4th of July Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Johnson

This year we decided to do something special and we sent Tori to fly up and stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a week herself.  We were a little nervous to say goodbye at the gate and then hope she made it safely, but everything went great.  Grandma was able to meet her at her arriving gate with no problems. 

  Off she goes!

We had some extra frequent flyer miles so she flew up herself on a plane and stayed the week before the rest of us came up for the 4th of July.  Grandma and Grandpa spoiled her with dinners, a trip to Incredible Pizza, and they also got to go see Lion King, the musical. 

The rest of us drove up a week later and spent about a week in Owasso for the 4th of July.  We were able to go and watch the fireworks on the evening of the 3rd.  On the morning of the 4th we went to a program and breakfast that Steve and Judy's ward was hosting.  Then we had to go get our own stash of fireworks.  The girls always love picking some out. 

Waiting for the program on a sunny OK morning.

 

We tried to go to dinner that night and kept trying different restaurants all to find they were all closed.  In the end we settled at Olive Garden, which is Tori's favorite now so she loved it. 

 

 

Uno and snacks while waiting for the fireworks to start. 

 

 

 A little nervous with the morning glory sparklers.

 Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the show. 

 Kira did NOT want to hold them. 

 Now they've got the hang of it. 

One morning we headed to this great park that the kids love in Owasso.  It was hot, but always a lot of fun.

On one our days, we decided to explore a new children's museum they've opened up.  They have a huge tunnel and slide all made out of plastic tape.  Adults can go up too.  It was a little terrifying, but that tape is tough stuff. 

 The longest stretch of unsupported tape only tunnel.  Yikes!

 There was another science room with this bed of nails.  You laid on it and the nails would go up and then down.  It was crazy how they didn't hurt!  The girls wanted to do it over and over. 

 Kira enjoying the toddler area with light switches.  She couldn't quite do them herself yet, but she liked the effect when I helped her. 

 Alyssa loved this section that had light weight balls that you'd put into the boxes and they'd shoot out these tunnels up high because of the air pressure. 

Of course, what trip is complete to Tulsa without Incredible Pizza! 

 Kira finally liked the rides this time!

 Never too old for the kiddy carousel. 

 Tori showed the girls how to win these balls at one of the games so we ended up carting around 3 balls.  Grandma got to be the ball babysitter for a while. 

 This time instead of go carts the girls really wanted to do the bumper cars. 

 Even Mackenzie got in on the action.  It was pretty tame because it was only our family on this round. 

 All playing together. 

Our latest tradition is to stop at Buccee's in Madisonville.  It's a huge convenience store with clean bathrooms.  Mackenzie wanted her picture taken by the huge Buccee statue.