The drive down took about 14 hours. We left at 9 pm, after I got off of work. As you can imagine, everyone was REALLY tired when we got to Oklahoma! The kids did great on the drive down. We only did one extended stop, to eat breakfast in Springfield, Missouri.
We went on a tour of the Usborne warehouse and Home Office when we got to Tulsa. It was so cool to see where the books come from and go into the offices of the President and Vice President of the company! We went out for pizza and that's when the kids tiredness started to really show. We've never had to leave a restaurant before finishing a meal before...! Early bedtime for everyone on night #1!
The next day I had leader training. Jay took the kids swimming (Kellen wouldn't go in, but the next day he decided he liked swimming). Once I was done with my Usborne stuff we headed out to a park to eat dinner. It was really nice, and almost no one else was there! Apparently the people of Tulsa are spoiled by nice weather and don't have to get out and enjoy every minute like we do. We did almost get attacked by geese, but we managed to get away!
When I went to training the next morning, the rest of the gang went to Route 66 Village and the Tulsa Botanic Garden. It looks like a beautiful garden! They also went swimming, and that's when Kellen decided he liked it :) After dinner they headed out to a rodeo! They had a lot to say about it the next day so I think they really enjoyed it.
The next day, Jay and the kids went to the Tulsa Zoo. They really liked the zoo! They went swimming when they got back, and after lunch the kids napped until dinner time. They took LONG naps every day in Oklahoma, which does not always happen at home! After dinner, cowboy hat shopping was on the agenda. They didn't have Ellison's size, but the guys came home with new hats.
We took a long route home because we wanted to make some stops. None of us had ever been to Kansas, and since we were so close we decided to stop there for breakfast. We also checked out a place called Cars on the Route, which had cars that looked just like the ones from the movie Cars. We also stopped at a place called the Uranus Fudge Factory...we saw it on the way down and just had to. The fudge was good! And then we stopped in St. Louis. We ate a late lunch/early dinner there and saw the Gateway Arch (lots of construction going on around it). And that was that - just driving and gas/bathroom stops after that. We left at 7 am and got home at 11 pm, so it was a LONG trip back! Overall, the kids were pretty good and it was great practice for any future long road trips we may take!
