.  Half an hour later he finally stops and I stupidly think all is forgotten. Later that afternoon he  comes and asks if I can get it for him for Christmas.  I tell him I don't spend that much on him for Christmas.  (He didn't think to ask about Santa--interesting...) Then the pouting replaces the sobbing and we go on.  

A few hours later Dallin comes in my room with the biggest smile on his face--looking proud.  He shoves a piece of paper in my hands and says, "Take me to the bank!"  Again, "What?!"  He produced a $1000 Pirate bill, left over from his 4-year-old pirate birthday party.  He knew that I took paper money (i.e. checks) to the bank and I have explained the process of the bank "giving us the money" in our account.  So, he had found his loophole.  He had found his pirate money and he was sure the bank would give him what he needed to get his water slide--poor poor Dallin, there was a lot of explaining going on that afternoon.  Clever kid though-I've got to give him that!

Tulsa Times Continued

We've been back a few weeks and life has seemed to hit a pretty good summer routine, well until the pink eye and throat virus sent us to the pediatricians office twice in a week!  Oh well, what is 3 kids without doctors??  Ok, so I still wanted to catch up on some of the great times we had in Tulsa a couple of weeks back.

We spent Father's Day with all of my family and it was so great to be with them all--missed you Ben and Brenda!  Then on Monday we went to the Tulsa Water Park.  I have no pictures from the fun-filled exhausting day, but we sure enjoyed ourselves.  My parents were still in Tulsa and they took care of Kylie for us, so we could run around.  That was so great.  Those two kids of ours were crazy.  We went down every slide a hundred times and swam and jumped and played and got burned.  There was no fear.  They would go down the crazy tube slides and body slides and the slides that Dallin even on his tippie-toes didn't hit the height requirements, but he would go and fall-off his tube and ask to do it again.  They jumped off the high dive platforms and climbed the in-water rock wall.  It was a great time.  By the time we got back to the hotel, David and I were ready to collapse, but it was fun.

Tuesday, we went to the Tulsa minor-league baseball game, the Drillers.  That was an experience all on it's own.  First of all, tickets were $3, behind home base in the shade (it was 101 degrees that day).  We got free hats and they even had meal deals, hot dog, chips and a soda for $5.  You don't find that at Minute Maid Park.  After the 7th inning the kids even got to run across the field.  I don't really get the point, but in that heat we got them a  snow cone after. Oh and the Drillers won! 

Wednesday, we left the great city of Tulsa and went to Bartlesville.  We went to Woolaroc, which had wild animals, a petting area and museum as well as a re-enactment of Indian life.  The kids loved all the animals and they even got to feed a baby calf and hold a brand new kitten.  After that we went to the Kiddie Park up there.  It is a small amusement park where all of the rides are just for little kids.  Tickets are 25 cents a piece and the rides all took 1 or 2 tickets.  Prices up there are phenomenal!  The kids had a blast and rode every ride they wanted to for a total of $10.

Kylie tasting cotton candy for the first time.

Thursday, we went to the Tulsa Aquarium and saw the beavers getting fed and building a dam and went through the shark tunnel and talked with the 10 year-old volunteer who knew more than some marine biologists I am sure.  We had a chance to pet sting rays and made souvenir pennies.  

Friday morning we headed back to Houston.  We were able to see my grandparents most every day we were there, which was so nice.  I miss them already.

Vacation

Well we spent a full week in Tulsa and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We visited my grandparents up there and aunts, uncle and cousins.  We also took some time to actually do some of the touristy things in Tulsa, something we have never actually done before.  There are tons of pictures and things to report on, but I have a stack of dirty dishes waiting for me.  I'll have to catch up on that stuff soon.  For tonight though, I wanted to share my favorite pictures from the trip.  These are pictures of my grandfather, Papa, and Dallin.  There is a lake behind their house and a family of geese that they frequently feed.  Papa had a heart attack a couple of months back and he is doing much better, which we are all so grateful for.  He is a wonderful man and I am so grateful to be his granddaughter and especially that our children have had a chance to get to know him and Nana (my grandmother).  We were up there for Father's Day too, which was great.

notice the flying bread above Dallin

Father's Day