Weekend in Tulsa

Mikey, Little Miss Whirlwind and me spent Saturday night in Mom's bed; she says it's a queen size, but I kind of doubt it. I woke up in a world of hurt Sunday morning, but Mom's biscuits and gravy made me feel a little better.

We had planned to get to the Tulsa Zoo earlier in the morning so it wouldn't be so hot, but we didn't get there until after 1:00 and oh, my Lord, it was hot.

The worst thing about getting out and about with Britt is that she's a runner. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she's off. No matter where we go, I'm constantly yelling, "Britt! Come back here! Brittany! Brittany Anne! STOP!" while running after her. And so, I was doing a lot of that yesterday.

About halfway through the zoo, we ran across a family we had last encountered near the admission gate, and the woman turned around and said, "Oh, look. It's Brittany!" I had a Stilwell Angel flashback and cringed with embarrassment.

There were moments when she wasn't running,



but they were rare.

The "chimpmonks" grabbed her attention because one of them had a baby, so she actually stood still for a few minutes:



And she sat still during the train ride,



but only because she was strapped in.

Mikey wound up carrying her a lot, to keep her from running off.



And then we went to the Oklahoma Aquarium at Jenks. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The long hallway down the middle of the place was just too much of a temptation, and Britt had to be carried so she wouldn't keep running down it. Then, she saw the turtles! She loves turtles! But not frogs; they're too scary.

She got to feed the turtles,



and that's all she wanted to do, until we steered her toward the manta ray tank.



And that's all she wanted to do, until we discovered the touch tank, where we saw a Patrick!



And then, the shark tunnel!



(Stupid frickin' shutter delay. This was the best shot I could get.)

Then it was time to leave, and Britt had to be carried away kicking and screaming, because she wanted to go through the shark tunnel again and again and again.

We've been trying to get away to take this little trip all year, and it's with a big sigh of relief that I say we finally did it and we won't have to do it again for at least a couple of years, when Britt will hopefully be a slightly more reasonable human being.

Lucky for her that she's so dang cute.