The Great Salt Plains

On Saturday we woke up early and loaded the girls up for a surprise road trip! 

 We drove the 2 hours to Jet, Oklahoma to visit the Salt Plains.

 We went into the visitors center and the girls had fun seeing all the animals. We also watched a video about digging for Selenite crystals and that's when they got really excited.

 It is such an amazing view! You drive a few miles down this dirt country road lined with cows and trees and all of a sudden you come onto this vast land that looks like white sandy beaches.

 We grabbed our shovels and walked out to find a good spot to start digging.

 The girls had a blast digging and getting dirty.

 Even Aaron got in on the fun :)

 It didn't take too long and we hit the jackpot! Tae and Hensley took the crystals and washed them in little water puddles.

 After we filled a cup full of crystals, we had a quick picnic lunch in Cherokee. 

 After we finished our lunch, we headed back to the city. Hensley slept the whole way home and Tae watched a movie. 

 Here's our collection of crystals. I bought a shadowbox frame and decided to make this Oklahoma shape to hang on our wall. I'm very happy with the way it turned out!

It was a great little road trip and I can't wait until we go on another. It's truly amazing to see the joy in your child's eyes and you know that they will hold onto these memories forever. 

Summer Fun and Tae starts 1st grade!

 My sweet little Tae-bug started 1st grade today! We took about a month off from school, but she was definitely ready to be back at it. The picture above is some of the curriculum we are using this year. I bought this great homeschooling planner at Mardel's during their homeschool sale and so far I love it. I'm a really organized person and this helps me keep on top of what work we need to accomplish.

 We started our first day of first grade with Reading Rainbow! I'm so happy this is on Netflix now. I remember enjoying this show growing up and I know Tae will too.

 Can't believe this one will be 7 in a few months.

 We took Hensley to her first movie a couple weeks ago. We went and saw the Minion movie. I think she did pretty good for only being two. She sat still for about the first hour and then she was done, haha. So, her and I went out and walked around the theater. Tae and Aaron really enjoyed the movie too!

 These girls love feeding the ducks! This was after the movies at the Bricktown canal, but we've also been going once a week down to the Myriad gardens to feed the ducks and fish.

 Hensley having fun playing with the doll house. 

 We recently celebrated my grandparents as they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. My mom planned a great get together at a local Mexican restaurant. She spent a lot of time working on the details, making the cake, and inviting the whole family. She even rented a limo to bring my grandparents to the party. They had never been in a limo before.

 Hensley LOVES her cousin Bella. She looks forward to every opportunity to play with her. 

 We took the girls down to the Myriad gardens to watch Big Hero 6 during their Summer Movie. Hensley hadn't had a nap that day and fell asleep pretty soon after we got there. We ate pizza from a local food truck and then had ice cream from another food truck. Hensley woke up about the time the movie started, but too many people had gathered in front of us with camping chairs and the girls couldn't see the screen.

 We stayed about 20 minutes after the movie started and decided to head home. It was still a late night even without staying for the whole movie. 

This girl. She is so smart and so silly. She has the habit of getting her big sister to do things she shouldn't do. This is one example. She decided to color all over her face one day and big sister also colored all over her face. They told me they were making themselves be kitties. They both keep me very busy, that's for sure!