Mini-Vacation

Last Thursday Caden, Cody and I loaded up for a 4 day mini-vacation. The first leg of our trip took us to Era for a visit with my grandparents. We celebrated Caden's birthday a day early. Granny made Caden's requested Strawberry Shortcake for his birthday cake. (For weeks Caden's been telling me that instead of our annual Ms. Piggy's custom made birthday cake, he wanted Strawberry Shortcake for his birthday!) We had a wonderful, short visit with Granny and Papa. Thanks Granny and Papa for everything!

Friday morning, we began leg 2 of our trip. Norman, Oklahoma, where everything is crimson red. 2 out of the 3 of us traveling on this trip are not big fans of the crimson red, we favor more of a burnt orange color.

Caden was in awe of the campus. From the moment we got there, he couldn't get over everything OU. There were OU flags everywhere! After arriving Caden asked Cody (in a very sarcastic tone, I might add)... "how you doing, Cody? Are you ok being at OU!?!". It was hilarious (I guess you had to be there to experience the whole conversation, and the looks that were passed between these 2 boys!).

We got Cody checked in and headed over to the dorms to unload his things. I have to tell you that there was a moment while unloading Cody's clothes and sheets that my eyes became teary! I had this flash-forward moment that in 3 years we could be unloading Cody into a dorm room for college. Wow. Deep breath. :)

Caden and I stayed to watch Cody's team's first game of the tournament. They won with ease. It was great to see him play again. I love watching him play golf and basketball. I like basketball more. I can yell and cheer at a basketball game. Not so much in golf. I get dirty looks when I cheer at golf. :)

Caden and I then loaded up and headed to our hotel. I had meticulously planned this trip (I am type A after all). I knew I wanted to stay somewhere between OKC and Norman and I found a perfect Days Inn that had everything that we needed for a great price. Once we arrived, we discovered that it did not have a pool as was described on hotels.com's website. Since I had promised one particular little boy that in just less than an hour of arriving that he would be jumping into a pool, I had to make a decision. This was probably the biggest stressor of the trip. I had planned our entire weekend from this one hotel's location. I had directions all written out from this location to all of the places we were going to go while in OKC. I had a mini-breakdown while on the phone with hotels.com. Caden's looking at me with tears in his eyes, I'm frustrated and mad, I'm realizing that the "good deal" I got online, may not be available at another hotel, and I'm hot. It was well over a 100 degrees that day and it was 3:00 in the afternoon! Long story short, I was able to cancel our reservation, (without any fees!) and the nice hotel manager directed me to a much nicer hotel that he also managed, and he gave me the same rate that I had booked online. In the end, everything worked out well.

We drove back to Norman that night to catch Cody's 7:00 game. They won that game as well. Day 1: 3 games; won 2, lost 1

Day 2 of our OKC trip was Caden's 7th birthday. We drove to the OKC zoo, only to arrive an hour before it opened (Type A me wanted to make sure I knew how to get there!). We spent about 3 hours at the zoo. It was a nice zoo. Lots of animals that Caden's never seen. However, it was miserably hot. By 12:00, Caden was done. I was done. So we loaded up to our next stop, the memorial site. I've wanted to visit this memorial for years. As we arrived, I realized that parking was going to be an issue, it was already into the 90's outside, and something that I hadn't planned on... Caden was asleep. So instead of fighting the traffic, waking Caden up, and then something that I hadn't really thought about... explaining the reason for the memorial to Caden, I decided that viewing the memorial would have to wait until the next OKC trip.

We drove on to the Incredible Pizza Company for Caden's birthday lunch. This place is 10 times better than our local Gattis pizza place. We had a great time playing putt-putt (I won) and video games. Afterwards we drove back to the hotel for some swimming and then drove back to Norman for another late basketball game.

Day 2: 3 games; won 2, lost 1

Day 3 of our trip, loaded up the car, checked out of our hotel room, and back to Norman for an early morning game. The 6 games prior and the few hours of sleep (too much partying in the dorms!) were beginning to take their toll on the boys. We barely slipped by with a win for our first game. Sunday's games were single elimination. You lose a game, your out... head on home. Next game was at 11:00. Cody had just enough time to finish a game, load up, drive to the location, warm-up and then the game was on. Second game was a dirty game. The other team was overly cocky, mean, and just played a rough, dirty game. They were ahead at one point by 15 or more. We slowly got it within 1 with seconds to spare. In the end we won by 1. Dirty never wins. Oh, they may actually win a game every once in a while, but to win dirty is to win without dignity and dignity is one thing we had every game.

Game 3. Played well and won. On to the championship game in the Loyd Noble Center. We had thought that Cody's team would be able to play on the main floor of the LNC, but the varsity teams were playing there. So, second best was the men's practice gym in the LNC. This gym had all of the OU banners hanging around the gym. It was a great moment. We lost game 4. In the end, the umph was gone. These boys were tired, worn out, had just played 3 games earlier in the day. We just didn't have enough to pull out a win. They lost by 15. Our team placed 2nd in the weekend tournament. It is something to be very proud of.

We drove back to the dorm and loaded up 3 days worth of sweaty jerseys, shorts, socks, and 3 days worth of wet, damp towels. Also... a pair of basketball shoes that had seen 10 games in 3 days. It was a nice ride home. :)

Whew... just reliving the weekend has made me tired all over again! We had a wonderful trip. We logged over 950 miles from start to finish. I am greatly thankful for the time that the boys and I had. I am thankful that my parents raised me to be independent and that I have a husband who lets me be independent. I am proud of myself for not getting lost, for my ability to read a map, and a sense of direction (well, at least I know Never Eat Sour Watermelons... N-E-S-W... I used that saying a lot last weekend!). Most of all I am thankful for the safe trip. We arrived home at 10:30. Mike had Caden's birthday gift ready for him to open... new golf clubs... then we headed on to bed. It was a great weekend. A great mini-vacation. Now I just need to get caught up on the laundry! :)

~jen