The Oklahoma weathermen were hyping up a big winter storm was heading our way this week, so Alice, Chris and I decided it would be wise to stay indoors for this month's photo outing.  Chris caught a nasty cold and ended up not making it, so Alice and I went to the Crystal Bridge Conservatory in downtown Oklahoma City.  This is a fun place for me to play with my macro lens and we were both amazed that we spent an hour and a half there!

Here is a slideshow of my favorites.

We had a nice lunch at a favorite lunch spot of mine, Prairie Thunder Baking Company.Oh, and in the end we really didn't get much more than half an inch of snow!  Phew!!!

We have spent Spring break at home here in Oklahoma for the first time since we moved here in 2006.  It has been lots of fun.  The weather has been glorious and we have caught up on a lot of chores as well as having fun with the kids. 
We have been hiking at Martin Park, visited Daddy at work for breakfast, day tripped to Redrock Canyon State Park and we went to Myriad Gardens in downtown OKC.   We have avoided going to the zoo thankfully.  I read today that they had 16,000 visitors on Tuesday - yikes way too busy for us.

Martin Park

Myriad Gardens

Redrock Canyon State Park

It's been a fun and cheap "stay-cation",  we are going back to Scotland for 2 weeks this summer and are saving our pennies for that trip!

It was a beautiful morning today, the kids and hubby had light coats on and I braved it with a sweater!  There was a variety of flowers blooming today, daffodils and other Narcissi and plenty of blooming trees. It all made for a very happy Gill!

We visited the Island Life exhibit and the Flamingos came up the closest they ever have to me.  They are one of my favorite birds and I could have watched them all day but my small impatient people prevailed!

Some peacocks were up on the roof of the Pachyderm house right by Island Life.

More birds, but from Oklahoma Trails. 

It's not a trip to the zoo without visiting the Orangs.  In this photo Toba is keeping a watchful eye on Elok, the Escape artist who managed to get out of the enclosure a few weeks back

The kids blew off some steam at the playground.  Their objective was not to let me take any photos of them and they would run away screaming when ever I approached them - stinkers!!  I caught one of little lady though!

And apparently they weren't the only ornery ones at the zoo today...... cheeky!!

That's right, that 2nd top tooth came out with a little help from Little Lady tonight.  Daddy had just got home from a conference in Taos, NM. So there has been lots of excitement in the last hour.

Phew, it certainly has been busy this past week.  I have been meaning to post some of the photos I took on Friday with Alice and Chris.  There have been birthdays, parties and getting hubby ready to go to a conference in NM to keep me more than occupied!  Hubby is away now so I am busier with chores, homework, reading and consoling small people who miss their Daddy.

Most of the photos I am posting are from the Oklahoma Trails exhibit

Swift fox

Mexican Wolf

 
Sandhill Crane

Not sure what this one is - but love those blue eyes!

Elk

We all had a fun time.  I probably dragged poor Chris and Alice further than they were comfortable with.  My feet didn't hurt like theirs did,  my face hurt most from laughing - hehehhe!!

Yep, it's that time of year again!!

As soon as the sun came up this morning we had a visitor to our bedroom.  "Muuuum, can we get up yet, it's my birthday"

He got some books and DVDs and a playmobil Roman Arena. Granny and Grandpa L. sent him some money.

He is having a few friends round for a Knights and Dragons themed party.  Then this evening we are going to the Scouts Blue and Gold banquet.  A little birdie told me that they will be singing Happy Birthday to him tonight so he is all prepared for that!

It was pretty chilly today at the zoo but we were wrapped up.

I'm glad we went,  it was worth braving the cold.

A few daffodils were blooming, always a welcome sight!

We watched the gorillas playing for a bit then when I went to the orang enclosure there was a new addition.

He's an 8 year old male transferred up from Houston Zoo.  He is adorable and loved to watch us as much as we loved watching him. 

The big cats were enjoying the sun too.

The tooth hung in there a little longer than I thought.  It was so loose tonight that I persuaded her to let me help it out, I barely had to tug it at all!!  We were worried she might swallow it in her sleep.  She is very happy that it is finally out, of course it's tinged with a little sadness for me. 

Oh and as an aside after having 3 close calls with tornadoes the last few years we have scheduled a company to put a underground shelter in our garage.  It should be done in early March.

Just a little FYI for you tooth fairy!!

She is very excited, but not brave enough to pull it out.  I bet she wiggles it out with her tongue tomorrow!

Anxiety levels were high today.  Tornadoes sprung up this afternoon over by Alice and Chris's houses and tracked NW right over where I live.

Hubby and I were at work, it was gut wrenching knowing the kids were up in Edmond at school.  The storm did damage a mile south of our house close to school and daycare.  The public schools were locked down til 5 PM and little lady was in daycare.  I found out pretty soon that the daycare center was fine and little lady was oblivious to what was going on.

As soon as it looked safe I headed to my car to make the 13 mile drive home.  No sooner had I got on the road and the sirens went off.  I found a radio station with a live audio feed from Gary England.  So I knew the storms were well to my west.

I high tailed it up the road and got to daycare to find out the school kids hadn't been released yet.  Little Lady's Pre-K teacher said they probably wouldn't even let kids leave school til the worst was over.

As we got in to our neighborhood there was a lot of roof and fence damage and a couple of mangled trampolines that had been blown out of their yards.

We got home to find out there was no power so we got flashlights and the weather radio and went to our safe place to keep little lady calm.

The schools released the kids at around 5 PM and hubby picked up kiddo on his way home.  He was in the safest place, the school has several steel lined classrooms with steel doors that are used in these situations.  He wasn't the least bit fazed apart from being hungry!!

I was a lot happier once everyone was home and the power was on.  Having a warm meal in our tummys certainly made things seem a lot better!






Photos taken from my front porch.