O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!!!

My favorite movie is Oklahoma, and I love that Discoveryland in Sapulpa has the live musical production. We usually try to go every year, but with Bryson being a baby and a little too young last year we have not been in a couple of years. I told Brian he had to take me this year. Well, we went on the very last day of the show. My dad got us all tickets there were around 20 of us that ended up going.

I was not as impressed as I have been in previously years, but it was still good. We ate the rib eye steak dinner there before the show, and the kids rode the ponies and played around. We also got the ticket package where you can get a drink, popcorn or snow cone, and a dessert. Bryson loved the horses and all the guns during the show. I think he got a little bored with the songs (I will have to work on that). We had to watch most of the show from the top, but that allowed him to run around and I still got to watch.

Bryson watching his cousin Taylor ride the pony

Thanks again dad for the tickets - I loved it!

Sugarland & Keith Urban

On August 7th we went to see the Sugarland & Keith Urban concert. Kelly gave Brian and I tickets and we rode with her and Tracy (they sat in a different section than us - more on that later). My uncle Rocky watched Bryson (I know I can't believe it either). I did some heavy praying and left good instructions to change the diaper. :) I think Rebecca helped out a lot.

I really can't believe Brian went with us. I think it was because he is a huge Jennifer Nettles (sp?) fan (Sugarland). We went to Country Fever last June and saw them perform and we both had a good time, so I guess that is why he wanted to go. Of course he was not that into Keith Urban (because all the ladies were so into him - jealous much). :) We had an awesome time. I am really glad it was on a Friday night because it lasted for well over three hours.


Keith Urban actually walked around the crowd to the back of the floor and played on a smaller stage that was right in front of us. I loved it because he yelled "who has the good seats now?" After he played four or five songs he went back through the crowd and walked right in front of Kelly and Tracy.

A little later in the concert he came out in one of the sections and played. Guess what - it was the section Kelly and Tracy were in and he was only a couple steps up from their seats and they were on the end seats. When he walked down their section I think Kelly may have touched him inappropriately! :) Tracy got to rub on him too! Brian and I were cracking up because we were watching them the whole time. Thanks again Kelly for the tickets!

Branson Trip

Believe it or not, but we made our first Branson trip of the year in late July/early August. I know I could not believe it had been that long. My family left on a Thursday and came back Monday. We had a really good time. We went to the Dinosaur Museum, Silver Dollar City, Twelve Irish Tenor Show, and Dixie Stampede. One day the guys went golfing and us girls went shopping of course. :)

The Dinosaur Museum was neat for little kids. They had a huge dino Jupiter Jump, sand box, coloring tables, dino computer games, arcade games, and huge dino statues.

This is Aladar (from Disney's Dinosaur - Bryson's favorite movie). Bryson was so excited to see him. He thought it was the one from the movie. :)

My sisters Amy and Katie

Bryson checking out all the dino eggs

We had a great time at SDC. We just felt really rushed because we had a show that evening. The kids enjoyed all the rides and the water part of course. Bryson was actually tall enough to ride all the rides in the kiddie area.

I thought this was a really cool picture until I was done taking it and look over to see a little boy with his pants down peeing in the flowers next to the kids.

Bryson got a big gun from Dixie Stampede that he absolutely loves. He has to have it every time we go outside for anything (especially taking the trash out). He has to shoot the deer and rabbits (he tells me). It is really cute because he says "mommy I like this gun, this my stampede gun."

American Idol & Wicked

On July 24th a bunch of us girls went to see American Idol at the BOK Center. It was awesome! I sat with my niece Taylor and cousin Rebecca because we are the fun ones. Although our section was complete duds - no one stood up or anything. The people behind us and beside us acted like we were so annoying for yelling and wanting to stand up to cheer or bogey! :) However, I sat down and let the girls stand up where they were not in any body's way, and we all had a blast! Mom, Kelly, Amy, Haylee, Becki, and Gale Ann sat in the section next to us. I guess Haylee was a hoot to watch!

Me with the two crazy girls!

Taylor and Rebecca - I can't even explain! :)

Kris Allen - the American Idol winner

The whole group at the end

Adam and Allison sang a song together and a girl decides to throw a bra and pair of underwear on stage. Allison kicked the underwear off, but Adam grabbed the bra and was hilarious!

Matt and Scott - dueling pianos!

The bottom six of the top 10

We really had a lot of fun. We went to eat at Caz's before the concert and it was delicious. Thank you again Kelly for the tickets!

