Tulsa State Fair

In an effort to experience true Oklahoma charm this week we went to the Tulsa State Fair! Setting aside that Tulsa is not, in fact, a State we donned our very cleanest NASCAR driver t-shirts, cutoff jean shorts, and Skoal hats and headed off for several days of extreme people watching, deep fried food eating, and of course watching the little Prince go on the carney rides now that he is more than 36" tall!



Gray seemed to like the carousel giraffe better than the other animals



This little pony's name was Tornado - he might have lived up to his name had he not been chained to a wheel along with 5 of his closest friends. You are only as fast as the slowest pony!



GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



At the petting zoo you could feed some of the animals, including this rather impressive ostrich. The only issue is that the pellets you are given feed them look remarkably like the fingers of a 2 year old. Relying on the ostrich to assertain which was which proved to be a poor management decision. Needless to say Gray fed him once...and only once.

[A note for the grandparental readers of this blog: your grandson continues to have ten fully functional fingers]



It wouldn't be a Tulsa activity without delicious fried pickles. They are actually quite good with tartar sauce. Other favorites at the fair - chocolate covered bacon (on a stick), pizza (on a stick), fried green tomatoes (on a stick), and of course candied apples and corn on the cob (both on sticks)



Gray's first roller coaster ride - he had a great time while his parents eyed the rickety contraption suspiciously



Yeeeee Haw

Bubble bath

I realized last night that I had never gotten a picture of Gray in the bathtub and I thought "what am I going to use to embarrass him in front of his prom date?"

Scottish Festival

Yesterday Gray, Nana and I hit the Oklahoma State Scottish Festival. Gray loved the rock band and dancers, the giant Clydesdales, cows and sheep.

3,2,1...BLAST OFF

After several requests from Gray his Nana took him to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. His favorite part is getting to pretend to launch a space shuttle by flicking switches and pushing buttons and then yelling 3,2,1...BLAST OFF. Nana is convinced that he will be an engineer. Maybe the gene just skipped a generation and wasn't lost completely with me.





"I can almost reach it"

Bedtime Stories

The other day Gray surprised us by starting to read the stories by himself when we sat down to read books before bed. It's amazing how much a 2 1/2 year old can memorize. This may only interest the grandparents but for those of you who can understand toddler speach we think it's pretty cute.

There's an alligator under my bed


Goodnight Moon

First Day of School

Our little boy started at Betty Rowland Nursery School today. I surprised myself by being a little bit sad but he had no trouble giving me a kiss and going off to play with the new toys. I let him pick one stuffed animal to take with him for nap time, he chose the kangaroo that Robert brought back from Australia last month. When I picked him up in the afternoon he immediately told me that it had been GREAT! So I guess we don't have to worry.

Goodbye and Thank you

We have now lost our two summer helpers to college. While they are both off to bigger and better things this is VERY sad for Laura, Robert, and Gray. Luke our "manny" is off to Pomona (welcome to the Claremont fraternity) and Rachel to Stanford. Gray had a fantastic summer and he is already missing you both!




P.S. Thanks Rachel, for all of the great pictures!