Tulsa - part 1 - Pre-Christmas

Well, I said in the Winter Park posting below that I was going through the pics in reverse order; so, now I am sorting through Tulsa pics from Mom's camera and my camera (Hmmm...notice I didn't say Kristy's camera? She hasn't shared yet...). I decided to post two Tulsa entries. This is the first part of our Tulsa trip ... "pre-Christmas". As many of you know, the girls and I flew to Tulsa on Sunday, Dec 4th. They were super travelers and the only glitch on the way over was missing the flight in Detroit (standing at the gate and watching the plane back away from the jetway is not fun...) and spending an extra 4 hours in Detroit. Not exactly the most fun, but we survived. Once we arrived in Tulsa and managed one night's sleep, we were geared up to celebrate Pops' birthday. What we didn't know is that Lexi's slight runny nose turned out to be a full blown cold (with fever, cough and congestion) for Lillian. The poor thing has never been this sick and was sick for nearly the whole first week. Lexi then got a the cold back for about 3 days, Mom got it, Brenda got it, Mark got it, Kate got it, Great Grandpa Allen got it and poor Lillian got round 2. We were apparently breathing on everyone. Lucky for us, Dr. Wingerter was on hand to prescribe Lillian some antibiotics. Needless to say, being sick while out travelling is not fun anytime - expecially during the holidays. But, we all managed to kick the bug and everyone was relatively healthy for Christmas itself. The sicknesses didn't exactly hold us up from having fun...just slowed us down a bit. Here are the highlights from December 4th through the 22nd.

Pop's birthday

Must take a pic with Maggie...

Lexi and Great Grandpa Allen
Great Grandma Allen

Loving her food

Freezing our buns off at the first annual (and last annual?) Tulsa Hills Christmas Parade. It wasn't exactly top-notch.

In church for Kate's Baby Dedication

Two beautiful K's

Baby Kate being dedicated to The Lord

Grammy with Baby Kate

Grammy and Pops with Baby Kate (poor Grammy was in the early stages of catching "the cold"...you can see it in her eyes)

Pappa Tim and moocher Lillian

Great Granny Bitting and Lillian

We were so very fortunate to have our good friends Nikki, Naomi and Lilja visit us in Tulsa. (We missed you Ben!). They moved from Stavanger to Houston in October 2010 and we hadn't seen them in a year. I so wanted to go visit them in Houston, but logistics and timing were difficult (colds unforseen). So, I was so surprised (and blessed) when Nikki suggested that they visit us in Tulsa for the weekend. Here are the three oldest ones at the playground.

Little Lillian was there too

We visited the Oklahoma Aquarium

We went ice skating

John and Mark joined us

Playing dress-up was very popular this trip. This is one of my old leotards from a jazz dance recital. I think Mom is going to have to try and find the old picture of me in this costume...oh how I wish the old pics were digital so I could have easily posted it here.

The dancer and the pumpkin

Again, not sure why this pic got rotated, but here is Lexi at the local neighborhood playground

Grammy and Lillian

Lillian has a serious fixation about glasses

Playing with cellophane is sooooo much fun

Cousins (Lillian 13 months, Kate 8 months)

Lexi and I at the Dry Gulch Christmas Train

Mark and Lexi and a couple of friends at the Dry Gulch Christmas Train

Why oh why do some pics get rotated??? Lexi playing at Dry Gulch

Ummm, Snow White and Robin (from Batman and Robin). I so wish I could have found a Jake costume. I found something suitable for Izzy, but not Jake. Yo ho ho - Jake and Izzy and the Neverland Pirates!

Part 2 coming another night....