For Christmas Kelly bought all of my mom's family tickets to Wicked. I seriously can not believe I did not lose my tickets from December to July. Anyhow, I had tickets for July 26th in row G on the floor, but Kelly had two extra tickets for July 19th row V (floor) and she could not find anyone to go. She did not buy any tickets for our husbands, and Brian said he would go if I could trade my ticket. So, I sacrificed my row G tickets for row V to spend the evening with my husband. :) It was awesome, and I was really impressed Brian liked it. I had no idea what to expect, and it far exceeded anything I could have imagined. It is basically a twist on the Wizard of Oz we all grew up watching and loving. If you did not go you should next time it is in town. It was one of the best shows I have seen at the PAC, and I even recognized one of the actors from Law & Order. He played the Wizard.

Since he played in Wicked before his American Idol days I had to include a (not so good) picture of Adam from the concert!

Thank you again Kelly for both tickets! I had so much fun at both!

Bryson's 2nd Birthday!!!

For Bryson's 2nd birthday we had a Dinosaur theme party at our church on his actual birthday July 18th. It was a little hectic, but what party isn't right? We were supposed to have the party at our house, but when we started adding up all the family (not including friends) we were at 60 people. Brian and I both have huge families. So, we changed it to the church. There was another group from our church having a family reunion that day, and they were still there whenever we showed up to start decorating for the party. I felt really bad because we were stepping all over one another in the kitchen. People were showing up for the party, and we were still setting up. I was trying really hard to not stress and enjoy the day, but I stressed and it flew by. As long as Bryson had fun that is all that matters.

Since we had the party in the afternoon we had all kinds of food. I wanted it to be very kid friendly so we had all kinds of kiddie snacks! Bryson loved getting to eat all the left-overs.

We went shopping the Thursday before with aunt Kelly for the party food and the rest of the supplies that I could not order online. We got to watch Jamison that night, so she got to come along and enjoy the ride (literally).

Aren't they just too cute for words!

We found these dinosaur hats at the Dollar Tree and Bryson had to have one for his party!

He seriously would not put the Happy Birthday sign or the dino hat down. Oh, and he had to have a "Happy Birthday" sticker that he would not take off.

The day before his birthday Brian and I took a half day off and took Bryson to the zoo. He had so much fun, but we got there kind of late and started with the elephants so the buildings were closed by the time we got around to them. We are total newbies with the zoo. We knew the zoo stayed open until 6, but we did not know the buildings all closed at 5. Oh well, we still got to ride the train and carousel and we had fun.

Bryson striking his "Saturday Night Fever" pose! :)

One of the new baby lions. We went back to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and they are not so small anymore.

After the zoo we went to the mall so Bryson could build-a-bear. After 20 minutes he finally chose a horse (he is obsessed with horses and guns). He had to dress it in an OSU shirt. He kept saying "go pokes, mommy, go pokes." Then from the mall we headed to Chuckie Cheese. Brian's parents, my parents, my sisters, Brian's brother, and our nieces and nephew met us there. We had so much fun playing, eating, and partying. This place has changed so much from the time I was a kid. It is kind of sad. And, I am not going to lie the food was horrible. However, I did discover the nice thing about Chuckie Cheese is you don't have to eat there (unlike Incredible Pizza) you can just come to play any day of the week. We may have to eat dinner somewhere and then go there to play again sometime.







Bryson was obsessed with hugging the guy in this ride. I was cracking up.

At least one person enjoyed the food. :)

When Bryson woke up on his birthday I let him pick out what he wanted to eat. He had waffles and then he wanted to open up his presents from Brian and I. I had put all his pjs, clothes, and shoes in one large bag for him to open and he was such a typical boy. He just pulled them out and threw them saying, "clothes, clothes, clothes." We were rolling. I put a video below of him opening the bag.

Yes, I ran out of regular wrapping paper and had to use Christmas paper, but I turned it inside out.

Here are the party picks!

You can't see very well, but my aunt blew up some pictures of Bryson. That is the two dark spots on either side of the kitchen doors.

Food table

My mom actually made his cake. She did an amazing job and it was delicious. Please excuse the dinos mouth. Brian's grandma got a little carried away with the teeth. :)

This was Bryson's personal cake - it was huge. He took it to church the next day and shared with all his buddies.

My aunt Kelly and I made these dino cookies.

During the party we had a "dino egg hunt." The eggs had prizes or candy in them. Kelly and I made these visors for all the kids to wear and then take home as a treat. They have cool dinosaur foam stickers on them. They turned out so good.

Drew and Bryson checking out the loot.

I got Bryson's shirt at Target. It has a 2 on it with a baseball crashing into it and at the bottom it says Oops! I thought it was very fitting.

I was really excited because Bryson really got into opening his gifts this year.

Bryson jumping the jupiter jump.

Here is the present video.